Tetsunori Koizumi, Director
This year, 2022, marks the 1400th anniversary of the passing of Prince Shotoku (574-622). Born when his mother, Anahobe no Hashihito, came to the door of the imperial stables, Shotoku was named Umayado no Miko, which literally means “the prince at the door of the stables.” Prince Umayado would come to be known as Prince Shotoku, or “the prince of sacred virtue”, because he has come to be widely admired by the Japanese people for his many accomplishments in his life. As one who promoted Buddhism and played an important part in the construction of many Buddhist temples, including Shiten-o-ji in Osaka and Horyu-ji in Nara, many special events and exhibitions are taking place this year to pay tribute to Prince Shotoku as the father of Japanese Buddhism.
It was in his capacity as Regent to Empress Suito (reign: 592 - 628) that Prince Shotoku issued the Seventeen-Article Constitution (604). The Seventeen-Article Constitution, which articulates the basic principles of government, embodies his humanistic social philosophy, which he developed based on his studies of Chinese Classics and Buddhist Scriptures. Article I of the Constitution contains the best-known statement ascribed to him: “Harmony is to be valued, and wanton oppositions ought to be avoided.” It is not difficult to see why Prince Shotoku had to include this statement, considering how he himself was involved in the clan warfare between the Mononobe clan and the Soga clan. Belonging as he did to the Soga clan who backed Buddhism, it was natural that Prince Shotoku tried to incorporate Buddhist values in the Constitution. In fact, Article II of the Constitution makes explicit reference to the Three Jewels of the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha: “Sincere reverence should be given to the Three Jewels, which are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.”
When it comes to the Three Jewels, Empress Suiko, keenly aware of the importance of laying the foundation of her rule with Buddhism, had issued an imperial edict for its promotion back in 594. Prince Shotoku reconfirmed the importance of the Three Jewels in the Seventeen-Article Constitution if his budding nation were to develop into a mature nation like the Sui dynasty. Prince Shotoku’s recognition of the importance of Buddhism was not limited to the incorporation of the Three Jewels as a guiding principle of Empress Suiko’s political administration. Prince Shotoku was actively involved in the spread of Buddhism with the construction of many temples and welfare agencies to care for the sick, the elderly, and the poor. What Prince Shotoku was promoting was the vision of a nation where people’s everyday life was guided by Buddhist ideals of understanding, peace, and harmony. In other words, Prince Shotoku was an Engaged Buddhist when the term “Engaged Buddhism” was not as widely in circulation as it is today.
Prince Shotoku’s vision of Japan as a nation of Engaged Buddhists is yet to be realized. The policy of assigning every household to a temple in the neighborhood adopted by the Tokugawa Shogunate has led to the general decline of Buddhism in modern Japan. As Taido Matubara (1907-2009), a Zen priest and a prolific writer on Buddhism, often points out, Japanese Buddhists, instead of taking refuge in the Three Jewels, are preoccupied with preserving the Three Directions of Temples, Parishioners, and Funeral Services. (See, for example, his Introduction to Buddhism, 2004) What is needed today, he argues, is to revitalize the Prince Shotoku’s vision of a nation of Engaged Buddhists, which requires that we reinterpret what the Three Jewels mean in the globalized world today.
What does taking refuge in the Three Jewels mean in the globalized world today? Dogen (1200-1253), the legendary Zen master in medieval Japan, suggested the following as a way of explaining why we take refuge in the Three Jewels: “We take refuge in the Buddha because he is a great teacher. We take refuge in the Dharma because it is good medicine (for healing suffering). We take refuge in the Sangha because it develops good community.” (Shushogi, Chapter 3) Thich Nhat Hanh, another legendary Zen master who just passed away this year, puts it as follows, “When we take refuge in the Buddha, we express trust in our capacity to walk in the direction of beauty, truth, and deep understanding, based on our experience of the practice. When we take refuge in the Dharma, we enter the path of transformation, the path to end suffering. When we take refuge in the Sangha, we focus our energies on building a community that dwells in mindfulness, harmony, and peace.” (The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, 1998, p.162) As we look around the world full of conflicts and confrontations among individuals, social groups, and nations, we must say that building a community that dwells in mindfulness, harmony, and peace is more urgent than it has ever been in human history.