- Genshin
Genshin (源信 942–1017), also know as Eshin Sozu, was the most influential of a number of
Tendai scholars active during the eleventh and twelfth centuries inJapan . He was not a wandering evangelist asKūya was, but was an elite cleric who espoused a doctrine of devotion toAmida Buddha which taught that because Japan was thought to have entered "mappō ", the "degenerate age" of the "latter law," the only hope forsalvation lay in the reliance on the power of Amitabha. Otherdoctrine s, he claimed, could not aid an individual because they depended on "self-power" ("jiriki"), which cannot prevail during the chaos of the degenerate age, when the power of another ("tariki") is necessary. In his approach to rebirth in the Pure Land, Genshin emphasized visual meditation practices, where laterPure Land sects favored verbal recitations such as thenembutsu . Genshin's doctrine is documented in hismagnum opus , the "Ōjōyōshū" ("Essentials of rebirth"), which in later copies of the text came complete with graphic depictions of the joy of the blessed and the suffering of those doomed tochaos .Genshin's influence in contemporary Japanese culture today is primarily due to his treatise,
Ojoyoshu , particularly the graphic descriptions of the Buddhisthell realms (地獄 "jigoku"), which inspired a genre of horror and morality stories. The 1960 Japanese film "Jigoku" was influenced by Genshin's "Ojoyoshu" among others. InJodo Shinshu Buddhism, he is considered the Sixth Patriarch.Genshin is credited as the founder of the "Enshin" school of
Tendai Buddhism, and for espousing the "original enlightenment" teaching, or "hongaku" (本覚), where one is originally enlightened, but unaware of it. In all, Genshin left more than 30 works which continue to influence Pure Land thought today.Amida-nyorai image at the main building of Yasaka-ji Temple in Shikoku is said to have been made by Genshin in the
Nara Period .External links
* [http://www.kiis.or.jp/kansaida/kashiba/kashiba-p-e.html Profile of Eshin Sozu]
* [http://www.jsri.jp/English/Honen/LIFE/Tendai/ojoyoshu.html "The Influence of Genshin's Ojoyoshu on Honen"]
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