Shakyamuni and Shinran:
Buddhism as a Teaching of Self-Examination
Shakyamuni (ca. 460-380 BCE), the founder of Buddhism, and Shinran (1173-1262), the founder of Shin Buddhism, lived in their respective social and religious environments. Their teachings seem different, i.e., they used different terminology and expressions in their teaching. Some Buddhist scholars, in fact, claim that Shinran’s teachings are a historical deviation from the original teaching of Shakyamuni. I, however, believe that their teachings are basically the same; they focused on one issue of self-examination.
In Part 1 I discuss the life and thought of Shakyamuni.
In Part 2 I discuss the life and thought of Shinran. Thereby I discuss the similarities between the two teachers. (The first two videos contain Part 1 of the lecture. The third video contains Part 2.)
(Recorded in March 11, 2017)
Lecture Materials
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3