The high-ranking Kamakura-period priest Myōe Shōnin (also known as Kōben) (1173–1232) grounded his scholarship in Kegon Buddhism. The Kegon School places great emphasis on the Kishinron (“The Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna”; Skt. Mahāyāna śraddhotpādaśāstra), so it is only natural that the Kishinron would be reflected in Myōe’s work. Nevertheless, few studies have dealt with this matter directly.
Maekawa Ken’ichi focuses on Myōe’s view of the two kinds of selflessness—of persons and of dharmas (ninbō nikū)—a topic that is also shared by the concerns of this paper. However, several aspects remain unclear with regard to the overall impact that the Kishinron had on Myōe. Therefore, I furthered my research by undertaking a comparative investigation with the actual text of the Kishinron.
It was confirmed that Myōe drew on a passage at the beginning of the Kishinron as scriptural authority for the renunciation of fame and profit (myōri). This view of renunciation was rigorously positioned at the headwaters of Myōe’s philosophy and constituted a base for his development from the bodhi mind or aspiration to Buddhahood to the worship of the Three Treasures (i.e., the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha).
In other words, his interpretation of renunciation led directly to proof of the twin forms of selflessness (i.e., no permanent ego and no permanent individuality) and developed into a view of a great thusness (ichidai shinnyo) that subsumed both the bodhi mind and the Three Treasures.
