Zhēnhè shàngrén fǎyǔ 眞荷上人法語
Dharma-Discourse of Master Shinka
(recorded by his disciples; teaching of 眞荷)
About the work
A single-fascicle disciple-record of vernacular Japanese Dharma-discourse by Shinka 眞荷, disciple of Shinsei 眞盛 in the Tendai Shinsei-shū lineage. The work preserves Shinka’s affective-devotional discourse on the Forty-eight Vows of Amitābha and the salvation of last-age evil beings.
Abstract
Authorship and recording. Work is a disciple-record of Shinka’s oral teaching; the recorder is not named. Catalog meta records no author.
Date. Within Shinka’s career, 16th century.
Content. The work opens in the affective-rhetorical register characteristic of the Saikyō-ji hōgo tradition:
“Reflecting and reflecting again upon the depth of Amitābha-Buddha’s great-compassion universal-vow, my chest contracts and tears do not cease. How sincere indeed is the great Forty-eight Vow — undertaken for the sake of the last-age, foolish-and-evil beings — long ago in the immeasurable asaṃkhyeya kalpas…”
(ツラツラ阿彌陀佛ノ大悲弘誓ノ深キ事ヲ思ヒメクラスニ。胸モダヘテ涙トドマラズ。誠ナル哉六八ノ大願ハ。末世愚惡ノ衆生ヲ救ハン爲ニシテ。昔シ無量阿僧祇劫)
The discourse proceeds through Shinka’s principal doctrinal themes:
- The bodhisattva-Dharmākara career of Amitābha — the long-ago undertaking of the Forty-eight Vows.
- The last-age (末世) targeting of the vow-program — its specific orientation to the foolish-and-evil beings of the dharma-decline era.
- The trustful response appropriate to this saving disposition.
- The practical realisation of trust in continuous nenbutsu.
Significance. The work documents the affective-devotional voice of the second-generation Shinsei-shū, complementing the more doctrinally-analytical voice of Shinchō (KR6t0122) and the gentler doctrinal-practical voice of Shinrō (KR6t0124). Together the three hōgo show the doctrinal-rhetorical diversification of the Shinsei-shū already in its second generation.
Translations and research
- No Western-language translation located.
- Saikyō-ji head-temple sources.
- Jacqueline I. Stone, Right Thoughts at the Last Moment (Hawaii, 2016).