Hōnen

Hōnen was born in 1133 in the province of Mimasaka, in western Japan, the son of a local official. Tradition tells that his father was killed in an attack when Hōnen was a boy, and charged him with his dying words not to seek revenge but to seek liberation. He entered the great Tendai monastery on Mount Hiei, where he studied for some thirty years and was known for his learning.

Learning did not bring him peace. In 1175, reading the Chinese master Shandao’s commentary on the Contemplation Sūtra, he came on a passage teaching that whoever single-mindedly recites the name of Amida will be born in the Pure Land, because this is the practice the Buddha’s vow has chosen. He left Mount Hiei and taught in Kyoto the exclusive practice of the nembutsu, open to all, monks and lay people, men and women, rich and poor.

In 1198, at the request of the regent Kujō Kanezane, he wrote his main work, the Senchakushū, on the selection of the nembutsu. His following alarmed the established schools, which petitioned the court against him. In 1207 the nembutsu was banned, two of his disciples were executed, and Hōnen was exiled. Pardoned in 1211, he returned to Kyoto, where he died early the following year.