honen

Updated: June 25, 2025

Before the eyes of men Honen Shonin stood as the Boddhisattva of Wisdom, or, yet more, as the Blessed One again made flesh. The Emperor and all his ministers did homage unto him, yea, and the men of the chief city and of the far countries. He who had been Emperor, in the time of Jokyu, brought homage to Honen Shonin.

Shinran - Wisdom of the East : Buddhist Psalms translated from the Japanese of Shinran Shonin

Even while Honen Shonin yet walked in this world, there issued from his body rays of a golden shining, and this, so it is said, hath Kanezane Fujiwara beheld with his own eyes. The people passed it from mouth to mouth that this Honen Shonin was the living incarnation of Doshaku Zenji, or yet again of Zendo Daishi.

Shinran - Wisdom of the East : Buddhist Psalms translated from the Japanese of Shinran Shonin

When his years were but fifteen, Honen Shonin entered into the Way of Illumination, for in departing from worldly life he fulfilled his heart's desire, and by him was clearly understanded the doctrine of the transience of life.

Shinran - Wisdom of the East : Buddhist Psalms translated from the Japanese of Shinran Shonin

For this distress neither the Tendai doctrines nor the Shingon conceptions were sufficiently simple to supply a remedy. Something more tangible and less recondite was needed, and it came , in the sequel of twenty-five years' meditation and study, to Genku posthumously called Honen Shonin a priest of the Tendai sect. "Salvation is by faith, but it is a faith ritually expressed.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

Thereafter, for a space of 387 years, there was no addition to the number: things remained stationary until 1196, when Honen began to preach the doctrines of the Jodo sect, and in the space of fifty-six years, between 1196 and 1252, three other sects were established, namely, the Zen, the Shin, and the Nichiren.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

Having taken birth in that small and remote island, Honen Shonin spread abroad the doctrine of the Holy Name for the sake of all men's salvation. And thus had he done not only then, but many times in ages gone by. That Buddha, whose light is infinite, was made flesh in this world as Honen Shonin, and when his merciful work was accomplished, he returned into the Land of Purity.

Shinran - Wisdom of the East : Buddhist Psalms translated from the Japanese of Shinran Shonin