2022 Volume 96 Issue 3 Pages 53-77
This paper examines the reasons why Shinran, the founder of Shin Buddhism, describes the concept of Leaping Lengthwise as “the true teaching of the Mahayana” in his distinctive classification of Two Pairs and Four Levels.
Shinran's method of interpreting sutras is based on a doctrinal classification that distinguishes between Two Pairs and Four Levels. Within this framework, the Crosswise Leap (ōchō) derived from the “Larger Sutra of Immeasurable Life” is considered to be the true and most important aspect. Other sutras are widely known to be understood as upaya (skilful means) in the True Pure Land Buddhist sect and beyond. However, Shinran himself, in the “Shinnomaki” section of the Kyōgyōshinshō, describes Leaping Lengthwise as “the true teaching of the Mahayana.” There has been a contradictory understanding that even this statement was an expedient means.
In this paper, the author sheds new light on Shinran's interpretation of the doctrines, by examining mentions in the following texts and passages: 1) the Bodhicitta (Bodai shinshaku) and Ōchō danshiru (“Leaping crosswise and cutting off the four streams”) 2) the Gutokushō, 3) the “The True Realizing of the Pure Land Way” (volume four of the Kyōgyōshinshō), and 4) the Bendō miroku (“Being the same as Maitreya”), among others.
