snksblog

Preface

 100 years have passed since Bennei Shonin passed away. He made his sermon clearly advocating Koumyou-shugi about in his last 10 years. Famous mathematician Dr. Kiyoshi Oka admired his entirely unselfish and rare life attitude. His life was wholly dedicated to Amida Buddha. His special and spiritual atmosphere moved  people who saw him.

Many episodes of their encounter with Bennei Shonin have come down for more than 100 years. We feel such lingering scent is fading out now, so we try to introduce what we are taught as the  important points of Koumyoushugi. 

His stance towards the Traditional Teachings of Jodo-Shu

 At the age of 23 during his stay for study in Tokyo , Bennei Shonin achieved Kegon Samai(samadhi). Next year he returned his native place and he practiced 2 month’s hard Nenbutsu asscerticism in Mt. Tsukuba . After that, he entered the very profound Mida Sanmai there. This is considered to be the very high stage of Butsugen Musho-nin and he attained the further extraordinary high state of Butsgen in his thirties. It’s named the last stage of Butsugen Musho-Bo-nin. This means he made breakthrough the most severe difficulty  lying before the ultimate goal of the way to  Buddha.

It’s marvelous and he made his teachings from this stand-point. He says “I preach not on Sutras but on my own experience in Samadhi. “  This is the very important and starting point  to Komyo-shugi. 

 Bennei Shonin found out that he entered  almost the same Samadhi Shakuson, Zendo,Honen and Tokuhon  attained.  But traditional Teachings of Jodo-shu  doesn’t hand down the fact that Honen shonin finally attained this Profound Samadi in his very last years. So it seems that the teachings of Bennei shonin is different from those of Honen shonin. This is the reason why   they who has kept the traditional doctrine can hardly accept Komyo-Shugi.

But Bennei shonin clearly said “ I would like to succeed the  Honen shonin’s vivid and real mind and teach the truth he found out. Bennei shonin surely aimed  the true successor of Honen shonin.

Nenbutsu Samadi and Kanbutsu Samadi

 These two have to be distinguished  each other.  In Kanbutsu Samadi  one concentrate  his mind and then he images each part of the picture  of Amidha in that concentrated mind. In Kanbutsu Samadi , he does not call the name of Buddha and does not adore  or love the Buddha. Honen shonin chose Nenbutsu Samadhi when he founded Jodo-shu and of course we do Nenbutsu Samadi. Under the situation of the times, he took great effort to remove the confusion of Kanbutsu Samadhi and Nenbutsu Samadhi.  This is also one of the very important points when we understand  teachings of Koumyo-shugi and that of Honen-shonin.

Gogen(five kinds of eyes) as the function of cognition （五眼）

  Development of the earth is  for the appearance of the vital phenomenon. And development of the vital phenomenon is for the appearance of conscious phenomenon.  Development of the conscious phenomenon is for the appearance of the spiritual mind and development of the universe , spirituality is the intention of the universe ,he said. Ultimately the spiritual mind in the universe goes to the unification with the universe. On the process of evolution, we’ve gotten the function of cognition to some degree but much more still remain  developed.  We can say these undeveloped ability latent abilities.  In Buddhism we classify the human recognition  ability into 5, representing these by 5 types of eyes.(五眼gogen)

①肉眼（Nikugen) Eyes we naturally have 　② 天眼（Tengen)　Eyes to catch natural phenomena in samadhi     ③  慧眼（Egen)  Eyes to catch  the phase of vacancy or bottom of the spiritual world ④  法眼（Hougen)   Eyes to catch the phase of delicacy or various phenomenon of the spiritual world ⑤　仏眼（Butsugen)　Eyes to catch Buddha’s mind.

①= physical Eyes which work naturally  ②～⑤ = mental Eyes to see world in mind which work under concentration or gathering thoughts

Eyes①・② see the natural world.  ③～⑤  see(work for )the spiritual world.  Rational abilities class as ①.  Eyes under hypnosis class as ②.

This Tengen is useless for the way to Buddha, so we abandon this. In Zen Egen will be developed . In Nenbutsu practice, Hougen will be developed first and Egen secondly. Gradually Egen and Hougen work by turns, and at the end Butsgen will be developed.  To concentrate and gather thoughts, we have to go into a kind of meditation. But without knowing that , we naturally have and accept the pattern of recognition in which the object and the subject are divided or separated. And this is rather the disturbance when the recognition of another pattern(in which the object and subject are not divided)  operates in Samadhi. 

 Buddhism is the way to Buddha and to become Buddha means to open or develop Buddha’s eye(Butsgen) completely. Ben’ei shonin taught us how to open the Eyes and how to become Buddha.   When we  open the mental eyes, we can see another world as if we open our physical Eyes.

Twelve aspects of the Lights of Buddha which represent the virtue of Amida  (十二光仏）

Under the revelations of Amida, he picked up the twelve Lights of Buddha from the sutra and taught us the virtue of them. Teachings  of these Twelve Lights of Buddha is one of the characteristic of his teachings named Koumyo shugi.

He took the devotion for each in the Book of Devotion he wrote. He also made verses for each. In a sense, this is the analysis of the virtue of Amida as Houshin. One of the followers scholar Tanaka Mokusha shonin who later gathered a grate deal of Ben’ei shonin’s writings and published them, edited the writings concerning the twelve variations of the  lights of Buddha and published some books titling the name of each. As most of the Ben-ei shonin ’s writings are left where he stayed and  abandoned to others or wrote to followrs as a letter, so Ben’ei shonin’s precious writings should have been lost without Tanaka shonin’s effort.

Each name is as follows: Buddha of Infinite Light(無量光仏）,Buddha of Boundless Light(無辺光仏）, Buddha of Unrestricted(無礙光仏), Buddha of Incomparable Light(無対光仏), Buddha of Flaming Light(炎王光仏), Buddha of Immaculate Light(清浄光仏), Buddha of Joyous Light(歓喜光仏),Buddha of Wising Light(智慧光仏), Buddha of Unceasing Light(不断光仏),  Buddha of Inconceivable Light(難思光仏), Budaha of Indescribable Light(無称光仏), Budaha of super ultimate Light(超日月光仏).

Four kinds of grate virtuous wisdom

Bennei shonin taught us about four kinds of wisdom as the virtue of Houshin Amida’s Boundless Light(無辺光）, though they had been dealt with as the wisdom of Bodhisattva before.  They are ①大円鏡智skt. sa-ji : The wisdom of boundless spherical mirror, which reflects all phenomenon penetrating the past, the present and the future. this wisdom is suitably regarded as the grate idea. ②平等性智　skt.samata-j : The wisdom of Amida who is unifying the universe.When you can unite with this wisdom opening the Eyes of seeing the bottom, the whole universe will be your self. So this is the source of the Bodhisattva’s merciful activity.This wisdom is suitably regarded as the reason.③妙観察智　skt.pratyaveksanaj: the wisdom for spiritual observation to absorb various, exquisite and changeable phases of the world. This wisdom is the source of cognition to observe and recognize clearly, above still, rather mysterious phenomenon in which the one enter into the whole and the whole inter into the one.So Amida universe with each of us  by  this very wisdom. This wisdom also works when Buddha   save ordinary people. ④成所作智skt.krtya-anusthana-j: the wisdom for achievement. We can achieve our purpose to become Buddha under the function of this wisdom. This wisdom is the source of perception, and our mental phenomenon also owe to this wisdom.

4steps of Butsgen (Kai・Ji・Go・Nyu  開・示・悟・入)

Bennei shoin made clear the fact that the traditional Buddhism being the pantheism have merely mentioned  from the first stage to the  third stage of Butsugen.  The last fourth stage has not been  clearly mentioned until then. This is the very important point in Koumyo-shugi.

1  [ Kai]    sensuous revelation

2 [ Ji ] abstractive revelation

3  [Go] Musho-nin 無生忍: revelation of Hosshin ideal

    realization of the law of   equality 

   This is the formal  unification with the Hosshin in a broad sense.

  4  [Nyu] Musho-bounin 無生法忍:revelation of the deepest 

    realization of the law of discrimination

    This is the substantial unification with the Housshin as the core of Hosshin in a broad sense.

• Musho-nin  and Mushobou-nin

In traditional Buddhism, the truth of scenery of the last stage of enlightenment 《 Musho-bounin》has been veiled. So sometimes Musho-bounin is confused with Musho-nin.  Bennei shonin distinguished these two for the first time. By the way, so called《Musho-nin》in ordinary Buddhism means merely the partial unification with the Hosshin. It’s different form that of Koumyou-shugi .

On Sutra( Hokekyo) , we find the article as follows. Seson(Gautama Buddha) came out to make Syu-jo get the pureness  by openning the Buddha’ Wisdom. Seson(Gautama Buddha came out to show  shujo the Buddha’s Wisdom. Seson(Gautama Buddha) came out to make Shujo    awake Buddha’Wisdom. Seson(Gautama Buddha) came out to enter the way to Buddha.

Book of devotion for Amida Buddha *

 Bennei shonin made the original gongyo procedure and drew up the Book of Devotions for the lights of Amida. This is written not by  classical Chinese but by Japanese , so it’s familiar to us. One said that this Book includes very profound contents about the lights of Amida , kindly supports the religious life  and these beautiful flowers of the Mahayana Buddhism  also represent the essence of Koumyo-shugi.

YAMAZAKI BENNEI (1859～1920)

He was born in a religious farm family in Washinoya(Chiba prf.).Since he saw the image of Amida Triad in the sky at the age of 12, the adoration for Amida was irresistible and he became a priest when he was 21. Under the guidance of the master priest Taiko in Tohzenji-temple, he studied and worked very hard and never stopped Nenbutsu except for 3 hours sleep every day.Then he achieved Kegon Sanmai(samadhi) during his stay for study in Tokyo. When he was 24, he practiced 2 months hard Nenbutsu asceticism in Mt. Tsukuba and achieved the very profound Mida Sanmai there. After that he read out the Whole Sutra, built a temple named Zenkoji in Goko, visited the remains of Sakya in India, and made many preaching tours. After he achieved the most profound Mida　Sanmai( realization of Buddha) in his 40’s, he began to make more preaching tours to reveal the truth which Sakya,Zendo,and Honen realized. At the beginning of Taisho period , he named his  way of teachings Komyo Shugi  which means  the light of Amida enlighten us. He continuously wrote many letters to his followers and many important writings, and also drew a lot of Buddhist drawings and paintings. In 1918 he was appointed the head priest of Muryokoji-temple and came to　Sagamihara. He founded a school there and accelerated his work. He devoted himself entirely to Amida and at last passed away peacefully in December 1920 in Kashiwazaki(Niigata prf.) on the tour.

 Welcome to our site. We would like to introduce the teachings of Yamasaki Bennei Shonin(1859~1920). We believe that 21st.century is the century of Buddhism and his teachings will support and intensify the understanding of Buddhism. We think that the teachings of 21st.century should not torture human intelligence. So we wish we share with you the happiness of meeting the teachings of Buddhism through that of Yamasaki Bennei Shonin.

　Sagamihara Nyorai Kōmyō Society

Founded in 2007 at Sagamihara where Yamazaki Bennei Shōnin lived as the head of the big temple in his last days. We want to hand down to the next generation the remarkable teachings of Yamazaki Bennei Shonin. We also aim at spreading them abroad.

 We held Multi-day Nenbutsu meeting occasionally in the lakeside small training hall at Tukui.  

Publishing: “Reduced sermons of Sasamoto Kaijō　Shōnin” 2022 / “The story about Bennei Shōnin” English version and Japanese version 2023