Cultivating Now, While We Live
We cultivate the good on behalf of yourself or another living person, and dedicate its merit to those with whom you have bonds and to all living beings.
Twenty-One Days in the Morning Service
GyakushūOffering
Cultivating Good Deeds from Now, While We Live
Gyakushū is the Buddhist practice of doing good while one is still alive, without waiting for death, and turning its fruit toward oneself and those with whom one has bonds. Doing good is called "cultivating the good," and turning its fruit widely toward others is called "dedicating the merit" (ekō). At Byōdōji, in the temple's daily morning service (gongyō), we read aloud for twenty-one days the applicant's name and the name and wish of the person being prayed for.
Before You Apply
What We Hold Dear in This Offering
In the Gyakushū 21-Day Offering, we hold three things dear as we perform the service.
Twenty-One Mornings of Service
Beginning with the morning service shown on the application page as the first day, we read aloud the name and the wish for twenty-one days, including that first day.
Continuing Alongside Tsuizen
While you continue to cherish the tsuizen memorial offerings for the deceased, you yourself can also cultivate the good today.
Merit (kudoku) is the fruit on the Buddhist path that comes from good deeds. Turning that fruit not toward oneself alone but toward the deceased, toward those with whom one has bonds, and toward all living beings is called the dedication of merit (ekō).
Applying is one way of cultivating the good now, while we live. Neither the twenty-one-day period nor the application itself promises that a wish will be fulfilled or that a fixed measure of merit will be gained.
The Word Gyakushū
Gyakushū: Cultivating the Good While We Live
The "gyaku" of gyakushū here means "in advance." In gyakushū, one cultivates good deeds such as sutra recitation, offerings, and almsgiving while still alive, for oneself or for other living people, and dedicates the merit.
Chinkai, a monk of the late Heian period, explained gyakushū in a dialogue in his Bodai-shinshū (Collection on the Aspiration for Awakening). The time between death and the next birth is called the intermediate existence (chūu). For that journey, those close to us would ordinarily perform meritorious deeds on our behalf after we die; in gyakushū, we prepare that merit ourselves while we are still alive. This is a representative understanding of gyakushū in medieval Japan.
Historically, besides gyakushū cultivated for one's own future, there was also gyakushū cultivated for other people, such as one's living parents.
Chinkai, Bodai-shinshū
- Translation
- Question: What is the purpose of performing the forty-nine-day rites while one is still alive, in what is called gyakushū? Answer: It is to mourn one's own journey through the intermediate existence after death. If one arranges in advance, by one's own hand, the merit that those close to us would perform at that time, it is a most excellent thing. The sutras say "gyakushū for three times seven days." "Gyaku" means "in advance," and "yo" (to place in trust beforehand) likewise means "beforehand." The text then goes on to explain the various accounts concerning the three-times-seven days (twenty-one days), the seven-times-seven days (forty-nine days), and the duration of the intermediate existence.
- Original text
問逆修とて生るおりに四十九日の事するは何事そや答中有の旅を弔ふ事。其時に親しき人のせんずる功德を兼てわれ仕置きつれはいよいよ目出たき事なり。經には逆修三七日といへり。逆とはあらかじめといふ事ぞ。預めとは兼てといふ事なり。三七日とは三七日行ふべしとなり。四十九日は七日七日を足せば違ふまじ。されは又ただ七日する人も此世にはあり。されども經のままならは本は三七日なり。中有の旅は程定まりなし。七日も二七日も三七日も四七日も五七日も六七日も七七日もあり。大方は七七日にて定むる也。それより久しといふ事もあり。されど七七を打まかせたる事とす。中有の間はいかにまれ程もなきなり。三七日といは多くはそれには過ぎぬ。
- Source
- Chinkai, Bodai-shinshū, in Jōdo Shū Zensho (Complete Works of the Jōdo School), vol. 15, p. 520, upper register (J15_0520A03–A16). The modern-language rendering quoted above is a summary presenting the glosses and the flow of the dialogue.
The Textual Basis for Twenty-One Days
Why Byōdōji Observes Twenty-One Days
Byōdōji performs the service for twenty-one days because the Sutra of Consecration for Rebirth in the Pure Lands of the Ten Directions According to One's Vows (Bussetsu Kanjō Zuigan Ōjō Jippō Jōdo-kyō), contained in fascicle eleven of the Consecration Sutra (Kanjō-kyō), speaks of "gyakushū for three times seven days." "Three times seven" means seven days taken three times over: twenty-one days.
In the sutra, the bodhisattva Puguang asks the Buddha whether great merit comes to one who, while still alive, performs gyakushū for twenty-one days, lights lamps, raises banners and canopies, invites monks to read the sutras, and cultivates many kinds of meritorious work. The Buddha answers that the merit is "immeasurable."
The Sutra of Consecration for Rebirth in the Pure Lands of the Ten Directions According to One's Vows
- Translation
- The bodhisattva Puguang asked the Buddha: "Suppose a man or woman of the fourfold assembly — monastic or lay — who well understands the teaching and the precepts, who knows the body to be like a phantom and diligently practices the bodhisattva path, were, before life has ended, to perform gyakushū for three times seven days, keeping the lamps burning without cease, raising silken banners and canopies, inviting the community of monks to read the honored sutras, and cultivating every kind of meritorious work. Would the merit of this be great?" The Buddha answered: "Puguang, that merit is immeasurable; it cannot be measured. According to what the heart vows, that fruit is obtained."
- Original text
普廣菩薩復白佛言：「若四輩男女善解法戒，知身如幻精勤修習行菩提道，未終之時逆修三七，然燈續明懸繒旛蓋，請召眾僧轉讀尊經，修諸福業得福多不？」佛言：「普廣！其福無量不可度量，隨心所願獲其果實。」
- Source
- Kanjō-kyō, fascicle 11, "Bussetsu Kanjō Zuigan Ōjō Jippō Jōdo-kyō," Taishō shinshū Daizōkyō, vol. 21, no. 1331, 530a29–b04 (CBETA T21n1331).
Byōdōji's "Gyakushū 21-Day Offering" follows this passage on "gyakushū for three times seven days" and performs the service for twenty-one days in the morning service.
What the sutra describes is a person who knows the body to be like a phantom and uses the body and time still at hand to practice the Buddhist path. At Byōdōji, we hold that even those for whom walking or speaking aloud is difficult can cultivate the good with words and with the heart, in keeping with the body they have now.
The Service at Byōdōji
What Is Performed in Byōdōji's "Gyakushū 21-Day Offering"
Beginning with the morning service shown on the application page as the first day, we continue the following service for twenty-one days, including that first day.
Twenty-One Days in the Morning Service
From the first day's morning service to the twenty-first day's, your application is included in our service every morning.
Reading the Applicant's Name and the Name and Wish of the Person Prayed For
The applicant's name is read aloud as the offerer ("shi"), followed by the name and wish of the person prayed for. For both names, you may choose to have them read anonymously.
Dedicating the Merit Cultivated
The merit of the good cultivated in the morning service is dedicated to the person themselves, to those with whom they have bonds, and to all living beings.
You may apply for yourself, or for a living person such as a family member. Because the offering is for the living, you enter the name and wish on the application page as a "prayer request" (go-kigan).
The Gyakushū 21-Day Offering itself includes no sacred items. Unless you add a separate item on the application page, nothing will be sent to you.
How to Apply
From Application to the Twenty-First Day
On the application page, you can check the morning service that will be the first day, the information you entered, and the payment details before you apply.
- Enter the Name and the WishApart from the applicant's name, enter the name of the person to be prayed for (yourself or another living person) and the wish to be read aloud at the morning service.
- Confirm the First Day and the VisibilityCheck the morning service that will be the first day. Also check whether the applicant's name and the name of the person prayed for will each be read anonymously, and whether the name of the person prayed for will appear on the livestream card.
- The Twenty-One Days of Service BeginBeginning with the morning service shown on the application page as day one, we read aloud the name and the wish for twenty-one days.
The reading in the morning service is heard in the livestream audio, and the stream may remain as a recording or archive. For the applicant's name and the name of the person prayed for, you may choose to have each read anonymously. Whether the name of the person prayed for appears on the livestream card is chosen separately from the audio anonymity setting. Please do not write anything you do not want made public in the free-text field.
If your application consists only of the basic ¥3,000 offering and you cancel it from your application history before the first reading, the ¥3,000 is eligible for a refund. Card payments are refunded to the original transaction. For bank transfers, you will need to register an account for the refund. How soon the refund appears depends on your payment method and financial institution. For changes, cancellations, or refunds after the service has begun, please consult Byōdōji.
What You Can Do Today
Gyakushū You Can Practice Yourself
Gyakushū can begin with a single good deed you can do yourself today.
- Read a sutra before the Buddha.
- Listen to the Buddha's teaching.
- Offer a lamp or flowers.
- Give alms to someone in need.
- Express gratitude to family and to those with whom you have bonds.
- Dedicate the merit you have cultivated to the deceased, to those with whom you have bonds, and to all living beings.
Reading a sutra and offering flowers before the Buddha, on the anniversary of a loved one's death or day by day, is tsuizen in that it dedicates merit to the departed. At the same time, in that you, the living, are cultivating good now, it shares the heart of gyakushū. Byōdōji's "Gyakushū 21-Day Offering" is limited to the living, and continues that good together with the morning service for twenty-one days.
Talking with your family, while you are still well, about your wishes for after your death is also a preparation that shares the heart of gyakushū. It means looking squarely at a life that has limits and setting your present conduct in order.
Arranging a precept name (kaimyō) during one's lifetime, or consulting about memorial tablets, perpetual memorial rites, graves, and interment, can also overlap with gyakushū as practiced today. Such arrangements, however, settle one's wishes for after death, while gyakushū centers on cultivating the good now with the body and words one has. Perpetual memorial rites for the deceased ordinarily count as tsuizen.
For Those Who Wish to Know the Sources and History in Depth
How gyakushū has been practiced in Japan, traced through historical sources.
The History of Gyakushū in Japan and in Shingon-Related Sources
Gyakushū as Practiced in Japan
Historical sources record examples of gyakushū from the late ninth century onward. It took many forms: building a stupa, copying a sutra, holding a Dharma assembly, making a buddha image.
According to the Gyakushū Seppō (Dharma Talks on Gyakushū), around 1194 Hōnen served as officiant for the first six of seven gyakushū assemblies held once every seven days over forty-nine days. For this assembly, a three-shaku image of Amida Nyorai descending in welcome (raigō) was made, and forty-eight lamps were offered in honor of Amida Buddha's forty-eight vows.
In the medieval period, married couples, parents and children, and neighbors sometimes observed gyakushū together. The "Amida stone stele of Enbun 2" (1357) in Yamagata Prefecture bears the words "the good roots of gyakushū" together with "equal benefit throughout the Dharma realm": a prayer that, through the good roots of gyakushū, benefit may reach all beings equally. Gyakushū also became an occasion for people to gather, cultivate good, and dedicate its merit widely.
Gyakushū in Shingon-Related Sources
Tokunin's Chronicle of Kōbō Daishi (Kōbō Daishi nempu) relates that Imperial Princess Sakahito held a Mandō-e, a ceremony offering many lamps, at Tōdaiji, and completed during her lifetime the feast of tsuifuku (prayers for one's welfare after death) (Shingon-shū Zensho, vol. 38, p. 184). Tokunin's sequel, the Continued Chronicle of Kōbō Daishi (Zoku Kōbō Daishi nempu), also cites the tradition that Imperial Prince Shōshin long performed the goma on Mount Kōya and further conducted three gyakushū offerings (ibid., p. 392).
A colophon to a manuscript of the Kōmyō Shingon-hō (Rite of the Mantra of Light) preserved at Daiun-in records the precedent of 1158, when the retired emperor Go-Shirakawa had the Rite of the Mantra of Light performed for Bifukumon-in as a fifty-day gyakushū. The manuscript was copied in 1741.
Tokunin's Chronicle of Kōbō Daishi and his Continued Chronicle both quote "Kōbō Daishi's Gyakushū Diary" from the Kenmon zuishin shō. It is a record that assigns to each memorial day, from the seventh day after death to the thirty-third anniversary, a date and a buddha or bodhisattva as its original ground (honji), with sutra passages attached. Tokunin wrote that there must be a source text on which the diary is based.
These sources record gyakushū performed together with the Mandō-e lamp offering, the goma, and the Rite of the Mantra of Light. Lay people today can begin with whatever one thing they are able to do: sutra reading, sutra copying, lamp offerings, almsgiving, or the dedication of merit.
Reading the Teachings of the "Three Times Seven Days" and the "Seven Parts" as Distinct
The "Three Times Seven Days" and the "Seven Parts" Are Separate Matters
The "three times seven" of the Consecration Sutra is a period: the twenty-one days during which gyakushū is performed. Just before it, the same sutra contains a dialogue on the "seven parts," which explains how merit is received when meritorious works are performed for one who has died (Taishō shinshū Daizōkyō, vol. 21, 530a18–a28). "Three times seven" is a number of days; "seven parts" is a division of merit. They are separate matters.
A teaching of the seven parts to the same effect also appears in the Sutra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva. The passage below describes relatives performing meritorious works after the death of a person who, during life, did no good and created many sins. Later in the same chapter, the sutra says of those who make offerings with all their heart that "the living and the dead both obtain benefit," concluding that benefit reaches both the living and the departed (Taishō shinshū Daizōkyō, vol. 13, 784b26–b28).
The Sutra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, Chapter Seven: "Benefiting the Living and the Dead"
- Translation
- For a person who, during life, cultivated no good causes and created many sins, even if relatives great and small perform every holy work of merit after that person's death, the deceased receives but one part in seven; six parts of the merit become the benefit of the living who performed them. For this reason, good men and women of the future and the present should cultivate for themselves while they hear the teaching in health, and receive each part for themselves.
- Original text
若有男子女人，在生不修善因，多造眾罪，命終之後，眷屬小大為造福利一切聖事，七分之中，而乃獲一，六分功德，生者自利。以是之故，未來現在善男女等，聞健自修，分分己獲。
- Source
- Jizō Bosatsu Hongan-kyō (Sutra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva), lower fascicle, "Chapter Seven: Benefiting the Living and the Dead," Taishō shinshū Daizōkyō, vol. 13, no. 412, 784b08–b12 (CBETA T13n0412).
This passage does not use the word "gyakushū"; it says "hearing in health, cultivate for yourself" (Ch. wenjian zixiu). The word "gyakushū" appears in the Consecration Sutra seen earlier.
As a later example, the Shūi Wago Tōroku (Supplementary Record of Sayings in Japanese), compiled by Ryōe and included in the Kurodani Shōnin Gotōroku, contains a passage teaching that one performs gyakushū because one then "obtains all seven parts." The same passage encourages reciting the nembutsu oneself while also dedicating one's daily nembutsu to the departed (Jōdo Shū Zensho, vol. 9, J09_0651A14–B21).
Living Today
One Good Deed, Now, While Life Remains
When we think of death, the preciousness of this one day becomes clear. Because we know our time is limited, we can treasure the people we can meet today, read the sutras we can read today, give the alms we can give today, and put into words the gratitude we can express now. Feelings we could not convey to those who have passed can also be entrusted to today's sutra reading and flower offerings, and dedicated to them.
You may begin gyakushū with a single good deed you can do yourself, or continue it for twenty-one days together with the temple's morning service.
Frequently Asked Questions
References
Key References
The main primary texts used in this article, and the studies and sources behind its historical account.
Primary Texts
Kanjō-kyō (Consecration Sutra), fascicle 11, "Bussetsu Kanjō Zuigan Ōjō Jippō Jōdo-kyō," Taishō shinshū Daizōkyō, vol. 21, no. 1331, 530a18–b04 (from the teaching of the seven parts to the dialogue on gyakushū for three times seven days; CBETA T21n1331).
Jizō Bosatsu Hongan-kyō (Sutra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva), lower fascicle, "Chapter Seven: Benefiting the Living and the Dead," Taishō shinshū Daizōkyō, vol. 13, no. 412, 784b03–b28 (CBETA T13n0412).
Chinkai, Bodai-shinshū, Jōdo Shū Zensho, vol. 15, J15_0520A03–A16.
Compiled by Ryōe, Gyakushū Seppō, in the Kango Tōroku, Jōdo Shū Zensho, vol. 9, J09_0383A01–J09_0417B20.
Compiled by Ryōe, Shūi Wago Tōroku (included in the Kurodani Shōnin Gotōroku), Jōdo Shū Zensho, vol. 9, J09_0651A14–J09_0651B21.
Studies and Historical Materials
Wu Xiaojie, "What Is 'Gyakushū'?," Journal of East China Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), vol. 48, no. 1 (2016), pp. 45–50. DOI 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5579.2016.01.006
Yamaguchi Kiyomi, "The Transformation of Gyakushū in the Heian Period," Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū (Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies), vol. 67, no. 1 (2018), pp. 178–181. J-STAGE
Abiko Naruaki, A Study of the "Gyakushū Seppō," doctoral dissertation, Taisho University, 2016.
Yamagata Prefecture, "The Amida Stone Stele of Enbun 2." Yamagata no Takara Search Navi
Tottori City Board of Education, Tottori-shi Bunkazai Chōsa Hōkokusho 39: Survey Report on the Holdings of Daiun-in, the Bettō Temple of Inaba Tōshōgū [III], Classical Texts and Books / Supplement to the Historical Materials, 2025, p. 50.
Tokunin, Kōbō Daishi Nempu (Chronicle of Kōbō Daishi), Shingon-shū Zensho, vol. 38, pp. 184, 281–282. Tokunin, Zoku Kōbō Daishi Nempu (Continued Chronicle of Kōbō Daishi), ibid., pp. 392, 497–498.
Read Together
Read more about sutra recitation and the dedication of merit, and about the original vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in the articles below.
Reading the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha from the Sources
Tracing the original vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, who saves the world in which no buddha dwells, and the teaching of the Sutra of the Original Vows.
ReadReading the Four Lines of the Kaikyōge
The meaning and provenance of the kaikyōge, the verse recited before a sutra, explained from the primary sources.
Read