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Three Surprising Similarities Between Shinran and Dostoevsky
Shinran and Dostoevsky.
A monk who lived from the late Heian to Kamakura periods, and on the other hand, a great writer representing 19th century Russia.
What would you think if these two people who seem to have absolutely nothing in common are actually very similar?
So, I would like to talk briefly about the similarities between Shinran and Dostoevsky.
Commonalities (1) Exile as a political prisoner as a young man.
Both Shinran and Dostoevsky were sentenced to exile as political prisoners when they were young, Shinran from Kyoto to Echigo and Dostoevsky from St. Petersburg to Siberia.
In 1207, at the age of 35, Shinran was studying under his teacher Honen, but the Honen cult was facing oppression.
Originally, Honen's Nembutsu philosophy was criticized by the existing Buddhist orders as disturbing the order of the world. Honen's idea that "if everyone prays the Nembutsu, he will be saved" was too dangerous in the social context of the time.
The existing Buddhists also argue against Honen, saying, "If we can be saved simply by reciting the Nembutsu, what is the meaning of our practice? If we can be saved simply by reciting the Buddha's name, what is the meaning of our practice? What is the point of our Buddhist practice? There is no evidence that one can be saved by reciting the Buddha. Isn't practice the basis of Buddhism?
The Faenrikyo Order was considered dangerous not only politically, but also ideologically.
Even the smallest spark could be fatal, and the incident occurred in the midst of such a tightrope walking situation.
One day, the emperor was furious when a favorite courtesan of Emperor Go-Toba joined Honen's followers without permission.
Honen's students who were involved in the joining of the female priests were executed, and Honen was held responsible and deprived of his priestly status and exiled to Tosa Province.
Let us now turn to Dostoevsky.
In 1846, at the age of 25, Dostoevsky made a spectacular debut in the literary world, but he failed to make a splash. Gradually, Dostoevsky grew despairing, and he began to frequent socialist thought circles, which were forbidden at the time.
At that time, Russia had a form of society in which the czar ruled the country.
In the socialist thought circles that Dostoevsky came to frequent, they discussed the abolition of serfdom, censorship, and the improvement of workers' rights.
In Russia at that time, when the Czar held powerful authority, socialist ideas that attempted to overthrow that system were subject to suppression.
In 1849, the circle to which Dostoevsky belonged was accused of plotting terrorist acts. Although Dostoevsky himself denied that he was actually planning to commit terrorism, his conviction was not overturned.
After a six-month detention period, Dostoevsky was escorted to Siberia on the 24th of December. He went to Siberia, an extremely cold place with temperatures reaching minus 40 degrees Celsius.
Commonality (2) Encounters with the people in exile
Shinran lived in exile in the Echigo region.
Shinran began living at Enryaku-ji Temple on Mt. Hieizan when he was 9 years old, and continued to live in the city of Kyoto after leaving the mountain at the age of 29.
It is said that people of various statuses, from aristocrats to commoners, gathered under the Honen Order.
Kyoto is the capital of Japan, and even the common people, not to mention the aristocracy, were at a higher level of culture than in the countryside. The cultural level must have been high compared to that of the countryside.
Shinran, who was involved with such people, was suddenly exiled to Echigo in the extreme cold.
When Shinran saw the people he came into contact with there, he was greatly shocked, even though he knew that he was in the countryside.
People in the countryside who could not read and did not understand the culture of the capital at all. The language was probably quite different. They may not have even been able to converse with each other.
However, it was precisely through his interactions with these people that Shinran deepened his own thought.
Shinran later left this kind of wasan (*like a waka poem).
"All who do not know the letter of right from wrong
what is the true heart
The good and evil character Shiranuiwa is...
It is the form of the great sky" (from the Shozo-matsusan).
The key point of this Japanese hymn is that "Yoshi aashi no kanjitsu shiranai hito" is written in hiragana, whereas "zen aashi no kanjitsu shiriaoha" is written in kanji.
Shinran deliberately wrote Hiragana and Kanji differently.
Why is that?
This is because the people of the countryside, the people of the lower classes, cannot read or write, and they have nothing of the culture and philosophy of the capital. But even so, they know the "true heart" that cherishes life.
In contrast, the people of the capital are proud of their own knowledge and deeds, and fight with each other, brandishing their notions of right and wrong. Shinran realizes that even though he knows the characters for good and evil, they are only "big talk.
Shinran was to deepen the ideas he learned from Honen in his life in the countryside. The deepening of his thought led to his main work, "Kyogyoshinsho.
Let us now turn to Dostoevsky.
Dostoevsky will serve four years in the Omsk prison in Siberia.
After his return from exile, Dostoevsky wrote about his experiences in a novel titled "Record of a House of Death". *Please see the article below for a synopsis of the book.
This work is unusual among Dostoevsky's works in that it is a realistic rather than an ideological work depicting inner conflicts, and it reads as easily as if you were watching a movie.
Tolstoy also praised it highly, and this work helped Dostoevsky regain his reputation in the literary world.
It is probably the most readable and most interesting of Dostoevsky's works. If you are reading Dostoevsky for the first time, this is a good place to start.
Now, a person in prison is a sinner who has committed all kinds of sins.
They were all people that Dostoevsky, who lived in the city, had never seen before, and this, combined with the sheer harshness of the environment, was a very big shock to him.
However, while living with these prisoners, Dostoevsky contemplates what the root of humanity is as he observes them.
Dostoevsky himself acknowledged that what he learned in prison had a profound influence on his later life as a writer.
It is in the people that we find what matters most."
Dostoevsky realized this through his encounters with the people in exile.
Commonality 3) Thorough self-reflection. Demons of thought.
We mentioned earlier that Shinran was originally a monk practicing at Enryaku-ji Temple on Mt.
However, at the age of 29, he left the mountain and became devoted to Honen's Nembutsu philosophy.
He continued to deepen his thought until his death at the age of 90, just before he passed away. His most prolific period was in his later years, when he was over 75 years old.
Shinran stares deeply and profoundly into his own mind anyway.
What does it mean to truly believe in Buddha? Is it possible for me to pray without even the slightest bit of vexation in my heart?
Shinran goes all the way. Shinran does not tolerate compromise.
Because he fervently and risked his life to seek the salvation of the Buddha, he could not help but search for "what is true Buddhism and true faith.
The Kyogyoshinsho contains a vast number of quotations. Surprisingly, almost all of this thick work is taken up by writings of high priests from India, China, and Japan who preceded Shinran. The percentage of passages describing Shinran's own thought is almost negligible.
Shinran did not make up his own thought on his own. He studied the ideas of his great predecessors, and then deepened his own ideas by contemplating and analyzing them in his own mind and experimenting with them in his own life.
When it comes to religion, it's about belief."
We tend to think that
But Shinran was a man who continued to doubt because he wanted to believe, because he fervently sought salvation.
Is that really enough, am I really the one who can be saved, where is the Buddha's salvation?
Shinran's plaintive cries can be seen not only in "Kyogyoshinsho" but also in many other books.
For Shinran, "there can be no faith without doubt". This, I believe, is the hallmark of Shinran's thought.
Dostoevsky, too, experienced hopeless skepticism precisely because he fervently sought God. The "Grand Inquisitor" chapter mentioned in the previous article is also a story born out of Dostoevsky's extreme introspection and questioning of himself as to what faith really is.
All his life, Dostoevsky had the problem of the Old Testament Book of Job on his mind.
Why do calamities come to good people? Why do the prayers of good people go unheard by God? Why is the world so infested with evil that innocent people have to shed tears? Should we still continue to believe in God?
These are the subjects of the Book of Job.
It is said that Dostoevsky's faith originated here.
Both Shinran and Dostoevsky dive deep into the mind through thorough self-reflection.
The two who went through this fierce battle of ideas are the ones who deserve to be called the demons of ideas.
summary
In this article, I have discussed the similarities between Shinran and Dostoevsky.
His youthful exile sentence, his encounters with the people, and his thorough self-reflection.
I believe that these three are the major commonalities.
And the more I learn about Dostoevsky, the more I feel that his ideas have much in common with those of Shinran.
In the next article we will discuss future articles on Dostoevsky research.
Thank you for staying with us today until the end.
be unbroken
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