Faith: Its Arising

Alfred Bloom

Faith as a gift of Amida Buddha.—We now come to a discussion of one of Shinran’s most significant insights which certainly qualifies him for a place among the great religious thinkers of the world, and clearly comparable to the Protestant Reformers, Luther and Calvin, in whose thought faith as the gift of God’s grace worked a revolution in Christian theology. It should be pointed out here that the understanding of faith as a gift of the deity and determined by that deity does not inhibit preaching for conversion or the necessity of decision to accept the way of salvation. In this Shinran stands on common ground with thinkers in Christianity and Islam. For though Amida Buddha is the source of faith, Shinran continues to preach. In religious thought of this type, it is be- lieved that the proclamation of the message affords the opportunity for salvation to be realized by the individual. The point at which conversion is achieved is considered the time when the deity grants salvation. Thus we find also an idea of conversion in Shinran which is the decisive moment for the individual. This insight into faith on the part of Shinran extends its influence to every doctrine which he taught. Already in our discussion we have seen that the point at which Shinran departed from traditional thought was determined by his desire to emphasize the fact that faith, or salvation, is not due at all to the contriving action of man, but solely through the power of Amida Buddha. He reconciled the apparent contradiction between the theological interpretation of faith as the work of Amida Buddha and the human experience in which a man actually appears to make the decisive act of faith. He did this by indicat- ing that what one is aware of as his act of faith or believing is actually the manifestation of Amida Buddha’s gift of faith in his mind.1 The principle that faith is a gift of Amida Buddha is set forth in the volume on faith in the Kyōgyōshinshō where Shinran takes up in detail the essential nature of faith. In the course of his writing, he gives a very concise statement of the theory:

Source: Bloom, Alfred, “Faith: Its Arising,” in Alfred Bloom, Shinran’s Gospel of Pure Grace, Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1965, pp. 45–59. Reprinted with permission of the Association for Asian Studies, (www.asian‐studies.org).

1 Ibid., 48 for a paradoxical statement of these two aspects of faith.

The mind of the Buddha is difficult to understand, but if we may infer concerning his mind, (we might say) that the whole sea of sentient beings, from the beginningless past even until the present time, are defiled, impure and stained. Their minds are not pure, and being false, they do not have a mind of truth. For this reason, the Tathagata had compassion on the whole sea of suffering sentient beings. For incomprehensibly infi- nite kalpas he performed the disciplines of a Bodhisattva, and never for even a single moment were his practices of the mouth, mind or body, impure, or untrue. By his pure, sincere mind, the Tathagata perfected his completely harmonious, unimpeded, mysterious, inexpressible, in- comprehensible, supreme virtue. He transferred the sincere mind of the Tathagata to all the sea of sentient beings who are passionridden, evil in deed and in mind. Hence this manifests the true mind for helping others therefore it was never mixed with doubts. Hence this sincere mind has his virtuous name as its essence.2

However, in order to clarify more adequately the importance of this insight we must first briefly indicate the nature of faith in the general Buddhist tradition. It is evident in this tradition that faith is regarded as an act of the will, aroused by the individual and directed toward the Buddha, his teaching and his com- munity of followers. Thus a leading Western expositor of Buddhism describes the act of faith in Buddhism:

In Theravada Buddhism faith is the faith of a traveller in a famous guide. The Guide has pointed the way which he has trodden and the traveller, nothing doubting, follows in that Way.3

A modern Theravada Buddhist also expresses a similar understanding:

A man first learns about the Buddha’s teaching by hearsay. Then he tests what he has heard as far as he can. When he has done this enough to feel convinced that it is reliable, he outwardly expresses his conviction by pronouncing the three Refuges, the Saranattaya or Tissarana as they are

2 Yamabe and Akanuma, op. cit., I, 87–89 gives a detailed discussion of Ekō, Shinran’s reinter- pretation and his textual supports. 3 Humphreys, Buddhism, op. cit., 61.