shinzoku-nitai (shinzoku-nitai)

(Language: Japanese)

Short Description: Term for the double theory of truth, mundane and supermundane

Long Description: Term for the double theory of truth, mundane and supermundane. Initially a philosophical, epistemic distinction developed by the pivotal Buddhist teacher Nagarjuna (150-250 CE). In later Japanese Buddhism it was given a social interpretation in which the supermundane teaching denoted the path of salvation, while the mundane teaching referred to the morality and ethics prescribed by society.

Sources: Living in Amida’s Universal Vow: Essays in Shin Buddhism, by Alfred Bloom