The lessons of the “the Dalai Lama incident” from my perspective as a devotee of Amida Buddha

First of all, Dalai Lama does NOT represent all Buddhists. Dalai Lama is NOT Buddhism. Dalai Lama is just an ordinary old monk with big problems. Now let’s go to the actual topic of this article.

 

I was sad and shocked, like many of you, by that disgusting incident with the child, which is why I wrote about it in my previous article (click here to read it). However, I have recently come to the conclusion that what happened there is NOT an obstacle for the Buddha Dharma, but an opportunity to learn and get detached from the things that are not essential, to realize that we live in a dark age when many monks are actually just monks in name only, as we often say in Jodo Shinshu, and that nowadays devotion and faith should be turned towards the Power of the Buddhas, especially Amida Buddha, and not on human beings, no matter how nice they smile or how great stories we read about their traditions. So, dear friends, you can choose to look at this incident with eyes of sadness and feeling angry, or with eyes of wisdom and use it to strengthen your faith in Amida Buddha and in the need to abandon any reliance on self-power and fake human gurus.

Self-power practices and teachings are not appropriate for our times

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Selected passages from Honen Shonin 

with commentary

Honen Shonin said:

 

"Regardless of whether it is of Mahayana Buddhism or Hinayana Buddhism, we cannot endure the training in these sacred teachings of the four vehicles, as they are not appropriate teachings for our present time……It is unnecessary to state here that in this period of the decline of Dharma (the Last Dharma Age), pursuit of these achievements is almost impossible, especially for those of us with minimal capabilities…..It goes without saying that in the present day, while it is still the period of the decline of the Dharma (the Last Dharma Age), let alone during the periods of the true Dharma (the Right Dharma Age) and the semblance of the Dharma (the Semblance Dharma Age), no being is excluded from birth in the Pure Land.”[1]
 
Commentary: 

Monks and nuns of the Last Dharma Age

This is a fragment from my new book 

On the Monks and Nuns of Amidaji Branch 

of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism 

Click here to listen to this article in audio format on YouTube

Click here for the Spanish version

Both Honen Shonin and Shinran Shonin were ordained Tendai monks. Although they left that school, they continued to wear their monk robes, and while Honen remained celibate, Shinran got married and had six children. Before him and after him, many monks had secret wives and children, but Shinran went public about his marriage and continued to wear the monk’s robes. Also, after he and his Master Honen were banished by the Emperor, striped of their ordination status[1] and given secular names, they also kept their robes. At that time Shinran said about himself that he was neither monk nor lay, but he continued to wear the robes of a monk. Later, they were both pardoned, so their former status was restored. 

Why did Shinran marry? Because he wanted to show that the salvation offered by Amida Buddha does not make any discrimination between those who keep the precept of celibacy and those who are attached to their wives and children or have various other blind passions.

Why did he say that he was neither a monk nor lay? There are two reasons for this. First, although the Emperor stripped him of his monkhood and was given a secular name, he did not consider himself a lay person living a worldly life without any religious aspirations. Second, although he was pardoned and his status restored, he was still not able to live the life of a monk belonging to the Right Dharma Age, while in the same time, he had more aspirations than an ordinary lay person. Later, all his ordained disciples followed his example and got married. Even now the clergy of Jodo Shinshu, both men and women, get marry and have children like the rest of Japanese Buddhist monks of other schools[2]. 

So, it is important to realize that Shinran did not deny his monk ordination by saying that he is “neither monk, nor lay”, but only his spiritual capacities to be like the monks of the Right Dharma Age when Shakyamuni and His direct disciples were in the world. By saying, “neither monk, nor lay”, he actually meant, “neither a virtuous monk of the Right Dharma Age, nor a lay”. Thus, there is no problem if we, his disciples of modern times, call ourselves monks and nuns as long as we keep in mind that we are not the virtuous monks of that long gone era, but the decadent monks of this Last Dharma Age.

The three Dharma ages

 last revised: May 23, 2021

In this chapter I will explain the teaching about the three Dharma ages by using various quotes from the last chapter of Shinran’s Kyogyoshinsho. These quotes are Master Shinran’s own words or passages from sutras and commentaries that he himself used in his explanations.

Generally speaking, the doctrine of the Three Dharma Ages refers to the gradual decline of the capacities of beings to practice the Dharma and attain realization through it. Thus, there is a difference between the time when the Buddha was in a human body and when He influenced directly through His example and Buddha field those gathered around Him, and the periods far away in time when only the teaching remains, but not the Teacher.

What a great chance it is to meet a Buddha in flesh and bones and receive instructions directly from Him, being constantly in His presence and influenced by His Buddha field. How quick and safe the spiritual development can be just by seeing His face and having devotion for Him every day, not to mention the constant checking and support He gives to your practice. Also, if you live in the period close to a Buddha’s departure from the physical body (Parinirvana), His influence is still felt and active through the working of His closest disciples or the disciples of these disciples.

Jodo Shinshu – the only effective path in this last Dharma age

-based on some verses in the Shozomatsu wasan-

(my speech at the spring meeting in Jiko-ji temple, 2007 (Antwerp, Belgium)

last revised: May 23, 2021

Buddhism has spread widely outside Asia in the last fifty years and this is indeed very fortunate. But in this spreading and in the image that Buddhism has in the West a very important element is missing or is not so well understood. Too many voices are heard in Western Buddhism that support some already established preconceptions like: “Buddhism is a path of Liberation by oneself” and “Buddha is only a teacher or the finger pointing to the moon”, etc. The established image of a Buddhist is a forever calm and smiling monk or practitioner, following a path of self-liberation and improvement. This for many is Buddhism, but for Shinran, this is exactly what Buddhism is no more. His life story and teaching shows another aspect of Buddhism which he considers it to be the real goal of Buddhism: the true Pure Land Teaching or Jodo Shinshu in which Amida Buddha is not the finger pointing to the moon, but a Savior - in fact, the best Savior of all the three worlds, with Shakyamuni being His messenger, guiding sentient beings to entrust to Amida. What a dramatic difference in the vision of what the Dharma truly is between Master Shinran and all other schools of self-power Buddhism!