Wasan: ‘Softened Praises’

Hi all, I hope you’ve been enjoying Jishin’s reflections on his recent trip as much as I have.  Such insights into living Shin-shu in Japan are invaluable in helping to broaden our sense of community and awareness of the diverse expressions of nembutsu living.

Jishin’s recent mentions of the wasan reminded me of something I learnt recently on that subject.  ‘Wa san’ (和讚) literally means ‘Japanese (和) Songs of Praise (讚)’ where ‘wa’ (和) - being an old name for Japan - differentiates them from hymns in Chinese.  Such ‘Wasan’ were already quite popular before Shinran’s time but interestingly he highlighted one of the other meanings of the character ‘wa’ (和) and called the hymns he wrote ’softened praises’.  This reflects his desire to make the Pure Land liturgy more accessible and less daunting to nembutsu followers. [1]

[1] Scholars (.pdf) also point out that Shinran’s hymns “frequently retain terms and phrases directly from the Chinese of the Pure Land writings,and surely required considerable explanation in the meeting places in Kanto. Thus, even in these “softened praises” Shinran added annotation to many of the terms and marks to indicate the proper intonation in Chinese.”  (These annotations are presumably the basis for the notations we find in our sutra books today.)

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Moving on to another subject I met up with Ray of Dharmakara’s Prayer / Inward Light at the weekend.  Having corresponded for many years it was great to actual meet face-to-face at last and we had such a great time that the day really flew past.  In particular we spent a lot of time talking about the challenges faced by small Buddhist communities in the United Kingdom and I found it useful to compare my own experiences against his. Anyway if you haven’t done so already please do check out Ray’s thoughtful and extremely helpful blog.

And to round off this post another link; Rev. Harry of Lodi Buddhist Church has posted about the famous Japanese poem the ‘Iroha no uta’ at his blog The Nenju.

 

Shinran’s Ashes Find

Someone has added a section to the Wikipedia Shinran article stating that:

On March 14, 2008, the ash remains of Shinran were found in a wooden statue at the Jōraku-ji temple in Shimogyō-ku, Kyōto. The temple was created by Zonkaku (1290-1373), the son of Kakunyo (1270-1351), one of Shinran’s great grandchildren. Records indicate that Zonkaku inherited the remains of Shinran from Kakunyo. The 24.2 cm wooden statue is of Shinran praying to Buddha and is identified as being from the middle of the Edo period. The remains were wrapped in paper.

Two references are provided but as they are in Japanese I can’t verify them.

In Japan it is common place for the ashes of the deceased to be split up and I’m pretty sure I have heard of other artifacts containing Shinran’s ashes so these are probably not all of them. (Wouldn’t it be interesting to know if any relics of Shinran, or other leaders of the Honganji sects, have ever been DNA tested against his living descendants?  Is that even scientifically possible?)

 

When all is done by the Buddha

“Just set aside your body and mind, forget about them, and throw them into the house of Buddha; then all is done by Buddha.” - from Shoji, by Dōgen Zenji

I came across this essay by someone called Dylan who has just returned from Japan where he has been on an exchange programme to study Buddhism. Interestingly he says:

Before coming to Japan, since I had mainly engaged in Sōtō Zen practice in America, my attitude towards Jōdo Shin-shū was similar to that of other Western Buddhists. Having originally looked to Buddhism as an alternative to America’s Judeo-Christian religious orientation, Jōdo Shin-shū seemed like a “return” to the superstitious Christian model of being saved after death by a mythical God. Yet, this perception began to change when I went to visit Eiheiji, Sōtō-shū’s head training temple. A priest at the temple remarked that after reading Shinran’s writings, he felt better equipped to understand Dōgen’s ideas. Though initially skeptical, I read some of Shinran’s works, and was surprised to find deep resonance between the two religious thinkers’ ideas.”

As someone who came to Shin through Dōgen’s Zen it is refreshing for me to see another person recognizing the resonances between the traditions, and sharing with others a deeper perspective on the, usually superficially understood, self versus other power teaching.