Honen's View of Human Beings

Abstract

The “Notion of the Threefold Mind” is a sermon in the Daigobon Honen Shonin Denki. But this sermon has many problems, and there is the debate whether it is Honen's own sermon or not. Here I propose a new position.The “Notion of the Threefold Mind” has 27 articles. But some articles contradict each other. The first article has been expressed from the position that the Threefold Mind is given from Amida Buddha. However, the third has been expressed from the position that the Threefold mind is the mind which sentient beings should possess.In the “Ryaku-senchaku” (summary) of the Senchakushu, Honen has taught that sentient beings have the ability for the desire to escape from the cycle of birth-and-death. So the first article seems not to be Honen's thought.Also the fourth and fourteenth articles are described from a different idea. The fourth's thought differs from Honen's view of a human being.From such a viewpoint I suggest that the “Notion of the Threefold Mind” is not a sermon by Honen, but that it was compiled from memorandums (of Genchi, Honen's disciple), either of Honen's sermon or of ideas other than Honen's.