Zendo Memorial / Rikyukaishu-ye

In the Higashi calendar that my home temple follows today is both the memorial of Zendo Daishi (Shan Tao) and also Rikyukaishu-ye: Anniversary of the founding of Jodo Shinshu. (In the Nishi Honganji the latter is celebrated on 5th April.)

As Shinran never formally established his own tradition Rikyukaishu-ye actually commemorates the day that Shinran Shonin finished the first draft of his most important work; Teaching, Practice, Faith and Attainment or Kyogyoshinsho.

Zendo is such a pivotal figure in Pure Land Buddhism that Shinran said in the Shoshinge: “Shan-tao alone in his time clarified the Buddha’s true intent.” Leaving aside his many other contributions however, including his emphasis on nembutsu as oral recitation, it is interesting to note that Honen and Shinran’s self-identification as foolish and blind beings (bombu) is related to Zendo’s teaching of placing what is outward inward for reflection (deep hearing), what is inward outward that it may be changed (sincere entrusting):

Zendo:

The sutra states, The first is sincere (shijo) mind. Shi means true, jo means real. This shows that the understanding and practice of all sentient beings, cultivated through their bodily, verbal, and mental acts, unfailingly take as essential what was performed [by Amida] with a true and real mind. We should not express outwardly signs of wisdom, goodness, or diligence, for inwardly we are possessed of falsity. (Source)

Shinran:

Through hearing the shinjin of the wise, the heart of myself, Gutoku (”foolish/stubble-haired”), becomes manifest:
The shinjin of the wise is such that they are inwardly wise, outwardly foolish.
The heart of Gutoku is such that I am inwardly foolish, outwardly wise. (Source)

People who aspire for the Pure Land must not behave outwardly as though wise or good, nor should they act as though diligent. The reason is stated, for inwardly we are possessed of falsity (literally, that which is empty and transitory). Inwardly means “within”; since the mind is filled with blind passions, it is empty and transitory. Empty means vain, not real, not sincere. Transitory means provisional, not true. (Source)

 

Awakening to Immeasurable Original Life

The essence of Shin Buddhist faith lies in awakening, “to know the self as an ignorant being, burdened with karmic evil, subject to birth-and-death, ever sinking, ever transmigrating from time immemorial, and with no possibilities that could lead to emancipation.” This in Shin Buddhism is the “place of awareness” in which we come to realise the true essentials of “Emptiness”. However far back into our past selves we may seek to delve, we will never find anything within us to make us feel perfectly satisfied with what we are. Or if we try and grasp the present, it will slip eel-like away into the past. Thus we tend to lay all our expectations on the future. The landscape of the future is thickly etched with the shadows of the attachments of our past. It is extremely difficult for us to expunge them completely.

Ignorant beings that we are, we become aware of the reality of these shadows when we meet the negative aspects of life such as disease, the cessation of friendship, loss of confidence or loss of our love for life. When we face serious problems such as these, Shin Buddhist teaching tells us how important it is for us to leave everything to Amida Buddha. The precise moment when we leave everything to Amida Buddha is called the “one thought-moment of entrusting.” “Entrusting” means entrusting ourselves whole-heartedly to Amida Buddha with no lingering doubts whatsoever.

The moment we thus entrust ourselves, we are awakened to our innermost prayer, our original love of life, and it is through this awakening that we are freed from the anxiety of losing our ego or self, freed also from the bondage of our selfish attachments. This is the quintessence of Shin Buddhism as paraphrased by the words “to die [depart this selfish life] through faith (entrusting oneself to the Buddha) and revive by [meeting] the Vow (Original Vow of the Buddha).”

Namu, taking refuge in Amida Buddha, and Amida-butsu, receiving the working of the Buddha, are simultaneous. The original Sanskrit of Amida Buddha means “one who has been awakened to the immeasurable original life” and refers to the discovery of the innermost prayer or vow of the original life.”

- Reverend Chimyo Takehara, Head of Priest Shogyoji Temple

Extract from a Speech given at Three Wheels, London, to Mark the Inaugural Ceremony of the Stupa of Namu-Amida-butsu Erected at Brookwood Cemetery & the Otorikoshi Ceremony to Commemorate the Death of Shinran Shonin.

 

The Religion of Weeds

Since getting it down from the shelf to look up about Shinran’s last words I’ve been re-reading Norihiko Kikumura’s Shinran: His Life and Thought and in it (p.40 & 88) he claims that Shinran referred to the Jōdo Shinshū as Gummo no Shūkyō (’religion of weeds’). Kikumura interprets this as being a reference to the fact that it is a path for the common man who is embroiled in blind passions and without special circumstances. I wonder if anyone knows a source of this quote so we can track down the kanji used?

Either way I think it is a good name. Weeds after all are just flowers that are discriminated as growing in the wrong place, or wrong time, or which unintentionally cause harm to other plants. They are not necessarily without their own potential or beauty. In Amida’s Pure Land there is room for all people to develop naturally in accordance with the Dharma.

Update 18/01/08

Rev. Gatenby mentions gummo in his Notes on the Nembutsu but until I see the kanji I can’t be sure if it is the same word in each case or not:

“To realize profoundly that we are gummo - part of the realm, to use Shinran’s phrase of ‘rank weeds’ - is not possible to sustain by artifice. It is only something we can come to by the power of another.”

Could it be one of these terms?:

• “Taking all the sprouts of grasses as a metaphor, all living beings.” [群萌] [cmuller]
• ” Blind populace, who need religious instruction. [群盲] [cmuller]“
• “All the shoots, sprouts, or immature things, i.e. all the living as ignorant and undeveloped.” [羣萌] [cmuller ; source(s): Soothill]“

Help with this query will be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

Update 20/01/08:

Rev. Gatenby has kindly written to me:

You can get the two kanji for gummo from The Ryukoku Translation Series V p. 19 fn, 2. There is is translated as ‘multitude’. There we are told that it is a synonym for ‘shujo‘ & ‘gunjo’. The terms appears several more times in the KGSS … In Shinran’s Japanese language writings the same two kanji (gunmo) appear in Notes on Once Calling and Many Calling (CWS p. 485) and Notes on the Inscriptions on Sacred Scrolls (CWS, p.519).

In one of my essays I was interpreting gunmo as ‘weeds’ following
Norihiko Kikumura in ‘Shinran: His Life and Thought’.

When I am next at the temple I will look up which kanji are used in the The Ryukoku Translation Series.