Shin Buddhism in a nutshell

Shin Basics

Shin Buddhism was founded over 800 years ago in Japan by the religious reformer Shinran Shonin (1173- 1262). The Shin path is the latest branch of the greater 2,500 year old Pure Land tradition, established in India, by the historical Buddha. The word Shin means “heart” or “core,” so Shin Buddhism can mean Heart of Buddhism, but the original Japanese name of Jodo Shinshu means the “True Essence (Heart) of the Pure Land Way.”

A Brief History
Originally, in the 13th century, Shin was a lay reform movement during a decadent age of monastical spiritual materialism that focused more on power, fame and gold than the original intent of Buddhism. In those days, women, butchers, samurai, fisherman, merchants etc. were forbidden to practice the dharma. It was Shinran Shonin and others who dared to challenge the religious elites, by returning the Buddhist religion to the original intent and teachings of the Buddha who stressed universal salvation, compassion and simplicity of practice. As a result, Shin opened the gates of the Pure Land way to the suffering masses.

For a longtime after that, Shin was relegated as a minor fringe group and was even oppressed by the government and the elites. At one point, monks felt so threatened by this egalitarian movement that they even attacked and burned down Shin temples. Regardless of these set backs, during these years and beyond, the Shin movement grew in numbers, appealing to the outcasts, morally weak, poor, destitute and uneducated who were attracted to its all-inclusive attitude, egalitarianism and reliance on simple daily practices.

Shin Buddhism arrived in the USA in the late 1900s with successive waves of Japanese immigrants, who concentrated in Hawaii and California. However, due to the ensuing intense racism and later on, being incarcerated in World War II Interment Camps in the 1940s, the Shin religion had kept a very low profile on the American landscape. Since the late 1990s, with the publication of popular Shin books like River of Fire, River of Water by Dr. Taitetsu Unno, Shin has seen an upsurge of interest across the USA and beyond. This expansion is particularly vivid in Connecticut and Massachusetts through the efforts of the Northampton Shin Sangha and the Buddhist Faith Fellowship of Connecticut. In the 21st century, Shin has become the largest Buddhist denomination in Japan with an active membership which spans across class boundaries and is now poised to take root in the Americas.

A Buddhism for Ordinary People
Shin Buddhism is spiritual path made for busy people who have hefty work schedules and families to take care of. As a consequence, it simplifies and spiritualizes the seemingly complex and intellectual Buddhist teachings and practices, such as the Four Noble Truths, Eightfold Path, chanting and meditation. It makes these teachings and practices more understandable and easier for ordinary lay people so they can experience their daily lives as a practical vehicle for inner transformation. Shin has nothing to do with believing in a deity, Higher Power or God for salvation or blindly following a creed, teaching, ritual or guru, but focuses on daily practice, open-minded reflection, and the direct and personal religious experience of the transcending mystery of life, symbolized by Amida Buddha. Through the Shin path, one’s sufferings and burdens are naturally transmuted into a source of received wisdom and compassion, by which life is lived anew as a journey within beauty, enlightenment and liberation. As a natural outcome of our practice, we are enjoined by the activity of the Great Compassion to be loving, kind and gentle to ourselves and all sentient beings.

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