Question: What do you think about petitionary prayers and
superstitions? How can one use Nembutsu as a petitionary prayer?
My answer: To say the Name of Amida in order to receive worldly
benefits, like wealth, possessions, success in love affairs, etc., or to think
that by reciting it in a certain manner will bring good luck and good fortune
is to use the Nembutsu as a petitionary prayer and as a superstition.
To believe in luck is in itself a superstition as this
implies the denial of the law of karma according to which one reaps what one
sows. Luck it is said to appear from nowhere or from the will of a divine being,
while the karma implies that everything has a cause in one’s own actions, deeds
and thoughts. One cannot be a Buddhist and believe in luck or good fortune. Thus,
the urge that we often meet in Jodo Shinshu to not depend on petitionary
prayers and superstitions were especially promulgated to prevent us from
falling in two wrong views:
1. to misinterpret Nembutsu as a divination method or a
petitionary prayer for worldly benefits, and
2. to discourage wrong dependency upon various gods and
higher beings.
But what if we cry to Amida Buddha, like a child calls his
mother when he feels sad or when he is in danger? Can this be considered wrong,
too?
For example, when I was in a plane twenty years ago and I
was passing through strong turbulences I prayed to Amida and asked Him to
protect my life. I simply didn’t care then if this was a petitionary prayer or
not, and I also think that Amida was not upset with me.
I am an ordinary person who is afraid of death, and in times
of great sorrow or fear anybody may cry to Amida: “please help me, I am afraid
of this or that….” I think it’s all right to do this. Amida Buddha is always
present, can hear our cries, and understands our need for protection.
Nobody is supposed to have no fear of death after he or she
entrusts to Amida. If we were supposed to have no fear after receiving shinjin (faith)
then it would mean that Jodo Shinshu is not a path for ordinary people, as
ordinary people are always capable of experiencing fear. To be free from fear
in this life means to no longer be in the category of ordinary people. And
Amida Buddha especially saves ordinary people.
Shinran said to Yuien-bo in Tannisho that he himself
was afraid of death and did not wish to go to the Pure Land quickly. Instead of
putting him outside the Dharma, this fear is exactly what assured him even more
of Amida’s salvation:
“Having no thought of
wanting to go to the Pure Land quickly, we think forlornly that we may die even
when we become slightly ill; this is the action of blind passions. It is hard
for us to abandon this old home of pain, where we have been transmigrating for
innumerable kalpas down to the present, and we feel no longing for the Pure
Land of peace, where we have yet to be born. Truly, how powerful our blind
passions are! But though we feel reluctant to part from this world, at the
moment our karmic bonds to this saha world run out and helplessly we die, we
shall go to that land. Amida pities especially the person who has no thought of
wanting to go to the Pure Land quickly. Reflecting on this, we feel the great
Vow of great compassion to be all the more trustworthy and realize that our
birth is settled”.
Of course, it is not the fault of Amida that I suffer and
have to pass through many kinds of dangerous situations. Due to my heavy karma
from the past I deserve to experience any injury – this is the law of cause and
effect. But in the exact moment of being injured, who can really have a calm
state of mind and say to himself: “I am now experiencing the results of my
heavy karma so I should stay calm and not cry to Amida for help”? Some might be
very powerful and can do that but not everybody is the same. I myself cannot
really promise that when facing danger, I will not pray to Amida Buddha for
protection. It’s really impossible for me to never say “Please Amida, protect
me”. Perhaps a Jodo Shinshu soldier in war, or a person living in a bad neighborhood
will also pray to Amida for protection and I really find no doctrinal problem
with this.
I think we should not be strict when approaching Amida in
our daily lives or when we meet with problems. We can ask for help, without
becoming upset if, due to causes and conditions unknown to our limited minds,
we still suffer and apparently receive no help as we wished. But surely we are
helped and supported even if our minds can’t understand how a Buddha helps us.
As I said previously, I think that the exclusion of
petitionary prayers in Jodo Shinshu comes from fearing that some might
misinterpret the Nembutsu as a petitionary prayer or use it to transfer his
so-called “merits” to this or that worldly gain, or that we can obtain material
wealth ignoring the law of cause and effect by praying to higher beings and deities.
It should be very well understood that Nembutsu is not a
magic formula to solve one’s problems in daily life, but only the manifestation
of faith in Amida which causes our attainment of Buddhahood in the Pure Land.
Through the Nembutsu of faith one receives the assurance of attainment of
Buddhahood in the Pure Land, not money, fame or a good wife or husband.
To end all suffering, to become a Buddha and to help others
indefinitely, this is the natural outcome of Nembutsu. Once we have received
faith in our hearts and have started saying the Nembutsu of faith, our karma is
cut and we are assured of birth in the Pure Land.
Having our karma cut means that it doesn’t plant its seeds
in another life filled with ignorance and suffering. However, as long as we
live we continue to experience the results of our past actions from this life
or the beginingless past. It is like a flower taken from the ground – it will
soon wither away and die but still it preserves its color for a few hours or
days. Our karma is like that flower after receiving faith – it’s a sterilized
karma. We still suffer until we die and we are born in the Pure Land, but after
death our suffering is 100% finished and we become Buddhas.
I think there is a great difference between using the Nembutsu
for worldly goals and crying for help in times of danger when we are
overwhelmed by fear. The latter is simply the child’s cry toward his mother
(Amida Buddha) and no one can say it is not doctrinally correct for a child to
cry to his mother.
We should be relaxed in our relationship with Amida Buddha
because He is our spiritual Parent and we, as His children, should be able to
talk freely with Him. How can I, a child of Amida, not be allowed to call on Him
in times of great sorrow, fear or danger? A mother or father never judges a
child like an adult. Similarly, a Buddha never relates to an ordinary person
like to a Buddha.
I do not know how my last moments of life would be, so I
cannot promise that I will die like a courageous person, facing death with
bravery, although I wish this so much. But no matter if in my last breaths I
ask helplessly not to die due to my unconscious attachment to life and I
finally die, I know I will go to Amida’s Pure Land and become a Buddha myself.
Shinran said in his Letters that he gives no special meaning to one’s
last moments. If one has shinjin (faith), then he can die in any circumstances
as he will surely go to the Pure Land after death.
To have fear or ask for protection and help from Amida in
times of great danger and suffering is due to our own blind passions, while to
be saved as we are from birth and death is due to Amida’s Power. These two have
no connection with one another.
In concluding this chapter, I wish to mention one more
thing. I know that the example of Shinran’s giving up the recitation of the
Pure Land sutras for the benefit of others is
always shown as a proof against petitionary prayers and wrong interpretation of
practice in Jodo Shinshu. But what
Shinran tried to do when he chanted Amida-kyo
in that specific situation was transference of merit. He hoped to achieve
merits by sutra recitation which he intended to be transferred to those in
need. He then realized this attempt is not in accord with the Pure Land
teaching, and he stopped.
In comparrison
with this, what I did when I prayed to Amida Buddha in that dangerous situation
was not a transference of merit but just a cry of help in a time of suffering
and fear. Now I like flying and I find no problem with turbulences, although
sometimes I might not be physically well due to high altitude, but this does
not mean that I am a person free of any fear in any circumstace. I am sure that
faith and the Nembutsu of faith can co-exist with some cries of help in the
middle of great suffering. Amida will not be upset.
It is said that one day, when Shinran saw the immense
suffering of peasants from an area devastated by hunger, he secluded himself
and concentrated on chanting the Three Pure Land sutras many times in order to
benefit them. But after a period he gave up this practice realizing it was a
mistake to think that he could rely on his own power of chanting to save
others. To chant sutras and transfer the merits thus gained is a custom in many
Buddhist schools, but not in Jodo Shinshu because we think that only Amida, as
a Buddha, has true merits that can be shared with others.
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