Grace and Gratitude
Inspired by re-reading Mysticism Buddhist and Christian by Paul Mommaers and Jan Van Bragt I have been dipping into Thomas a Kempis’ Imitation of Christ and came across this passage which in some ways echoes my experience of the power-beyond-self (jp. tariki):
False freedom of mind and too great self-confidence are great obstacles to heavenly visitation. God doth well in giving man the grace of His comfort; but man doth ill in not yielding all to God with thanksgiving. Therefore God’s gifts of grace cannot flow in us because of ingratitude to the Giver, and our failure to return them to the Fountainhead. For grace is ever present to him that is truly thankful; and what is wont to be given to the humble is withheld from the proud. (II.10)
I am not sure if grace is a word we can use to render any of the traditional terms which describe the working of Amida’s Vow. But I am certain that grace has a profound meaning for us in expressing the way the Vow manifests itself in our lives.
You may be right. I am not familiar enough with the rich vocabulary of Japanese Shinshu terms. However as ‘Arigatai’ — thankfulness, ‘Mottainai’ — unworthiness, and ‘katejikenai’ — gratitude are all commonplace terms it would surprise me if there were not a more subjective term for other-power.
I had a look for an equivalent of ‘grace’ in Japanese and only found the following two terms – both in use in Shinshu. The thing about the word ‘grace’, it seems to me, is that it conveys both the beneficial action of the Other – ‘graciousness’ – and the gratitude of the recipient. So the first term below ‘riyaku’ seems inadequate? The other term ‘butsu-on’ may be better but it depends on the nuances of ‘on’ which I don’t think I fully appreciate yet.
(1) ‘Riyaku’ – 利益 【りえき(P); りやく】 (n,vs) (1) profit; gains; (n,vs) (2) benefit; advantage; interest (of the public, etc.); (3) (りやく only) grace (of God, Buddha, etc.) (esp. as attained through rightful actions, prayer, adherence to one’s faith, etc.); blessing; miracle;
(2) ‘Butsuon’ – 仏恩 【ぶつおん】 (n) grace of Buddha; indebtedness to Buddha
However I then thought to ask our Dharma friend Mr S.K. about this, with his background in both Christianity and Pure Land, and he said that the Japanese equivalents of ‘grace’ he is familiar with are:
(3) ‘Oncho’ – 恩寵 【おんちょう】
(4) ‘Itsukusimi’ – 慈しみ 【いつくしみ】
I don’t know how much these actually occur, if at all, in Jodo Shinshu texts or the speech of devotees.
I have seen ‘On’ 恩 translated as grace in a few contexts which appeared to my mind to work or at least gave me more of an understanding of the breadth of 恩 which like grace is difficult to convey. I also personally think that 恩, like grace, carries as well a sense of ‘inconceivability’: The grace or benevolence (恩) which supports our lives is inconceivable.
Thanks that is a good point.
It just occurred to me that there is also the word ‘ondoku’ 恩徳 as used in the title of the famous gatha (恩徳讃 ).
Elson Snow in his translations of Rennyo’s Letters often uses ‘grace’ instead of ‘benevolence’ eg: “the heart that recites the Nembutsu for the purpose of expressing gratitude for the Grace of Amida Buddha”
http://web.archive.org/web/20010405074244/http://web.mit.edu/stclair/www/gobunsho_index.html