CHAPTER VII.

Shintai and Zokutai.

section section 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37.

In the romantic history of Shinran's life, to which I have already made allusion, there is a very pretty little story about his courtship. I will not vouch for its historical accuracy, but I think it will serve my purpose well enough to quote it here.

It was in Shinran's early days, before he had: begun to be troubled with doubts touching the infallibility of the Tendai system, and when he was still a rising and promising young monk at Hieizan.

He had been on business of the monastery to Kyoto, and was on his way home. Near the foot of the mountain he overtook a young maiden, who accosted him. She was desirous, she said, of going to worship at the famous shrine on the mountain: would he be kind enough to act as her guide and take her with him?

Shinran was greatly shocked. "You are a woman," he said, "and no foot of woman may tread the holy mountain. I cannot take you with me."

But the young woman would take no refusal. "I am a woman," she said, "but I have a human heart, and my human heart longs for salvation. Am I to be denied that which my soul longs for?"

Shinran suggested a nunnery, but the suggestion was not welcomed. "Your nunneries," she said,

[paragraph continues] "are like your monasteries, places where women get together to pore over books and heap up knowledge, and think they shall be saved by what they know. I am not a learned woman, and if I were, what good would my learning, immersed in a convent, do to my suffering sisters? I desire to be saved in order that I may save others, I want some simple faith suitable for simple souls; for whilst monks and nuns are poring over Sutras of doubtful meaning in the selfish quiet of the monasteries, there are thousands of men and women in Japan perishing for lack of a few satisfying mouthfuls of Saving Doctrine."

Shinran was not a man of ready words. Some years later, when he had joined Honen, his master sent him, in his own stead, to be the champion of the Jodo cause in a public disputation. He went, announced his arrival, took his seat modestly near the door; listened to all that the adversary had to say, and then brought shame on his Master and himself by slipping out of the room, without making a speech in defence of his own position. We should not therefore be surprised to be told that he remained silent under the attacks of his fair fellow-traveller.

But the maiden went on with her attack. Producing from her pocket a crystal burning glass, such as we may often see in Japan, she said: "Please take this and keep it. It has the power to collect the sun's rays and focus them on one point, on which it shines with burning heat. Do the same for religion: collect and focus into one point the whole system of the faith, and let that one point