“However hard you may practice in
this life, it can only be for a short while. In the life to come you will be
born in the land
of Amitayus
Shakyamuni
Buddha, The Larger Sutra
*
“If sentient beings in
the three realms of suffering see His (Amida’s) light they will all be relieved
and freed from affliction. At the end of
their lives, they all reach liberation.”[2]
The Larger Sutra
as quoted by Shinran Shonin in his Kyogyoshinsho, chapter V
Here to “see the
Light” means to receive faith in Amida Buddha.
*
“If at the end of
life one obtains birth into this country
(the Pure Land Pure Land
Bodhisattva
Nagarjuna as quoted by Master Genshin in his Ojoyoshu
*
“Sentient beings who
practice the nembutsu are embraced by Amida Buddha and never abandoned; at the end of their lives they will
certainly be born in the Pure
Land
Master Tao-ch’o as quoted by Honen Shonin in his Senchakushu
*
“If sentient beings in the three realms
of suffering see His Light, they will all be relieved and freed from
affliction. At the end of their lives, they all reach emancipation”. [5]
Master
Shan-tao, Ojoraisan
*
“Generally speaking,
the nembutsu practitioner is extolled with the five epithets and is blessed
with the close protection of the two Honored Ones (Avalokitesvara and
Mahasthamaprapta). These are the present benefits. The future benefit is that the practitioner will be born in the Pure Land
Honen Shonin, Senchakushu
*
“Generally speaking,
the nembutsu practitioner is extolled with the five epithets and is blessed
with the close protection of the two Honored Ones (Avalokitesvara and
Mahasthamaprapta). These are the present benefits. The future benefit is that the practitioner will be born in the Pure Land
Honen Shonin, Senchakushu
*
“We read in the
commentary of the Master of Kuang-ming
Temple
‘[…]We should
sincerely devote ourselves to this teaching until the end of our life and,
after abandoning our defiled bodies, realize the eternal bliss of Dharma-nature[8].’”[9]
Shinran Shonin, Kyogyoshinsho,
chapter IV
*
"Whether one is left behind or goes before,
it is surely a sorrowful thing to be parted by death. But the one who first
attains Nirvana vows without fail to save those who where close to him first
and leads those with whom he has been karmically bound, his relatives, and his
friends."[10]
Shinran Shonin, Lamp
for the Latter Ages, Letter 14
*
"As for me,
Shinran, I have never said the nembutsu even once for the repose of my departed
father and mother. For all sentient beings, without exception, have been our
parents and brothers and sisters in the course of countless lives in the many
states of existence. On attaining
Buddhahood after this present life, we can save every one of them."[11]
Shinran Shonin, Tannisho,
chapter 5
*
"By virtue of
being shone upon by Amida’s light, we receive diamond like shinjin when the one
thought-moment of entrusting arises within us; hence, already in that instant
Amida takes us into the stage of the truly settled, and when our lives end, all
our blind passions and obstructions of evil being transformed, we are brought
to realize insight into the non-origination of all existence".[12]
Shinran Shonin, Tannisho,
chapter 14
*
"If we entrust
ourselves to Amida’s Vow that grasps and never abandons us, then even though
unforeseen circumstances, we commit an evil act and die without saying the
nembutsu at the very end, we will immediately realize birth in the Pure Land.
Moreover, even if we
do say the Name at the point of death, it will be nothing other than our
expression of gratitude for Amida’s benevolence, entrusting ourselves to the
Buddha more and more as the very time of Enlightenment draws near."[13]
Shinran Shonin, Tannisho,
chapter 14
*
"Do those who
speak of realizing Enlightenment while in this bodily existence manifest
various accommodated bodies, possess the Buddha’s thirty-two features and
eighty marks, and preach the Dharma to benefit beings like Shakyamuni? It is
this that is meant by realizing Enlightenment in this life.
It is stated in a
hymn:
When the time comes
For shinjin, indestructible as diamond, to become settled,
Amida grasps and protects us with compassion and light,
So that we may part forever from birth-and-death.
For shinjin, indestructible as diamond, to become settled,
Amida grasps and protects us with compassion and light,
So that we may part forever from birth-and-death.
This means that at the
moment shinjin becomes settled, we are grasped, never to be abandoned, and
therefore we will not transmigrate further in the six courses. Only then do we
part forever from birth-and-death. Should
such awareness be confusedly termed “attaining Enlightenment”? It is
regrettable that such misunderstanding should arise.
The late Master said,
according to the true essence of the Pure
Land way, one entrusts oneself to the Primal Vow in this life and realizes
Enlightenment in the Pure
Land
Shinran Shonin, Tannisho,
chapter 15
Birth in the Pure Land Pure
Land , must not be confused with the
actual attainment of birth in the Pure
Land Pure Land
[1]
The Three Pure Land Sutras, translated by Hisao Inagaki in
collaboration with Harold Stewart, revised second edition, Numata Center for
Buddhist Translation and Research, Berkeley ,
California
[2] Kyogyoshinsho – On Teaching, Practice,
Faith, and Enlightenment, translated by Hisao Inagaki, Numata Center for
Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p. 198.
[3] Genshin’s Ojoyoshu – Collected Essays on
Birth into the Pure Land, translated from Japanese by A.K. Reischauer, The
Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, second series, volume VII, 1930,
free online edition at http://www.amida-ji-retreat-temple-romania.blogspot.ro/2014/03/genshins-ojoyoshu-free-english-edition.html#more
[4] Honen’s Senchakushu – Passages on the Selection of the Nembutsu in the Original Vow
(Senchaku Hongan Nembutsu Shu), translated and edited by Senchakushu
English Translation Project, Kuroda Institute, University of Hawai’i Press,
Honolulu and Sogo Bukkyo Kenkujo, Taisho University, Tokyo, p.124
[5] Shan-tao’s Liturgy for Birth – Ojoraisan,
compiled by Master Shan-tao, annotated translation by Zuio Hisao Inagaki,
edited by Doyi Tan, Singapore ,
2009, p.46
[6] Honen’s Senchakushu – Passages on the Selection of the Nembutsu in the Original Vow
(Senchaku Hongan Nembutsu Shu), translated and edited by Senchakushu
English Translation Project, Kuroda Institute, University of Hawai’i Press,
Honolulu and Sogo Bukkyo Kenkujo, Taisho University, Tokyo, p.124
[7] Ibid.
[8] Samsaric or unenlightened beings are like seeds
dropped in an infertile soil. Although the potentiality of any seed is to
become a tree, if you place it in a poor soil, devoid of any good nutrients,
and in the presence of various bad weeds, the seed will not grow.
Just like the seed, the
potentiality of any being is to become a Buddha (this is what is meant by all
beings have Buddha-nature), but because we live in this samsaric world,
itself the effect and echo of our own evil karma, we cannot grow and transform
ourselves into Buddhas.
This is exactly why we need
to let Amida take us to His Pure Land. That Land is the best soil for seeds
like us to quickly develop their natural potential and become Buddhas. Unlike
the various Samsaric planes of existence, the Pure Land
[9] Kyogyoshinsho – On Teaching, Practice,
Faith, and Enlightenment, translated by Hisao Inagaki, Numata Center for
Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p. 175.
[10] The Collected Works of Shinran, Shin
Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto , 1997, p. 545.
[11] Idem, p. 664.
[12] Idem, p. 673.
[13] Idem, p. 673-674.
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