- updated on January 21st 2017 -
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| Amida Buddha |
In chapter II of his Kyogyoshinsho, Shinran
defines the great practice:
"When I humbly
contemplate the 'going forth' aspect of Amida’s merit transference, I realize
that there are great practice and great faith. The great practice is to call the Name of the Tathagata of Unhindered
Light (Amida Buddha). This practice contains all good and roots of virtue,
and is perfectly accomplished and most eficacious in bringing about liberation.
It is the treasure-sea of merits of true suchness, ultimate reality. For this
reason, it is called great practice.
This practice comes
from the vow of great compassion, the Seventeenth Vow, which is called the Vow
that the Name shall be glorified by all the Buddhas. It is also called the Vow
that the Name shall be praised by all the Buddhas, and the Vow that the Name shall be lauded by all the Buddhas. Further, it can be called the Vow
accomplishing the going-forth aspect of merit transference, and also the Vow of
the Nembutsu chosen from among many practices.'
Concerning the vow
that the Name shall be praised by all the Buddhas, the Larger Sutra states:
'If, when I attain
Buddhahood, innumerable Buddhas in the lands of the ten directions should not all
praise and glorify my Name, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment.'
The Larger Sutra also
states:
'When I attain
Buddhahood,
My Name shall be heard
throughout the ten directions;
Should there be any
place where it is not heard,
May I not attain perfect
Enlightenment.…'"[1]
"The sharp sword
for cutting asunder our ignorance,
its effects, and the
karmic cause of suffering in samsara,
is Amida’s Name.
With a single
utterance of the Name, all our evils are
removed".[2]
Amida's Name has in itself the power to cut our evil karma
which keeps us prisoners in Samsara. In the last passage quoted above, the Name
is first mentioned as the cause of liberation, and then the utterance of the
Name, that is, Namo Amida Butsu. This
means that the utterance of the Name has the effect of liberating us from birth
and death because the Name is the Power of Amida, not because WE say it. This
aspect is extremely important. Of course, we must say it, in order to submit
ourselves to Amida's Name and His Power invested in the Name, but this does not mean that the Name itself
works because of us. The deep truth is that we just avail ourselves of the
Power of the Name, and let ourselves to be carried by it to the Pure Land:
"What is more,
our Buddha Amida encompasses beings with His Name. And so, as we hear it with
the ears and recite it with the lips, boundless exalted merits enter into our
hearts and become the seeds of Buddhahood forever; they instantaneously remove
heavy karmic evil that would entail transmigration for a hundred million
kalpas, thereby making us realize highest Enlightenment. We truly know that the Name possesses much merit, not
little good.[3]
It is because of this, that Shinran Shonin reffered to
Nembutsu as both practice (attention -
"great practice"),
and non-practice for those who say it:
"The nembutsu,
for its practicers, is not a practice or a good act. Since it is not preformed
out of one's own designs, it is not a practice. Since it is not good done
through one's own calculation, it is not a good act. Because it arises wholly
from Other Power and is free of self-power, for the practicer, it is not a
practice or a good act" (Tannisho, chapter 8).
"The nembutsu of Amida's Primal Vow is not our practice, it is not our good; it is simply keeping the Name of the Buddha. It is the Name that is good, the Name that is the practice. When we speak of practice, we mean doing good. The Primal Vow is clearly the Buddha's promise. When we have understood this, we see that the Vow is not our good, nor is it our practice. Hence we speak of Other Power" (Lamp for the Latter-Ages, letter 22)
"The nembutsu of Amida's Primal Vow is not our practice, it is not our good; it is simply keeping the Name of the Buddha. It is the Name that is good, the Name that is the practice. When we speak of practice, we mean doing good. The Primal Vow is clearly the Buddha's promise. When we have understood this, we see that the Vow is not our good, nor is it our practice. Hence we speak of Other Power" (Lamp for the Latter-Ages, letter 22)
Nembutsu is indeed something we say with our lips, I mean,
we do this action of saying "Namo Amida Butsu" often or seldom, so at
the conventional level we may call it the practice of saying
the Name. But at the deepest level, it
is not really our practice. We can easily realize that the Name is not just
a mere name, because if we say, for example, our own names or the name of any
person, we cannot attain birth in the Pure Land through it. So, what is the
difference between saying any name and the Name of Amida? It is the power
invested in these names - that is, no power in our names, and an infinite Power
in the Name of Amida. No matter how much concentration we use when we say our
names, we cannot attain birth in the Pure Land. Contrary to this, even if we
say the Name of Amida once or ten times,
and even if we are not in a concentrated state of mind when we say it, we
still attain birth there! This is exactly why we cannot really state that
Nembutsu or saying Amida's Name, is our practice.
The Name is effective in saving us because it is Amida's
Name and because He manifested all His enlightened virtues in it. This is why
Shinran says that Nembutsu is the Great
Practice - "the great practice
is to call the Name of the Tathagata of Unhindered Light". The term, "great practice"
indicates that it is not the practice nor the merit of smaller or unenlightened
beings. Shinran uses "Great" in contrast to "small" for a very
good reason, here. He also said:
"We now clearly know that the Nembutsu is not a self-power
practice performed by ordinary people or sages; hence, it is called “practice
not to be transferred [toward the Buddha]."[5]
It is a delusion to think that we accumulate merits by the
recitation of Amida's Name which we transfer to birth in His Pure Land. The merits belong to the Name, not to
recitation! When we say Namo Amida Butsu in faith, we simply obey to
Amida's Name, and we naturaly come in accord with His Primal Vow in which He said
we should have faith in Him and say His Name while wishing to be born in His Pure Land. So, again, Amida's Name
is the Great Practice because all the infinite merits of His
own practices over many kalpas are invested in His Name. All His sincere aspirations
to save all beings, His enlightened karma and Power, and all His transcendental
merits and virtues are there, in His Name:
"Amida in His
causal state of a bodhisattva established the vows. Holding fast to His
aspiration, He accomplished practices. He entertained compassion to save beings
for 'dust-motes' kalpas. There is no place, even as small as a mustard seed,
where He did not abandon
His life for their
sake. He embraced and guided all, without exception, with the six perfections
of compassion and wisdom. He never failed to respond to the need of the people
by giving away His possessions and His own self. When conditions matured, His
practices were fulfilled and His virtues were perfected; and thus, He all at
once perfectly realized the three Buddha bodies[6], and the myriad merits manifest themselves in the four characters
(A-mi-da-butsu).[7]
The ultimate reality of Amida Buddha - His Dharmakaya beyond form (Suchness),
as well as all His manifestations for the sake of saving sentient beings (glorious body of skilful means) are included in
the Name and are represented by the Name, as Shinran explained:
" It is the treasure-sea of merits of true
suchness, ultimate reality. For this reason, it is called great practice".[8]
"The ten
repetitions of the Name[9] arise from the
unsurpassed faith by taking as object the
Name of Amida Tathagata of a glorious body of skillful means[10] that comprises
immeasurable merits that are true and pure".[11]
The Name is like the most powerful and safest plane which
can take you to your destination. Amida invites all sentient beings to come
aboard that plane, and some do indeed come with
great faith in the constructor of the plane and pilot. Can we say that the
plane is able to fly and take us to the destination because we come aboard and we fly with it? Does the plane flies because of us? This would be
simmilar with saying that Nembutsu is our own practice.
Or is the plane flying and will certainly reach its
destination because it was made by the greatest constructor in the world and is
flied by the best pilot? The common sense truth that the plane flies because of
the genius of the costructor and pilot, and not because of us, passengers, is
the same with saying that the Nembutsu is not our own practice, even if we say
it with our lips.
Also, there
is a very important ingredient which transforms a simple saying of the Name
into the true Nembutsu. This is faith
(shinjin). To say the Nembutsu without faith in Amida Buddha is like using
His Name as your own practice. It means to think that Nembutsu works because of
you ( like the better you recite it or the more concentrated you are, the more
chances you have to be born in the Pure Land, etc), and not because of Amida's
Power to save. This is the self-power nembutsu (jiriki nembutsu).
In contrast to this, Nembutsu said as an expression of faith
and gratitude is the Other Power Nembutsu (Tariki Nembutsu). When one is fully
connected to Amida's Power and realizes that everything necesary to his
salvation comes only from Amida, then the Nembutsu he says will be a simple
expression of faith and gratitude for being saved. Master Rennyo explained
this:
“The self-power
nembutsu is practiced with an expectation that the Buddha will save you because
of the merit of reciting the nembutsu many times. The Other-Power teaching is
that at the moment a single thought of entrusting (shinjin) arises in your
mind, you are immediately saved. The Nembutsu you say after that is simply to
repeat, “Namo Amida Butsu, Namo Amida Butsu, ...” joyfully with a thought of
gratitude that you have been saved.”
So, again, for a person of faith, even if he says the Name
of Amida with his own lips, he does not regard it as a personal practice or
merit.
The Name itself is
the Great Practice, not our saying of the Name. This Name is supreme in the
universe, and all Buddhas praise it, thus encouraging us to say it in faith. Attention here - the Buddhas do not praise
our so called "merits"in saying the Name, but the Name. They do not praise our so called "practice", but the Name. Simply stated, they want us to entrust ourselves to
Amida's Power which is invested in His Name. The object of our devotion and
faith is not our own power to say the Name (we do not rely on our own power to
recite), but the Name itself, and the One who has that Name - Amida Buddha:
"The ten
repetitions of the Name[12] arise from the
unsurpassed faith by taking as object
the Name of Amida Tathagata of a glorious body of skillful means that comprises
immeasurable merits that are true and pure.
Suppose a man is hit
by a poisoned arrow that has pierced his sinews and broken a bone. If he hears
the sound of a drum treated with a special antidote, the arrow will
instantly come out and the poison will be removed".[13]
The Name of Amida is like the miraculous antidote which
cures all poison. The power to cure is
in the Name, not in our capacity to recite it often or seldom, or in the
concentrated state of mind that we can develop through our own capacities. Nothing
which can be found in our unenlightened personalities can improve the Name and
its curing effect. So, again, the saying of the Name (Nembutsu) is not our
practice even if we say it with our own lips.
We are not the owners of Amida's Name. This must be very well
understood.
related articles:
[1] Kyogyoshinsho – On
Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Enlightenment, translated by Hisao Inagaki,
Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p. 9
[2] Kyogyoshinsho – On
Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Enlightenment, translated by Hisao Inagaki,
Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p. 39
[3] Kyogyoshinsho – On
Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Enlightenment, translated by Hisao Inagaki,
Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p. 52
[4] Kyogyoshinsho – On
Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Enlightenment, translated by Hisao Inagaki,
Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p. 39
[5] Kyogyoshinsho – On
Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Enlightenment, translated by Hisao Inagaki,
Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p. 58
[6] The three Buddha bodies
(aspects) are 1) the Dharmakaya or body (aspect) of ultimate reality, 2) the
Sambhogakaya or the transcendental body (aspect) of recompense, and 3)
Nirmanakaya or body (aspect) of transformation. Thus, Amida Buddha is beyond
any form in His Dharmakaya aspect, dwells with His transcendent form (Sambhogakaya)
in the Pure Land, and in the same time He is here with us, people who have
genuine faith in Him, in His various Accomodated and Transformation Bodies
(Nirmanakayas). For a detailed explanation of the The Three Bodies of Amida Buddha see page 88 of my book The True Teaching on Amida Buddhaand His Pure Land,
Dharma Lion Publications, Craiova, 2015.
[7] Kyogyoshinsho – On
Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Enlightenment, translated by Hisao Inagaki,
Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p. 52
[8] Kyogyoshinsho – On
Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Enlightenment, translated by Hisao Inagaki,
Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p. 9
[9] One or ten, or any number is ok. Here the
number ten is used to signify any number.
[10] According to the doctrine of the two Buddha
bodies,
[11] Kyogyoshinsho – On
Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Enlightenment, translated by Hisao Inagaki,
Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p. 163
[12] One or ten, or any number is ok. Here the
number ten is used to signify any number.
[13] Kyogyoshinsho – On
Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Enlightenment, translated by Hisao Inagaki,
Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p. 163
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