Shinran (親鸞)
1173–1263 · East Asian Buddhism · Known
Shinran founded Jodo Shinshu, True Pure Land Buddhism, on giving up: no amount of practice or effort of your own saves you, and Amida Buddha's vow does all of the work. He called that the Other Power, tariki. Even the trust you place in the vow, shinjin, arrives as Amida's gift rather than your achievement, and the evil man who knows he cannot save himself is the one the vow was aimed at.
Signature
The position Shinran is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Conviction
- leans Certain
- Agency
- Divine Providence
Positions on the 7 axes the sources answer
- Mind
- leans Beyond Brain (86 on a 0–100 scale from Brain Only to Beyond Brain)
- The Divine
- mildly leans Describable (38 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Identity
- leans Changing (75 on a 0–100 scale from Unchanging to Changing)
- Meaning
- leans Inherent (75 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Ground of Being
- leans Transcendence (79 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Nature
- leans Harmony (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Conviction
- leans Certain (79 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
13 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Shinran refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Other
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Highest Good
- Union with God
What is the highest good? - End of Things
- Final Liberation
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Knowledge
- Grounded in God
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Agency
- Divine Providence
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Eternal Cosmos
What is the origin of reality? - Authority
- Divine Revelation / Sacred Tradition
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Sacred Speech
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Paradox
- Apophatic Pointer
What is the status of paradox? - Death
- Unconditional Salvation
What happens at death? - Human Nature
- Redeemably Corrupted
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- The Divine
What is your primary bond and loyalty?