Shinran’s Last Words

A discussion that ‘Gerald Ford’ at Level 8th Buddhist and I recently got into about Shinran Shonin’s last words led me to try and track down the source of a verse popularly attributed to the latter. The verse, quoted in part at a Hoonko ceremony Gerald attended, runs as follows:

Though I return to the Pure Land of Eternal Peace after my life is at an end,
Yet shall I return to this world, again and again,
Just as the waves of Wakanoura Bay return to the beach….
When you rejoice in the Nembutsu, consider that two actually rejoice
When you rejoice with another, consider that there are three,
And that other is Shinran…Thank You, Namo Amida Butsu.”

(quoted in “Thank You Namo Amida Butsu” by Chijun Yakumo, Nembutsu Press, p.50)

According to Norihiko Kikumura’s Shinran: His Life and Thought however the verse was composed in a deliberately archaic meter by an unknown author and published in 1916. It then quickly became a popular teaching device amongst Honganji priests due to its piety and poetic summation of the oso / genso eko doctrine.

The year 1916 fell within a turbulent period during which some scholars were pushing hard various, now discredited, theories that Shinran Shonin never existed and that he was merely an invention of Kakunyo Shonin. As such it is not altogether surprising that someone might have felt the need to try and bring Shinran to life through such a literary device. If Kikimura’s claim is true though, and hasn’t been superseded by new evidence, it is perhaps a little surprising that contemporary priests are still quoting these words as Shinran’s today.

Kikimura argues that it doesn’t really matter as the sentiment in the verse is so close to Shinran’s thought that he might as well have said them. For myself I find that it is possible to relate to Shinran in a kind of double exposure. Sometimes I feel the need for Shinran the historical man and then his real last words; most likely just the nembutsu if we go by more reliable sources, speak to me the most. At other times such as Hoonko I am happy to express my joy and gratitude by participating to some extent in celebrating the mythic Shinran. At the same time though we must always be on guard that we avoid the excessive piety in which Shinran is allowed to eclipse Amida Buddha; one of the less positive legacies of Kakunyo Shonin.

Update

In a comment on Gerald’s blog Josho Adrian kindly informs us: “That death bed saying was recorded in Hanazono Bunko (Anthology of Flowery Passages), a work published for the first time in 1847.”

 

Hoonko Otorikoshi 2007

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.

 

Hoonko observance - November or January

Recently I mentionned attending the Hoonko services at Shogyo-ji (Right Practice Temple) in November. This may have caused potential confusion as the main Jodo Shin traditions vary between those who mark it in November and those who mark it in January.

www.hdever.com supplies this helpful table:

Those who perform the Hoonko service in November are:

• Bukkoji-ha (Bukkoji-ha head temple: Bukko Temple in Kyoto)
• Joshoji-ha (Joshoji-ha head temple: Josho Temple in Fukui)
• Kibe-ha (Kibe-ha head temple: Kinshoku Temple in Shiga)
• Koshoji-ha (Koshoji-ha head temple: Kosho Temple in Kyoto)
• Otani-ha (Otani-ha head temple: Higashi Hongan Temple in Kyoto)
• Sanmonto-ha (Sanmonto-ha head temple: Sensho Temple in Fukui)

Those who perform it in January are:

• Hongwanji-ha (Hongwanji-ha head temple: Nishi Hongwan Temple in Kyoto)
• Takada-ha (Takada-ha head temple: Senju Temple in Mie).

I couldn’t decipher the dates for Izumoji-ha (Izumoji-ha head temple: Ghoshyo Temple in Fukui) and Yamamoto-ha (Yamamoto-ha head temple: Shosei Temple in Fukui).

Shogyoji is independent but has past historical links to the Otani-ha and basically follows that calendar.

(Corrections or additional information regarding the above is welcomed, please use the comments field.)

Namuamidabutsu.