TOP>What is Agon Shu?:Three Reasons for Founding Agon Shu

Three Reasons for Founding Agon Shu

  1. In the past, Mahayana Buddhism asserted that the Mahayana Sutras are Shakyamuni Buddha’s original teachings, and many Buddhist sects and organizations were founded based on the Mahayana Sutras. Moreover, the majority of the Japanese Buddhist sects and organizations are based on these sutras.
    Kiriyama Kancho realized that the Mahayana assertion was incorrect, and that the only sutras truly taught by Shakyamuni Buddha were the Agon Sutras. This has since become an established view within modern Buddhism studies. Kiriyama Kancho then realized that founding and propogating a religious sect based on false sutras of unclear origin (the Mahayana Sutras) was incorrect. He decided that for the sake of the true Buddhism, this false assumption had to be corrected.
  2. It was not simply a question of whether the Mahayana Sutras were the direct teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha. Kiriyama Kancho discovered that the Mahayana Sutras had within them a fatal flaw.

    The Buddhist religion has as its core teachings the clear goals of liberation from one's innen (Innen Gedatsu) , and attainment of Buddhahood (Jobutsu), to be realized through a way of diligent training and practice. The original sutras, therefore, would be expected to include this way of training and practice in order to attain these goals. The Mahayana Sutras, however, do not contain any such teaching at all.

    The Agon Sutras, on the other hand, explicitly teach how to train and practice in order to achieve Innen Gedatsu, liberation, and Jobutsu, the attaining of Buddhahood. The Agon Sutras are the only sutras to contain such teachings.
    These teachings are called Shichika Sanjushichidohon ,or the Seven Systems and Thirty-Seven Practices, named by Kiriyama Kancho the “Seven Systems and Thirty-Seven Curricula to be a Buddha.” While these true teachings of Buddha have been largely neglected during the last two thousand years of Buddhist history, Kiriyama Kancho is remarkable in his widespread re-introduction of these teachings to society.
  3. Kiriyama Kancho believed the Shichika Sanjushichidohon, or the Seven Systems and Thirty Seven Curricula taught by Shakyamuni Buddha, to be the very foundation and pillar of Buddhism, and he trained and practiced these methods in order to master them. In practicing, he became more and more convinced that these methods are the true foundation of Buddhism. This led Kiriyama Kancho to found Agon Shu, in order to propagate the true teachings of the Buddha.

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