Master Honen’s reason for the founding of a separate Pure Land school and my reason for founding Amidaji

Amida Buddha is my strength.

Amida Buddha is my refuge.

Amida Buddha is my salvation.

Amida Buddha is all I transmit to others.

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Selected passages from Honen Shonin 

with commentary

 "Honen once said: ‘The reasons I founded the Jodo (Pure Land)   school was that I might show the ordinary man how to be born into     the Buddha’s real land of compensation (hōdo). According to the   Tendai sect, the ordinary man may be born into the so-called Pure   Land, but that land is conceived of as a very inferior place.   Although  the Hossō school conceived of it as indeed a very   superior  place, they do not allow that the common man can be born   there at all. And all the schools, though differing in many points, all   agree in not allowing that the common man can be born into the   Buddha’s land of real compensation; while according to Zendo’s   (Shan-tao) commentary, which laid the foundation of the Jodo (Pure   Land) school, it was made clear that birth into that land is possible   even for the common man. But many said to me: ‘You surely can   promote the Nembutsu way of attaining Ojo (birth into the Pure  Land) without establishing a new school. You are doing this merely out of ambition, to appear superior to others. If we ordinary people can only attain this birth, it ought to be enough to be born into the land in which the Buddha appears in His temporary body. Why do you need to talk of their reaching that land of real compensation that is occupied by the Buddhas and the highest Bodhisattvas alone?’
At first sight this seems quite plausible, but on further reflection it really misses the point. Unless I start a separate school, the truth that the common man may be born into the Buddha’s land of compensation will be obscured, and it will be hard to realize the deep meaning of Amida’s Primal Vow. I, therefore, in accordance with the interpretation given by Zendo (Shan-tao), unhesitatingly proclaim the doctrine of the land of real compensation. This is by no means a question of personal ambition.”[1] 
Commentary:
There are many ways to interpret the Pure Land teaching and the Pure Land itself, according to various schools[2]. However, Master Honen as well as Shinran, wanted that ordinary people understand it as the enlightened place where everybody can go without discrimination between good and evil or sages and idiots. More than this, people like us can be born directly into the center of the Pure Land, also called “the real land of compensation” by Honen and “the true fulfilled land of the Pure Land” by Shinran, where we immediately become Buddhas. Contrary to this, other Masters considered that beings filled with blind passions can be born only in some kind of Nirmanakaya place in the Pure Land, and not right in the center where Buddhas and enlightened Bodhisattvas dwell and where only the virtuous can go after death. Others considered that the Pure Land of Amida is some kind of Nirmanakaya (adaptation/temporary) land for ordinary people. Seeing the true intention of Amida Tathagata, Honen and Shinran realized that there is no difference between virtuous or unvirtuous because the cause for birth in the Pure Land is not in the spiritual capacities of beings but in the Power of Amida Buddha himself. If one relies on that Power and says the Nembutsu of faith in Amida (the Nembutsu of the Primal Vow) then one is assured of birth in the center of the Pure Land without any discrimination. This was a true religious revolution as since then every sinner could hope to meet Amida, Avalokitesvara and Mahasthamaprapta face to face, upon death and birth there. From a land of spiritual elites, the Pure Land was revealed to be the easiest place to go, like a country where everybody can emigrate if they just said His Name in faith and wished to be born there. In that center of the Pure Land any former peasant and illiterate could see not a Nirmanakaya or temporary body of Amida, but Amida himself in His Sambhogakaya (Recompense) Body of Glory. Even now, disciples of later times enjoy the fruits of Honen’s religious revolution.
 
Hundreds of years passed since Honen to our present times when a new form of arrogant spiritual elites appeared to obstruct birth into the Pure Land for ordinary people in need of a simple faith. If in the past, their predecessors were upset that Honen cleared the door to Sukhavati for all sinners, in our times they are upset that we take the existence of Amida and His Pure Land too literally and so they try to introduce tons of alien spiritual bullshit, calling Him a symbol, fictional character or metaphor and stating that birth in the Pure Land is not to be attained after death as Honen, Shinran and Rennyo said, but “here and now”. The simple logic of salvation and of Amida’s Vows who clearly mention the enlightened qualities of those born in the Pure Land do not matter for such scholars who are able to arrogantly ignore any doctrinal proof just to promote their new atheist and materialist reinterpretation of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism.
 
Just as Honen made a new Jodo (Pure Land) school, and Shinran later called his teaching the True (Shin) Pure Land (Jodo) Teaching (Shu) of Honen (Jodo Shinshu) to differentiate it from the wrong interpretations of other misguided disciples of his master, I founded Amidaji as a new branch of Jodo Shinshu to preserve and protect our Masters religious heritage against the arrogance and wrong views of today’s false teachers. As Honen’s actions were necessary and Shinran’s clarifications of His Master’s teaching were also necessary, the founding of Amidaji was too, unavoidable and necessary.
 
I like to call Amidaji a new branch with old roots. Like an old tree who is drying up and everybody think it’s finished, then suddenly a new shoot appears from the underground roots, we at Amidaji begin a new chapter in a long ancient transmission of the Pure Land teaching.
Paraphrasing Honen’s saying in the above passage, I say that unless I start a separate branch of Jodo Shinshu, the truth that Amida is a real, living Buddha and His Pure Land a real, enlightened place to be attained after death, will be obscured. Without a new school to insist on the real,literal existence of Amida Buddha and His Pure Land, it will be hard to realize the meaning of the Primal Vow according to which there can be no faith without a real object of faith and no true aspiration for birth without a real, enlightened destination. Also, unless I start a separate branch of Jodo Shinshu, the Larger Sutra itself where Shakyamuni told the story of Amida will continue to be considered an invention by later monks, the general Buddhist doctrine of rebirth and life after death will also be denied and last but not least, unless I start a new branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, the temples and Dharma centers will be taken over by worldly ideologies and used not for the salvation of sinners but the promotion of sin as good and beautiful.
 
Do not get me wrong as I do NOT think that Amidaji has the monopoly of true Dharma or that it is the only place where one can meet authentic general Buddhist and Jodo Shinshu teachings, but its founding greatly improves the chances that the Pure Land path continues to benefit sentient beings. We have our own important role to play in this Last Dharma Age and we’ll stay true to our sacred mission.
 

 

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[1] Honen the Buddhist Saint - His Life and Teachings, volume II, compiled by imperial order, translation by Rev Ryugaku Ishizuka and Rev Harper Havelock Coates, The Society for the Publication of Sacred Books of the World, Kyoto, 1949, p. 188-189
[2] For a detailed explanation of how various Masters in China and Japan understood the Pure Land see The Three Pure Land Sutras – A Study and translation, by Rev Hisao Inagaki. There Inagaki Sensei not only translates the three important sutras important of our tradition but also presents a history of the Pure Land thought in India, China and Japan. In my Commentary on the Sutra on the Buddha of Infinite Life I relied both on his translation as well as the translation done by Hongwanji where he also participated as a member of the translation comitee.