07 September 2026

Summer 2026

Keith Snyder
Resident Priest and Managing Director

THE EIGHTY-FOUR THOUSAND GATES and THE NEMBUTSU

East Asian Buddhism sometimes refers to the “Eighty-four Thousand Gates” by which one can enter, or practice, the Buddha Dharma. Eighty-four thousand is a symbolic number which simply means a great many. Considering how the Buddhist traditions of China developed, it is not surprising that people there would feel that the teachings are numerous almost beyond count.

Buddhism entered China in the Han Dynasty (206BCE – 220CE) by way of missionaries from Central Asia. An Shigao from Parthia and Lokaksema from the Kushan Empire are well known figures who worked on translations of sutras into Chinese. At this time of course Buddhism in its homeland had already been developing for centuries. As more and more scriptures entered China from India and from the lands to the west of China, the Chinese were met with a bewildering array of sutras and commentaries without any indication of when or how these texts were developed. In order to make sense of it all, certain individuals in China created systems of classifying and interpreting the teachings. This was called kyōsō-hanjaku (Determining the Form of the Teachings 教相判釋). It became the basis of the creation of the various sects of Chinese and Japanese Buddhism.

Typical of this process was the Tendai sect of Chigi (Chinese: Zhiyi 智顗), who brilliantly created his system of the eight teachings and five periods. Tendai teachings and practices were transmitted to Japan by Saicho in 806. At the same time, with his connection to Kukai, Saicho studied esoteric teachings and practices, helping Kukai to introduce them to Japan. In this way esoteric Buddhism became an important part of Japanese Tendai as well. It is also significant that the court nobles of Japan were attracted to mikkyō (the esoteric teachings and practices) and that they were its great supporters.

Honen’s teaching of sole reliance on the nembutsu was stripped down to a single formula: nembutsu is all you need for spiritual fulfillment, so drop everything else you are trying to do to achieve a perfect state of being. He did elaborate to an extent because this teaching is meaningless without an understanding of the background story of the Reward Buddha (Amida) and his path to complete enlightenment. And Honen did not teach the abandoning of the precepts. He also had to defend his new approach to the Buddha Dharma from attacks by the older conventional sects. This resulted in the Senchaku Hongan Nembtsushū (選擇本願念仏集), which is basically a collection of passages from various sutras and commentaries that support his claim that sole reliance on the nembutsu is the only effective means to attain Pure Land Birth.

Honen’s direct disciples were another matter. Some of them were highly intellectual by nature, and they were used to the tradition of the minute explication of Buddhist scriptures. So while Honen boiled the teachings down to one essential aspect in regard to the Pure Land of Amida, some of his disciples could not resist the urge to give their own personal analyses of the Pure Land tradition represented in the sutras and commentaries. This is not to say that their views were not coming from personal experience of Pure Land Buddhist salvation. Their conversion to Honen’s Buddhism was profound. But because they felt the need to express themselves with their own idioms and systems of scriptural exegesis, a number of Pure Land sects evolved from their teachings.

Shoku’s story was different from most of the other disciples of Honen. He entered into a teacher-student relationship with Honen at the age of 14, before having any experience with Tendai and the other established sects. For him, Honen’s teaching of sole reliance on the nembutsu was, therefore, his introduction to Buddhism. At this time one of Honen’s favorite expressions was “I rely solely on Zendo” (偏依善道), acknowledging his indebtedness to the 7 th century Chinese monk Shan’tao (Jpn. Zendō) and his Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra in grasping the significance of the Great Vow of the Buddha Amida. Shoku, therefore, from the beginning of his discipleship, accepted Zendō’s commentary as the authority for understanding the Pure Land tradition in Buddhism.

It can be said, then, that Shoku “entered the Pure Land Gate” thanks to the influence of Honen and Zendō. Shoku, to whom the Contemplation Sutra was everything, used the term The Contemplation Gate (kanmon 観門) to describe the process of conversion (回心) in the Pure Land sense. To enter this gate is to leave behind all the various practices (諸行) in favor of the nembutsu and to progress to complete reliance on the Great Vow (弘願) of the Buddha Amida.

Discarding the various practices and establishing the nembutsu (廃立の義) was the foundation of Honen’s Pure Land movement. Honen and most of his disciples did just that. They threw aside the numerous forms of practice they had been using and adopted nembutsu. However, Shoku, after studying with Honen and fully grasping the significance of the nembtsu as understood by Honen, went up to Mt. Hiei (the center of the Tendai sect) to study and practice the Tendai teachings. In other words, he picked up the various practices which Honen had discarded.

These circumstances in Shoku’s life had a profound influence on how he would give expression to his understanding of nembutsu, especially as it relates to the various practices (諸行). How was it possible to reconcile the two while insisting that the nembutsu of absolute reliance on “other power” (絶対他力) is the only way to access the Pure Land of the Buddha Amida.

As mentioned above, Shoku formulated a process by which the individual progresses from the conventional attitude toward practice (the Gate of Practices 行門) to the revelations of the Contemplation Sutra and the story of Queen Vaidehi, who experiences a profound conversion (the Contemplation Gate 観門) in the sutra, and then finally to the reaching of a state of complete reliance on that Buddha and an understanding of how the Buddha’s enlightenment and the entrance of the individual into the Pure Land are inseparable and in fact one thing. Once this stage is reached, the individual is then free to practice any of the conventional practices of the various Buddhist traditions, but now these practices are no longer “self-powered” practices with the aim of entering the Pure Land because Pure Land birth has already been realized. Rather, any merit that accrues from the practices is directed toward the good of all. It is as if the vows and practices of the bodhisattva Dharmakara/Buddha Amida are one with the practices of the “person of the Nembutsu” (念仏衆生).

Shoku also often talked about his understanding that all the practices are contained in the Nembutsu. It is a matter of seeing nembutsu in its “open form” (開) or in its “assembled form” (会). This can be seen as coming from the Tendai principle of expanding and contracting (開会の義), which in Tendai refers to the viewing of the Three Vehicles either as separately or as the One Vehicle of Buddhism. Similarly, for Shoku nembutsu in its contracted form is “namu amidabutsu,” while if seen in its “open” form is expressed in all the various practices. However, I would say that although this particular expression may be from Tendai, the idea of the practices being contained in the nembutsu is from the Zendo tradition as interpreted by Shoku.

Another phrase associated with the Seizan tradition is “the oneness of individual and Dharma (機法一体),” Dharma here meaning specifically the Buddha Amida. In Shingon and Tendai esoteric traditions there are methods in which the individual and a particular Buddha or deity merge into one consciousness. The three modes of action (deeds, words, thoughts 三業) become one with those of the Buddha or deity.

At the same time, Shoku would never interpret the traditional Pure Land teachings from the standpoint of Tendai or the esoteric traditions. He always refers back to Zendo and Zendo’s understanding of the Contemplation Sutra when explaining the teaching of sole reliance on nembutsu/Amida for Pure Land birth.

So could Shoku have it both ways? Could he accept Honen’s teaching of the discarding of the various practices and relying solely on nembutsu with the taking up of those very practices? I think he could and he does it brilliantly.

Anjin kigyō (settled mind, arising of practice) is a term often heard in the Pure Land teachings. Traditionally it referred to the practices of worshipping and reciting the name of the Buddha Amida. However, for Shoku the meaning is expanded to include all practices undertaken after fully grasping the intent of the Broad Vow (gugan弘願) as encompassing the “person of the nembutsu.” At this stage, these are no longer jiriki practices, but tariki practices which are directed to the good of all.

Probably because Shoku studied and utilized the esoteric practices of Tendai, his disciples were also involved in such practices. In a way it became a Seizan tradition. But none of these practices were taught as part of the tradition of Honen’s Pure Land Buddhism. To Shoku, while nembutsu and the other-power fundamental vow of the Buddha Amida are common to all, the practices one undertakes on top of the grasping of the intent and fulfilment of the Great Vow depend on the individual. Each person is different, while the Great Vow and nembutsu are universal. Because each person is different, the “various practices” of individuals will be different. It is a matter of what you have an affinity with. At the same time not to practice is perfectly fine since, as Shoku states in his Chinkan Yōjin (Attention to Serenity):

“To stive is a cause of joy, since it adds to True Practice (正行). Not striving is also joyous, the True Cause (正因) [of birth in the Pure Land] being perfect and complete.”

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