Rúlái èrzhǒng huíxiàng wén 如來二種廻向文
Essay on the Tathāgata’s Twofold Merit-Transfer by 親鸞 Shinran (撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle doctrinal essay by 親鸞 Shinran on his signature doctrine of the Tathāgata’s two-fold merit-transfer (二種廻向 ni-shu ekō): that Amitābha bestows on the practitioner both the merit-transfer toward rebirth in the Pure Land (ōsoekō 往相廻向) and the merit-transfer toward returning from the Pure Land into the saha-world to assist sentient beings (gensōekō 還相廻向). The doctrine is one of Shinran’s most theologically distinctive moves: the bodhisattva-return into the world is not the practitioner’s own attainment but a further Buddha-bestowed grace. The Taishō presents the work as part of a paired set with KR6t0364 (a variant recension under the title Ōsōekō gensōekō monrui).
Abstract
The opening citation: “The Wúliángshòu jīng yōubātíshè yuànshēng jì 無量壽經瀀婆提舍願生偈 [= Vasubandhu’s Wǎngshēng lùn*] says: ‘how does one merit-transfer? Without …*’” (無量壽經瀀婆提舍願生偈曰。云何廻向。不 …). Shinran here takes Vasubandhu’s foundational Wǎngshēng lùn discussion of ekō (merit-transfer) and reads it through the lens of his muga-tariki doctrine.
The doctrinal substance:
- The two merit-transfers as both from the Tathāgata — not from the practitioner: this is Shinran’s radical reading. In the standard reading of Vasubandhu (as preserved in the Chinzei and Seizan traditions), ekō is the practitioner’s act of dedicating his good merit toward rebirth, or toward the salvation of others. In Shinran’s reading, both ekō’s are bestowed by Amitābha on the practitioner as gifts: the practitioner neither generates the good merit nor dedicates it; both functions are entirely Buddha-given.
- Ōsoekō (往相廻向 — vow-direction merit-transfer): the rebirth-direction gift. Amitābha gives the practitioner his rebirth in the Pure Land, without any jiriki (self-power) contribution from the practitioner. The shinjin faith-mind by which the practitioner recognizes this gift is itself part of the gift.
- Gensō-ekō (還相廻向 — return-direction merit-transfer): the bodhisattva-return gift. Having attained rebirth in the Pure Land, the practitioner does not remain there: Amitābha gives the practitioner the further grace of returning into the saha-world as a bodhisattva to assist others. This return is not the practitioner’s own bodhisattva-attainment (as in the standard upāya-kauśalya of Mahāyāna), but Amitābha’s continuing-action through the practitioner.
The doctrine of gensōekō is one of Shinran’s most innovative theological moves and addresses a major worry in Pure-Land soteriology: that the senju-nenbutsu practitioner — having been passively saved by Amitābha — would have nothing left to do for the salvation of others. Shinran’s answer is that the bodhisattva-return is itself a Buddha-given continuation of grace, flowing through the practitioner without requiring any practitioner-volition. The practitioner is thus both a recipient of grace and an instrument of grace toward others — both functions being equally Buddha-bestowed.
Date. Shinran’s late-Kyoto period, c. 1255–1257; no internal precise date.
Translations and research
English translation: Hongwanji Translation Series, The Collected Works of Shinran (1997); Inagaki Hisao (trans.), Passages on the Pure Land Way (Numata Center, 2003). Treated in: James C. Dobbins, Jōdo Shinshū (Indiana UP, 1989); Roger Corless, “Pure Land Piety” in T. Yoshinori (ed.), Buddhist Spirituality: Indian, Southeast Asian, Tibetan, and Early Chinese (Crossroad, 1993); Hisao Inagaki, Nāgārjuna’s Discourse on the Ten Stages (Ryukoku Univ., 1998); critical text in Shinran Shōnin zenshū 親鸞聖人全集 (Hongan-ji, 1985).
Links
- CBETA online
- Variant recension: KR6t0364 (Ōsōekō gensōekō monrui)
- Companion: KR6t0355 (Shinran, Nyū-shutsu nimon ge-ju) — the verse-form companion treatment
- Doctrinal source: Vasubandhu’s Wǎngshēng lùn