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PLAIN  WORDS ON THE

PURE LAND WAY

Sayings of the wandering monks

Of medieval japan

A Translation of Ichigon Hòdan

By Dennis Hirota

Ryukoku  University

Kyoto

CONTENTS

Introduction

Plain words on the pure land way

Appendices

Words on the Dharma in one page

Biographical notes

Bibliography

Japanese texts

Index

Introduction

Collected here are the words of recluses and wanderers – men in search of path to Buddhahood amid ashes of war and great turbulence in their society. Abandoning worldly ambitions, they joined a tradition of fugitives and outsiders. Often unsanctioned by establised temples and unrecognized by the state, they depended for guidance not on scriptural texts and the old scholasticism, but on predecessors who, like themselves, were impelled above all by the fervor of their quest. Legends of forerunners and words of companions lit their way; to such plain counsed as gathered here – on aspiration and practice, provisions and shelter, sickness and death – they turned for advice in their day-to-day hardships, for the tuning of nerve, and for all they needed to know of the compassionate power of the Dharma.

The path these men tread opened forth from the pure land teaching, which is often regardes as “popular Buddhism”, devotional activity accommodated to the common people. For four centuries after its introduction into japan, however, it remained the province of monks performing rites in official temples and the court nbitity seeking peace for the dead. When it finally developed its potential as an effective form of Màhàyana Buddhism in the Kamakura period (1185-1333), it did so in intimate relation with these wandering monks, who rejected any use of Buddhism for temporal ends and insisted on genuine aspiration for enlightenment.

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