demarcation between Christianity and Buddhism.

115 This also reveals one of the characteristic ideas

long held by the Japanese. The idea of "being beyond deliverance forever" was also hard for the
Japanese to comprehend. The Hosso * sect, a school of Buddhist Idealism, advocates "the difference of
five predispositions." Among men there are five different types of disposition, one predisposed to
become a Bodhisattva, one to become Enkaku (pratyekabuddha, one who attains self-complacent
enlightenment), one to become Shomon* (sravaka*, an ascetic of Hinayana* Buddhism), one who is not
predisposed, and one who is beyond deliverance. This idea of discriminating predispositions to salvation,
like the idea of eternal damnation, was not generally accepted by the Japanese Buddhists. Generally
accepted, instead, was the view, "All men are predisposed to become Buddhas." A question may be
raised here as follows. Is not the spirit of tolerance prominent among the Japanese due to the influence
of Buddhism rather than an intrinsic Japanese characteristic? Before the advent of Buddhism the
Japanese also resorted to atrocities. Were not Emperors Buretsu (499–506) and Yuryaku* violent and
ruthless? The reason why the death penalty was abandoned during the Heian period (794–1185) was
that the ideal of Buddhism was realized in politics. Even in present-day Japan, statistics have proved
beyond question that in the districts where Haibutsu Kishaku (the abolition of Buddhism by violence
immediately after the Meiji Restoration) was enforced, cases of the murder of one's close relatives are
high in number, whereas such cases are relatively few where Buddhism is strongly supported.
Conversely, however, it is believed that because the Japanese were inherently tolerant and conciliatory,
the infiltration of Buddhism into peoples' lives was rapid. It is often pointed out by cultural historians
that the Chinese are no less than other people inclined to ruthlessness and cruelty, in spite of the fact
that the Buddhist influence had a longer history in China than in Japan. In Tibet, despite its having been
the country of Lamaism flying the banner of Buddhism, the severest of punishments were still in use.116
Thus I am inclined to believe that the Japanese had originally possessed the spirit of tolerance and
forgiveness to some extent, which was extremely strengthened by the introduction of Buddhism, and
was again weakened in recent years by the aggrandizement of the secular power on the one hand and
by the decline of faith in Buddhism on the other. The fact that the Japanese manifest more of the spirit
of tolerance and conciliation than the tendency to develop an intense hatred of sins also transformed
Pure Land Buddhism. According to his eighteenth vow Amitabha* Buddha will save the whole of
mankind out of his great benevo- Previous Released By -TSJ5J- Next Previous Released By -TSJ5J- Next
Page 386 lence, excepting only "those who committed the five great sins and those who condemned the
Right Law (=Buddhism)." Zendo * (Shan-t'ao, 613–681) of China interpreted the sentence as meaning
that even great sinners, under the condition that they be converted, could be reborn into the Pure Land.
Introduced into Japan, these exceptions were later considered as problematic, and came to be
completely ignored by Saint Honen* (1133–1212). "This (salvation) includes all that are embraced in the
great benevolence and the real vow of Amitabha*, not excluding even the ten evils and five great sins,
and those who excel in practices other than that of invocation of Amitabha are also included. Its
meaning is to believe in what is revealed in the invocation of Amitabha once and also ten times."117
"You should believe that even those who have committed the ten evils and the five heinous sins are
eligible for rebirth in the Pure Land, and yet you should shrink from the slightest of all the sins."118 As
far as the surface meaning of the sentence is concerned, Honen is diametrically opposed to the Indian
theologians who compiled the Dai-mu-ryo-jukyo* (Sukhavati-vyuha-sutra*). From Honen's approach to
the problem of redemption there evolved the so-called "view of the eligibility of evil persons for
salvation'' (the view that the evil are rightfully eligible for salvation by Amitabha Buddha). This vie