Naturalness in Zen and Shin Buddhism: Before and Beyond Self- and Other-Power

Abstract

This article seeks to clarify the fundamental similarities and differences between the two most prominent forms of Buddhism in Japan: Zen and Shin (or True Pure Land School) Buddhism. While proponents of Zen typically criticize Shin for seeking the Buddha outside the self, rather than as one's ‘true self’ or ‘original face’, proponents of Shin typically criticize Zen for relying of ‘self-power’, which they understand as inevitably a form of ‘ego-power’, rather than entrusting oneself to the ‘Other-power’ of Amida Buddha. Yet Zen and Shin in fact share some deep commonalities: not only do they both characterize the ultimate ‘Dharma-body’ of the Buddha as ‘emptiness’ or ‘formlessness’, they also both speak of the enlightened state issuing from a realization of this Dharma-body in terms of ‘naturalness’. While attending to the significant differences between the Zen and Shin approaches to this enlightened state of naturalness, this article also pursues the most radical indications of both schools which suggest that this naturalness itself ultimately lies before and beyond both self- and Other-power.