Jōdo Shinshū (“the Pure Land as the true essence of the Buddha’s teachings” or Shin Buddhism) is the Buddhist teaching clarified by a Japanese Buddhist priest, Shinran Shōnin (1173–1262). At the core of Jōdo Shinshū lies the ultimate universality of the teaching of Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha (lit. the Awakened One), who lived about 2,500 years ago in India and taught people from all walks of life a path to awakening. The Buddha’s insight looks into a causal chain of suffering and identifies the fundamental cause of them in the attachment to the sense of self which is created by ourselves in orrder to satisfy our own desires. Through the realization of the fundamental problem in our self-consciousness, it awakens us to the preciousness of life so that we can live our lives to the fullest.
Having been guided by his teacher Hōnen Shōnin (1133–1212), Shinran continued to deepen his appreciation for Shakyamuni’s teaching through the sutras on Amida Buddha and the Pure Land: the Larger Sutra of Immeasurable Life, the Meditation Sutra, and the Amida Sutra.
In the following verse that he composed, Shinran shows his insight into his life deepened by his encounter with the teaching:
Upon encountering the power of the Buddha’s Original Vow,
No one’s life will pass in vain;
All persons are swiftly satisfied
With the great precious ocean of virtues.
The teaching of Jōdo Shinshū that Shinran devoted his entire life to is a broad path of awakening open to everyone beyond all boundaries.