Ippen in Ji-Shu

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PureLandPancake
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Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by PureLandPancake »

Hey dharma friends, does anyone know of any online resources for studying Ippen Shonin's writings?
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by Fortyeightvows »

They say he burnt his writings before he passed.
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rory
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by rory »

I Know the Dennis Hirota book No Abode it's excellent and worth getting. And I found this:
http://www.hermitary.com/articles/ippen.html
gassho
Rory

'
Namu Kanzeon Bosatsu
Chih-I:
The Tai-ching states "the women in the realms of Mara, Sakra and Brahma all neither abandoned ( their old) bodies nor received (new) bodies. They all received buddhahood with their current bodies (genshin)" Thus these verses state that the dharma nature is like a great ocean. No right or wrong is preached (within it) Ordinary people and sages are equal, without superiority or inferiority
Paul, Groner "The Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture"eds. Tanabe p. 58
https://www.tendai-usa.org/
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by Admin_PC »

I checked the Taisho canon and couldn't find anything directly by Ippen (一遍) or his other name Zuien (随縁). I did remember reading in one of the Pure Land books compiled by either Thich Thien Tam or Cleary a quote of Ippen regarding the meaning of the Buddha names listed in the Shorter Sukhavativyuha Sutra. It was a pretty eye-opening passage and one of my favorites.

Otherwise, I think rory's excellent recommendation is about the best you'll do, unless you can find an English translation of the Ippen Hijiri-E.
If you can handle the original Sino-Japanese, you may want to start here:
http://www.jishu.or.jp/event/exhibition-ippenhijirie

Here's the English page of Ippen's Ji Shu sect:
http://www.jishu.or.jp/english-page
crazy-man
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by crazy-man »

Ippen hijiri-e : artistic and literary sources in a Buddhist handscroll painting of thirteenth century Japan /
https://books.google.de/books?id=l5iZnQ ... oQ6AEIHDAA

Charisma and Community Formation in Medieval Japan: The Case of the Yugyo-ha (1300-1700)
https://www.amazon.com/Charisma-Communi ... 223&sr=1-1

works of Ippen
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/H ... ject&inst=
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明安 Myoan
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by 明安 Myoan »

Bumping this thread in gratitude to Ippen whose writings helped me out recently. I put the page number where each quote can be found in No Abode. Really it's an excellent book and I could end up quoting almost the whole thing.
p. 49 wrote:Though not knowing
the mind
as what it is,
just say the Name
and you become Buddha.

Walking
the path of Dharma
is full of hardship:
Let us board
the ship of the Vow!
p. 64 wrote:I do not speak:
on paths of words
there's no advancing
forthwith
for the human mind.
p. 65 wrote:While Ippen was spreading the teaching in Bitchu province, at a lodging in Karube, the monk and master of linked verse, Hananomoto no Kyougan, his death drawing near, composed the poem:

Please guide
a heart wandering in ignorance
down this path and that!
How should I recite the Name
to be saved by the Vow?

Ippen responded:

With a heart wandering in ignorance
down this path and that
to guide me,
I simply say
Namu-amida-butsu.
p. 68 wrote:With Amida Buddha,
the paths of illusion and enlightenment
all fade away:
Just accord with the Name
and he is a living,
breathing Buddha.
p. 77 wrote:Shan-tao teaches, "It is difficult, I fear, to attain birth through doing various good acts according to your opportunities and conditions.""According to your opportunities and conditions" means to establish an objectified situation apart from your mind and to perform practices in it. You involve yourself in an external situation in order to cultivate your mind; when the situation subsides, then, you find that nothing has been accomplished. Such practice is good performed in the attachment to self of self-power. It is "doing various good acts according to your opportunities and conditions."
p. 82 wrote:The White Path that appears before us is Namu-amida-butsu, and the two rivers of fire and water are our own hearts and minds. That which is not overwhelmed by the two rivers is the Name.
p. 72 wrote:The term "genuine mind" means that to abandon the attachment to self in self-power and take refuge in Amida is the essence of a true, real, and sincere mind. For when Shan-tao states, in interpreting genuine mind, "[You harbor within all manner of] greed, anger, perversity, deceit, wickedness, and cunning," he means that we are to reject and abandon sentient beings' consciousness of self. The three poisons -- in terms of the three modes of action, bodily, verbal, and mental -- are the blind passions that consciousness of self is possessed of.
p. 80 wrote:The Manifestation of the Kumano shrine announced to me in revelation, "Whether one has faith or lacks faith is not at issue; whether or not one has done evil is of no concern; Namu-amida-butsu itself is born."
Everyone laments not awakening faith that their birth is decisively settled. This is completely absurd. No settledness is to be found in the hearts of foolish beings. Settledness is the Name. Thus, even though you lack faith that your birth is decisively settled, if you say the Name leaving all to your lips, you will be born. Birth, then, does not depend on the attitude of heart and mind; it is through the Name that you will be born. If you think you can attain birth by establishing a firm faith in yourself, you will only return again to the working of your own mind. When you cast away your heart and mind and realize that it is wholly through the Name that you are born, the settled mind will immediately arise of itself.
Decisive settlement is the Name. Our bodies and our hearts and minds are unsettled. This body is the form of our drift in the flow of impermanence, hence from instant to instant i arises and perishes. This mind is false thought; hence it is unreal and delusional. Do not rely on body or mind.
The name is such that because we say it, we attain birth through the wondrous and inconcieviable working of Other Power, regardless of whether we believe in it or not. You must not, with a mind of self-attachment and self-power, seek to deal with the Name in one way or another. The Land of Bliss is the field of no-self; hence, birth there cannot be attained through self-attachment. You must be born through the name….
Make no judgments about the nature of your heart and mind. Since the mind is delusional, both when it is good and when it is evil, it cannot be essential for emancipation. Namu-Amida-Butsu itself is born.
Namu Amida Butsu
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明安 Myoan
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by 明安 Myoan »

Admin_PC wrote:I did remember reading in one of the Pure Land books compiled by either Thich Thien Tam or Cleary a quote of Ippen regarding the meaning of the Buddha names listed in the Shorter Sukhavativyuha Sutra. It was a pretty eye-opening passage and one of my favorites.
A bit late, but have you since found the Ippen passage you mentioned here, PC?

Thank you.
Namu Amida Butsu
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by Johnny Dangerous »

Not even a nembutsu guy, but I'm loving the Hirota book, wonderful read.
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when afflicted by disease

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when sad

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when suffering occurs

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when you are scared

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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by Admin_PC »

Monlam Tharchin wrote:
Admin_PC wrote:I did remember reading in one of the Pure Land books compiled by either Thich Thien Tam or Cleary a quote of Ippen regarding the meaning of the Buddha names listed in the Shorter Sukhavativyuha Sutra. It was a pretty eye-opening passage and one of my favorites.
A bit late, but have you since found the Ippen passage you mentioned here, PC?

Thank you.
Nah, I can't find it. I think it was like a basic overview of Pure Land Buddhism on a page from like JC Cleary, but not the one from Taming the Monkey Mind. Have a feeling the link might be gone. I did a search for Ippen on the entire ymba, and Ippen's not in any of the books there. Not even sure where to look at this point. Thought it might be in one of the books on my kindle, but searching there hasn't turned up anything either. If No Abode really is a translation of all his extant writings, it should be there...
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明安 Myoan
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by 明安 Myoan »

Ippen wrote: One utterance of the Name embodying the universal Vow is the ultimate among practices;
The three characters of the fulfilled Name [A-mi-da] are the wellspring of all virtues;
Without gaining footing in the ground of our minds, we mount the sacred lotus dais;
Without depending on effort in meditation, we open the storehouse of enlightenment.
Set your mind
to grasp the mind
with the mind
and yours is a mind
at a loss
for the mind.
Grasping that the mind
is adversary to the mind,
realize no-mind
as your own mind.
Heart and mind wander
in confusion
this way and that:
only Namu-amida-butsu
is the path
to the West.
Namu Amida Butsu
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明安 Myoan
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by 明安 Myoan »

Reply to the lay-priest Isuehimikado, former Minister of the Imperial Household, who requested an explanation of liberation from birth-and-death:

To say the Name in Other Power is the inconceivable single practice. Amida’s all-surpassing Primal Vow is the direct path of liberation for foolish beings. It lies beyond the Buddhas’ profound wisdom; how, then, should it be probed by the minds of shallow wisdom possessed by followers of the three vehicles? Simply say the Name of the Primal Vow with your lips, giving no ear to methods of attaining enlightenment in the various teachings, and put your heart and mind to no use other than saying the Name: this is “being carried by the power of the Vow without any doubt, without apprehension, and decidedly attaining birth.” Our hearts and minds vanishing as we say Namu-amida-butsu is right-mindedness at the point of death. At that moment we are blessed with the Buddha’s coming to receive us and are born into the Land of Bliss: this is birth through the nembutsu.
Answer written to Tonoben, who asked about the mind firmly settled in the nembutsu:

Concerning birth through the nembutsu: we sentient beings have, since the beginningless past, brought to completion acts of immense evil beyond count or measure -- the ten evils, five damning acts, four grave offenses, slander of the Dharma, lack of the faith-seed of Buddhahood, violation of precepts, destruction of right views. Accordingly, we are beings who, transmigrating in birth-and-death into a future without end, must experience all the great pain and affliction in the six paths, the four modes of arising, and the twenty-five forms of existence?

But though it is so, Bhiksu Dharmakara, with the wisdom of five kalpas of profound thought, awakened to the Dharma of the Name that surpasses conception, and from it he made the Primal Vow of birth for foolish beings. Already, at the time this Vow was fulfilled ten kalpas ago, it was determined that the act resulting in birth for the sentient beings throughout the ten directions would be Namu-amida-butsu.

Now that the essential body of this [fulfilled] enlightenment has come to manifest itself as the Name, Amida-butsu, people with the resolution to renounce this defiled world and aspire for the Pure Land need not make an issue of the faith or lack of faith, purity or impurity, evil or innocence of their inborn condition. Simply rejoicing at having been able to hear this Name that surpasses conception, they say Namu-amida-butsu until at last their breath ceases and life ends. At that moment, without fail, they are blessed with the welcoming of the host of sages and realize insight into the birthlessness of all existence.” This is birth through the nembutsu.
Namu Amida Butsu
Fortyeightvows
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by Fortyeightvows »

I saw a book today called "Tracing the Itinerant Path: Jishū Nuns of Medieval Japan"
I didn't look at too much but I'd imagine it has alot of info
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by 明安 Myoan »

Great find, Fortyeightvows. I found this summary on Amazon and it has definitely piqued my interest.
summary of Tracing the Itinerant Path: Jishū Nuns of Medieval Japan (Pure Land Buddhist Studies) wrote:Women have long been active supporters and promoters of Buddhist rituals and functions, but their importance in the operations of Buddhist schools has often been minimized. Chin’ichibō (?–1344), a nun who taught male and female disciples and lived in her own temple, is therefore considered an anomaly. In Tracing the Itinerant Path, Caitilin Griffiths’ meticulous research and translations of primary sources indicate that Chin’ichibō is in fact an example of her time―a learned female who was active in the teaching and spread of Buddhism―and not an exception.

Chin’ichibō and her disciples were jishū, members of a Pure Land Buddhist movement of which the famous charismatic holy man Ippen (1239–1289) was a founder. Jishū, distinguished by their practice of continuous nembutsu chanting, gained the support of a wide and diverse populace throughout Japan from the late thirteenth century. Male and female disciples rarely cloistered themselves behind monastic walls, preferring to conduct ceremonies and religious duties among the members of their communities. They offered memorial and other services to local lay believers and joined itinerant missions, traveling across provinces to reach as many people as possible. Female members were entrusted to run local practice halls that included male participants. Griffiths’ study introduces female jishū who were keenly involved―not as wives, daughters, or mothers, but as partners and leaders in the movement.

Filling the lacunae that exists in our understanding of women’s participation in Japanese religious history, Griffiths highlights the significant roles female jishū held and offers a more nuanced understanding of Japanese Buddhist history. Students of Buddhism, scholars of Japanese history, and those interested in women’s studies will find this volume a significant and compelling contribution.
Namu Amida Butsu
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明安 Myoan
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by 明安 Myoan »

Ippen wrote:Decisive settlement is the Name. Our bodies and our hearts and minds are unsettled. This body is the form of our drift in the flow of impermanence; hence from instance to instant, it arises and perishes. This mind is false thought; hence it is unreal and delusional. Do not rely on body or mind.
Though you put your heart and mind into the Name, do not take the Name into your own heart and mind.
Namu Amida Butsu
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明安 Myoan
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by 明安 Myoan »

Worth noting that in "No Abode", the commentator, Dennis Hirota, is a professor of Shin Buddhism.
As such, the introduction and the footnotes sometimes have a distinctly Shin understanding not declared as such. Sometimes, they seem to me to be at odds with Ippen's other writings in the same book, but I could be wrong.
I also found some characterizations of Honen's teachings in the intro that aren't consonant with Honen's writings that I've read.
Ippen was a student of Jodo-Shu and didn't intend to form his own sect.

All that said, there's a ton of great poetry and writings in here, which I'll continue to share as I work my way through.
I can't read Japanese so I'm thankful to Dennis Hirota for his efforts.
Namu Amida Butsu
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

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Ippen wrote:Happiness is without substance; the cessation of pain is happiness. Pain is without substance; the cessation of happiness is pain.
You may, establishing an objective situation outside the mind, assume an attitude of desisting from evil and performing good and in this way pass kalpas countless as particles, but you will still be incapable of parting from birth-and-death. In every one of the Buddhist teachings, a person attains emancipation from birth-and-death through entering the stage of the extinction of subject and object. The Name right now is Dharma that is the oneness of subject and object.
Namu-amida-butsu is simply free in itself of birth-and-death. If, in spite of this, you sigh while you utter it,
"I wish I could attain birth, I wish I could attain birth," it is like eating rice and at the same time wondering whether there is some medicine that can ease a faintness from hunger.
Namu Amida Butsu
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

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Ippen wrote:Though you are taken and held by the Name, do not seek to take hold of it. The myriad dharmas are the One Mind, but they cannot by themselves give expression to that fundamental nature, just as the eye cannot see itself ... but bring forth a mirror, and the eye will see itself.
This is none other than the power of the mirror. This "mirror" is the mirror called "great, perfect mirror wisdom," which sentient beings possess originally. It is the Name that all Buddhas have themselves realized. In the mirror of the Name, then, we can see our original face.
When the Three Treasures perish utterly, with what other teaching will you weigh and debate? Become a being of the hundred-year period after the demise of the teachings, one who knows nothing other than the nembutsu, and wholeheartedly say the Name.
SOMEONE ASKED which of the various doctrines among the different streams of the Pure Land way one should adhere to.

Ippen answered: The great diversity among the various doctrines is a concern that emerges from attachment to self. In the Name, Namu-amida-butsu, there is no doctrinal rationale. If birth were attained through doctrine, this question would be appropriate. But birth does not depend in any way on doctrine; it depends on the Name. You may feel in your heart that you will not attain birth if you entrust yourself to the Name that I preach; nevertheless, if only you say the nembutsu, you will be born in the Pure Land.

I have come to believe that whatever spurious doctrine you may utter with your lips or accept in your mind, the Name is Dharma that does not depend on doctrine, nor on the mind, so if you say it, you will unfailingly attain birth. When something is set aflame, you may wish mentally, “Do not burn,” and say this aloud, but fire does not depend on such words or on the power of thought; it simply burns out of its own inherent power. It is the same with water moistening things. In like manner, the Name possesses, by its own nature, the virtuous power to bring about birth, so when a person says it, he will be born, without any dependence on doctrine, without any dependence on the heart or mind, without any dependence on words. This is, I believe, the practice of Other Po“ er that surpasses conceivability.
To expend your time in studies instead and neglect the nembutsu, or to become attached to the sacred teachings and fail to say the Name, is like pointlessly counting someone else's treasure. It is like having a promissory note for a thousand pieces in gold and failing to collect it.
Namu Amida Butsu
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by Admin_PC »

Nice quotes. I need to get this book! :twothumbsup:
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by Old tyme hockey »

Great posting, i think ippen has some very interesting ideas. The ji shu seems not to exist outside of Japan right?
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明安 Myoan
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Re: Ippen in Ji-Shu

Post by 明安 Myoan »

I especially find that the analogy with fire and water really speaks to me.

I tend to identify strongly with what I think ("I have to do something about this idea!!"), so questions and doubts can be distressing and have dislodged practice before.
I have to remember that Amitabha doesn't spring into existence because I have lofty thoughts.
By the same token, he doesn't vanish from the universe because I have doubtful thoughts.
What does change is whether or not I will accept his assistance and fully benefit from it. That's why faith is so vital... it turns me back towards Amitabha, who is reaching out all the time.

A similar metaphor might be how the best treatment center in the world can't help someone who doesn't do the barest minimum of taking a step through their doors.
If an addicted person thinks, "they can't help me," it doesn't actually change their ability, only his willingness to be treated.

I'm very glad for this Ippen book for that reason. It's like a splash of cold water when I start taking my opinions a little too seriously.

I'll share more of what I find soon!
Namu Amida Butsu
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