Jiriki

Jiriki (自力) is the Japanese Buddhist term for self power, to enable ones self to liberate or spiritually enlighten themselves, in other words, to reach nirvana. "Ji" means self and "riki" means power. There are two terms in Japanese Buddhist schools that classify how one becomes spiritually enlightend, Jiriki and Tariki. Tariki means other power, what Christians would call faith.

In Buddhism, Tariki refers to the power of Amitābha Buddha. It is believed that in order to reach enlightenment one must do one of two things, sit and do absolutely nothing (meditate) or do everything. There is a predicament there; the problem is, a human is not capable of physically doing absolute nothing, likewise to do everything, therefore, to do nothing, with perfection, is as hard as to do everything. Jiriki falls under the category of doing absolutely nothing.

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