Echoes of the Name

“When the practicer sees that the hearts of others have been set free, he leaps forward, by way of aspiration, to the various fruits of a holy life …” - Questions of King Milinda

Last weekend I had a peaceful and refreshing stay at the temple; sweeping up leaves, doing gongyo and enjoying wide-ranging conversations with various Dharma friends who dropped by.

On Saturday our two priests, Rev. Sato and Rev. Ishii, were scheduled to perform a ceremony at the re-inauguration of a Japanese Residents’ cemetery in Hendon so I went along to lend them a hand. What a lovely autumn it has been in the UK so far! Golden trees against blue skies, and low sunlight filling the vision with halos, flares and shadows. As we chanted the Tanbutsuge (Praises of the Buddha) a cold, brisk wind snatched our words away; mingling them with flying leaves and incense smoke … a truly elemental day, full of reminders of the inter-relatedness of existence.

Sharing with others in doing gongyo always gives me strength and encouragement in my practice. Of course this is not altogether surprising and is true of many activities. According to Jodo Shin thought, however, hearing the nembutsu of those of shinjin - of our Dharma friends - corresponds to the 17th Vow:

“If, when I attain Buddhahood, the countless Buddhas throughout the worlds in the ten quarters do not all praise and say my Name, may I not attain the supreme enlightenment.” (KGSS II.2)

Their nembutsu literally becomes our nembutsu:

“The great practice is to say the Name of the Tathagata of unhindered light … This practice arises from the Vow of great compassion, which is known as “the Vow that all Buddhas extol the Name,” “the Vow that all Buddhas say the Name,” and “the Vow that all Buddhas praise the Name.”" (KGSS II.1)

As such; “With the pledges of friendship in this life - brief as a dream - to guide us, we tie the bonds for meeting before enlightenment in the coming life. If I am behind, I will be guided by others; If I go first, I will guide others. Becoming true friends through many lives, we bring each other to the practice of the Buddha-way, and as true teachers in each life, we will together sunder all delusion and attachment.” (Essentials of Faith Alone, by Seikaku)

Namuamidabutsu

This weekend we celebrated Hoonko Otorikoshi at Three Wheels temple. Hoonko is the festival of gratitude which marks Shinran Shonin’s death, and Otorikoshi denotes that it is being held prior to the main Hoonko ceremonies at the head temple. We also had an inauguration ceremony for the new Three Wheels burial stupa at Brookwood Cemetery. The latter is believed to be the first Buddhist burial stupa (there are existing relic stupas) in the United Kingdom and was made possible due to the bequest of the late Zenko Croysdale; a western Zen monk. It is intended that the stupa be open for Buddhists of all denominations, and their families should they so wish, to have their ashes interred at death.

In consequence of the various important ceremonies the head priest of Shogyoji temple Rev. CT, as well as a number of other priests and Dharma friends, came over from Japan. All of these people worked very hard to make the event successful and they have my deepest gratitude. Special thanks however must go to Rev. CT who has been battling a serious illness for many years; a fact that makes his hard work on behalf of each individual member of our sangha all the more incredible. Indeed it stands as a testament to the strength of his faith, and the support offered by the Other-power.

Rev. CT’s Dharma talk, and a conversation I had with him at Brookwood cemetery, hugely impressed me and helped me to more deeply appreciate Rev. Kemmyo Taira Sato’s commentary on chapter 2 of the Tannisho in which he writes:

“[Shinran Shonin] reveals a Buddhist view of history that is firmly based on the absolute experience of the present. Shinran Shonin sounds full of confidence, because he views the whole of history from the view point of the present, from his faith-experience of “always meeting Amida Buddha.” In other words his historical view is based on his present experience of Dharma, the truth that is always present anywhere and anytime. Dharma existed even before Gautama Buddha appeared. Gautama Buddha simply realised the Dharma (or ultimate truth) that was already there. Dharma is not the Buddha’s invention.”

This view of time and history was incredibly evident in Rev. CT’s talk and his comments to me at Brookwood. The Three Wheels sangha came about due to a complex web of events stretching back into the distant past (including the visit of a group of courageous Japanese students to England - at a time when their country was closed to the outside world - and more recently the encounter between members of Shogyoji and various English people at an unveiling of a memorial for those afore-mentioned students. Listening to Rev. Takehara, however, it was clear to me that his awareness of this history was not of a linear narrative from past to present, but rather of a unified nexus of relationships that are all still active and ongoing in the present moment.

In his talk Rev. CT said (I paraphrase from memory) that inwardly encountering the Dharma is akin to recognising the inherent nature of the stream to rush into the ocean, and he spoke of having been reminded of this fact by witnessing an elderly, lame man in the grounds of a health centre determinedly taking one step after another around a field so as to extend the boundaries of his existence. In otherwords sometimes, or perhaps even always, to meet the reality of the Dharma in ourselves it is first necessary to witness it in others. As such the history and landscape of relationships around us forms a panorama from which we may draw encouragement and faith. Before he left Japan therefore Rev. CT visited the grave of a friend of one of the Japanese students who died in England to pay his respects. This person, hearing of his friend’s death overseas built a memorial to him (against opposition from those who believed Japan should have stayed closed off to the outside world) and what is more a grave site that (unconventionally for the time) ignored the deceased’s caste and social status … a grave wholeheartedly reflecting the love and gratitude of one spiritual friend to another.

Rev. CT’s way of living in this way has helped me to glimpse a vision of life lived against a very different backdrop from the one I am used to … one where the past and future may be obscured by human limitations but nonetheless emit a light which fills the present with peaceful confidence.

Ray, of the blog Dharmakara’s Prayer and an Amida Order member, recently sent me a copy of his teacher’s new book Who Loves Dies Well. I’ve corresponded with Ray in the past, for quite a number of years, and in that dialogue have often raised certain anxieties about the Amida Order and the teaching of Dharmavidya (David Brazier). I have never doubted the sincerity of Dharmavidya; this is perfectly evident in the community which he has helped to create. However I must confess that I have often felt a certain discomfort at the way in which Dharmavidya has drawn from and mixed together a great variety of Buddhist and non-Buddhist practices and teachings. I am a firm believer that the transmission of any teaching across cultures is a delicate matter and it is well to study and participate as deeply, exclusively and traditionally as is practicable to begin with. Therefore when Dharmavidya’s focus began to lean gradually more and more towards Pure Land Buddhism I admit to feeling grave doubts as to what would emerge.

Reading Who Loves Dies Well I have been humbled to recognise, in Dharmavidya’s own words and story, the same faith that I have imbibed from a more structured and traditional source. Of course I should not be surprised, such is the clarity and human relevance of the Pure Land teaching. In fact I think that my main criticism of the book - if I am to make one - is that I rather wish that Dharmavidya would have been a little more courageous in trusting his own expression rather than utilising Japanese terminology. Anyway, in particular I was pleased to note that just as in the Jodo Shin Pure Land tradition, from which I draw guidance, Dharmavidya highlights important points such as the difference between the vertical and horizontal dimensions of (religious) life (p.15), the negative or ’shadow’ aspect of Shakyamuni’s enlightenment (p.104), the value and importance of ritual as a means of readjusting one’s perception (p.36), the often overlooked role of contrition [in Japanese Buddhism] (p.122) and so on.

The book itself consists of an account of the last days of Dharmavidya’s mother, who he and his community nursed, dovetailed with explanation of various aspects of Buddhist and Pure Land thought. His decision to write this book was obviously a very emotional one and as a fellow Pure Land follower I could easily understand how the life-and-death of Dharmavidya’s mother helped to clarify his faith. I am grateful to him for sharing something so personal for the benefit of others.

It would perhaps seem churlish then to offer any criticism but I have to admit that the book’s structure did not entirely work for me. To balance writing about a very emotional and personal chain of events, with a clear and structured exposition of Buddhist thought is a difficult challenge indeed and I think that in some senses it is almost impossible. Unfortunately the latter drains off some of the visceral power of the former, whilst the former inevitably makes the latter seem rather abstract and vague. This is not a slight on Dharmavidya’s abilities as a teacher; one might compare Taitetsu Unno’s two well-known books on Shin Buddhism. In the second he tried to impose more structure on his folksy, warm and emotive style but it actually made it a lesser book compared to the first. ‘Who Loves Dies Well’ has the same problem; it hasn’t enough structure to suffice as a comprehensive introduction to Pure Land Buddhism, nor does it have the emotive power of Shinmon Aoki’s Coffinman. All this said though Dharmavidya has made an impressive stab at conveying the heart of Pure Land Buddhism to a Western audience, and most impressively has done so in a way that is refreshingly free from sectarian pride or narrowness.

From reading the book I also gained a deeper understanding of Dharmavidya’s own path. Such decisions as calling his order the ‘Amida-shu’ (why use the Japanese suffix?) have often seemed to me to reflect a slightly cynical desire to give a new tradition the stamp of authenticity. However reading the book I could at least sympathise with the genuine challenges of uniting the diverse interests of the many participants within such a community, and the necessity for formulating certain structures and forms.

In the end Who Loves Dies Well was not a book that altered my perceptions of the Pure Land tradition, but it did lead me to re-encounter a group of fellow-seekers and to see them in a new and more open-minded light. For that then thank you Ray.