Perfect Land Sect

Perfect Land Believer

The Perfect Land was a sect of the Brotherhood which taught that people did not have to learn any difficult practices or cultivate merit within themselves. Any who called on Shinsei the Little Teacher, chanting the phrase Shoshi ni kie would be freed from the cycle of rebirth. They said they would find enlightenment after death, in the paradise they said Shinsei had created for them. The sect did not tolerate worship of the Fortunes or even the ancestors.

History

Origins

In the late ninth century, a young monk of the Shrine of the Seven Thunders named Yuzue believed that the conversation between Shinsei and Hantei had initiated an Age of Celestial Virtue that lasted eight-hundred years, a century for each Kami who heard Shinsei's teachings, and that the ninth century began the Age of Declining Virtue, marked by corruption and difficulty in following the Tao. To beseech Shinsei to return, the monk ceaselessly chanted the mantra Shoshi ni kie ("devotion to the Little Teacher" or "absolute trust in the Little Teacher"). Yuzue came to believe that if enough people chanted this mantra with sincerity, Shinsei would return to usher in a new Age of Celestial Virtue. The Perfect Land saw Shinsei as a hero, and its dogma described the Little Teacher as a benevolent immortal who guided and blessed humanity from not Yomi, but Tengoku. The Perfect Land would be the place where Shinsei awaited the faithful in the Heavens.

Foundation

Yuzue's student Gatai founded the Perfect Land Sect following Yuzue's death, based on the Perfect Land Sutra, a mantra she had written shortly before her passing. Yuzue's Sutra claimed that Shinsei did not return to the Void when he departed from Ningen-dō, but instead dwelt in a Perfect Land within Tengoku, the Celestial Heavens. The Perfect Land Sect believed that those who chanted the kie, as Yuzue's mantra became known, could join Shinsei in the Perfect Land upon their death, rather than face judgment in Meido and rebirth based on their karma. In the Perfect Land, under the tutelage of the Little Teacher himself, the faithful could achieve Enlightenment without suffering on the wheel of rebirth.

Heresy

The ideology was not inherently a violent one, but many of its individual leaders wished to deconstruct the beliefs they considered false. Primarily, they focused on the oppressive caste system of the Celestial Order, which defined a hierarchy of command that was preordained by birth. The Perfect Land Sect also rejected Fortunist thinking, believing that worshiping the Fortunes was not the only way to salvation. These teachings appealed to peasants, but they were rejected by the Phoenix Clan, considering the sect theology a false path. In 1045 the Perfect Land Sect was outlawed in Phoenix lands, driving many believers to seek safety and isolation in the Dragon mountains. In 1118 the monk Hige had a prophetic vision of Shinsei's return, and joined the sect, becoming its leader. The Perfect Land Sect flourished in the Dragon lands, and their followers had grown more vocal and more violent. The leaders of the Perfect Land said the world had entered the Age of Declining Virtue, and that samurai were to blame for the Empire's many ills. The Scorpion sent shinobi to learn what their goals were, and whether they had ties to the Dragon. The sect took residence in the abandoned White Flower Village.

Shinsei's Reborn

In 1123 a peasant woman named Senzai revealed as the reincarnation to Shinsei, during a conclave of the Brotherhood where the Perfect Land was the main subject of discussion. She told to the conclave the Perfect Land did not exist, and the words of the kie had no power to free souls from the wheel of rebirth. Bur his moral message was correct: the samurai of Rokugan had indeed lost their way, and the Empire as a whole; all of Rokugani society was out of balance. The very concept of the Celestial Order had been warped over time, becoming a too-rigid system used to justify the oppression of those below for the gratification of those above. The effects of her declaration would ripple far beyond the conclave itself over time. Some Perfect Land communities broke up, others vowed to create the Perfect Land in the Mortal Realm, by righting what had gone wrong.

Details

The Three Sutras

Throughout the course of his life, Gatai continued to meditate upon the nature of the kie, upon the Perfect Land, and upon his mentor's theories of the Age of Declining Virtue. These meditations were recorded in his own sutra, the Contemplation Sutra, and were kept with the Perfect Land Sutra by the burgeoning Perfect Land Sect. A third sutra would be added to the collection, the Declining Virtue Sutra by a later leader of the Perfect Land Sect, a monk named Joshin. While no one knew the location of the original sutras, parts of each have been copied at different times and in different places, then distributed among the common people of Rokugan.

Differences with Shinseism

The key difference with Shinseism lied in the concepts of jiriki and tariki, “self-power” and “otherpower.” Mainstream Shinseism was founded on the idea of jiriki, holding that Enlightenment was achieved through one's own efforts via meditation, ascetic practices, the study of esoteric texts, and other methods. Tariki meaned relying on the assistance of an outside power—in this case, Shinsei—to reach that end. According to the founding sutra of the Perfect Land, while jiriki was sufficient during the Age of Celestial Virtue, in the Age of Declining Virtue, it had become too difficult for most souls to achieve liberation on their own. Shinsei therefore created the Perfect Land and the kie out of his boundless compassion and his desire to relieve the suffering of people in the Mortal Realm.

Monks

The warrior-monks who served the Perfect Land Sect were not monks in the traditional sense; they wore the white headscarves and uniforms of novice monks, but most were illiterate and ill-educated in the precepts and texts of their own religion. They cared only to wield spear, naginata, and kongōsho. They had unshakable faith that to die while fighting for those causes ensured a superior reincarnation.

Known Members

Perfect Land Sect

• Gatai - founder (9th century)
• Hige - monk and leader
• Hinata - abbot
• Joshin - leader (dead)
• Kakita Sakura - samurai
• Kanbei - merchant
• Michi - monk
• Mirumoto Ichirō - samurai
• Mirumoto Kazuya - samurai
• Momoe - peasant
• Satto - rōnin
• Togashi Tadakatsu - monk
• Yuki - peasant

External Links

• Perfect Land Believer (Honor in Flames)

References

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