佛教常識_聽說日本僧人都有家室，是嗎？

Is it true that Japanese monks may get married?
聽說日本僧人都有家室，是嗎？

Originally, Japanese monks did not have wives and children. In 12th century, Shinran (親鸞), the founder of Jodo Shinshū (the True Sect of Pure Land)—a branch of the Pure Land Sect, advocated that people could take up Buddhist practice along with their wives. This initiated a way of life among monks of getting married and having children. But for centuries, this custom was confined to this sect alone. After the Meiji Reformation (1868), the custom of marriage became popular among other sects of the day. Today with the exception of a few monks of minor sects, who keep celibacy, the overwhelming majority of monks get married, their Buddhist profession passing on to their offspring. Thus the institution of popularizing the Buddhist cause by lay Buddhists came into existence. However, this state of affairs applies to male priests only, while the nuns in Japan today continue to lead monastic life with abstinence as before.
原來日本僧人都是沒有家室的。公元十二世紀時期，凈土宗的一派——凈土真宗的創(chuàng)始者親鸞倡導帶妻修行，開始娶妻生子。其后幾百年中這個制度只限于這一宗派。到明治維新后，僧人結婚的風氣便在其它各宗派中流行起來?，F(xiàn)在除少數(shù)宗派的少數(shù)僧人仍然過獨身生活外，絕大多數(shù)僧人都有家室。他們的子孫世襲僧人的職業(yè)。這便形成了以在家佛教徒擔任弘傳佛教事業(yè)的制度。但是這種情況只是屬于男僧人，今天日本的尼眾還是出家如律持戒的。