I like so much these words of Sakakibara Sensei from the book BODHISATTVAS EVERYWHERE:
“When you take a bath, you enter with the dirtiest part of the body: your feet. In exactly the same way, you enter the Vow with all your defilements. The nembutsu enters your body through the dirtiest part of your body – the bottom of your feet. Amida does not say you must come with your body cleansed, but that you should come with the body that is doomed to the six realms of transmigration(1) . The Buddha himself comes to you begging you to let him save you. As my teacher, Professor Ikeyama, has expressed it, the Buddha says, bowing to you, “I beg you, please come soon”. Even if you are a defiled being, you will be saved as you are . Namo Amida Butsu is the path of going beyond birth and death. This is the teaching of Amida Buddha.”
(1) The six worlds where rebirth may take place: hells, the realm of hungry spirits, animals, humans, demigods or the fighting spirits and gods. All these worlds and the beings who inhabit them are in a greater or lower degree subject to illusions, therefore to pain.
“When you take a bath, you enter with the dirtiest part of the body: your feet. In exactly the same way, you enter the Vow with all your defilements. The nembutsu enters your body through the dirtiest part of your body – the bottom of your feet. Amida does not say you must come with your body cleansed, but that you should come with the body that is doomed to the six realms of transmigration(1) . The Buddha himself comes to you begging you to let him save you. As my teacher, Professor Ikeyama, has expressed it, the Buddha says, bowing to you, “I beg you, please come soon”. Even if you are a defiled being, you will be saved as you are . Namo Amida Butsu is the path of going beyond birth and death. This is the teaching of Amida Buddha.”
(1) The six worlds where rebirth may take place: hells, the realm of hungry spirits, animals, humans, demigods or the fighting spirits and gods. All these worlds and the beings who inhabit them are in a greater or lower degree subject to illusions, therefore to pain.
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