Shin Buddhism in Modern Culture

Chapter 22 – Shin Buddhism in the Modern Ethical Context

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In the modern social and intellectual context:
- religious priorities have been will established
- early western students saw Buddhism as essentially a mystical religion
- the spiritual influence of the major world religions has weakened
2. Pure Land Buddhism has frequently been criticized as irrelevant by modern people because:
- it appears other-worldly
- Shinran laid down specific rules for behavior
- it alone originated in the pre-modern period
3. The distinction of absolute and conventional truths in Shin Buddhism was employed to:
- criticize aristocratic elitism
- correlate faith and social obligation
- defend the existence of the Pure Land
4. The story of Dharmakara Bodhisattva in the “Larger Pure Land Sutra” is significant because it:
- demonstrates the effect of wickedness
- demonstrates the Confucian basis of Buddhist morality
- recognizes that political power alone is not sufficient to save all beings
5. The importance of Honen in Japanese Pure Land history lies in the fact that:
- the way to enlightenment through Nembutsu did not require a person to be rich, educated or even perfect in morality
- he married as a result of a vision in the Rokkakudo in Kyoto
- his ethic emphasizes abstention from any worldly activity
6. The awareness of the two dimensions of faith in Shinran’s thought:
- eads to the formation of a repressive ethic
- sets the limits of our self-conception
- makes Shinshu a matter of communal faith
7. According to Shinran, ethical action is:
- the true source of one’s capacities and goodness
- ot a requirement for salvation
- based on traditional Buddhist precepts and disciplines
8. According to the author, Shinran moved religion beyond:
- Buddhist principles of human relations
- self-sacrificing altruism
- formalism and status
9. Shinran’s view that all the world is a lie and deception indicates that:
- ethical action is required for salvation
- communal modes of social control are necessary
- Amida Buddha is the standard for knowing good and evil
10. A major problem of the principle of Conventional truth and absolute truth in Shin history has been that:
- it tends to develop a self righteous and judgmental attitude
- the theory leads to subservience of Buddhism to the social order
- it negates the recitation of the Nembutsu

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Thought Questions

1. What do you see as the foundation for ethical activity and social participation in Shinran’s thought?

2. Discuss the issue of Conventional and Absolute Truth in Jodo Shinshu. Is it a useful distinction in relating society and religious faith?