Nenbutsu as Ketsujō-gō 決定業:The Interpretation in the Ketsujō ōjōshū 決定往生集 of Chinkai 珍海

Abstract

In Chapter V of the Ketsujō ōjōshū 決定往生集 written by Chinkai 珍海 (1092–1152), it is pointed out that an act of making a Buddhist image, reading or copying Mahāyāna Buddhist scriptures is able to become a fixed karma (定業). Through a similar statement in his early work, the Bodaishinshū 菩提心集, it is confirmed that the fixed karma is Ketsujō-gō決定業. In addition, discussing the superiority and inferiority of the ten-fold repitition of the nenbutsu (jūnen 十念) in daily life and at the end of life, he clearly interprets both as Ketsujō-gō in the same chapter.

However, given that out of all kinds of Mahāyāna karmas in the Sanron myōkyōshō 三論名教抄 the Ketsujō-gō is missing, a clear contradiction appears in identifying nenbutsu with Ketsujō-gō. Therefore Chinkai shows that rebirth in the Pure Land is enabled by nenbutsu as Ketsujō-gō with a theory that there is no Ketsujō-gō in itself, but only Ketsujō-gō as a relationship.