Weekend at the Temple (Jan ‘08)

Well I’m back from a brief two night visit to the temple. Sensei is away at the moment but I had a good time talking to Jishin, Rev. KI, and other Dharma friends. I also took the opportunity to make use of Sensei’s extensive and chaotic library and have quite a few interesting quotes and resources to post here over the next week.

In my home gongyo recently I’ve been trying hard to improve my wasan chanting and kept stumbling over a couple of parts that didn’t sound right. When I spoke to Jishin he knew the parts I meant and we concluded that our temple must follow somekind of oral tradition which diverges slightly from what is written in the sūtra book. Later I had the chance to raise this with Rev. KI and he looked positively shocked and told me that we follow the traditional Higashi Honganji liturgy to the letter. Oops! It turned out in the end that it all came down to the notation used in the Otani Gongyo Shu. What I was reading as the hiragana for ‘gu’ was really an almost identical symbol meaning ‘repeat previous two syllables again but with a ‘g’ sound’. Anyways it just goes to show that it always pays to consult the experts!

A strange thing; spiritual, psychological … perhaps both …. I found that chanting with Jishin listening to me it came very naturally and I remembered more easily how the wasan should sound. This in contrast to often times when I chant on my own. The awareness of another … an Other … brings out the heart of the chanting. It is an interesting thing to think about and reflect on. The variations in daily gongyo are of course reflective of the interplay of the Light and the clouds of our hindrances. A book I read at the temple was called Monshin: Hearing/Faith but one tends to think of hearing on our part rather than our being heard. That’s not quite right though …. its more that beyond the cacophany of the ego-dialogue there is a receptive, patient silence … like that of a parent or a music teacher perhaps. A silence that encourages and teaches, that speaks volumes …

Jishin is really busy at work at the moment but hopes to be free to start blogging here in the near future. Apparently he has lots of notes and scraps of paper hoarded away!

I hope you all had a good weekend too …

(First posted 20/01/08 and edited and updated 21/01/08)

 

Priorities (& Meditation #2)

[We] think of the Buddha (say the nembutsu) whilst reflecting on death [in daily life].” - Old Pure Land saying

In all likelihood things will be quiet here over the next week. If you’ve got a national holiday like we have here in the UK then I hope you have a relaxing time in which to be refreshed, reflect on the year past, and prepare for the new!

In last night’s gongyo at my home the Ofumi was Juzu no Sho (Chapter on Devotional Beads). The Ofumi is one of the few parts of the liturgy I still read out in English, and this was an occasion when I rather wished I had an annotated Japanese-English copy to hand. The reason being is that in the letter Rennyo Shonin criticises the shallow, fake piety of certain priests and urges them to stop only going ‘through the motions of listening’. Then, very interestingly, he says that they should review their situation with ‘calmed minds’.

In the context of our recent discussion about meditation and Jodo Shinshu it is interesting that Rennyo Shonin doesn’t tell them to calm their minds via any practice but simply draws their attention to human mortality via the breath; “Man’s life is dependent upon breathing where the out-going breath must await the incoming breath. Enshrine the Dharma in your hearts and obtain Faith with deliberate concern and without laxity.”

Jodo Shinshu at its best is in many ways a return to the pristine spirit of early Buddhism. It’s about the fact that we have already been given what we need to hear the Dharma, and we don’t need to engage in any complicated practices or calculated efforts. Though death may seem a peculiar topic to reflect on, both in terms of calmness and as we approach the ‘new year’, it has a tendency to bring a clarity and sense of priorities to our lives.

If you are reading this you may be a Shinshu follower or just curious, but I hope that you will join me in 2008 as I continue to contemplate with my Dharma friends what Rennyo in the above letter calls; “the sacredness of the Primal Vow of Amida Tathágata (having been so established, especially) as the most suitable way” [for ordinary people such as ourselves]. Namuamidabutsu.

 

Meditation in Jodo Shinshu #1

There’s an ongoing debate within the Jodo Shinshu tradition in the West, though primarily in America, about the incorporation of meditation practices (especially Zen) into temple activities. In the Buddhist Churches of America (Nishi Honganji) this has come to something of a head in recent years with the appointment of a Bishop, Rev. Koshin Ogui, who studied under the Soto Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki and who actively promotes meditation within the organisation.

My own thoughts and experiences on this issue can be briefly summed up in the following way:

The Shin temple (not BCA) I attend offers meditation classes but they seem to be mostly taken up by people with a general interest in Buddhism, and the Westerners who participate in traditional Shinshu activities generally don’t seem overly concerned with participating in meditation … especially as many have come to Shin from originally practicing in meditative traditions. I wonder to what extent the BCA teaches newcomers about gongyo, Shinshu ritual, or offers in the way of faith meetings (such as Rennyo promoted in his letters)? I came from Soto Zen to Shin and find that gongyo provides a contemplative and reflective ’space’ which is sufficient for me.

I also wonder what exactly is meant by ‘zazen’ when it is taught in Shin temples. If it is taught without any of the actual Zen teachings aren’t we just talking about the physical act of sitting? And if conversely it is taught alongside Zen teachings are we really saying that our tradition is so devoid of contemplative resources that we need to turn to another?

I think the current trend for formal meditation in the BCA is positive in the respect that it suggests a revival of the reflective dimension of Shinshu but it is surprising that our own tradition has been so quickly judged to be lacking in this regard. It is also somewhat ironic when, outside of Shin in the sphere of psycho-therapy, Naikan - which is a Shinshu derived form of self-other reflection, is growing in popularity.”

Another day I’ll try and write more about what these resources in our own tradition, that I referred to above, are. In the meantime here are a few articles related to this debate:

• On Meditation by Rev. Phillip Karl Eidmann

… it is impossible to find in Sanskrit, Pali, or Chinese any one word which represents exactly the word meditation. In Shin, the word Furumai, which appears often in the scriptures, comes perhaps closest to the full meaning of meditation.

If we take the word meditation in the proper sense of its consideration, study, self preparation, exercise, practices, declamation, then Shin Buddhism has five kinds of meditation activity or service. These do not form an actual practice, though Shin dislikes and even refuses the word. Moreover, since Shin is a fusion of the principles of the ancient Sanron and Kegon sects reflected against the Buddhism of the Kamakura era, Shin does not define certain activities or services as practice, but insists that every action, even the most insignificant of daily life, may be an essentially religious action within the Way of Buddha …The goals of all such meditative exercises in Buddhism must be carefully analyzed. Westerners, and even ill informed Buddhists, too easily fall into the trap of believing that the goal of Buddhist “meditation” is the attainment of enlightenment of Nirvana. This however, is an erroneous notion …The correctly aware disciple knows that his meditation was undertaken as a result of past conditioning, and that, however much he thought he was doing it of his own innate volition, he actually was caused to meditate. The five kinds of meditation which are practiced in Shin are: ritual service, practical service, regular service, social service, and quietist service.”

• Traditional Jodo Shinshu Meditation? - J.K. Hirano

Each of these elements of our standard service are more than just listening with our ears. I remember when I was in Japan, I struggled with the Japanese language. During one lecture, just as I was feeling somewhat confident in my abilities. The teacher said that we should listen to the Dharma with our feet. I thought to myself, “Here we go again, back to step one, he couldn’t have said ears.” I raised my hand to ask the teacher to clarify what he had said. Once again the teacher said, “Listen to the Dharma with your feet.” I had to ask him, “Did you say feet?” He laughed and said, “Yes, feet. To listen to the Dharma means to listen with your entire being, from your head to your feet.” He then gave an example of how Rennyo Shonin had worn out many, many pairs of sandals going from place to place listening to the Dharma.”

• Nembutsu & Zen - Zuio Hisao Inagaki

If you have been doing zazen for many years and, by chance, awakened to Amida’s Great Compassion, it would be difficult to change your life-style immediately. You can carry on your meditation to enrich your experience of shinjin … But if you have no experience of zazen, I would not recommend it. Attainment of shinjin is a lifelong work, toward which all your effort should be directed. You won’t have time to try other methods. If you have shinjin, that’s enough. If you have Namu Amida Butsu, that’s enough. There is no need to seek satori in this life. Among other things, if improperly practiced, zazen does more harm than good.”