Zhēnlǎng shàngrén fǎyǔ 眞朗上人法語
Dharma-Discourse of Master Shinrō
(recorded by his disciples; teaching of 眞朗)
About the work
A single-fascicle disciple-record of vernacular Japanese Dharma-discourse by Shinrō 眞朗, disciple of Shinsei 眞盛 in the Tendai Shinsei-shū lineage at Saikyō-ji. The work preserves Shinrō’s interior-doctrinal teaching on the threefold mind (sānxīn 三心 / sanjin) at the heart of the fudan-nenbutsu discipline.
Abstract
Authorship and recording. Disciple-record; the recorder is not named. Catalog meta records no author.
Date. Within Shinrō’s career, 16th century.
Content. The work opens with a quiet doctrinal-practical orientation:
“Now, the essential way of attaining rebirth in the Pure Land — it lies only in how one’s anjin (settled-mind) is disposed. Anjin itself is the threefold mind. The threefold mind is itself one mind. One mind is to bow down and look at the inadequacy of this body, to look up at that [Amitābha’s] vow…”
(抑モ得生淨土ノ要道ハ。唯安心ノ如何ニゾアリケル。夫レ安心トハ即チ三心ナリ。三心トハ即チ一心ナリ。一心トハ即チ。俯シテ此身ノ拙ナキヲ顧リミ。仰デ彼願ノ)
The discourse develops the threefold mind of the Guān Wúliángshòu jīng tradition:
- Shìchéngxīn 至誠心 (sincere mind) — sincerity in one’s nenbutsu.
- Shēnxīn 深心 (deep mind) — deep trust in Amitābha’s vow.
- Huíxiàng fāyuànxīn 迴向發願心 (dedicatory-aspiration mind) — dedicating merit and aspiring to rebirth.
And their unification in single-mind (一心), realised in the practical posture of bowing down to look at one’s own inadequacy and looking up to Amitābha’s vow.
Significance. The work documents the third doctrinal-rhetorical voice of the second-generation Shinsei-shū, complementing Shinchō’s doctrinal-analytical voice (KR6t0122) and Shinka’s affective-devotional voice (KR6t0123). It is also a notably gentle and accessible anjin instruction, suitable for lay use in the late-medieval Tendai Shinsei-shū community.
Translations and research
- No Western-language translation located.
- Saikyō-ji head-temple sources.
- Jacqueline I. Stone, Right Thoughts at the Last Moment (Hawaii, 2016).