This paper examines citations of Shandao’s 善導 Wangsheng lizan 往生礼讃 in the section called “Great Practice 大行” within the “Practice 行” chapter of the Kyōgyōshinshō 教行信証 in order to consider Shandao’s nianfo thought, and to compare it with Shinran’s nembutsu thought as seen in his usage of those citations.
The Wangsheng lizan, in addition to expressing Shandao’s own worship and veneration of Amida Buddha, urges others to follow the teaching of Amida so that sentient beings might repent of their own evil and take refuge (namo 南無) in the Buddha. However, Shandao himself accomplished the contemplation of the Buddha both through visualization practice and by the recitation of Amida’s name, so it is difficult to say that he solely promoted the single practice of the recitation of the Name.
Next, I examine how Shinran viewed Shandao’s nianfo thought. Shinran understood that the primary purpose of Shandao’s veneration of Amida was to urge people to aspire to be born in his Pure Land by the practice of the recitation of Amida’s Name. Although Shandao was known as a “person accomplished in samādhi” who practiced the visualization of Amida Buddha, for Shinran, the fact that the master consistently promoted the single practice of the recitation of the Name was the central characteristic of Shandao’s teaching. Based on this interpretation, we can see the uniqueness of Shinran’s emphasis on “hearing the Name” (monmyō 門名). Further, regarding the term “seeing the Buddha” (kenbutu 見仏), Shinran reinterpreted the word “seeing” (ken 見) as “hearing and seeing” (monken 聞見), through which he expressed his profound joy at hearing that one should say Amida’s Name, receive shinjin, and venerate the Dharma. Shinran viewed the experience of encountering Amida Buddha as the world of nembutsu expressed through the “recitation and hearing of the Name.”
