Shakyamuni Buddha said:
“The light of
Amitayus (Amida) shines brilliantly, illuminating all the Buddha lands of the ten
directions. There is no place where it is not perceived. I am not the only one
who now praises His light. All the Buddhas, Sravakas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Bodhisattvas
praise and glorify it in the same way. If sentient beings, having heard of the
majestic virtue of His light, glorify it continually, day and night, with
sincerity of heart, they will be able to attain Birth in His land as they wish.
Then the multitudes of Bodhisattvas and Sravakas will praise their excellent virtue.
Later, when they attain Buddhahood, all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the ten
directions will praise their light, just as I now
praise the light of Amitayus.’
The Buddha
continued, ‘The majestic glory of the light of Amitayus (Amida) could not be
exhaustively described even if I praised it continually, day and night, for a
period of one kalpa.’”[1]
This fragment is clearly related
with the 17th Vow of Amida where He promised that His Name will be praised
and glorified by all Buddhas in the ten directions. I already explained this
Vow in the section on the 48 Vows.
To praise Amida’s Name is to
praise Him and His method of salvation. Amida’s Light
is His Name because He is called the Buddha of Infinite Light and Infinite
Life. Thus, Amida’s Light and Name are one, and so to praise His Name is to
praise His Light. The majestic glory of this Name and Light is impossible to
described even by Shakyamuni himself.
Because the goal of all Buddhas
is to save (bring to Buddhahood) all beings, they realize that the only one
among them who has the best method to fulfil this goal is Amida, and so they
all bear witness to Him, praise His Name and encourage us to say it in faith.
“Illuminating all the Buddha lands of the ten
directions” means that all beings, no matter their
spiritual capacities (even the lowest of the low), the karmic situation they are in, or the samsaric plane of existence they were born into, can be saved if
they entrust to Amida. The Light of this Buddha is so infinitely powerful that
no physical or karmic obstacle can resist it.
“There is no place where it is not perceived” means that there is no plane of existence where beings cannot
entrust to Amida and be saved if they become open to Him. Unlike other Buddhas,
Amida’s method makes absolutely NO distinction between the good and evil. The
only thing we should do is hear about this easy method of salvation from a good
teacher (“having heard of the majestic
virtue of His light”), entrust to Amida, say His Name in faith (“glorify it continually, day and night, with
sincerity of heart”) and wish to be born in His Pure Land (“as they wish”) and the result will be
that we will actually be born there after death (“will be able to attain Birth as they wish”).
“To glorify it continually, day and night” means that we should say the Nembutsu all our life, in any
circumstance, without regard to place, time (“day and night”) or state of mind.
“With sincerity of heart” means
that the basis of our saying of the Name should be the entrusting heart
(shinjin) or faith.
Saying
the Nembutsu of faith (the Nembutsu of the Primal Vow) is to praise Amida’s
Light because Namo Amida Butsu means “I entrust/I pay homage to Amida Buddha”,
who is the Buddha of Infinite Light ( Amitabha) and Infinite Life (Amitayus). As
I already explained the word “Amida”
is the combination of Amitabha and Amitayus.
Besides
using the six character Name (Namo Amida Butsu), Shinran also used two other
versions of the Nembutsu: with nine
characters - 'Na-mo-fu-ka-shi-gi-ko-nyo-rai' (Homage to
the Tathagata of Inconceivable Light) and with ten characters - 'Ki-myo-jin-ji-po-mu-ge-ko-nyo-rai'
(Homage to the Tathagata of Unhindered Light Pervading the Ten Quarters). So,
it is clear that saying Amida’s Name is actually praising or glorifying His
Light.
Because
we entrust and say Amida’s Name in faith we will be praised by all the Enlightened Ones
-
“then the multitudes of Bodhisattvas and
Sravakas will praise their excellent virtue” .
The
Bodhisattvas mentioned here are in fact, Buddhas who manifest as Bodhisattvas.
I already explained this category of Bodhisattvas in the second chapter – “The qualities of Bodhisattvas in the audience”, so
please check that again if you need it.
We
don’t have special virtues accumulated through personal power, but by entrusting
ourselves to Amida we receive His karmic merits which makes us capable to be
born in His Pure Land. These merits or virtues will always belong to Amida, but
they work within us and push us irreversibly towards His Pure Land. We are
praised by all the Enlightened Ones because they see that we follow their encouragement:
“we the Buddhas of the ten directions praise Amida’s Name, and you should too
say it in faith and aspire to be born in His Pure Land”. So, after seeing us doing
what they told us to do, they praise us and are happy with our dedication.
If
one has a great Master and faithfully follows His instructions, then the
Master’s glory and virtue will reflect on the disciple even if the disciple is
not the same with the Master. It is the case with us who follow exclusively the requirements of Amida’s Primal Vow and say His Name in faith. We are not Buddhas yet, but all Buddhas
praise our dedication towards Amida.
Shinran
explained:
“Amida’s
Seventeenth Vow declares that He will not enter into perfect Enlightenment if
those who say the Name are not praised
by all the countless Buddhas throughout the worlds in the ten quarters. The
passage declaring the fulfilment of the [Seventeenth] Vow states: ‚such people
are praised by all the Buddhas.’’’[2]
Clearly, “such people are praised by all
the Buddhas” is Shinran’s reading of “ the multitudes of Bodhisattvas and Sravakas will
praise their excellent virtue” which shows that the
term Bodhisattva here actually means Enlightened Bodhisattvas or Buddhas who
manifest as Bodhisattvas.
He also
explained:
“Those
who realize shinjin (faith), which is Other Power,
'Revere the Dharma and greatly rejoice in it,
And therefore are my true companions'.
'Revere the Dharma and greatly rejoice in it,
And therefore are my true companions'.
Such
is the praise of the World Honored One,
the
Master of the teaching".[3]
"Sakyamuni
rejoices in persons of shinjin, saying, 'They are my true companions'”.[4]
This makes reference to another of
Shakyamuni’s statements in the Larger
Sutra about those who entrust to His teaching (Dharma) on Amida:
“If
you have heard the Dharma (Amida Dharma) and do not forget it
But
adore and revere it with great joy,
You
are my good friend.”[5]
This
is another proof that the way Shinran understood this as the praising of all Buddhas
is accurate. What one Buddha (Shakyamuni) praises, all Buddhas praise.
Shinran also said:
„Persons
of shinjin are the true disciples of the Buddha[6];
they are the ones who abide in right-mindedness. Since they have been grasped
never to be abandoned, they are said to have attained the diamondlike mind.
They are called 'the best among the best', 'excellent persons', 'wondrous,
excellent persons', 'the very finest persons', 'rare persons'."[7]
"Practitioners
of the Nembutsu are 'excellent people' among human beings, 'wonderful,
excellent people' among human beings, 'the very best people' among human
beings,'rare people' among human beings, and 'the most excellent people' among
human beings."[8]
„If
ordinary people, whether good or evil,
Hear
the Dharma and trust Amida’s Universal Vow,
Shakyamuni
praises them as ‘humans of great and superior understanding’;
Such
people are called “white lotus flowers.”[9]
Such
praising by the Buddhas happen during the present life of those who entrust to
Amida, when they are still unenlightened. After they are born in the Pure Land
where they attain Buddhahood, their Light as Buddhas will also be praised in
the same way Shakyamuni and all Buddhas praise the Light of Amida:
“Later, when
they attain Buddhahood, all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the ten directions
will praise their light, just as I now praise the light of Amitayus.”
If
now the Light of Amida is praised as supreme in the universe, capable of
reaching everywhere and saving everybody without being obstructed by anything,
and if our Light as future Buddhas in the Pure Land will be praised exactly
like that of Amida, then it means we will attain the same perfect Enlightenment
and the same perfect means of saving others as Amida Buddha himself! This is wonderful
and impossible to understand with our present limited minds!
[1] The
Three Pure Land Sutras - A Study and Translation from Chinese by
Hisao Inagaki in collaboration with Harold Stewart, Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai and
Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p.25-26 and The Three Pure Land Sutras, volume II, The Sutra on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life,
Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, Japan,
2009, p.35
[2] Shinran Shonin,
Lamp for the Latter-Ages, letter 4, The
Collected Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu
Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997, p.529
[3] Shinran Shonin, Hymns of the Dharma Ages, The Collected Works of Shinran,
Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997, p.412
[4] Shinran
Shonin, Lamp for the Latter-Ages,
letter 2, The Collected Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation
Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997, p.526
[5] The
Three Pure Land Sutras - A Study and Translation from Chinese by
Hisao Inagaki in collaboration with Harold Stewart, Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai and
Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p.41
[6] Read the
chapter “The true disciple of Amida and all Buddhas” from my book The Meaning of Faith and Nembutsu in Jodo
Shinshu Buddhism, p 221 Free online edition, http://amida-ji-retreat-temple-romania.blogspot.com/2018/07/new-book-meaning-of-faith-and-nembutsu.html#more
[7] Shinran Shonin, Lamp for the Latter-Ages, letter 2, The Collected Works of Shinran,
Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997, p.526
[8] Shinran
Shonin quoted Master Shantao in his Kyogyoshinsho, chapter III, Kyogyoshinsho – On Teaching, Practice, Faith,
and Enlightenment, translated by Hisao Inagaki, Numata Center for Buddhist
Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p. 131-132
[9] Kyogyoshinsho
– On Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Enlightenment, translated by Hisao
Inagaki, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p.
77
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