Today was the memorial day of Doshaku Zenji (Master Tao-ch’o).
In my experience he is not one of the most high profile of the Pure Land masters, Shan-tao and T’an-Luan usually getting more attention, but without him the Jodo Shin tradition would almost certainly not exist. The reason for this is that Tao-ch’o was the figure who first strongly developed the notion of a specific Pure Land path distinct from other Buddhist marga. Indeed although it was Master Honen who actually established the Pure land path as a distinct school in its own right he was only putting into effect the teaching of Tao-ch’o.
Tao-ch’o’s An-le chi (Collection of Passages on the Land of Peace and Bliss) - quoted extensively by Honen in his manifesto Senchaku Hongan Nembutsu Shu - had identified as different: “the gateway of the Holy Path” (Jp. shodomon) - or the teaching that salvation can be reached through self power or one’s own efforts, and “the gateway of the Pure Land” (Jp. jodomon) - or the teaching of salvation through the power of Amida Buddha or other power. (JSRI)” These being categories that Master Shinran accepted and went on to explore more deeply in his own teachings (e.g. Tannisho IV).
Tao-ch’o was also concerned with the difficulty of Buddhist practice so far in time from the day of Shakyamuni Buddha, and the problem that Buddhist teachings, and opportunities for practice, were often available only to the privileged few. These are of course issues that are remain as relevant today as in Tao-ch’o’s own own time.
Finally, though by no means exhaustively, Tao-ch’o combined; “the thought of the Sutra of Immeasurable Life (Wu-liang-shou ching) with that of the Meditation Sutra (Kuan wu-liang-shou ching). The center of his interpretation was that the evil people of the lowest level of inferior capacity described in the Meditation Sutra are precisely those whom in the Sutra of Immeasurable Life are identified as being capable of attaining birth in the Pure Land through the merit of Amida Buddha’s original vow. (JSRI)”
In summary of Tao-ch’o’s teaching Shinran wrote the following hymns (wasan) that are often chanted during Jodo Shin services:
Setting aside the myriad practices of the Path of Sages,
Our teacher, Master Tao-ch’o,
Proclaims the single gate of the Pure Land way
As the only path that affords passage.
Setting aside his extensive work on the Nirvana Sutra,
Our teacher, Master Tao-ch’o,
Entrusted himself to Other Power - the working of the Primal Vow -
And urged the multitudes of the world of the five defilements to do so also.
Sentient beings of the five defilements in the last dharma-age
May perform the practices of the Path of Sages,
But not one will thereby attain realization;
So states the World-honored one, the master of the teaching.
Following the teaching of Master T’an-luan,
Master Tao-ch’o also determined
That to awaken aspiration for enlightenment and perform practices in this world
Is the way of self-power.
Wrongdoing and evil acts in this defiled world
Are like violent winds and torrential rains;
All the Buddhas, sorrowed by this,
Urge us to take refuge in the Pure Land.
Though we commit evil throughout our lives,
If we say the nembutsu always
With our hearts turned wholly to Amida,
Our obstructions fall away by the [Vow's] spontaneous working.
In order to guide sentient beings
Even though they commit evil all their lives,
Amida urges them to “say the Name,”
Vowing not to attain Buddhahood “if they are not born.”
[Koso wasan, 55-61]
Kyōshin
Jishin
