著者

竹内 明

出版者

佛教大学総合研究所

雑誌

仏教大学総合研究所紀要 (ISSN:13405942)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.185-207, 2002-03

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Ippen was the disciple's disciple, of Shoku, who was himself Honen's foremost disciple. Hence Ippen's teaching, even as it represented his own unique understanding, was based on that of Honen as transmitted by Shoku, and also had possessed the original characteristic. Traditionally, Pure Land Buddhism taught the possibility of birth and life in Amida Buddha's Pure Land after death. This is because it is difficult for the common man to manifest his own Buddha-nature by himself. Therefore in his Senchakushu Honen declared that it is possible to be born in the Pure Land after death by chanting the name of Amida Buddha. However, even while Honen understood the birth in the Pure Land to be something achieved after death, he often declared that the devotees chanting the name set their hearts in the Pure Land and he lived himself already there in his present life. Therefore Honen also said "Chant the name earnestly believing that it will result in birth in the Pure Land." On the other hand, although Ippen, following traditional Pure Land thought, unquestionably understood the birth in the Pure Land to be something achieved after death, he considered that, because every moment was last moment, there is no difference between being born in the Pure Land after one's death and being born there in one's hearts at present. Indeed for Ippen, being born in the Pure Land was the death of the self by chanting the name, and the death of the self meant becoming Amida Buddha. This is the unity between the person chanting the name and Amida Buddha. Neither Honen nor Shoku required a person to rely on his own efforts; they only stressed the need to rely on the compassion of the Buddha. Moreover Ippen excepted faith from the necessary conditions of being born in the Pure Land in order to push the logic of the selection forward. Of course, it depended on the chanting the name of the Buddha. Therefore Kanda, a Tokugawa period Jishu monk who learned the Senchakushu, argued in his Senchaku-kikyusho that the faith was present in the chanting of the name. In short, the Pure Land Buddhism returned to main-current of Mahayana Buddhism in Ippen's Pure Land thought. Thus, the difference between Pure Land Buddhism and Holy Path Buddhism disappeared in Ippen's Pure Land thought.