Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the conception of time in Soga Ryōjin's works, showing how he employs a unique interpretation of a Yogācāra theory of time to argue that the salvific moment in Shin Buddhism contains both the results of all of past history and the potentiality for all of future time.

Paper long abstract:

Soga Ryōjin (1875-1971) is one of the most unique and influential modern interpreters of Shinran's thought. In his attempt to reassert Shinran's original grasp of the immediate nature of salvation (that is to say, salvation in the present that is not dependent on a future rebirth in a Pure Land), Soga often used concepts and conceptualizations from Yogācāra philosophy to interpret and explicate Shinran's ideas. In particular, Soga's grasp of time and his interpretation of the content of the "single thought moment of faith" (shin no ichinen 信の一念) set forth by Shinran are heavily informed by Yogācāra views of time. In one seminal work, where Soga maps concepts from Yogācāra thought regarding the ālayavijñāna onto Shinran's understanding of faith, he presents a view of time where the present instant is all-encompassing, holding within it the results of all history as well as all future potentiality. In this and other pieces, Soga intimates that time is nothing more than the directionality of the present instant, yet he conceives that directionality not as moving from past to future in the chronological sense, but instead as flowing from the indeterminate future, into the reality of the present, and away into a conditioning past.

This paper introduces Soga's unusual and non-intuitive view of time, presents the sources within the Yogācāra tradition that he drew on in developing this understanding, and considers the implications of his ideas for interpreting Shinran's soteriology. Soga's understanding of the present moment of awakening as being constantly opened up by future potentiality brings that instant out of timeless transcendence and allows space for the person of faith to be dynamically engaged with the world. In that sense, Soga's theory of time saves Shinran's Shin Buddhism from the problem of "other-worldliness" twice: first by pointing up the immediacy of salvation within the moment of faith, and then by bringing the salvific instant, which might be taken as transcendent of worldly concerns, into communication with the future, making it a fundamental element that shapes it.