„There are those who say that the effort to avoid sin and improve oneself is making light of Amida’s Vow [...] But do not for a moment be misled by such misconceptions. Is there any place in any of the sutras where Amida encourages men to sin? Certainly not. Such things come from those who make no effort to get away from their own evil deeds, and who go on in their former sinful life. By such utterly unreasonable and false sayings, they would mislead ignorant men and women, urging them forward in the committing of sin and stirring up their evil passions within them. Now such persons are nothing less than a company of devil, and you ought to think of them as enemies to your reaching birth into the Pure Land of Bliss”.[1]
Commentary:
It is extremely important to understand that Amida Dharma is not an instrument to justify blind passions nor institutionalize them as normal behavior. Indeed, in its saving activity, Amida Buddha makes no distinction between virtuous and non-virtuous people. But making no distinction, out of Great Compassion, between them, it does not mean that He supports or encourages evil. No Buddha, including Amida and Shakyamuni, have ever supported evil actions. Please do not confuse being saved as you are with the idea that all your actions are now worthy and good or that you should not make any effort for good behavior. Instead of praising or justifying your blind passions, be ashamed of them and grateful to Amida’s helping hand. As Shinran said, “don’t take a liking to poison because you have the antidote”, that is, try your best to abandon evil actions even if you are saved by Amida.
Sinners are saved if they accept themselves to be sinners in need of salvation. But one cannot be saved if he constantly tries to find justification for his evil deeds or if he uses the Amida Dharma and the Buddhist temples to promote or institutionalize his immoral behavior.
The Buddhist precepts are a mirror through which we can realize how wretched we are and how much we need to entrust to Amida Buddha. Reading about precepts is like a good slap in the face of our arrogant ego who often wanders here and there doing, saying and thinking all kinds of immoral things. Of course, the Buddhist morality is not something to be easily liked by our samsaric minds as we often tend to find excuses and make efforts to forget when we do a bad thing or to pretend that we actually had good intentions. However, the Mahayana precepts help us come face to face with who we really are. I always bow in humility and shame when reading about the high moral ideal of Mahayana. Precepts remind me of how much I need Amida and how truly compassionate is His Primal Vow.
The truth is that we don’t need to change Buddhist morality when we are saved as we are by Amida Buddha. I’m sure nobody likes to be told he is a sinner but this is exactly what we need to be reminded very often. Somebody must tell us that we are not as good as we think we are, that goodness is not an ideological construct of this or that sexual, social or political ideology and that Buddhist morality does not change with times and fashion. We need Buddhist precepts to shaken our modern comfort and tell us what we do not want to hear so that we become aware of our evil within and accept Amida’s helping hand.
Those who disregard Buddhist
morality or want to change it according to their personal views are encouraging
people to sin without the awareness of sin. To sin without being aware of
sin is to do evil and immoral deeds while lying oneself and others that evil is
good or that immorality is moral and normal. When one is presenting evil and
immorality as being good and moral he is actually urging others to commit evil
and makes them incapable to look up to the salvation offered by Amida, making
them think that as long as they are good people they don’t need salvation or influences
them to believe in heretical views such as Amida encouraging evil and
immorality. In our present time many are already using Amida’s Primal Vow to justify
all kinds of unnatural behavior and transform temples into platforms for various
deviant ideologies.
“Such persons are”,
according to Honen, “nothing less than a
company of devil, and you ought to think of them as enemies to your reaching
birth into the Pure Land of Bliss.”
[1] Honen
the Buddhist Saint - His Life and Teachings, volume III, compiled by imperial
order, translation by Rev Ryugaku Ishizuka and Rev Harper Havelock Coates, The
Society for the Publication of Sacred Books of the World, Kyoto, 1949, p.
404-405
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