A STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF DHIKR AND NEMBUTSU* KOJIRO NAKAMURA Repeated utterance of a divine name or a sacred formula is a religious be- havior commonly observed in many world religions. There are, to give a few examples, hesychasmof Eastern Orthodox Christian monks; dharani and mantra of Indian Yogis; dhikr of Sufi Muslims; nembutsuof Japanese Pure Land Buddhists. The Jews also have a similar practice in the tradition of Merkabah mysticism, and the Sikhs have imran. The striking similarities among these religious prac- tices have already drawn attention of some scholars.(1) It can hardly be said, however, that these phenomena have adequately been studied yet in a general framework by comparative religionists. What is the meaning of this practice in each religious tradition and in the general framework of man's religious consciousness? The purpose of the pre- sent essay is to make an attempt to analyse the structures of dhikr and nembutsu by comparison toward a unified understanding of those similar religious pheno- mena. (2) To be specific in its scope, our study will be confined to the dhikr of Ghazali (1058-1111), a great Muslim theologian and spokesman of orthodox Sufism (Muslim mysticism), and the nembutsu of Honen (1133-1212), founder of the Pure Land Sect (Jodo-shu) of Buddhism in Japan. * This is a part, with revision, of the author's doctoral dissertation submitted to Harvard University in 1970 under the title, "Al-Ghazali's Idea of Prayer." He is grateful to Profs. A. Schimmel and M. Nagatomi of Harvard University: the former guided his whole thesis work and the latter read this part and gave valuable suggestions during the process of revision. (1) Cf. L. Gardet, "Un probleme de mystique comparec: la mention du nom divin (dhikr) dans la mystique musulmane," Revue Thomiste, LII (1952), 642-79; LIII (1953), 197-216; E. Benz, "Nembutsu und Herzensgebet," Buddhism and Culture, Dedicated to Dr. Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki in Commemoration of His Ninetieth Birthday, ed. by Susumu Yamaguchi (Tokyo: Suzuki- gakujutsu-zaidan, 1960), 126-49; M. Eliade, Yoga; Immortality and Freedom, trans. by W. R. Trask (2nd ed.; New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1969), 212-19, 408. See also L. Massignon, Essai sur les origins du lexique techniquede la mystiquemusulmane (New ed., Paris: J. Vrin, 1954), 88-98. (2) It is also a fascinating subject, although a very difficult one at the present stage of our study, to investigate the historical interaction, if any, among them and to trace their origins. 75 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES The two great personalities lived far apart from each other in time and space in the totally different cultural milieus with little possibility of influence, direct or indirect, from one upon the other. Ghazali was born in 1058 A. D. and brought up in the north-eastern part of the present Iran and spent his life in the heartland of Islam.(3) His father, and possibly his mother too, died in his child- hood. From an early age, if his own account in the Munqidh is correct, it was his habit and custom "to thirst after a comprehension of things as they really are."(4) He had been intellectually too critically-minded and too self-confident to accept naively the traditional authority by the time he reached adolescence. Being unable to be satisfied with the given answers, he wanted to verify all the traditional beliefs and truths all by himself, and thus became seriously engaged in studying every branch of religious sciences (Qur'anic studies, theology, philo- sophy, Islamic jurisprudence, and others), seeking the ultimate Truth. To a certain extent he was successful indeed in this quest; he mastered all these sciences, and was socially rewarded for his endeavors and achievements. In 1085, at the death of Imam al-Haramain, a great theologian and jurist of his age, under whom Ghazali had studied with other eminent students, Ghazali moved from Nishapur to the Camp of Nizam al-Mulk, vizier of the Seljugid Sul- tan. This vizier surrounded himself with scholars and poets as a patron, and was making every effort to restore Sunni Islam against rampant Shi'ism at that time, with the support of Muslim intellectuals. Ghazali was duly received, and in 1091 he was appointed professor at the Nizamiyya College (Madrasah) of Baghdad, the highest position and the most coveted honor for the Muslim scholars in those days. With all this success and his thoroughgoing intellectual quest, however, he came to realize that he was still devoid of the true faith (yaqin),(5) or experi- mental understanding of the truth which he had been pursuing, demonstrating (3) For his life, see his autobiography, al-Mundiqh min al-dalal ("Deliverance from Error"), translated by W. M. Watt in his The Faith and Practice of al-Ghazali (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1953), 19-85. For the critical study, see, among others, D. B. Macdonald, "The Life of al-Ghazzali, with especial reference to his religious experiences and opinions," The Journal of American Oriental Society, XX (1899), 71-132, which has not been superseded yet. See also W. M. Watt, Muslim Intellectual: A Study of al-Ghazali (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1963). (4) Munqidh (Watt), 20-21. (5) To give a brief account of this important term, Ghazali uses it in two different meanings: that of logicians and theologians on the one hand and that of the Sufis on the other. In 76 A STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF DHIKR AND NEMBUTSU and teaching, namely, the unity of God (tawhid), expressed in the Muslim confes- sion: "There is but one God," and the life in the Hereafter. To put it epistemo- logically, Ghazali fell into deep skepticism and was desperately struggling to find the solid basis for knowledge of the religious truth. Ethically he came to be aware of, and admit with daring frankness, the gap between his actual way of life and the imperative of God as he understood as a result of his ruthless logical pursuit. But he also realized that the gap could not be bridged by intellectual effort, and that Truth was a divine gift bestowed freely by God upon the Sufi in the ecstatic experience of fana' ("passing-away").(6) In this mystical experien- ce, the Sufi intuitively knows his own nothingness and utter dependence upon God, and the overwhelming reality and universal sovereignty of God (tawhid). All man can, and should, do is to prepare himself and wait for this grace by detaching himself and emptying his thought and will of all concerns but God. Dhikr is one of the major methods in this purgative way of the Sufi. After the acute inner crises and the agonizing process of decision, Ghazali finally denounced his position, honor, family, wealth, and all that would obstruct his devotion to God, and set off from Baghdad to lead a Sufi life. He spent about two years in Syria as a wandering hermit, and then came back to his native town. There he continued the Sufi practices with a small number of his disciples, while composing many works, for about ten years until his death, except for a short period of teaching at the Nizamiyya College of Nishapur. On the other hand, Honen was born in 1133 A. D, as a son of the local war- rior class in the present Okayama prefecture, approximately 150 miles west of Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan.(7) He was also bereft of his father, and pos- sibly his mother altogether, at his age of nine, when they met a night assault by a rival warrior. It is reported that his dying father left him the last will that he do not revenge on his enemy but forsake the worldly life to become a Buddhist the former sense, it means to accept a certain statement because it is logically proved and free from doubt (shakk) or any possibility of doubt. In the latter sense, on the other hand, it means to accept a statement not only because there is no doubt about it, whether logically proven or based on the generally accepted authority, but also because it grips one's heart to such an extent that it dominates his entire concern and there is a full commitment to it. For more details, see Ghazali, Ihya' 'ulum al-din ("Revivification of the Religious Sciences") (4 vols.; Cairo: 'Isa 'l-Babi 'l-Halabi, n. d.), I, 73 (K. 'Ilm, bab 6); F. Jabre, La notion de certitude selon Ghazali (Paris: J. Vrin, 1958). (6) See infra, p. 85. (7) For his life, see one of the oldest biographies composed by a monk, named Shunjo, at the imperial command about a century after Honen's death, Honen the Buddhist Saint: His Life and Teaching, translated and annotated by H. H. Coates & R. Ishizuka (Kyoto: Chion' in, 1925). For the critical study of his biography, see, among others, Encho Tamura, Honen (in Japanese) (Tokyo: Yoshikawa-kobun-kan, 1959). 77 monk, seek salvation and pray for his father.(8) Honen was sent to a cloister- temple nearby and stayed there under the care of the monk. However, it did not take this scholar-monk long to detect Honen's serious devotion to Buddhist learning and his unusual talents for it. Thereupon, in 1145, Honen moved in accordance with the wise recommendation of this teacher to the Enryaku-ji Monastery Temple at Mt. Hiei, the headquarters of the Tendai (Ch. T'ien t'ai) school of Buddhism. As his long studious engagement in learning and vigorous disciplines and prac- tices in the search for Truth proved to be vain and fruitless in bringing him light, he became gradually frustrated and irritated by his own sense of inability and hopelessness, despite the reputation of his rare intelligence.