Refutation of "The Nembutsu Chosen above All
Refutation of "The Nembutsu Chosen above All," A
弾選択 (Jpn Dan-senchaku)
A work written in 1225 by Josho, a priest of the Japanese Tendai school. It attacks Honen's Nembutsu Chosen above All, which sets forth the doctrine of the exclusive practice of Nembutsu, or calling on the name of Amida Buddha. At Enryaku-ji temple, Joshowas appointed an interpreter of the doctrines, whose function it was to elucidate and expand on subjects of discussion and answer questions from the other priests. One view assigns credit for A Refutation of "The Nembutsu Cho-sen above All" to Ryushin, also a Tendai priest, though others hold this to be a misunderstanding arising from the fact that Ryushin wrote a postscript to the work. Still another view holds that there were two works titled A Refutation of "The Nembutsu Chosen above All," one by Josho and one by Ryushin. In any event, Ryukan, a disciple of Honen, challenged the content of this work in his Clarification of "The Nembutsu Chosen above All."
