Shinrankai

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mansurhirbi87
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Joined: Thu Jan 26, 2017 11:14 am

Shinrankai

Post by mansurhirbi87 »

Greetings,

i just get knowledge of this school, Shinrakai. I've herad it's not a good one. Anyone know the reason ?

_/\_
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FiveSkandhas
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Re: Shinrankai

Post by FiveSkandhas »

Shinrankai is widely considered to exhibit cultlike behavior. It squeezes a great deal of money out of its members in "monthly donations" and has them go around door-to-door selling things. Members are ranked into a 12-category hierarchy based on how much they donate, and they are required to wear special badges indicating their status, increasing the pressure to give more money.


Meanwhile they spend money on lavish construction projects and things like art
collections.

It also has misleading side-ventures that covertly hide their connection to Shinrankai, such as "Tulip Co.," which targets younger members and has them sell animated videos door-to-door. They also have been criticized for setting up fictitious "circles" at Universities to "lure" naive students into their organization.

Although it has been toned down in recent years, in the past there were instances of slavish and excessive veneration of the group's leader, kentetsu Takamori. It was once claimed he was the "world's one and only teacher who properly explains Buddhism," for example.

Needless to say a lot of this smells kinda culty, and at the very least, it is hardly what Shinran Shonin taught.

The group has been involved in nasty disputes with Honganji, leading to a campaign of criticism against Nishi-Honganji and a famous incident of a mass sit-down protest against Honganji.

They are a "new religion", which means they lack proper lineage and history, for those of us who care about such things.

Doctrinally they have been criticized for various things by the the traditional Shin Buddhist schools. I'm a little hazy on where exactly they may deviate, but they have been criticized by Jodo Shinshu for its strong attitude about the need to "seek" shukuzen, which is viewed as a kind of overreliance on jiriki by Jodo Shinshu.
"One should cultivate contemplation in one’s foibles. The foibles are like fish, and contemplation is like fishing hooks. If there are no fish, then the fishing hooks have no use. The bigger the fish is, the better the result we will get. As long as the fishing hooks keep at it, all foibles will eventually be contained and controlled at will." -Zhiyi

"Just be kind." -Atisha
mansurhirbi87
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Re: Shinrankai

Post by mansurhirbi87 »

Doctrinally there is nothing wrong or different ? So why a new "school" or movement in jodo shinshu ?
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FiveSkandhas
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Re: Shinrankai

Post by FiveSkandhas »

mansurhirbi87 wrote: Fri Jun 11, 2021 2:16 am Doctrinally there is nothing wrong or different ? So why a new "school" or movement in jodo shinshu ?
There do appear to be some doctrinal differences from the traditional schools. I think they criticized the traditional Jodo Shinshu for what they consider a "passive" attitude; I'm not really sure about there details of their doctrine.

Religious organizations often split for reasons other than doctrine, anyway. Sometimes it comes down to a power or money struggle, for example, or other mundane factors. I am not sure exactly why the Shinrankai left the mainline tradition.
"One should cultivate contemplation in one’s foibles. The foibles are like fish, and contemplation is like fishing hooks. If there are no fish, then the fishing hooks have no use. The bigger the fish is, the better the result we will get. As long as the fishing hooks keep at it, all foibles will eventually be contained and controlled at will." -Zhiyi

"Just be kind." -Atisha
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Zhen Li
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Re: Shinrankai

Post by Zhen Li »

mansurhirbi87 wrote: Fri Jun 11, 2021 2:16 am Doctrinally there is nothing wrong or different ? So why a new "school" or movement in jodo shinshu ?
It seems they are trying to tone down the controversial claims recently, but the history of them still exists from the time when they grew rapidly. Do you consider this wrong or different?

From their wikipedia page:
浄土真宗の歴史上では親鸞・覚如・蓮如が善知識であるとし、現代では会長の高森顕徹を「唯一無二の善知識」と位置づけていた
In Jōdo Shinshū history, Shinran, Kakunyo and Renyo are the "good friends" (kalyāṇamitra), but in the modern age the president Takamori Kentetsu is ranked as the "one and only good friend."
過去世に仏縁薄き者、宿善浅きものは、現世に於て宿善は求められねばならない。でなければ、宿善開発の時節到来ということはあり得ない。
Those with a weak connection to the buddha from their previous lives, and whose karmic roots are shallow, in this present life must request karmic roots. Otherwise, the time for the development of their karmic roots will not be possible.
Some other peculiarities: the object of worship for lay members is "loaned" from Shinrankai. Meaning that it must be returned upon the member's death.
Rennyo preferred the image of the name over a picture of Amida, and a picture over a statue. But Shinrankai have taken this to the extreme and banned statues and pictures at all.
Members are recruited through disguised solicitation at universities and events for "victim families." I.e. they pretend to be fellow students and encourage students to come to "study sessions" which end up being recruitment opportunities. There also seem to be different ranks of membership depending on what one pays in. Members then apparently are encouraged to sell videos and so forth.

In my opinion, this is a movement that developed for the enrichment and personal benefit of the leading members. It seems like he was affiliated in some way with Hongwanji until around the 1970s. I think it must have been some of these cult-like behaviours and views that led to this break.
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