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.

 

O-Higan Blog Round-up

“Since he possesses compassion, a Bodhisattva does not become agitated by samsara nor feels weary of samsara; therefore he does not dwell in nirvana. Again, since he possesses the highest wisdom, he is not bound by the faults of samsara; therefore, he does not dwell in samsara.” - Vasubandhu

I hope all of you had a good Easter holiday. Bad weather and my partner catching a virus made ours a little more subdued than was planned but it was good to get some much needed rest. Whilst watching the snow fall and brewing cups of tea I enjoyed re-reading some of the writings of Dōgen whose inspiration and guidance I have not had the opportunity to re-encounter in some time. More on this at a later date perhaps.

A couple of O-Higan messages on the web caught my attention. Rev. Toshikazu Arai writes about people’s motives for participating in the festival and contrasts the merit-producing aims of other sects with that of Shin. Interestingly he writes:

Our deceased parents, grandparents, and sometimes, sons and daughters are already in the hands of Amida Buddha’s benevolence and are beyond the reach of our limited religious virtues. Actually, a person who is born in the Pure Land is a Bodhisattva with the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha. Such a person does not return to this world of birth-and-death again once he/she is born in the Pure Land.

I suspect the doctrinal position Arai takes above is one that is designed to prevent gratitude towards one’s forebears’ spiritual example sliding into mere ancestor worship. However the third sentence above initially appears problematic in that, whilst granting that those born in the Pure Land are no longer what or who they were as we knew them, he seems to be denying the reality of genso eko. The key however is to be found in another of his older posts where he wrote:

Buddhism talks about the coexistence of all times. Amida Buddha established the Primal Vow innumerable kalpas ago, but that Primal Vow is reaching us NOW. That means that every one that has contributed to the transmission of the teaching of the Primal Vow is with me NOW. When I say the nembutsu, Namu Amida Butsu, I am with Amida, Sakyamuni Buddha, Shan-tao, Honen and Shinran among others. The history of the Dharma is always synchronic. Actually all kinds of history is synchronic when the person who studies it realizes that he is participating in the history. I am participating in the history of the Primal Vow.”
(See also The Living Breath of History)

Elsewhere Alan Kita of Gardena Buddhist Church in California reports on Rev. Nakano’s talk Why We Do Not Celebrate Easter explaining the different symbolism behind the festivals of O-Higan and Easter, and The Level 8 Buddhist also blogged a bit of background to O-Higan.

Namuamidabutsu

 

Quotation: Formlessness and Form

When we are diverted from true faith, we tend to be attached to some form, whether mental, verbal or physical. In this sense what we call self-power can be defined as selfish attachment to form. By entrusting ourselves absolutely to Other-power, the Original Vow of Amida Buddha, we are freed from all kinds of selfish attachment to form.”

The one true thing the Great Sage and the Pure Land patriarchs have been encouraging us to attain is this pure faith, the faith of entrusting ourselves to the unconditional love of Amida Buddha, a love that is formless way beyond the confines of all form, a love that, being formless, it can take any form. Formlessness realises itself through form. It is through our encounter with various forms of human love that we meet formless, unconditional love of Amida Buddha.”

Reverend Kemmyo Taira Sato,
extract from ‘20th Talk on The Shoshinge’
at London Buddhist Society, 2008