Honen Shonin said:
“A man who reads
about the doctrines of the Jodo (Pure Land) without receiving oral instruction
will miss the thing really necessary to the attainment of Ojo (birth in the Pure
Land). Men of high station such as Nagarjuna and Vasubandhu, and on the other
hand, men of the lowest rank of common latter-day sinners guilty of the ten
evil deeds and the five deadly sins, used to be the object of Shakyamuni Buddha’s
exhortations to enter the Land of Perfect Bliss. Now we, common men of the
lowest class, when we hear the Buddha exhorting good men at once begin to depreciate
ourselves and to think that we cannot be born into the Pure Land, and so we
actually by our doubts prevent ourselves from reaching that birth after death. The
main thing, then, is that we clearly distinguish between the teaching intended
for the good, and that applicable to the evil like ourselves. If we are so
minded, our faith in the certainty of our own birth will become assured, and
through the power of the Buddha’s Primal Vow we shall accomplish our birth into
that land at death.”[1]
My commentary:
I often meet with people who, after hearing about the Pure Land teaching, they go directly to the sutras or to difficult texts like Kyogyoshinsho and get stuck in various phrases that seem to contradict each other. It is said that one should not give swords to youngsters because they can easily hurt themselves with them. In the same way, beginners not yet settled in faith and with a chaotic mind should not study the sutras and other sacred texts without proper guidance by a true teacher. I don’t deny that some might have the good karma of quickly understanding the essentials of our tradition by themselves, but those are very few when compared with the majority who need help to clear their doubts and misunderstandings.
Our Path is easy, but the obstacles people often have when getting in touch with it come from their own minds that are used with a totally different paradigm than that of the Pure Land teaching. It is hard to get over the mental habit of thinking that you have to do something to be worthy of a certain goal. This can be useful in worldly life but is totally useless on the Nembutsu Path where we “let go and let Amida”. Due to our habitual tendency to not forgive those who wronged us and not being able to forgive ourselves too, we tend to think that it is not right for evil people like ourselves and others to be saved so easily by Amida. However, Infinite Compassion has nothing to do with our limited conception of good and evil, and Amida Buddha is not a judge but a loving Parent and Savior.
What
mother would refuse to save her child from drowning because he is evil? For our
unenlightened eyes people are just good and evil, worthy or not worthy of
salvation, but for Amida Buddha we are all suffering children wandering in
samsara. Where we see good and evil, He sees suffering beings that must be
saved.
Many of us “discuss only good and evil, leaving Amida’s benevolence out of consideration”[2], as it is said in Tannisho, forgeting that “the Primal Vow of Amida makes no distinction between people young and old, good and evil” and that “it is the Vow to save the person whose karmic evil is deep and grave and whose blind passions abound”[3]. We forget that “only shinjin (faith) is essential”, but a true teacher will always remind this to us through his oral instructions and help us overcome our mental obstacles.
There
is no need to compare ourselves with others and get depressed or discouraged because
they are better than us. We should instead focus on our personal relation with Amida
Buddha because His Primal Vow was made for each one of us in particular. This
is the meaning of Shinran’s words: “when
I deeply contemplate Amida’s Compassionate Vow, I realize it was made only for
me, Shinran.” Replace the word
“Shinran”, with your own name, and say, “when I deeply contemplate Amida’s
Compassionate Vow, I realize it was made only for me, John, Marry, Marc, etc.” It
is useless to worry or be jealous that others are better than us when as long
as one is not a Buddha yet, nobody can call oneself truly good.
Honen Shonin said:
“Do not be worrying as to whether your evil passions are strong or otherwise, or whether your sins are light of heavy. Only invoke Amida’s Name with your lips, and let the conviction (shinjin/faith) accompany the sound of your voice, that you will of a certainty be born into the Pure Land.”[4]
Shinran, his disciple, also said:
“As for me, I simply accept and entrust myself to what my revered teacher told me, ‘Just say the Nembutsu and be saved by Amida’; nothing else is involved.”[5]
Any true teacher will say the same and you need one to simplify your understanding and help you focus on Amida.
Namo
Amida Bu
[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. 394
[2] The Collected Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997, p.679
[3] The Collected Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997, p.661
[4] 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. 395
[5] The Collected Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997, p.662
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