Myōe

Who was Myōe?

Myōe was a Japanese Buddhist monk active during the Kamakura period who also went by the name Kōben, and contemporary of Jōkei and Honen. Born into the Yuasa family, allegedly descended from a branch of the Fujiwara clan, he came to be ordained in both the Shingon school of Buddhism and the Kegon school. In Medieval Japan it was not uncommon for monks to be ordained in multiple sectarian lineages, and Myōe alternately signed his treatises and correspondence as a monk of either school through much of his career. In the latter half of his career he served as abbot of Kōzan-ji, a temple of the Kegon sect located near Kyoto. Myōe is perhaps most famous for his contributions to the practice and popularization of the Mantra of Light, a mantra associated with Shingon Buddhism but widely used in other Buddhist sects. Myōe is also well known for keeping a journal of his dreams for over 40 years, studied by later Buddhist scholars, and for his efforts to revive monastic discipline along with Jōkei.

During his lifetime he was a scathing critic of his contemporary, Hōnen, and the new Pure Land Buddhist movement. As a response to the increasing popularity of the exclusive nembutsu practice, Myōe wrote two treatises, the Zaijarin and the follow-up Zaijarin Shōgonki that sought to refute Honen's teachings as laid out in the Senchakushu. Myōe agreed with Hōnen's criticism of the establishment, but felt that sole practice of the nembutsu was too restrictive and disregarded important Buddhist themes in Mahayana Buddhism such as the Bodhicitta and the concept of upāya. Nevertheless, Myoe also lamented the necessity of writing such treatises: