|
Jimon Ogasawara
Jimon Ogasawara (小笠原慈聞, ???-1955), a priest of the Nichiren Shoshu school of Buddhism, was a religious apologist for the pre-war and wartime Japanese military government. His collusion with the government, scholars claim, came close to destroying his sect during the war. Ogasawara had served important roles within his school. He was the chief editor of Nichiren Shoshu's doctrinal magazine “Seikaino Nichiren” (Nichiren of the World) and was also the supervisor of proselytization for Nichiren Shoshu. Ogasawara used these roles to promote his version of syncretism—the attempted merging of Nichiren Buddhism and Shinto. Distinct from Honji suijaku which declared Kami as the manifestations and teaching mechanisms of the Buddha, Ogasawara proposed the theory “Shinto is Absolute; and the Buddha, Transient,” which held that Shinto deities are primary and the Buddha is secondary. For this reason he was described by the Japanese religious newspaper Chugai Nippo as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nichiren Shoshu
Nichiren (16 February 1222 – 13 October 1282) was a Japanese Buddhist priest and philosopher of the Kamakura period. Nichiren declared that the Lotus Sutra alone contains the highest truth of Buddhist teachings suited for the Third Age of Buddhism, insisting that the Sovereign of Japan and its people should support only this form of Buddhism and eradicate all others. He advocated the repeated recitation of its title, ''Nam(u)-myoho-renge-kyo'' as the only path to Buddhahood and held that Shakyamuni Buddha and all other Buddhist deities were extraordinary manifestations of a particular Buddha-nature termed ''Myoho-Renge'' that is equally accessible to all. He declared that believers of the Sutra must propagate it even under persecution. Nichiren was a prolific writer and his biography, temperament, and the evolution of his beliefs has been gleaned primarily from his own writings. He claimed the reincarnation of Jōgyō bodhisattva in a past life, and designated six seni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
