Shinran · Theology
The story of the monk Dharmakara, who vowed not to become a Buddha unless all who called on him could be saved - and how this mythic narrative of the Primal Vow carries Shinran’s theology of unconditional compassion.
You learned that Amida was once the bodhisattva Dharmakara, who made forty-eight vows, the Eighteenth being the ‘Primal Vow’ that binds his own enlightenment to ours; and that Shinran read this mythic narrative as the truth of unconditional compassion. Explain the vow and why the story matters.
Leads to Shakyamuni Buddha.
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