The Heart of Nenbutsu

Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while will know that several of us have a great appreciation for the late Zen teacher Ven. Kosho Uchiyama; both for his lucid zazen instructions and his appreciation of the nembutsu.  As such I was interested to find the following on the web:

The Heart of Nenbutsu
by Kosho Uchiyama

I eat food from the garden of the universe
I drink water from the fountain of the universe
I breathe the air of the whole universe
My life comes out of the whole universe.
Being pulled by the gravitational force of the whole universe
I become pure and clear.
The whole universe is where I return.

I don’t find the poem itself particularly affecting but I can’t help noting that the penultimate line describes one of the two primary aspects of shinjin.  I also appreciate the sense of inevitability which the poem conveys.  The power beyond self is always at work though we may often obscure it through our own superfluous designs.