The Spiritual Transition from Provisional Buddhism to True Buddhism
In this lecture series I present an outline of Shinran’s teaching. Shinran categorizes all Buddhist traditions into two categories, “Provisional Buddhism” and “True Buddhism” (i.e., Shinshu). The former is based on dualistic human wisdom and the latter on the nondualistic wisdom of the Buddha. He considers the spiritual transition from the former to the latter the most important issue in Buddhism. He talks about this transition in terms of the three stages (or three types of Buddhism) he went through as a spiritual seeker. He views the first two stages as “Provisional Buddhism” and the third stage “True Buddhism.” According to Shinran, most Buddhists belong to “Provisional Buddhism” but, being ignorant of the fact, they believe their Buddhism is “True Buddhism.” If they come to recognize that their Buddhism is actually provisional, they belong to “True Buddhism.” Shinran believes that recognition (or confession) of the self as a provisional Buddhist is the spiritual essence of “True Buddhism” or Shinshu. — Nobuo Haneda
Lecture Materials
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8