The Contemporary Meaning of Kamakura Buddhism

Author(s): Robert N. Bellah

Source: Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Mar., 1974), pp. 3-17
Published by: Oxford University Press
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The Contemporary
Meaningof
KamakuraBuddhism
ROBERTN. BELLAH
are gatheredtogetherto celebratethe 800th anniversaryof the birth
of ShinranSh6nin and the great creativephase of JapaneseBuddhism
Vinthe KamakuraPeriod in which Shinranwas a central but by no
means a solitary figure.* I will have something to say about Shinran and also
about D6gen, whom I will treatas representativefigures of KamakuraBuddhism,
although there are others at these meetings far more qualified than I to speak
of them. What I want to concentrateon mainly is the question,How can something that happened800 years ago mean anything to us? Especiallywhen it is
a question of anything so evanescentas religious experience,how can we even
understand,much less participatein, something so long ago?

I will tryto dealwith thoseproblemsby adaptingsomeconceptsfromMiki

Kiyoshi'sPhilosophyof History.' FollowingMiki, we can speakof any historical

event as involving 1) experience,2) expression,3) documents,and 4) re-enactment. Experiencerefersto the immediacyof events as individualsparticipatein
them. Expressionrefers to the cultural forms that people create out of their
'Rekishi Tetsagakuin Miki Kiyoshi Zenshii, vol. 6 (Iwanami, 1967). See also his
essay "Ningengaku no Marukusu-tekiKeitei" [The Marxist Form of Anthropology]in
vol. 3. My discussion follows the spirit of Miki's analysis but does not attempt to
reproducehis much more complex terminology.
N. BELLAHis Ford Professorof Sociology and ComparativeStudies at the
ROBERT
Universityof Californiaat Berkeley. His publicationson JapanincludeTokugawaReligion
(New York, 1957) and two recentarticles,"Continuityand Change in JapaneseSociety"
in Barberand Inkeles,eds., Stabilityand Social Change (Boston, 1971) and "Intellectual
and Society in Japan"in Daedalus (Spring 1972).
* This paper was read originally at a symposiumin Honolulu
sponsoredby the Departmentof Religion at the Universityof Hawaii and the Hawaii BuddhistCouncil. The
symposium,extendingfrom January21, 1973 to April 15, 1973, was entitled "Kamakura
Buddhism:The BuddhistReformation,Retrospectand Prospect." During this period the
symposiumhosteda seriesof lecturesand discussionsexploringthe meaning of the variety
of Buddhistmovementsinitiatedin the Kamakuraperiodof Japanesehistory (1185-1332).
The effort was undertakento celebrateseveralanniversaries:the 800th anniversaryof the
founding of the Jodo School by St. Honene, the 800th anniversaryof the birth of St.
Shinran,and the 750th anniversaryof the birth of St. Nichiren. The symposiumwas
under the leadershipof ProfessorAlfred Bloom, Universityof Hawaii.

Copyright@ 1974 by AmericanAcademyof Religion

ROBERTN. BELLAH

experiencebut which survivebeyondthe occasionof their creation. There is no

absolute boundaryline between experience and expression,since cultural forms
complete and fulfill experienceas well as provide stimulus for new experience.
Documents are anything that allow us to know of the experienceand expression
of the past. Re-enactmentis the attemptin the presentto see what the experience
and expressionof the past were really like.
When we are dealing with religious experience,there are some particularly
difficult problems. Religious experienceis, or often claims to be, experienceof
something trans-historical,eternal, or non-temporal. But religious expression,
like all other human expression, is in time and history. The documents,the
scripturesand other religiouswritings that recordthat experienceand expression,
reek of the particularitiesof the place and age in which they were produced.
Re-enactment,the appropriationof the original experience in the present moment, becomes increasinglydifficult as the sacred documents seem ever more
strange,remote, and inaccessible. In the case of religion, where a continuous
traditionof re-enactmentis essential for the survivalof the religion itself, there
is a tendency for the original meanings to become progressivelydistorted and
the function of the re-enactmentto become magical, social, or even political,
ratherthan to producean apprehensionof transcendence. It is this situationthat
gives rise to reformations. It is the task of a religious reformationnot simply to
revive the original historicalforms of religious expression,though that is how
reformerssometimes see it, but to regain the original experience of the transhistorical. Inevitably,even when the reformerthinks he is merely returningto
past forms, a genuine reformationinvolves the creation of new forms growing
out of a new apprehensionof religiousreality,even though there is still a definite
connectionwith the past.
Viewing KamakuraBuddhismas a reformation,then, raisesquestions in two
directions. To what extent did KamakuraBuddhismrecapturein its own forms
the fundamentalBuddhist experience of the earliest texts and presumablyof
Gautamathe Buddha himself, who lived 1800 years earlier than Shinran and
D6gen? To what extent is it possible for us to apprehendthe experience of
Shinran,D6gen, and the other great KamakuraBuddhistswithout ourselvesundergoing a reformation? I will not pretendto answerthose questions,especially
the second one, but they lie behind all that I will say.
Following FutabaKenk6 I think it is possible to argue that KamakuraBuddhism, especially in the figures of Shinranand D6gen, not only did involve a
re-enactmentof the fundamentalexperience of Buddhism,but that it was the
first time in Japanesehistory that a movement based on that fundamentalexperience reached the masses.2 Such an argument would imply that Japanese
Buddhism in earlier centuries,with many individual exceptions, of course, was
essentiallya magical-ritualsystem controlled by the state and used, on the one
hand, as a support for existing political power and, on the other, as a means for
'See Futaba'sShimranno Kenkyig[ShinranStudies] (Kyoto: Hyakkaen,1962).

MEANINGOF KAMAKURABUDDHISM
THE CONTEMPORARY

attainingvariousutilitariangoals by individualsand groups. Perhapsa brief

discussionof originalBuddhismwill suggesthow it differedfromearlyJapanese
Buddhismandhow Kamakura
Buddhismre-appropriated
it.
Original Buddhism,as far as we can know it, involves the belief that "all

conditionedthings,"that is, all of the aspectsof our everydayexperience,have

threecharacteristics
or "marks."3They 1) are transientor impermanent,
2)
involvesufferingor ill, and 3) are"not-self."To expandslightlyon the third
markwe canquotethephrasethe earlytextsuseto referto theobjectsof ordinary
experience:"this is not mine, I am not this, this is not myself."4 Such an under-

standingof the everydayworldwhichradicallydeprivesit of its meaningand

valueis not itselfsimplygiven in ordinaryexperience,thoughthereis muchin
is itselfthe product
ordinaryexperiencethathintsat it. Suchan understanding
of religious experience,and that understandinggrows as the religious experience
is deepenedand disciplined. We should,therefore,be very hesitant,lacking that
religious perception, to claim that we truly understandwhat is being asserted,

even thoughwe follow the words. Finally,and most paradoxically,

original
Buddhismassertedthat if we trulyunderstand
that ordinaryexistenceis transient, involves suffering, and is alien, that is, if we perceive the absoluteempti-

nessof the ordinaryworld,we will haveattainedspiritualfreedom,nirvana.As

Conzesays,"Inone sense'emptiness'designatesdeprivation,in anotherfulfillment."5Thatwhichon the one handis designated
as escape,stopping,renunciation,the extinctionof cravingis alsodesignatedas realtruth,truebeing,supreme
reality.6
Howeverimperfectly
we maygraspthatoriginalmessage,let us see whether
we candiscernin the religiousexperienceof ShinranandD6gena re-enactment
of it. The connections
area bit easierto followin D6genso it is therethatwe
will begin.
D6gen (1200-1253) camefrom a courtfamilyin Ky6toand receivedan
excellenteducationin Chineseliteratureand in the manyschoolsof Buddhism.
At the age of thirteenhe becamea monkof the TendaiSchool,the "motherof
whereall the greatreformersstarted,andgraduallybeganto master
Buddhism"
the Buddhistteachings.All thathe learnedleft him dissatisfieduntilhe finally
visitedEisai,the monkwho firstbroughtthe teachingsof Zen to Japan. There
he formedthe intentionof followingEisai'sfootstepsby visiting Chinaand
practicingmeditationthere. Letme recountwhathappenedafterhe hadbegun
the practiceof meditationunderthe directionof the ChinesemonkJu-ching,as
describedin a manuscript
by my studentCarlBielefeldt:7
' On the three marks see Edward
Conze, Buddhist Thought in India (University of
MichiganPress, 1967), chap. 3.
'Ibid., p. 37.
5Ibid., p. 60.
SIbid.,pp. 75-76.
M.A. Thesis in Asian Studies,University
"CarlW. Bielefeldt,"Sh6Sbgenz6-sansuiky6,"
of Californiaat Berkeley,1972.

ROBERTN. BELLAH
Then in the summerpracticeperiod of 1225, one night when the monks were
seatedin meditation,Ju-chingshoutedat the noddingmonk next to D6gen, 'Zen
is body and mind cast off! How can you sit there sleeping?' D6gen woke up.
He went to Ju-ching'squartersand offered incense. 'What does this offering
incense mean?'asked Ju-ching. 'Bodyand mind are cast off,' said D6gen. Juching said,'Bodyand mind castoff! Castoff bodyand mind!' To which Digen
responded,'This is just a momentaryattainment. Don't give it your seal too
quickly.' Ju-ching said, 'I don't give it my seal too quickly.' D6gen asked,
'What do you mean by that?' The Masteranswered,'Castoff body and mind!'
D6gen bowed. Ju-chingsaid, 'Castoff! Cast off!'
When DMgenleft Ju-chingtwo yearslater,the Masteradvisedhim to avoid cities
and keep away from the government. 'Just live in deep mountainsand dark
don't let my teachingbe cut off.' D6gen
valleys,and traina disciple-and-a-half:
returnedto Japanempty-handed,with nothingto show for his four yearsin Sung
Chinaexceptknowledge,as he said,that 'my eyes are set side by side and my nose
is straight.'

The firstthingto noticein this accountis the sharpbreakfromthe past. Previous monksreturningfrom China,includingeven Eisai himself,invariably
broughtwiththemstatuesandsutras,charmsandspells. D6genreturnedemptyhanded. Previousmonkswere often sent to Chinasemi-officiallyand upon
their returnset up monasteriesundergovernmentsponsorship.D6gen was
admonished
to keep awayfromgovernment,an admonitionhe carriedout by
establishinghis monastery,
Eiheiji,in the "deepmountainsanddarkvalleys"of
Echizenon the JapanSeaside of NorthCentralJapan,andby steadfastly
refusing all invitationsfromKamakura.In thesewaysD6genasserteda sharpbreak
fromthe established
churchandthe established
state. He proclaimed
a purified
and simplifiedBuddhismutterlycleansedof utilitarianends. In his teaching,
meditationitself is at once meansand endsandthereis no otherconcern. He
said:
In Buddhism,practiceand enlightenmentare one and the same. Since practice
has its basis in enlightenment,the practiceeven of the beginner contains the
whole of originalenlightenment. Thus while giving directionsas to the exercise,
the Zen masterwarns him not to await enlightenmentapart from the exercise,
because this exercise points directly to the original enlightenment,it has no
beginning.s

The simultaneity
of practiceand enlightenment
was partof a generalsenseof
realityforD6gen. The verymountainsandriversamongwhichhe livedpartook
of that simultaneity.Mr. Bielefeldtsummarizes
the teachingof the mountain
and riversectionof D6gen'sgreatestwork,the Sh6tbgenz6,as follows:
As for mountainsand rivers,then, though we say they are samsdra,it is not
so easyto say what this means. For samsiracannotbe pinned down to this world
s NakamuraHajime, A History of the Development of Japanese Thought (Tokyo:
KokusaiBunka Shinkokai,1969), vol. 1, p. 90. The passageis from Dogen's Bendowa,
which is translatedin its entirety by Norman Waddell and Abe Masao in The Eastern
Buddhist (New Series) 4 (May 1971). For their translationof the passagequoted, see
p. 144 of that issue.

THE CONTEMPORARYMEANING OF KAMAKURA BUDDHISM

of birth and death. It is this world of birth and death; and yet for that very
reason it is completelyfree from birth and death. This is the basic logic of
the prajni-piramiti, the Perfectionof Wisdom. All dharmasare conditioned
being; but a conditionedbeing has no natureof its own; having no own-nature
it is empty; being empty it is free from itself, and free from birth and death.
Therefore,these very mountainsand riversof the presentare the mountainsand
riversof nirvina.'

With the same hesitation that I expressed about the message of original Buddhism, namely,that one can hardlyclaim to understandthe wordswhen one does
not have the experienceout of which they come, I think it can be argued that
D6gen does, in his own unique way, representa reappropriationof the original
message of Buddhismin all its radicalness.
Superficiallyit might seem that Shinran'smessage was quite different. As
opposedto the jiriki, self-power,practiceof meditationin D6gen, Shinranwould
seem to recommendtariki, other-power,reliance on Amida Buddha. But, as
Futaba Kenk6 has pointed out, there may be a deeper structuralsimilarity.10
Shinran (1173-1262), twenty-sevenyears older than D6gen, came from a
similar family background,becamea monk at an early age, and, like D6gen, read
restlesslyin the vast corpus of Buddhistwritings until finding a teacher,in his
case H6nen, who finally helped him find his way. But in Shinran'sbiography
we find a specialemphasison his sense of failureand sin, on his inabilityto perform the meditationsand austeritiesprescribedto him by his sect. In this situation of doubt and uncertaintyH6nen's teachingthat salvationcomes throughthe
name of Amida Buddhaalone, relying only on Amida's vow to save all sentient
beings, was profoundlytransforming. Shinransaid that he was willing to follow
H6nen's teachingeven if it should lead him to hell, for he was headedfor hell in
any case and H6nen's messagewas his only hope.
By taking his place in the little band of followers around H6nen, Shinran,
intentionallyor not, involved himself in a breakwith the establishedchurchand
state as radicalas was D6gen's. The establishedsects did not approveof H6nen's
teachings,which they consideredsubversiveof establishedorder,and they brought
pressureon the state to suppress them. Eventuallytwo of Hbnen's followers
were executedand the rest, including H6nen and Shinran,were banishedto distant provinces. Indeed, it was the separationfrom H6nen, whom he never saw
again, that brought about Shinran'sown independent doctrinal developments.
In the isolation of the remote provinceof Echigo,Shinranfaced the hardshipsof
the life of the ordinarypeasant. He droppedthe last of his monasticdisciplines
and took a wife, becoming, in his own words,"neither priest nor layman.""
In severalrespectsShinranpushedthe implicationof the Pure Landtradition
Bielefeldt, "Sh6b6genzo-sansuiky6,"
p. 74.
19
Futaba,Shinran no Kenkyig,the chapter entitled "Shinranno shin to jiritsu-t-eki
jissen no kankei" [The Relation between Shinran'sFaith and AutonomousPractice],pp.
279-310.

" Alfred Bloom, The Life of ShinranShonin: The Journeyto Self-Acceptance(Leiden:

Brill, 1968), p. 18.

ROBERT N. BELLAH

furtherthanit hadeverbeenpushedbefore. While placingall his faithin the

nameof Amida,he essentiallydeniedthat the repetitionof the name,even a
single time, was itself efficaciousfor salvation. Salvationis alreadyavailable
in the limitlesssea of Amida'svow, andeven the faithto acceptit comesfrom
Amida. Further,whilenot denyingthatthe believerwill be rebornin the Pure
Landafterdeathas the Jadotraditionmaintains,Shinranturnedhis emphasis
to the immediacyof salvation,the simultaneityof faith and salvationin the
immediatepresent.
All of this can be and often has been interpretedalongChristianlines in
which Amidahas been interpretedas analogousto God or Christ. Without
we must also
denyingthat there may be somethingto such interpretations,
notice how, at a deeperlevel, Shinran'steachingresemblesD6gen'sand the
messageof originalBuddhismas well. What Shinranis saying about all
practices,includingthe recitationof the nameof Amida,as formsof striving,
is "thisis not mine,I am not this, this is not myself." With Shinranas with
D6genthereis no endto be gainedandno self to gain it. Amidais a manifestation of thatultimaterealitywhichis simultaneously
emptyandfull,as it wasfor
It
is
in
this
context
that
we
can
Shinran's
understand
famouspassageon
D1gen.
or
written
near
the
end
of
his
life.
I
Alfred
Bloom'stransnature,
Jinen
quote
lation:
Whenwe speakof "Nature"(Jinen), the character
Ji meannaturally,by
itself (Onozukara). It is not (the resultof) an intention (self-assertionHakarai)of the devotee.Nen is a wordwhichmeans"tocauseto comeabout"
(Shikarashimu).Shikarashimu
(also signifiesthat it) is not (due to any)
effort (Hakarai) of the devotee. Since it is (the result of) the Vow of the
Tathagata,we will call it H6ni, i.e., truth. We say of H6ni that it "causesto
come about,"becauseit is the Vow of the Tathagata. Since the truth is the
Vow of Tathagata,we say generallythat it is not (the result) of the effort of
the devotee,and thereforethe power (virtue) of this Dharma is that it "causes
to be." For the first time, there is nothing to be done by man. This is what
we should understandas "the reason which is beyond reason" (Mugi no Gi).
OriginallyJinen was a word meaning "to cause to be." We say Jinen when
the devotee does not consider his goodness or evil in accordancewith the
fact that Amida has vowed originally (that salvationwas to be attained) not
by the efforts of the devotee,but by being embracedand causedto rely on the
Namu Amida Butsu (his name). In the Vow which we hear, it is vowed
that he will causeus (to attain) the highest Buddahood. "HighestBuddahood"
signifies to abide in formlessness. Becausewe are without form, we say Jinen
(nature). When we indicatethat there is form, we do not speakof the highest
Nirvana. We have heardand learnedfor the first time that the one who makes
known formlessnessis calledAmida. Amida is the meanswherebywe are caused
to know formlessness.12

SAlfred Bloom, Shinran'sGospel of Pure Grace (The Associationfor Asian Studies:

Monographsand Papers,No. 20) (Tucson: Universityof ArizonaPress,1965), pp. 43-44.
(Japanesecharacterscontainedin the original manuscripthave been omittedfrom this text
becauseof printing difficulty.) D. T. Suzukigives a somewhatlooser translationof this
difficult passageon pp. 171-72 of his Mysticism,Christianand Buddhist (New York:
Harper& Row, 1971):

THE CONTEMPORARYMEANING OF KAMAKURA BUDDHISM

I hopethatenoughhasbeensaidto indicatethatthe Buddhistreformation

of
ShinranandD6gen was a genuineone, that it did re-apprehend
the religiously
radicalmessageof originalBuddhismand make it availableto the Japanese
masses. Theworld,includingits established
socialandculturalorder,is radically
devaluedand yet the worldas it is is given backin a new way,simultaneously
emptyandfull. I sayreligiouslyradicalbecausethemessageat the outsetwasnot
reformershada visionof a new social
sociallyradical. None of the Kamakura
orderthat they wishedto bring about. But on the otherhand the religious
in the
awakeningof the massesdid have politicalimplications.Particularly
J6do Shinshfi,but also in the Nichirenshfi,the subjectiveexperienceof faith
madepossiblea new kindof socialorganization
withinthe religiouscollectivity.
everchallengedthe risingfeudalorder
Indeed,onlythesereligiousorganizations
of medievalJapan. In the end the religiousrebellionsandmovementsall failed
in theirchallengeto the feudalorderand,more importantly,
were themselves
feudal
forms.
But
in
we
are
too
to
before
permeated
by
quick judge,particularly
to
some
should
ethical-social
we
of
comparison
alleged
superiority Christianity,
rememberthatthe NT, no morethanthe Buddhistscriptures,
containsa bluefor
social
order.
Faith
must
to
secular
be
print
always joined
ideologiesin order
to havepoliticalconsequences.Thepoliticallimitationsof theBuddhistReformationareas muchthe politicallimitationsof the ShintoandConfucianpolitical
traditionsand the actualitiesof politicalpower as they are of the Buddhist
Reformationitself. This doesnot meanthattheremay not be differentpossibilitiestoday.
Beforeturningto the modernperiodin an effortto saysomethingaboutthe
reformersin particularfor
meaningof Buddhismgenerallyand the Kamakura
our presentday societyin Japan,America,and the world,thereis one further
periodin Japanesehistory,one furtherphasein whatI callJapaneseinternalizaJi means "of itself," or "by itself." As it is not due to the designing of man but to
Nyorai's vow [that man is born in the Pure Land], it is said that man is naturallyor
spontaneously(nen), led to the Pure Land. The devotee does not make any conscious

ineffective
to achieve
the end. Jinenthus
self-designing
efforts,fortheyarealtogether

meansthatas one'srebirthinto the PureLandis whollydue to the workingof Nyorai's

it is for the devoteejustto believein Nyoraiandlet his vow workitselfout.
vow-power,
Hanimeans"itis so becauseit is so";andin the presentcaseit meansthatit is in the
natureof Amida'svow-power
thatwe arebornin the PureLand. Therefore,
the wayin

whichtheother-power
worksmaybedefined
as "meaning
of no-meaning,"
thatis to say,
it worksin sucha wayas if notworking[so natural,
so spontaneous,
so effortless,
so

freeareits workings].
absolutely

Amida'svow accomplisheseverythingand nothing is left for the devotee to design or

in orderto
plan for himself. Amidamakesthe devoteesimplysay"Namu-amida-butsu"
be savedby Amida,andthe latterwelcomeshimto the PureLand. As faras the devotee
he doesnot knowwhatis goodor badfor him,all is left to Amida. That
is concerned,
- havelearned.
is whatI- Shinran
Amida'svow is meantto makeus all attainsupremeBuddhahood.The Buddhais
formlessand becauseof his formlessnesshe is known as "all by himself" (jinen). If he
had a form, he would not be calledsupremeNyorai. In orderto let us know how formless

- havelearned.
he is, he is calledAmida. Thatis whatI - Shinran

10

ROBERT N. BELLAH

tion of Buddhism,to which I would like to refer. That is the TokugawaPeriod.

In the midst of the allegedly secular Tokugawa Period, when Buddhism is
said to have atrophiedand the creativitygone out of it, we can nonethelessspeak,
if we speak softly, of a second Buddhist Reformation,the Haiku Reformation.
Of all the great poets of that period we can single out two who brought the
haiku as a poetryof religion or religion of poetry to a kind of fulfillment: Bash6
(1644-1694) and Issa (1763-1827). In the former we can see a successorof
D6gen, in the latter of Shinran.
Bash6 was born of the samuraiclass, but after the death of the son of his
feudal lord, with whom he served as a kind of companionstudent and of whom
he was very fond, he left his fief and settled in Edo as a student and teacherof
haiku. He lived very simply,often, duringhis many travels,experiencinghunger
and other sufferingsof the poor. Though not strictlya monk he dressedas one
and in his own way was also "neitherpriest nor layman." In all that he did he
lived poetry and what his poetry expressedwas that simultaneousemptiness and
fullness that we have seen in D6gen. But to suggest the subtle but important
difference between the two let us contrasta waka of D6gen with two haiku of
Bash6. D6gen writes:
Yamano iro tani hibikimo mina-nagara
no koe no atokana
wagashakamuni
The colorsof the mountains
The echoes of the valleys,...

All, all are

of the voiceof
Impressions

Our Shakamuni.'

Bash6 not only shortens the thirty-one-syllablewaka form to the seventeensyllablehaiku,but he also in a way abbreviatesthe theology- abbreviatesit and
makes it more homely, as when he writes:
Asagao ni ware wa meshi kii otoko kana
I am one
Who eats his breakfast
Gazing at the morning-glory.'

Here is Buddha'svoice imprinted,so to speak, in the almost too pat image of

the rapidlyfading morning glory, but not only does Bash6 not mention anything
about the Buddha,he also intrudeshis own breakfast,with its aromaof rice and
pickles,which also equallywell expressesthe simultaneousemptinessand fullness
of the Buddha nature. In another poem, this time without a trace of humor,
once again we find an expressionof emptiness,sunyata:
SR. H. Blyth, Haiku, vol. 1 (Tokyo: Hokuseido, 1952), p. 195. I have alteredthe
translationof the last two lines.
" Ibid., p. 332. Blyth translatesasagaoin the plural.

THE CONTEMPORARYMEANING OF KAMAKURA BUDDHISM

11

Kono michi ya iku hito nashi ni aki no kure

Along this road
Goes no one,
This autumn eve.'

Without that Buddhistdepth of meaning that is alwayshovering just below the

surface of Bash6's poetry, this would be merely sentimental, as modern haiku
have become after the Buddhist substance has gone. But at that marvelous
moment when Buddhist religious perceptivenesshas annihilated itself in the
world but not yet lost its power standsthe figure of Bash6:
Tabi-sugatashigure no tsuru yo bash66
In travellingattire,
A stork in late autumn rain:
The old master Bash6,"6

as Choradescribeshim.
By contrastwith Bash6,Issa,a J6do Shinshfibeliever,is much more involved
in the human world. Like Shinranhe is acutelyawareof the reality of sin and
suffering:
Kogarashi ya nija-yon-mon no yfjo goya
The autumn storm;
A prostituteshack
At 24 cents a time."

Even in the naturalworld he is alert to suffering:

Nomidomo mo yonaga dar6 zo sabishi karo
For you fleas too,
The night must be long,
It must be lonely."

But in true Shinshii fashion Issa holds that it is just in the midst of this dirty
world that faith is to be found:
Hito no yo ni ta ni tsukuraruruhasu no hana
In the world of men In the muddy rice field
The Lotus is fashioned."

At the end of his poetic diary, Oraga Haru, Issa gives us a theological reverie
that perhapscarriesShinranone step further:
15Ibid.,p. 179.
16Ibid.,p. 333.
17Ibid.,p. 349.
'Ibid., p. 345.
" LewisMacKenzie,The Autumn Wind: A Selectionfrom the Poemsof Issa (London:
John Murray,1957), p. 71. I have alteredthe translation.

ROBERTN. BELLAH

12

Those who insist on salvation by faith and devote their minds to nothing
else are bound all the more firmly by their singlemindedness,and fall into the
hell of attachmentto their own salvation. Again, those who are passive and
standto one side waiting to be saved,considerthat they are alreadyperfectand
rely rather on Buddha than on themselvesto purify their hearts--these, too,
have failed to find the secretof genuine salvation. The questionthen remainshow do we find it? But the answer,fortunately,is not difficult.
We should do far better to put this vexing problem of salvationout of our
minds altogetherand place our relianceneitheron faith nor on personalvirtue,
but surrenderourselvescompletelyto the will of Buddha. Let him do as he will
with us - be it to carryus to heaven,or to hell. Herein lies the secret.
Once we have determinedon this course,we need care nothing for ourselves.
We need no longer ape the busy spiderby stretchingthe web of our desireacross
the earth, nor emulate the greedy farmer by taking extra water into our own
fields at the expense of our neighbors. Moreover,since our minds will be at
peace,we need not alwaysbe saying our prayerswith hollow voice, for we shall
be entirelyunderthe benevolentdirectionof Buddha.
This is the salvation- this the peace of mind we teach in our religion.
Blessedbe the name of Buddha.
Tomo-kaku-moanata makase no toshi no kure
In any case
Leaving all to you
Now, at the end of the year."

Issa, the son of a moderatelyprosperouspeasant family, left home and, like

Bash6, became a haiku teacher in Edo. Eventually he returned to his native
village, where a series of domestic misfortunes overtook him. Like Bash6 he
stood aside from Tokugawa society, but even more than the earlier poet he
expressedquiet contempt for the feudal ruling class, as when returning from a
visit to a daimyo that he could not avoid he threw on the dungheapseveralrolls
of cloth the daimyo had given him. Once again, in the case of Bash6 and Issa,
we see the capacityof profoundreligious insight to devalue the empiricalworld,
including its establishedpowers, but once again we see no immediate political
consequences. These great haiku poets are not easy for us to understandtoday.
But perhapsthey are more of our world than the KamakuraReformersand can
provide for us a link to them. But it is a perilous link, for the religious penetrationof the world has proceededso far in Bash6and Issa that it is about to turn
into its opposite- the overwhelmingof poetry- and religion- by the world
itself. But for that it took the influence of the modern world and the modern
West.
In the shattering of the traditionalJapanese world that occurredafter the
opening of the countryin 1868 there was nothing more profoundlyshaken than
Japanese Buddhism. Attacked from within by resurgent Shinto nationalists,
I

Issa, Oraga Haru [The Year of My Life], trans. Nobuyuki Yuasa (University of
CaliforniaPress, 1960), pp. 139-40. The prose text is unchangedbut I have alteredthe
text of the haiku after consultationwith the Japanesetext in MacKenzie,The Autumn
Wind, p. 104.

THE CONTEMPORARYMEANING OF KAMAKURA BUDDHISM

13

anddeclaredirrelattackedfromwithoutbycontemptuous
Christian
missionaries,
evantandobsoleteby the purveyors
of the new secularandscientificcultureof
the West,it is no wonderthatBuddhistslost self-confidence.This is not to say
nor
thatthe customsandpracticesof manygenerations
wereabruptlyabandoned
that therewere no longermanysincerebelieversamongthe commonpeople,
butonlythatamongthe educatedelite Buddhismsufferedan eclipsein the first
decadesof the MeijiPeriod,an eclipsethatonlycompletedwhathadbegunlong
beforethe openingof the country. The fate of Buddhismas a self-conscious
religiousmovementhas been,then,that it has had to startagain,to find new
basesfor its appeal,to determinewhetherand how the messageof Buddhism
has anythingto say to contemporary
Japanese. In manyrespectsthe circumstancesseemedmost unpropitious.The socialand culturalbasesof traditional
Buddhismin Japanwereall beingundermined
by therapidsocialchangebrought
aboutby Japan'sforced-march
industrialization
and modernization.A purely
conservative
effortto continueBuddhismas it had existedin Tokugawatimes
seemedto havegloomyprospectsandhas everywhere
beenmoreor less unsuccessful. On the other hand,paradoxically,
the emergenceof modernJapan
for religiousapprehension.Indeed,does not
provided,itself,new opportunities
modernJapan,like the modernWest,epitomizea stateof mindthatBuddhists
can onlycharacterize
as ignoranceanddelusioneven morethanmosttraditional
societieshavedone? After all, does not modernJapanesesociety,like modern
Westernsociety,worshipwealthand powerwith no sense of theirtransience,
blindlypursuepleasurewith no heedto the cost in suffering,andassertin ever
loudertones:this is mine,I am this,this is my self? Therewas the possibility
of the messageof the Kamakura
then,eventhe demand,for a new appropriation
reformersand of the Buddhahimself,a new re-enactment
of the fundamental
religiousexperienceof Buddhism,a modernBuddhistReformation.Has that
possibilitybeen fulfilled?
OnceagainI am diffidentaboutgiving any answerthat is merelyexternal
and descriptiveand not basedon personalexperienceitself. There are also
gravelimitationsto my knowledgeof modernJapaneseBuddhism. Granting
thoselimitations,therearestill a few thingsthatI mightsay.
As a tentativegeneralanswerI wouldsaythatelementsof sucha reformation
havecomeintoexistence,butas yet we cannotsaythattheyhavecometo fulfilla revivalof Buddhist
ment. An indispensable
elementin sucha reformation,
in
in
the
was
evidence
Period
and
hasbecomestronger
already
Meiji
scholarship,
eversince. Thereis no questionbutthatit is a precondition
forthere-enactment
of religiousexperiencethatits earlierexpressions,
as containedin the scriptures
andreligiouswritings,be adequately
of the religious
understood
andevaluations
of
the
various
of
tradition
be
made
There
is, however,in
depth
aspects
possible.
the riseof scholarship,
andnot in the Buddhisttraditionalonebut justas clearly
in the Christiantradition,the danger that knowledge about the tradition will
replace immediatereligious apprehension. For example, we have learnedenormously much about the NT from a centuryof distinguishedbiblical scholarship,

14

ROBERT N. BELLAH

but perhapsMartinLutherKing has taughtus moreaboutChristthanall the

biblicalscholarsput together. That is, of course,not entirelyfair sinceMartin
LutherKinghimselfhadan excellentbiblicaleducationwhichwas undoubtedly
a componentof his own directexperience,but the generalpoint remainsvalid.
It is truethat amongthe earlyJapaneseBuddhistscholarsin the Meiji period
thereweresomewhoexemplifiedBuddhismin the wholequalityof theirlivesas
well as producingworksof scholarship,
men like KiyozawaManshiand Suzuki
the
latter
his
butevenmorethroughhis
Daisetsu,
becomingthrough scholarship,
to
an
the
whole
modern
world.
And
personality, apostle
yet the factremainsthat
whenwe go into anybookshopin Japantodayandsee severalshelvesof books
on Buddhism,we cannotassumethat this is an automaticindexof widespread
profoundpersonalBuddhistreligiousexperience.
To showjust a bit moreclearlysomefurthersigns of an incipientmodern
I wouldlike to mentiona few JapaneseintelJapaneseBuddhistReformation,
lectuals,mainlybecauseI studyintellectualsand knowmoreaboutthem,who,
not primarilyscholarsof Buddhismthemselves,have incorporated
a newlyapBuddhistexperienceinto theirlives. Perhapsthe mostinfluentialof
prehended
all modernJapaneseintellectuals,
NishidaKitarb(1870-1945), undertookZen
meditationin his youngmanhoodunderthe inspirationof SuzukiDaisetsu,and
theZenexperience
markedhis entirephilosophical
profoundly
enterprise.Nishida'sinterestsrangedthroughall the problemsof Westernphilosophyand involved him in a deep encounterwith both ClassicalGreek philosophyand
he arrived
GermanIdealism. Nevertheless,in developinghis own metaphysics
Buddhistin inspiration. He argued
finallyat a point which is unmistakably
that the notionof the "intelligibleUniversal"was the highestmode of being
knownto Westernphilosophy.But thenhe goeson to say:
Whenevera Universalfindsits placein anotherenvelopingUniversal,and
is "lined"withit, thelast"being"whichhadits placein theenveloped
Universal,
becomesself-contradictory.
Accordingto this, the intelligibleUniversalcan
not be the last Universal;theremustbe a Universalwhichenvelopseven the
intelligible Universal;it may be called the place of absolute nothingness.

If I mayinterject,the placeof absolutenothingnessis thatplacewhereall places

havetheirplacebutwhichdoesnot itselfhavea placein anythingelse;it is thus
a no place. But to continue:
... the place of absolute nothingness. That is the religious consciousness. In
the religiousconsciousness,body and soul disappear,and we unite ourselveswith
absoluteNothingness.'
That is clearly an echo of D6gen, but a little further on he sounds more like
Shinran:
' Nishida Kitaro,The Intelligibilityand the Philosophyof Nothingness,trans.Robert
Schinzinger (Tokyo: Maruzen,1958), p. 130.

MEANINGOF KAMAKURABUDDHISM
THE CONTEMPORARY

15

The sinnerwho has lost his way is nearestto God, nearerthan the angels.
As content of the intelligible self, there is noematicallyno higher value
visible than truth, beauty,and the good. In so far, however,as the intelligible
Universalis "lined"with the Universalof absoluteNothingness,the "lost Self"
becomesvisible, and there remainsonly the proceedingin the directionof noesis.
In transcendingin that directionthe highestvalue of negationof values becomes
visible: it is the religious value. The religious value, therefore,means absolute
negation of the Self. The religious ideal consists in becoming a being which
denies itself. There is a seeing without a seeing one, and a hearingwithout a
hearing one. This is salvation.'

Finally,back to the mood of Zen again, Nishida writes,

If one is reallyoverwhelmedby the consciousnessof absoluteNothingness,there
is neither "Me"nor "God";but just becausethere is absoluteNothingness,the
mountainis mountain,and the water is water, and the being is as it is."

What this kind of thing actuallymeant during the period between the First and
Second World Wars when Nishida was most popular has been much debated.
Certainlyhe was no radical social critic. Certainlysome of his close students
became apologists for the war and the totalitarianstate. And yet, it seems to
me that Nishida's teachingsdid deprive the state of its ultimacyand did provide
a context of sanity for many educatedJapanesewho lived throughthose troubled
times. But to his critics Nishida perhapssuffered from a tendency endemic in
the Zen tradition. The mountainstoo quickly become the mountainsagain and,
in spite of all the talk of zettai-tekimu, absoluteNothingness, the full depth of
Buddhistnegation with all its suffering and tragedy,was not experienced.
One such critic who looked for that depth of negation in the tradition of
Shinranratherthan Zen is Ienaga Sabur6 (1913). For Ienaga, suffering
acutelyduring the conditions of the dark valley in the late 1930s and early 40s,
the reality of human existence is sin and misery. In a remarkablelittle book
that he published in 1940 called The Logic of Negation in the Development of
JapaneseThought, Ienaga criticized most of the Japanesecultural tradition for
its simple this-worldlinessand its inability to take seriously enough the true
human condition.24 For Ienaga, Sh6toku Taishi's saying, "The world is a lie;
only the Buddha is true,"has been profoundlymeaningful,though more in its
first negation than in its second affirmation. As a result of his deep sense of
human suffering, Ienaga has in the post-waryears engaged in many social and
political activities to improve Japanesesociety. But he has not found a way in
which his religious faith as such could be effectively affirmed.
There are many more figures who have contributed to making Japanese
Buddhism available in contemporaryform if there were time to discuss them:
'

Ibid., p. 133.
23Ibid., p. 137.
21Summarized in Robert N. Bellah, "IenagaSabur6and the Searchfor Meaning in

ModernJapan,"in MariusE. Jansen,ed., ChangingJapaneseAttitudesTowardModernization (Princeton,1965), pp. 378ff.

16

ROBERT N. BELLAH

men like Hatano Seiichi and TanabeHajime, who mutuallyilluminatedthe Buddhist and Christiantraditions;men like Watsuji Tetsura,who wrote brilliantlyin
the traditionof absolutenothingnessand who introducedDigen to modernreaders; men like Miki Kiyoshi,for whom throughall the vicissitudesand troublesof
his intellectual and political life the Tannishc was a constant companion and
whose last unfinishedbook,written duringthe final yearsof the war and itself interruptedby the author'simprisonmentand death,was on Shinran. It would also
be helpful to speak of the way in which FutabaKenka and others in the postwar situationhave tried to relatethe fundamentalreligious messageof Buddhism
to social action and social concern,and the criticism of the past links of established Buddhismto political power and Japaneseparticularismwhich that effort
entailed. What all these efforts add up to, even when not dramaticnor even
very evident on the surfaceof culturallife, is the making accessibleonce again
of the Buddhist message for contemporaryJapanese. Only out of the actual
religious experienceitself will we be able to find the eventual fruits.
Finally, let me say just a word about the meaning of Buddhism,especially
JapaneseBuddhism,in contemporaryAmerica and, by implication, the world.
We have alreadypointed out how modern society exemplifies so typically the
ignoranceand illusion that Buddhismhas shown to be the human condition, and
in this respect America is the most typical modern society. A society whose
economyis basedon the deliberatestimulationof insatiablehumandesire,whose
politics revolves around anger and violence, and whose stance in the world is
one of blind self-adulationso that it can undertakeone of the most brutalwars
that a powerful nation has ever inflicted on a small and weak one, would seem to
be the perfect exemplification of the Buddhist assertion that this world is a
burninghouse, a literal hell. Of course it is also a part of the Buddhistteaching
that most people are ignorantof the truth of their condition, and perhapsmost
Americanswould not recognizethe descriptionwhich I have just given of them.
But increasinglysince the SecondWorld War and especiallysince the decadeof
the 1960s some Americanshave begun to recognize this description. Perhaps
even more significantlysome sober men who have probablylittle or no knowledge of Buddhismhave begun to say that the self-destructivenessof our way of
life is so great that it cannot long continue. Our drive to satisfy ever more
insatiabledesires is destroyingour natural environment,causing us to oppress
weaker nations and our own minorities, and destroyingour own social viability
and mentalhealth.
In sucha situationit is not surprisingthat Buddhism,which radicallycriticizes
all the basic assumptionsof modern society, should seem attractive to some
Americans. The availability of inexpensive, reasonably accurate, reasonably
attractive books about Buddhism, and particularlyZen Buddhism, has made
many young, educated Americans familiar with the Buddhist message. More
important,as we have said all along, than knowledge about is experience of,
and that is very hard to guage. The establishmentin Californiaand other parts
of the countryof monasticand semi-monasticcommunities,often of Zen inspira-

THE CONTEMPORARYMEANING OF KAMAKURA BUDDHISM

17

tion, at least signifies a seriousdesire to move beyond concepts to realities. The

danger that such communities may become simply hermeticallysealed centers
for self-salvation,with little to say to the general populationor to the society as
a whole, is perhapseven greater in America than in Japan,though the value of
a witnessing community, even though relatively closed to the outside world,
should not be underestimated. Those few who have tried to relate Buddhismto
the culturaland social needs of contemporaryAmerican society- Alan Watts,
Gary Snyder,Norman O. Brown, TheodoreRoszak- have as yet had only ambiguous results. It is easy to condemnthem but the way in which Americaconsumes, seduces, and destroys its own prophets is indeed frightening. Perhaps
they deserve a careful,critical hearing more than adulationor dismissal.
The last thing I would want to be interpretedas saying is that Buddhismis
the total answer for the problems of modern Japan, America, or the world.
Our problems are so grave that only the full range of our moral and scientific
intelligencecan begin to meet them. I do believe, however,that beyondmorality
and science religious insight is also needed. It seems to me that, in view of the
profundityof the Buddhistpast, the religious depth of the Kamakurareformers
for example, it is possible that a re-enactmentof Buddhist religious experience
in the presentmay still have much to teach us.