Jodo Shinshu as social emancipation

There was this Japanese guy who was put into monk school as a young man, and was going to get this cushy assignment for a prestigious temple.

Yet he saw the corruption around him, with soldier priests who were in the priesthood because of connections, and who partied when they weren't guarding the priests from intrigue and politicking.

So he had one of those crises of faith, and got this dream in which either a Buddhist deity named Kwannon or the founder of Buddhist law told him to try out this priest who would eventually help bring Buddhism to the masses.

This guy went onto make a statement, "My faith is equal to my master's", only to have his fellow monks misinterprete it.

In those days, the master-disciple relationship was such that, by equating your faith with that of your master you were going against tradition, which says the master's faith is the highest of all.

Eventually, a couple of monks got executed and everyone else, exiled.

During his exile, this man passed Buddhism onto the people.

In those times, Buddhism was for noblemen and the peasants were considered unworthy -- though the real reason was to amass wealth from the peasants by being intercessors, which is similar to the corruption happening in the West in the Church.

The end result was an emancipation of the peasants and priests.

Priests could marry, too.

Whenever I read this story, I see the seeds of peace being sown.

Sadly though, this sect along with other Buddhist and Shinto sects were closely monitored by Japan's thought police during WW2.

It wasn't until after the war that that ban was lifted.

However, Jodo Shinshu was not as quick as Soka Gakkai in promotion of peace.

Perhaps this is because the evangelical Shin people are stuck in Japan.

Though the Vietnamese nembutsu people are hot on Pure Land.