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 cultivating good deeds during one's lifetime, without waiting for death, and directing their fruit toward oneself and those with whom one has bonds. In Buddhism, performing good deeds is called "cultivating the good," and broadly directing their fruit is called "dedicating the merit" (ekō). At Byōdōji, beginning with the morning service (gongyō) the temple performs every day as the first day, we read aloud for twenty-one days the applicant's name and the name and wish of the living person being prayed for. On this page we present the meaning of gyakushū, the textual basis for the twenty-one days, and how the service and the application work.
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 Morning Services, Accumulated
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
Gyakushū does not replace the tsuizen memorial offerings for the deceased. While cherishing tsuizen, the person you are today can also cultivate the good.
Merit (kudoku) is the fruit on the Buddhist path that arises from good deeds. Not closing that fruit off for oneself alone, but turning it toward the deceased, toward those with whom one has bonds, and toward all living beings — this is the dedication of merit (ekō).
Neither the twenty-one-day period nor an application to the temple guarantees the fulfillment of a wish or any fixed measure of merit. Applying is one form of cultivating the good now, while we live.
The Word Gyakushū
Gyakushū: Cultivating the Good While We Live
The "gyaku" of gyakushū here means "in advance." For oneself or for other living people, one cultivates good — sutra recitation, offerings, almsgiving — during one's lifetime, and dedicates the merit.
Chinkai, a monk of the late Heian period, explained in a dialogue in his Bodai-shinshū (Collection on the Aspiration for Awakening) that one arranges in advance, by one's own hand, the merit that those close to us would otherwise perform for the journey through the intermediate existence (chūu) after death — the period until the next birth is taken up. This is a representative understanding of gyakushū presented in a source of medieval Japan.
Historically, alongside the form in which one cultivated for one's own future, gyakushū also took the form of cultivating for other living 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 observes twenty-one days on the basis of the phrase "gyakushū for three times seven days" in 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). "Three times seven" means seven days taken three times over: twenty-one days. This sutra is one of the earliest occurrences of the word "gyakushū" in the surviving Chinese-translated Buddhist literature.
In that passage, one lights lamps, raises banners and canopies, invites the community of monks, has the sutras read, and cultivates various works of merit. 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" takes this passage on "gyakushū for three times seven days" as the basis for its period, and performs the rite for twenty-one days within the daily morning service. It is not meant as a literal reenactment of the ceremony described in the sutra.
What this occurrence allows us to confirm extends only to the point that a practice written "gyakushū" exists in the surviving Chinese-translated literature. Concerning the text's dates of composition and compilation, questions remain in the scholarship.
At the heart of what the sutra depicts is a person who, knowing the body to be like a phantom, takes the body and the time still at hand and cultivates the Buddhist path. When Byōdōji receives this teaching as a practice for the present day, we hold that even those for whom walking or raising the voice is difficult can cultivate the good with words and with the heart, in keeping with how their bodies now are.
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 morning service, your application is borne upon our daily morning service.
Reading the Applicant's Name and the Name and Wish of the Person Prayed For
The applicant's name is read with the marker "shi" (the word placed after a donor's name, meaning "offered with this intention"), after which we read aloud the name of the living person prayed for, and their wish. For both the applicant's name and the name of the person prayed for, 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 recipients are the living, on the application page you enter the name and the wish as a "prayer request" (go-kigan).
The Gyakushū 21-Day Offering itself includes no conferred items. Unless you add a separate item on the application page, nothing will be shipped. It is an offering in which you request not goods, but twenty-one days of service.
How to Apply
From Application to the Twenty-First Day
On the application page, you can confirm the morning service that will be the first day, the information you entered, and the payment details before applying.
- Enter the Name and the WishApart from the applicant's name, you enter the name of the living person to be prayed for — yourself or another — and the wish to be read aloud at the morning service.
- Confirm the First Day and the VisibilityYou confirm the morning service that will be the first day, whether the applicant's name and the name of the person prayed for are each read anonymously, and whether the name of the person prayed for is displayed 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 of names in the morning service is included in the audio of the livestream, and the streamed video may remain as a recording or archive. The applicant's name and the name of the person prayed for can each be read anonymously. The setting that displays the name of the person prayed for on the livestream card is separate from the audio anonymity setting. Please do not enter information you do not wish to make public in the free-text field.
For applications consisting only of the basic ¥3,000 offering, if you cancel from your application history before the first reading, the ¥3,000 is eligible for a refund. Card payments are refunded to the original transaction; bank transfers require registering a refund account. When the refund is reflected depends on your payment method and financial institution. For changes or cancellations after the service has begun, and for whether a refund is possible, please consult Byōdōji.
What You Can Do Today
Gyakushū Is Not Limited to Applications
Gyakushū does not refer only to applications made to a temple. You can begin with a single good deed you can do 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 death anniversary of one who has passed, or day by day, is tsuizen insofar as the merit is directed to the departed. At the same time, insofar as you, the living, are cultivating good right now, it also touches the heart of gyakushū. Byōdōji's "Gyakushū 21-Day Offering" limits its recipients to the living, and continues that good work together with the morning service for twenty-one days.
Talking with your family about your wishes for after your death, while you are still well, is a form of preparation that shares the heart of gyakushū: looking squarely at a life that has limits and setting your present conduct in order.
Consultations about receiving a precept name (kaimyō) during one's lifetime, about memorial tablets, perpetual memorial rites, graves, and the interment of ashes may overlap with gyakushū in its modern form. These procedures arrange one's wishes for after death; gyakushū centers on cultivating the good with the body and words one has now. Perpetual memorial rites for the deceased ordinarily count as tsuizen.
For Those Who Wish to Know the Sources and History in Depth
The meaning of gyakushū, the basis for the twenty-one days, and the service at Byōdōji can be confirmed above. What follows is a supplement for those who wish to learn in depth how the practice unfolded in Japan and in Shingon-related sources.
The History of Gyakushū in Japan and in Shingon-Related Sources
Observed in Japan, Changing Form as It Went
Below we survey, in chronological order, the diverse forms in which gyakushū appears in surviving sources. Direct lines of descent between these examples would require case-by-case verification.
The study by Yamaguchi Kiyomi lists examples of gyakushū from the late ninth century onward, within the range that can be confirmed in surviving sources. Its forms were never fixed in a single mold: building a stupa, copying a sutra, holding a Dharma assembly, making a buddha image.
According to the Gyakushū Seppō (Dharma Talks on Gyakushū), a text written down and edited at a later date, around 1194 Hōnen served as officiant for the first six assemblies of a forty-nine-day gyakushū Dharma assembly held seven times, once every seven days. 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. The surviving text is read with the layers of its composition distinguished from any record in Hōnen's own hand.
In the medieval period, married couples, parents and children, and companions of a locality observed gyakushū together. The "Amida stone stele of Enbun 2" (1357) preserved in Yamagata Prefecture bears an inscription that runs from "the good roots of gyakushū" to "equal benefit throughout the Dharma realm" — the wish that benefit reach all beings equally. Gyakushū also became an occasion on which people gathered, cultivated good, and dedicated its merit widely.
Gyakushū in Shingon-Related Sources
Tokunin's Chronicle of Kōbō Daishi (Kōbō Daishi nempu) relates that Imperial Princess Sakanin established a Mandō-e, a Ten Thousand Lamps Ceremony, at Tōdaiji at which many lamps were offered, and completed the cultivation of a feast of blessing for herself during her lifetime (Shingon-shū Zensho, vol. 38, p. 184). The same work also records the tradition that Imperial Prince Shōshin long performed the goma on Mount Kōya and further conducted three gyakushū offerings (ibid., p. 392). In these sources, the goma and the gyakushū offering are written of as distinct observances.
A colophon to a manuscript of the Kōmyō Shingon-hō (Rite of the Mantra of Light) preserved at Daiun-in records a precedent in which, in 1158, the retired emperor Go-Shirakawa had the Rite of the Mantra of Light performed for Bifukumon-in as a fifty-day gyakushū. The manuscript that can be confirmed today is a copy made in 1741; we treat it as a later copy transmitting a precedent of 1158.
The later document called "Kōbō Daishi's Gyakushū Diary," included in Tokunin's Chronicle of Kōbō Daishi, is one whose own source texts the compiler could not determine. To confirm the historical claims that Kūkai began a gyakushū, or that he kept the diary himself, separate evidence is required. While keeping our reverence for the Daishi, it is important to distinguish the layers of a source's composition from the layers of legend.
In these sources we see gyakushū touching upon a wide range of practices: lamps, offerings, the goma, the Mantra of Light. In lay practice today, one can begin with a single thing one is able to cultivate — sutra reading, sutra copying, lamp offerings, almsgiving, 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. Immediately before it, the same sutra also contains a dialogue on the "seven parts," which explains how merit is apportioned when meritorious works are performed for one who has died (Taishō shinshū Daizōkyō, vol. 21, 530a18–a28). The number of days in "three times seven" and the apportionment in "seven parts" are separate matters; they are not to be multiplied together to calculate the merit or effect of an application.
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 treats one specific situation: relatives performing meritorious works after death for a person who, during life, cultivated no good causes and created many sins. Later, the same chapter teaches 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).
The phrase used in this passage is "hearing in health, cultivate for yourself" (Ch. wenjian zixiu); the word "gyakushū" appears in the Consecration Sutra seen earlier. In the translation above, "in health" is rendered in its general sense of "while the body is sound."
As one later example, the Shūi Wago Tōroku (Supplementary Record of Sayings in Japanese), compiled by Ryōkei and included in the Kurodani Shōnin Gotōroku, contains the phrase "obtaining all seven parts," together with a passage that accordingly urges the practice of gyakushū. 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).
This article does not extend the teaching of the seven parts into an evaluation of the deceased or into a calculus for memorial practice in general. Nor do we use it as a promise of benefit from an application, or as words that blame those left behind for their offerings.
Living Today
One Good Deed, Now, While Life Remains
When we think of death, the preciousness of this one day comes into focus. 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 convey now. Even the feelings we could not convey to those who have passed can be entrusted to the sutra reading and the flower offerings of today, and dedicated to them.
Gyakushū asks us: "Now, while life remains, what good will you cultivate?" You may begin with a single good deed you can do yourself, or you may continue for twenty-one days together with the temple's morning service.
Frequently Asked Questions
参考資料
Key References
The primary texts used at the center of this article, together with the studies and sources underlying its historical account. The quotations in Chinese translation were re-verified against the CBETA text, and the quotations from Chinkai against the text of the Jōdo Shū Zensho.
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 Ryōkei, Gyakushū Seppō, in the Kango Tōroku, Jōdo Shū Zensho, vol. 9, J09_0383A01–J09_0417B20.
Compiled by Ryōkei, 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
Abumi Toshihiro, 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 Betto 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, 392, 497–498.
Read Together
Sutra recitation and the dedication of merit, and the original vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, can be traced from the articles below. The textual sources of this article are gathered under "Key References" above.
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