Yīniàn duōniàn wényì 一念多念文意
The Meaning of the Passages on Single-Thought and Many-Thoughts by 親鸞 Shinran (撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle vernacular-Japanese doctrinal essay by 親鸞 Shinran addressing the late-Kamakura intra-Pure-Land controversy on single-thought (一念 ichinen) versus many-thoughts (多念 tanen) nenbutsu — i.e. whether one moment of nenbutsu recitation suffices for rebirth or whether continuous repetition throughout life is required. The work is a mon’i (文意 — “passage-meaning”) commentary on Ryūkan’s Ichinen tanen funbetsu-ji KR6t0388 (the Distinguishing Single-Thought and Many-Thoughts), Shinran’s late-Kyoto contribution to the controversy and his definitive Shinshū position on it.
Abstract
The opening gloss illustrates the method: “The thing not to be wrongly taken of single-thought (一念ヲヒカコトトオモフマシキ事): the line ‘Always vowing: in the time of all sentient-beings’ final hour, the superior conditions, the superior environments, will all manifest before [them]’ [Tsune ni inoraku: issai no rinjū no toki / shō-en shōkyō kotogotoku genzen — quoting Wōn Hyo 元曉]…” (一念ヲヒカコトトオモフマシキ事 / 恒願一切臨終時勝縁勝境悉現前 …). Shinran’s commentary expands each cited passage with a vernacular-Japanese paraphrase and doctrinal extension.
The doctrinal substance addresses the controversy as follows:
- Against the senju-ichinen-gi (the radical single-thought exclusivism of Kōsai 幸西 and his school): Shinran rejects the position that, having attained a single moment of shinjin faith, the practitioner has no need to recite the nenbutsu at all. The nenbutsu, in Shinran’s reading, is not optional — but neither is it a practitioner-volitional act that secures rebirth.
- Against the tariki-tanen (the many-thought continuous-recitation position of some Chinzei-line teachers): Shinran rejects the position that continuous-recitation throughout life is what secures rebirth. Recitation is not the cause of rebirth — the Buddha-given shinjin is the cause.
- Shinran’s middle position: shinjin and nenbutsu are inseparable but distinct. Shinjin — the cause of rebirth — arises in a single moment of Buddha-bestowed recognition. Nenbutsu — the expression of shinjin — flows continuously from that recognition, throughout life, as a gift of gratitude rather than as a practice for attainment. Thus both “single-thought” and “many-thought” are correct — each in its proper category.
The work is one of the most theologically precise treatments of the ichinen / tanen controversy in the Shinshū corpus and complements KR6t0368 Yui-shin-shō mon’i as a late-Kyoto period doctrinal codification.
Date. Conventionally Kōgen 2 / 1257, contemporary with the KR6t0358 Shōzō mappō wasan; Shinran age 84.
Translations and research
English translation: Yoshifumi Ueda & Dennis Hirota (trans.), Notes on Once-Calling and Many-Calling: A Translation of Shinran’s Ichinen-tanen mon’i (Hongwanji-ha, 1980); also in Hongwanji Translation Series, The Collected Works of Shinran (1997). Treated in: James C. Dobbins, Jōdo Shinshū (Indiana UP, 1989); Alfred Bloom, Shinran’s Gospel of Pure Grace (1965); Mark L. Blum, The Origins and Development of Pure Land Buddhism (Oxford UP, 2002); critical text in Shinran Shōnin zenshū 親鸞聖人全集 (Hongan-ji, 1985).
Links
- CBETA online
- Companion: KR6t0368 (Shinran, Yui-shin-shō mon’i)
- Object of commentary: KR6t0388 (Ryūkan, Ichinen tanen funbetsu-ji)