Honen and the Pure Land Devotion Sect
To understand the world Honen, the founder of the Pure Land Devotion Sect (Jodo-Shu), grew up in, you have to go back in history a few centuries before Honen was born.
In the 6th century following the introduction of Buddhism to Japan, Saicho (767-822), also known by Dengyo Daishi, found the Tendai sect, the first proper sect of Japan. Since then no other sect had emerged worth mentioning.
The Tendai sect on Mt. Hiei was meant to protect Heian-Kyo, the newly built capital of Japan. For centuries people believed that the evil would likely try to get into a capital from the northeast corner, so in the 8th century, the emperor sent Saicho to study Buddhism in China, who eventually came back and built the strongest sect of Japan. No other worth mentioning sect or belief had emerged in the meantime and the Tendai sect grew stronger and became more and more powerful. The sect grew so powerful that at one point the Emperor Shirakawa said:
“There are three things that I cannot control. The waters of Kamogawa, the roll of the dice, and the monks of Mount Hiei. - Emperor Shirawaka”
This was the world Honen was born into. A world of powerful monks in a capital of tranquility, art and lust.
Honen, the founder of Pure Land Devotion
Honen (1133-1212) grew up having a rather normal with his father in Heian-Kyo until he became orphaned when his father died during a robbery. The dying father begged his son to not live for revenge, but to pray for the salvation of mankind. This experience shaped Honen’s life and beliefs. Being a young boy at the age of eight at the time, Honen went to Mount Hiei to study and become a monk. Being a studious and serious student, he quickly stood out among his peers and his teachers saw him having a bright future ahead of him.
But the further he got into his studies the more disillusioned he grew with the worldly life of the monks. The Tendai sect was at the peak of its power and the monks were living a leisure life. Honen was looking for the salvation of mankind, but he felt like the distance between the people, the monks and Buddhism grew further and further apart.
Finding salvation
At the age of eighteen he decided to leave the temple and go into hermitage. There he focused on his study, but eventually even after achieving mastery and endless repetition of the canon, the hermitage left him unfulfilled. He wrote:
“By my renunciation I have become a hermit, but my body and my soul are not at peace.”
He stumbled across an old Chinese text talking about the Nembutsu, which approved his belief in that anybody can reach salvation. Salvation is not reserved for monks who study for years and years of meditation. The text read:
“Learning a lot of dogma and practicing asceticism is too little to avail. The only real requirement is to chant nembutsu. In this way anybody can be born into the Pure Land through the agency of Amida’s saving power.”
Honen felt empowered and decided to leave Mount Hiei to spread his belief. He moved to Otani, a burial ground in the east of Kyoto. Soon after the reputation of him and his teachings spread, but rather for being different and heretical to the norm, than for the teaching itself.
The legends of Anraku & Juren
In 1207 two followers of Honen, the monks Anraku (d. 1207) and Juren (1169-1207) had persuaded two ladies-in-waiting to convert to Honen’s new teachings and leave the imperial court. The emperor was infuriated after hearing that two of his favorite women were leaving to a heretical new belief. At the time the Tendai sect was powerful and did not allow other beliefs to coexist.
The emperor took advantage of this and charged the two monks with heresy. He gave them the choice to leave Honen or die for their belief. But the resolution you could see on the men’s faces when they refused to withdraw their belief became legendary.
In this age, information was delivered mouth to mouth and things quickly became legends. So did the execution of Anraku and Juren. It is said that during the execution of Anraku purple clouds gathered and Amida Buddha himself welcomed Anraku’s soul to the Pure Land. This proved to be a great boost to Honen's new teachings.
Exiled
The emperor and the Tendai sect were cracking down on Honen and his followers and in 1207 the emperor exiled Honen to Tosa in Shikoku. Honen saw this as an opportunity to spread his teachings in the countryside and happily went. He was age 74 at this point.
Slowly growing and gaining more and more reputation, four years later the emperor had a nightmare telling him to revoke his mistreatments of Honen. Honen returned to Kyoto, but just one year later died at age 79. On his death bed, Honen refused to hold onto a cord attached to an Amida Buddha statue (which was a common practice to guide the soul to Amida) saying he was already seeing the deity descending to him. His belief was absolute.
After his death he grew to be a prophet-like figure of the new Pure Devotion Land sect (Jodo sect) making Buddhism available for the masses. With its popular stories & legends, the sect quickly became a movement and at one point it was estimated that a third of the Japanese population were following this sect of Buddhism. A popular saying ran:
“Tendai for the royal family, Shingon for the aristocracy, Zen for warriors, and Pure Land for the people (masses)”
Today Honen's sect is still among the biggest in Japan.