The meaning of mindfulness in Jodo Shinshu Buddhism

 

Question: What did Shinran mean by "mindfulness is Nembutsu"?
 
 “Saying the Name is in itself mindfulness;
mindfulness is Nembutsu; 
Nembutsu is Namo Amida Butsu”.
 
Answer: We need to know that whenever we meet the word “mindfulness” it is in no way referring to the modern idea of meditation based on self-power. For Shinran “mindfulness” always referred to faith and to Amida Buddha. So, he said that mindfulness is Nembutsu and that Nembutsu is Namo Amida Butsu. What does Namo Amida Butsu mean? It means “I take refuge in Amida Buddha/Homage to Amida Buddha”. What does Nembutsu represent? What do we express by saying Namo Amida Butsu? We express faith, so Namo Amida Butsu or Nembutsu is the expression of faith. It is faith as there can be no faith separate from Nembutsu and no genuine Nembutsu separate from faith. Shinran Shonin said: 
"Although the one moment of shinjin and the one moment of Nembutsu are two, there is no Nembutsu separate from shinjin (faith), nor is the one moment of shinjin separate from the one moment of Nembutsu.”[1]
 
Rennyo Shonin also said:
 
"'Namo' means 'to take refuge in'; it means to entrust yourself to Amida with the assurance of your salvation.”[2]
 
So, according to Shinran, mindfulness is faith and the Nembutsu of faith. It means to be mindful or aware of Amida Buddha’s Primal Vow and of His indiscriminative salvation. It means to have the twofold profound convictions according to which 1) we know that we are people of deep karmic limitations, incapable of attaining Buddhahood through our own power and 2) that only Amida Buddha can save us through His Vow Power without asking anything from us. This is the mindfulness of the Jodo Shinshu Path – to entrust to Amida Buddha, to be aware of His indiscriminative salvation and of our karmic limitations, to know that only Amida Buddha can save us. A person who says the Nembutsu of faith is aware of all these.
 
Shinran Shonin also said in Shoshinge:
 
“When a thought of mindfulness of Amida’s Primal Vow arises,
At that instant we spontaneously enter the stage of definite assurance.
Always reciting only the Name of the Tathagata,
We should seek to repay our indebtedness to His Great Compassion”.
 
To repay indebtedness means to say thank you to Amida Buddha.
 
In chapter III of his Kyogyoshinsho, Shinran also said:
 
“Deep mind is deep faith. Deep faith is steadfast deep faith. Steadfast deep faith is decisive mind. Decisive mind is supreme mind (because this is the Bodhi Mind). Supreme mind is true faith. True faith is enduring mind. Enduring mind is sincere mind. Sincere mind is mindfulness.  Mindfulness is the true One Mind. The true One Mind is great joy (relief at knowing the burden of liberation is taken from your shoulders by Amida). Great Joy is the true entrusting heart. The true entrusting heart is adamantine faith. Adamantine faith is the aspiration for Buddhahood. The aspiration for Buddhahood is the desire to save sentient beings. The desire to save sentient beings is the desire to embrace sentient beings and bring them to the Pure Land of Peace and Bliss. This desire is the Great Bodhi Mind. This mind is the Great Compassion, for it arises from the wisdom of Infinite Light.”
 
Also, Master Jih-hsiu is quoted by Shinran as saying:
“Those who attain Birth through a single thought of mindfulness are the same as Maitreya.”
 
As you well know, Shinran also considered that faith is what makes you the same as Maitreya, the future Buddha, because in a way which is somehow similar to Him we are future Buddhas. So, again, we see that mindfulness actually means faith (shinjin).
 
In the Hymns in Praise of Amida Buddha, Master T’an-luan said[3]:
 
“His Light shines everywhere at all times.
For this reason, the Buddha is also called “Unceasing Light”.
By accepting in faith the Power of His Light, with continuous mindfulness,
We all attain Birth. Hence I prostrate myself and worship Him.”
 
Here again there is this connection between faith and continuous mindfulness. What does “continuous mindfulness” means? It means that one who has faith will always have the twofold profound conviction of faith: he will always know that he is a person of deep karmic limitations, incapable of attaining Buddhahood through his own power and that only Amida Buddha can save him through His Vow Power without asking anything from him.  There are many other passages in Shinran’s works which show that mindfulness means faith.
 
Master Shan-tao also said:
 
“Of those who abandon the sole practice of Nembutsu and seek to perform sundry acts, very rarely, one or two out of a hundred or, very rarely, three or five out of a thousand, will attain Birth (in the border land which shows how hard it is to attain birth there!). Why?  For the following reasons: miscellaneous conditions confuse their minds and so they lose right mindfulness; they are not in accord with the Buddha’s Primal Vow, they run counter to the Buddha’s teaching, they do not follow the Buddha’s words, their concentration does not continue, their mindfulness is interrupted, their merit transference and aspiration are not sincere and truthful”[4]
 
To “lose right mindfulness” means to stop trusting Amida Buddha, to not be in accord with His Primal Vow (18^th Vow), to give up the sole reliance on Amida alone and go against the teaching of sole reliance on Amida. They cannot focus their salvation on Amida and their mindfulness of Amida is interrupted because they are tempted by various other practices. Their merit transference and aspiration is not sincere and truthful because the very idea of merit transference is false as no unenlightened person has genuine supramundane merits and their aspiration is not in accord with the Primal Vow that is, they do not aspire to birth in the Pure Land through the Power of Amida. Extremely few of such people who “abandon the sole practice of Nembutsu and seek to perform sundry acts” can attain birth in the border land of the Pure Land if they are very serious in the practice described in the 20^th Vow.
 
“Those who serve gods and yet receive such retributions –
Why do they not abandon such beliefs and practice mindfulness of Amida?”[5]
 
To “practice mindfulness of Amida” means to think to Amida with faith.
 
Master Chih-yuan of Mount Ku said[6]:
 
“Through the power of faith, one firmly accepts the Name in one’s heart. Through the power of mindfulness, one keeps it without forgetting.”

Faith and mindfulness are inter-related. Only because one has faith,  can one say the Nembutsu as an expression of faith and never forget it. Faith leads to Nembutsu and to never forget the Nembutsu, never forget Amida, never forget that we are weak beings in need of Amida’s helping hand, never forget that we are saved as we are and assured of birth in the Pure Land.
This faith is mindfulness. This faith is Namo Amida Butsu.

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[1] Lamp for the Latter-Ages, letter 11
[2] Thus I Have Heard from Rennyo Shonin - Rennyo Shonin‘s Goichidaiki Kikigaki
[3] As quoted by Shinran in his Kyogyoshinsho, chapter V.
[4] Kyogyoshinsho, chapter VI
[5] Master Shan-tao as quoted by Shinran in his Kyogyoshinsho, VI
[6] as quoted by Shinran in his Kyogyoshinsho, VI.