Echoes of the Name

The other day, in the morning meeting at Three Wheels, a fairly new member of the sangha raised the subject of how it is easy to hear the teachings in the context of the temple but much harder in one’s daily life. To this our teacher quoted an article from the Rennyo Shonin Goichidai kikigakai (88). Here are two translations of the passage:

“A person, once, expressed, exactly, what was on his mind in the following manner. “My heart is just like a basket into which you pour water. While I am there in the room where the Buddha-Dharma is taught, I feel the gratefulness and the sacredness of the Teachings. Once I leave, however, my heart reverts to what it had been with nothing retained”. Shonin Rennyo replied, “Immerse that basket in the water. We should leave ourselves immersed in the Dharma. All the wrongs that we do are based on the fact that we have not received Shinjin. What all Good Teachers of the Way teach as ‘bad’ is our habitual thinking that being without Shinjin is the constant and the normal thing”. Thus, spoke the Shonin. (trans. Seattle Betsuin)

“On another occasion, a listener to his dharma talk said, “When I listen to you speak on the dharma, my heart is filled with joy and gratitude. But, once I leave here, my mind becomes like a bamboo basket full of holes and I am unable retain the teachings. Rennyo Shonin replied, “Don’t fret. Simply place the basket full of holes and immerse it totally into the water! Place your ego self with all its imperfections and let the dharma fill and illuminate your total life!” (trans. Rev. William Masuda)

This is one of those great pieces of teaching where a Dharma friend takes our inverted misconceptions and, using the same imagery, turns them the right way up. Here Rennyo’s questioner has a sense of himself as an independent vessel, a self, that must be filled up with wisdom, knowledge, joy, and so forth. He quickly discovers, however, that the self is not like that at all. It is instead a rather ramshackle and unreliable structure which is inherently permeable. The divide between self and other is indistinct and vague. This discovery, though vital, is not in itself overly reassuring and the anxiety on the part of Rennyo’s disciple is very apparent.

Before looking at Rennyo’s response in detail a brief aside here is informative. Rennyo replies in part that the person should ‘immerse the basket (their self/mind/awareness/consciousness) in the water’. However this may be easily misunderstood, especially at this fearful point in someone’s religious journey. Many people, including myself in my own past, will not have really absorbed the implications of the permeability of their own being (not deeply realised the not-self teaching) at this stage and will thus take ‘immersing the basket’ as an exhortation to dwell always and constantly on the form of the teaching. As such we see people who constantly recite the nembutsu, display reminders of the teaching everywhere they can, and who begin to abhor their daily lay-person’s lifestyle as something distracting and hellish. This is of course the real meaning of what the Pure Land tradition terms as ’self-power’ (jiriki) ; not the activity of a human being per se - as we all must live - but activity driven by attachment to the notion of one’s self as an independent and completely self-fulfilling entity. It is also a common characteristic of religious fundamentalists.

Anyway to get back to Rennyo’s teaching … he asks us to take our intimation of the self/consciousness as being permeable like a basket but reconcieve of it as existing actually already immersed in the water, with water constantly flowing through, in and around it. The teachings which the disciple struggled to retain were just words and pointers with a provisional existence, but we are already actually immersed in the real Dharma itself, things-as-they-are. As Rennyo puts it; “What all Good Teachers of the Way teach as ‘bad’ is our habitual thinking that being without Shinjin is the constant and the normal thing”. And, in his own teachings Shinran says, “… diamondlike shinjin so difficult to accept is true reality that sweeps away doubt and brings us to attainment of enlightenment.”

What was intially frightening and disturbing, giving a sense of loss of control, is then transformed into a recognition of all that supports and underpins our existence … as well as a realisation that the very permeability and mutability of our being gives us the ability to be receptive and responsive to the activity of the Dharma. Indeed the sensations of the water of Dharma ebbing and flowing through the skeletal framework of ego consciousness actually allow us to get a better sense of our karmic reality and the nature of what lies ‘below the surface’.

I am so grateful to Rennyo-shonin, my teacher and both questioners for introducing me to such a beautiful and useful piece of imagery.

On a final note, Rennyo-shonin - like Shinran-shonin, was a realist in spiritual matters. He knew the tenacity of self-attachment and that even though shinjin itself, once settled, is unshakeable; one’s actual hearing of the Dharma may become impaired. To continue the analogy; though one may live in the trusting consciousness of Amida’s embrace little superstitions and self-oriented habits may creep in which clog the pores of awareness … the ‘holes in the basket’. As such, in one of his letters (Ofumi) Rennyo says that it is good to “Constantly dredge out the Channel of Faith and let the water of Amida’s Dharma flow freely.” Even this though, is not an act of self-power. To continue the imagery that we have been using … if we imagine a basket in the water in which all the holes have become clogged up, the booming and rushing sound of the water against the container would still be audible from within. This too is the call of Amida … the sound of the Dharma ocean … making us aware of the need to shed these blockages and attachments.

The sounds and signs of the Dharma alter their tone throughout our daily lives and if we listen faithfully and with trust they show us what we need to see and hear. Both the call (The Original Vow) and the response (the Nembutsu) are already given; as Rennyo puts it: ” … the heart to place Faith in Amida and the earnest wish to do so arise from the expedient accommodation of Amida Tathágata. In other words, those who understand this relationship between Amida Tathágata and human beings are those that have received the Faith of the Other-Power.” Namuamidabutsu.

On Tuesday I learnt that my maternal grandfather - who has been gravely ill and suffering greatly - had died peacefully surrounded by his children. He followed his wife, my grandmother, who died a number of weeks ago. I’m really grateful for all the messages of sympathy and support that I have received from my Dharma friends. As my Dharma brother Jishin noted in a letter to me, though none of you knew my grandparents, their lives are inherently bound up with mine, and thus with yours too through me. Namuamidabutsu.

Speaking of Dharma friends, at this time of difficulties so many zenchishiki (good friends of the way) both old and new have appeared in my life this past month … reminding me of the Bodhisattvas suddenly appearing from under the earth in the Lotus Sutra. It’s really exciting. Good friends offer support and enrich our lives but there is also an even deeper dimension to Dharma friendship. Jodo Shin isn’t a solitary path but a communal one … as my teacher Rev. Kemmyo Taira Sato put it in one of his talks:

“Both the act of speaking and listening to others can conflict with or negate one’s own self-centred world and as such require courage, the courage to be willing to change. Enlightened by those who we encounter or reencounter, we become aware of ourselves - the miserable reality of our self-centred world. Other people operate as mirrors that illuminate us. When the ramparts and walls of the stronghold of our selfish consciousness collapse following this self-awakening, we open ourselves to the light that can now come in and fill our existence … Encounter is an event between individuals. The Buddha with his Name and Light appears through personal encounter. The Buddha is the foundation of every individual. So, if your consciousness is mature and you encounter someone who is enlightened, the Buddha or Dharma will appear very naturally.”

On the subject of encounter I’ve revised my ‘About the Author’ page a little, due to some comments from a new Dharma friend (will reply to you tonight Doug when I get on my home email), as it was confusing rather than clarifying various things. For the record I’m not a priest. Ordination as a priest is called Tokudoshiki. The ceremony I took part in was Kikyoshiki which is a refuge ceremony in which one formally becomes a Jodo Shin follower. Full ordination is not something that my current circumstances allow me to undertake though this may well change in the future.

I spent the weekend past staying at the temple and enjoyed catching up with many friends and making a few new ones. In particular I was delighted to make the acquaintance of a guest, Rev. Fumihito Ando; 32nd successor to the Myougenji temple of the Takaha-ha Jodo Shin lineage. His temple is one of, if not the, oldest surviving Jodo Shin temples and also has many precious relics such as original writings of Master Shinran. Rev. Fumihito has trained as a professional curator and is doing great work helping to preserve and share the history of our tradition. I’m hoping that his encounter with Three Wheels and myself will lead to great Dharma friendships.

At Three Wheels the annual ceremony of peace and reconciliation between Japanese and British war veterans was held and was moving as always. This year it was particularly poignant though for two additional reasons. Firstly that the number of surviving veterans has dwindled considerably and secondly that the meeting was attended for the first time by a Burmese Buddhist gentleman who offered a prayer for the Burmese people who were caught in the middle during the war.

Staying in the temple, which was purified physically and spiritually by the hard work of the sangha - and particularly the taya residents - really gave me a boost and sent me home with new energy and mental stability … something that has turned out to be very precious as news of the health of my various elderly relatives continues to be very negative. Sensei’s Dharma talk at the weekend was on the three Dharma seals and could not have been more appropriate to my current state of mind. Equally the example of the war veterans that I have met at Three Wheels in discovering the ultimate meaning of human relationships which transcends death and suffering is a great inspiration.

Namuamidabutsu.