No Abode: The Record of Ippen, By Hirota , Dennis

Reviewed by Taitetsu Unno

Philosophy East and West
Vol. 39 No.4
1989.10
pp.507-508

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This handsomely printed and bound volume on Ippen (1239-1289), a little-known figure in the West, is an important contribution to our knowledge of Pure Land Buddhism. It consists of an excellent introduction (pp. 11-59) by the author, placing Ippen within the stream of Japanese Buddhism, and a competent, sometimes elegant, translation from the Japanese of Ippen's letters and poems (pp. 63-128), words handed down by his disciples (pp. 129-183), and passages on Ippen from other texts (pp. 187-190), concluding with approximately fifty pages of helpful notes and chronology. The author, Dennis Hirota, is the head translator and the main force behind the English translation of the complete works of Shinran (1173-1262), being published under the auspices of the Hongwanji International Center in Kyoto.

　　Ippen is an intriguing figure in Japanese history, because his thought and practice were shaped by many powerful forces that characterized the intellectual and religious milieu of the Kamakura period. As the introduction notes, the major influence on Ippen was the Seizan doctrine of the Joodo school, that branch of Pure Land rooted in Tendai thought. But he was also deeply influenced by Kuuya or Kooya (903-972) and by Ryoonin (1073-1132), who developed Yuuzuu-nembutsu practice, inspired by the Kegon vision of interpenetration. Furthermore, Ippen received a crucial revelation from the Shinto deity of Kumano, and he formulated nembutsu practice reminiscent of the Shingon three mysteries. Living in the Kamakura period, he could not be indifferent to Zen, which had a definite impact upon him, and he was always mindful of Nichiren, who was his contemporary. While the introduction mentions all of these influences, the reader's appetite is whetted for more historical information and philosophical connections that would delineate more sharply their place in Ippen's life and thought.

　　As the last major figure in the evolution of Japanese Pure Land Ruddhism, Ippen

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poses a different problem: coming after Hoonen, who founded the Joodo school as an independent sect in 1175, what is his contribution to Pure Land faith? In one sense, he goes beyond Hoonen, articulating the Mahaayaana roots of nembutsu practice; but in another sense, his final position approaches an earlier, absolutistic phase of Japanese Buddhism, later summarized by the term hongaku or "original enlightenment," against which the leading Kamakura thinkers rebelled.

　　Ippen devotes considerable energy to demonstrate that Pure Land teaching is rooted in Mahayana thought, sometimes echoing Doogen, when he claims that duality is the cause of delusion (p. 160, no. 66); that emancipation is attained through the extinction of subject and object (p. 161, no. 67), that "In the Buddha's teaching, there is nothing of worth－it is casting away body and life that has worth" (p. 164, no. 74); and that the Name, Namu-amida-butsu, is the realization of One Mind (p. 163, no. 72). Several other recorded sayings of Ippen attest to his efforts to break through Pure Land symbolism into fundamental Mahaayaana thought. Thus, he concludes that the "Land of Bliss is the true and revealed land of no-self" (p. 148, no. 42) and that "it is to be comprehended in no-mind" (p. 157, no. 60).

　　The remarkable insights of Ippen are revealed in his total commitment to the life of abandonment; he was widely known as the "hijiri who discards" (sute-hijiri). He writes, "Kuya's words are truly golden. Nembutsu practicers discard both wisdom and folly. They discard the realms of good and evil. They discard the reasoning maintained by noble and humble, high and low. They discard the fear of hell, discard aspiration for Pure Land, and further discard enlightenment in all the schools: thus discarding all things, they say the nembutsu" (p. 88). Salvation is attained, "Regardless of whether there is faith or not and without discriminating between purity and impurity" (p. 20), simply by receiving the slips of paper with Namu-amida-butsu printed on them. As the author correctly points out, for Ippen the final problem is "to relinquish attachment to one's own. . .practice, faith, and even aspiration to transcend" (p. 25).

　　Such a radical negation suggests a return to the absolutism of hangaku thought which the Kamakura reformers－Hoonen, Shinran, Doogen, and Nichiren－rejected in their respective stipulation of a fundamental practice necessary-for supreme enlightenment. The dynamic tension within the practitioner created by the necessity to fulfill a basic requirement checked the corruption latent in absolutistic thought.

This is evident, for example, in Shinran, whom Ippen probably did not know (for an excellent comparison of the two, see pp. 44-50). Although the two may be "strikingly kindred spirits," there is a profound awareness of evil karma in Shinran which is not central to Ippen. This awareness, which continues as long as one remains in sa.msaaric existence, is the filter through which the Unhindered Light that is Buddha Amida shines.

　　Regardless of the nature of Ippen's contribution, his place in the intellectual and religious history of Japan warrants more attention and clarification. Dennis Hirota's critical study, characterized by careful research and lucid exposition, is a major contribution to that end.