Senchaku hongan nembutsu-shu

In his main work, the Senchaku hongan nembutsu-shū (“Collection on the Choice of the Nembutsu of the Original Vow”), or Senchaku-shū, written in 1198, Hōnen classified all the teachings of Buddhism under two headings: Shōdō (Sacred Way) and Jōdo (Pure Land). According to him, the Buddha, confident of man’s inner…

…his beliefs in the treatise Senchaku hongan nembutsu-shu (1198), which was popular among the common people, as were his teachings generally. The treatise was burned by the monks of Mount Hiei, and his teachings were vigorously opposed by the established Buddhist priesthood. Indeed, opposition to Hōnen was so great that…