Hōnen | Works & Life

Hōnen | Biography

Hōnen (May 13, 1133 – February 29, 1212) was the religious reformer and founder of the first independent branch of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism called Jōdo-shū ("The Pure Land School"). He is also considered the 7th Jōdo Shinshū Patriarch. Hōnen became a Tendai initiate at an early age, but grew disaffected and sought an approach to Buddhism that anyone could follow, even during the perceived

Hōnen | Biography

Hōnen (1133–1212), more fully Hōnen Shōnin Genkū, was a Japanese Buddhist priest and reformer, and the founder of the Jōdo Shū sect of Japanese Buddhism. Hōnen's life reflects the changing times in which he lived as well as his role in those changes. He was born in the 4th month of 1133 in Mimasaka province (modern Okayama prefecture) into a provincial military family.

One-Page Testament | Hōnen Shonin

One-Page Testament | Hōnen Shonin (Dictated 1212 C.E.) "The method of final salvation that I have propounded is neither a sort of meditation, such as has been practiced by many scholars in China and Japan, nor is it a repetition of the Buddha's name by those who have studied and understood the deep meaning of it. It is nothing but the mere repetition of the

17 Poems of Master Hōnen

17 Poems of Master Hōnen. If from Buddha Amida My heart its col'ring gains, It will be like the beauteous boughs In autumn's crimson stains. Above the thatch of my mountain home The white clouds morning and evening hover. Ah! When shall the hour of that day come That the Birth in Amida's Pure Land purple me shall cover? Ten times Amida's Name shall pass