(Henri Bergson, L'evolution Créatrice 86)."Only the method of which we speak allows us to go beyond idealism as well as realism, to affirm the existence of objects inferior and superior to us, while at the same time in a certain sense interior to us, to make them coexist together without difficulty
(Dōgen, "Uji" The Heart of Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō 49-50)."Since such is its fundamental reason, we must study and learn that myriad phenomena and numberless grasses [things] exist over the entire earth, and each of the grasses and each of the forms exists as the entire earth. These comings and goings are the commencement of Buddhist practice. When you have arrived within this field of suchness, it is a single grass, a single form. The forms are understood and not understood, the grasses are grasped and not grasped... Entire being, the entire world, exists in the time of each and every now. Just reflect: right now, is there an entire being or an entire world missing from your present time, or not?
精神主義は、自家一自分、自己の精神、心の中に満足を求めるものである．．．やはり心を開いて、眼を開いて、そうしてこの天地万物というものを、上手に利用する．．．自分は閉鎖主義を唱える者ではない。自分は四面開放の眼を常に開いている者である、と．．．大体"精神主義”というのは外物を追うたり、他人に服従したりして、自主自由を失うて煩悶していると、そういうことをしない。そういうことを避けるのが、“精神主義”である．．．精神主義が外物や他人と縁をきって、自分だけの閉鎖主義でいく、と、そういうものでもない。やはりこう、広く他人と交際し、また広く外物を学ぶ、学問もし、外物をたくみに利用していく、と．．．こういうのが精神主義の目的とするところである(37-38)。
Spiritualism is, seeking to be fully satisfied within one's own home, one's individual self, one's heart, one's spirit... That is, to open one's heart, open one's eyes, and by so doing, skillfully use all that is in heaven and on earth..."You (the spiritualist) are not one that urges/preaches exclusivism. You are one whose eyes are constantly opened to all directions and possibilities" he says... Basically, "Spiritualism" is not chasing after external things, or, having submitted oneself to others being worried about the loss of our independence and freedom. Escaping/evading of all that sort of thing is what "Spiritualism" is..."Spiritualism is cutting one's (karmic) ties to external things and to other people and going one's own way" is not it either. In the end, socializing with a broad range of people, learning about a wide range of external things, even academic study of them, to skillfully and cleverly make use of external things... it is in just this that the aim of Spiritualism is to be found.
この如来の廻向ということですね。ただ如来の廻向と、ただ漠然として如来の廻向と。そうでなしに、お念仏が如来の廻向だ、如来の廻向はお念仏。南無阿弥陀仏が如来の廻向だ。ただ如来廻向、そういうことでない。お念仏が如来の廻向、そうですね。お念仏という、そういうものを一つ押さえて、これが如来廻向と、これが廻向であるということは、これは信心といいます。(18)
So, about this phrase "Buddha's directing of virtue," (some say) "It's just a Buddha's directing of virtue," or, "It's just a vague expression about directing of virtue." That's not the case at all; the nembutsu is directing of virtue, and directing of virtue is the nembutsu. (Saying) "Namu Amida Butsu" is directing of virtue. This is not any ordinary "Buddha's directing of virtue." Now, about the nembutsu being the directing of virtue, or the Buddha's directing of virtue, putting it simply, it is shinjin.
信心の自覚といいましょう。信心は自覚です。自覚の信というものによって、はじめてこの如来の廻向、南無阿弥陀仏が如来の廻向であるということが、はじめて明らかに、身をもって証明することができるのである、そういうわけであります。(18)
Or perhaps I should say, it is the self realization of shinjin: shinjin is self realization. The reason that from the outset, through the entrusting facet of self realization the "Buddha's directing of virtue," and "The nembutsu is the Buddha's directing of virtue," is clear to us is because it can be verified in our own bodies.
自分自身が、自分自身の、身をもって、心をもって、身と心の一切をもって証明する。それが自覚の証明というものでありましょう。(19)
We can, we with our bodies, and with our hearts; with our hearts and bodies as one verify this. This, surely, is the verification of our "self realization."
如来、世に興出したまうゆえは、ただ弥陀本願海を説かんとなり。五濁悪時の群生海、如来如実の言を信ずべし。よく一念喜愛の心を発すれば、煩悩を断ぜずして涅槃を得るなり。凡聖、逆謗、ひとしく回入すれば、衆水、海に入りて一味なるがごとし。摂取の心光、常に照護したまう。すでによく無明の闇を破すといえども、貪愛・瞋憎の雲霧、常に真実信心の天に覆えり。たとえば、日光の雲霧に覆わるれども、雲霧の下、明らかにして闇きことなきがごとし。信を獲れば見て敬い大きに慶喜せん、すなわち横に五悪趣を超截す。一切善悪の凡夫人、如来の弘誓願を聞信すれば、仏、広大勝解の者と言えり。この人を分陀利華と名づく。弥陀仏の本願念仏は、邪見憍慢の悪衆生、信楽受持すること、はなはだもって難し。難の中の難、これに過ぎたるはなし
Sakyamuni Tathagata appeared in this world Solely to teach the ocean-like Primal Vow of Amida; We, an ocean of beings in an evil age of five defilements, Should entrust ourselves to the Tathagata's words of truth.When the one thought-moment of joy arises, Nirvana is attained without severing blind passions; When ignorant and wise, even grave offenders and slanders of the dharma, all alike turn and enter shinjin, They are like waters that, on entering the ocean, become one in taste with it.The light of compassion that grasps us illumines and protects us always; The darkness of our ignorance is already broken through; Still the clouds and mists of greed and desire, anger and hatred, Cover as always the sky of true and real shinjin.But though light of the sun is veiled by clouds and mists, Beneath the clouds and mists there is brightness, not dark. When one realizes shinjin, seeing and revering and attaining great joy, One immediately leaps crosswise, closing off the five evil courses.All foolish beings, whether good or evil, When they hear and entrust to Amida's universal Vow, Are praised by the Buddha as people of vast and excellent understanding; Such a person is called a pure white lotus.For evil sentient beings of wrong views and arrogance, The nembutsu that embodies Amida's Primal Vow Is hard to accept in shinjin; This most difficult of difficulties, nothing surpasses.
I know truly how grievous it is that I, Gutoku Shinran, am sinking in an immense ocean of desires and attachments and am lost in vast mountains of fame and advantage, so that I rejoice not at all at entering the stage of the truly settled, and feel no happiness at coming nearer the realization of true enlightenment. How ugly it is! How wretched!
Or again in the Tannisho,
For Shinran, and for the Shin tradition, I think that salvation means coming to grips with how deeply flawed we are because of our past karma, and because of our desires and attachments, and being grateful for the working of Amida’s Vow which reaches out to us because of our wretchedness, rather than despite it.I know nothing at all of good or evil. For if I could know thoroughly, as Amida Tathagata knows, that an act was good, then I would know good. If I could know thoroughly, as the Tathagata knows, that an act was evil, then I would know evil. But with a foolish being full of blind passions, in this fleeting world- this burning house- all matters without exception are empty and false, totally without truth and sincerity. The nembutsu alone is true and real.
But an ongoing process in which we continually repent our past evil acts, as they become clear to us through the working of the Vow, and as we say the nembutsu in gratitude.sin--->guilt---->repentance---->salvation
This is indeed the age when beings should perform repentance, practice meritorious conduct, and recite the Buddha's Name. In a single utterance of the Name of Amida Buddha, karmic evil that would involve one in eighty billion kalpas of birth-and-death is eliminated. Even a single utterance is thus; the person who practices the constant saying of the Name, is none other than the one who is always performing repentance. KGSS VI:75
我、他力の救済を念ずるときは、我が世に処するの道開け、我、他力の救済を忘るるときは、我が世に処するの道閉づ。
我、他力の救済を念ずるときは、我、物欲の為に迷さるること少く、我、他力の救済を忘るるときは、我、物欲の為に迷さるること多し。
Roughly translated, it goes;我、他力の救済を念ずるときは、我が処する所に光明照し、我、他力の救済を忘るるときは、我が処する所に黒闇覆ふ。
In the moment we believe in salvation by other power, the path out of this suffering world opens up; in the moment we forget salvation by other power, the path out of this suffering world closes up.
In the moment we believe in salvation by other power, the desires that lead us astray lessen; in the moment we forget salvation by other power, the desires that lead us astray multiply.
In the moment we believe in salvation by other power, the spaces we endure are illuminated by unhindered light; when we forget salvation by other power, the spaces we endure are mantled by ignorance.
浄土は言葉の要らぬ世界である 人間の世界は言葉の必要な世界である 地獄は言葉の通じない世界である
“The Pure Land is a world that has no need of words, the human world is one in need of words; hell is a world in which words cannot be understood.”
This vast, raging ocean of desires cannot be controlled or tamed as one would like, for, as he says, “I am such that I do not know right and wrong and cannot distinguish false and true” (Hymns of the Dharma-Ages, I, #116)."I know truly how grievous it is that I, Gutoku Shinran, am sinking in an immense ocean of desires and attachments...How ugly it is! How wretched!" (Kyōgyōshinshō, III, # 113).
Amida’s Pure Land represents the Easy Path for those, like Shinran himself, who cannot walk the difficult Path of Sages. It is out of Amida’s boundless compassion that he has selected the Easy Path to bring all those, living in this time of mappō, to be reborn in his Pure Land. All we need do is entrust ourselves to the working of the Vow; “The moment you entrust yourself...to the Vow, so that the mind set upon saying the nembutsu arises within you, you are immediately brought to share in the benefit of being grasped by Amida, never to be abandoned” (Tannishō, I, #1).If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings in the lands of the ten quarters who sincerely and joyfully entrust themselves to me, desire to be born in my land, and call my Name, even ten times, should not be born there, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment.
For if I could know thoroughly, as Amida Tathāgata knows, that an act was good, then I would know good. If I could know thoroughly, as the Tathāgata knows, that an act was evil, then I would know evil. But with a foolish being full of blind passions, in this fleeting world - this burning house - all matters without exception are empty and false, totally without truth and sincerity” (Tannishō, I, Postscript).
There is no way for a person living in this age of mappō to know thoroughly and absolutely, what acts are good, and what acts are evil. In our foolish and deluded existence, everything that we do will turn out to be empty and false because we are not living in the clear light of wisdom. For Shinran, the nembutsu alone (Namu Amida Butsu) is true and real, because it arises out of the practitioner’s entrusting (信心, shinjin) which is “directed to them from Amida’s sincere mind” (KGSS, III.I, #4).
Shinjin transforms our former mental and emotional state, in what Shinran calls eshin (廻心), or the change of heart that comes from overturning or discarding the mind of self-power (SSZ, II). Once we have overturned our old mental habits of reliance upon our own self-power, and begin to break down the ego, the threefold mind opens up within us: the sincere mind, entrusting with joy, and the aspiration for birth. From the standpoint of the old mind, that is, the mind before the experience of shinjin, being assured of salvation from this world would be cause for great rejoicing, but from the standpoint of the person with shinjin, in sincere mind, this joy is tempered by the knowledge that, “We are filled with all manner of greed, anger, perversity, deceit, wickedness, and cunning, and it is difficult to put an end to our evil nature” (SSZ, II). This deeply reflective knowledge is accompanied by a deep and decided belief that one is a “foolish being of karmic evil caught in birth-and-death” with no hope of ever escaping from the world of samsara on their own, a deep reliance on Amida’s Vows and in that reliance, Amida’s working comes to be so of itself (自然法爾, jinen hōni) (SSZ, II).
For Amida’s working to be manifest “of itself,” we need to get ourselves out of the way. This means abandoning the conviction that we are “good people” and that we know what is right. As my advisor says, stop being “do-gooders” and let good happen in the world. For Shinran, the problem is not that we human beings have an imperfect moral or ethical code, the problem is that we have imperfect human beings whose actions are necessarily imperfect.
Therefore, it is only by relying on the naturally compassionate and ethical working of Amida’s Vow that good can happen in the world. Good happens, we just need to get our “selves” out of the way long enough for it happen.
My late master, old buddha, said, 'Gourd vines entangle with gourd vines.' This teaching has never been seen or heard in the various directions of past and present. My late master alone spoke it. 'Gourd vines entangle with gourd vines' means that buddha ancestors master buddha ancestors; buddha ancestors merge with buddha ancestors in realization. This is transmitting mind by mind. (Kattō)
When you know yourself, you know intimate action... 'Intimate' means close and inseparable. There is no gap. Intimacy embraces buddha ancestors. It embraces you. It embraces the self. It embraces action. It embraces generations. It embraces merit. It embraces intimacy” (Enlightenment 183).
“These are the ancestor's words. All four students had attainment and understanding. Each one's attainment and understanding is skin, flesh, bones, and marrow leaping out of body and mind: skin, flesh, bones, and marrow dropping away body and mind” (Moon 169).
The distinctive Mahāyāna Buddhist view of existence, wherein all phenomena are understood to arise in dependence upon each other, and thus there is no phenomenon that has independent, determinable, or permanent existence; nor do any phenomena possess any sort of unchanging inner nature 自性 (Skt. śūnyatā, śūnya, śunyatva; Tib. stong pa nyid, svabhāva-śunya).
The Tathagata dwells to-day in the state of a Buddha, probably the Tathagata dwells to-day in the state of a Jina, in the state of omniscience, in the state of a Mahanaga; and he contemplates the holy and fully enlightened Tathagatas of the past, future, and present
謹んで往相の回向を案ずるに、大信有り。大信心はすなわちこれ、長生不死の神方、欣浄厭穢の妙術、選択回向の直心、利他深広の信楽、金剛不壊の真心、易往無人の浄信、心光摂護の一心、希有最勝の大信、世間難信の捷径、証大涅槃の真因、極速円融の白道、真如一実の信海なり。
Reverently contemplating Amida's directing of virtue for our going forth, I find there is great shinjin. Great shinjin is the superlative means for attaining longevity and deathlessness. It is the wondrous way to awaken aspiration for the pure and rejection of the defiled. It is the straightforward mind directed to us through the selected Vow. It is shinjin* that actualizes Amida's profound and vast benefiting of others. It is true mind that is diamondlike and indestructible. It is pure shinjin by which a person easily reaches the Pure Land where no one goes. It is the mind that is single, realized by the person who is grasped and protected by the compassionate light. It is great shinjin, rare and unsurpassed. It is the quick path difficult for people to accept. It is the true cause of attaining great nirvana. It is the white path by which all virtues are fulfilled instantly. It is the ocean of shinjin that is itself suchness or true reality.
[T]he Pure Faith for easy attainment of birth in the Pure Land which, nevertheless, very few gain.
The Japanese Buddhist term “nenbutsu” (念仏) derives from the Sanskrit buddhānusmṛti, which—like nenbutsu—means to think about the Buddha, to keep the Buddha in mind. In addition to keeping the Buddha in mind by recitation, one can also keep the Buddha in mind by visualization (119).
The forms of nenbutsu seem to correspond to the different main sensory modalities and learning styles. Visualization practices of remembering the Buddha would perhaps be more effective for those whose dominant sensory modality is vision. Similarly, recitation would be more appropriate for those having the auditory sensory modality dominant (124).
If we consider these as having their origins in different stages of the development of human cognition—Homeric epics in the mythic-narrative stage of cognitive development, and Pure Land and Prajñāpāramitā sutras as well as tantric maṇḍalas in the graphic stage—then certain characteristics of each style of (what I am loosely calling) “literature” makes sense (130).
An important implication that is worth noting at this point is the transformation of vocal nenbutsu from a practice in which one engages into an experiencing of the sound of the nenbutsu passively, that is, as coming to one from Amida. I believe that it was Rennyo who emphasized that one is not simply to recite the name of the Buddha Amida, but rather that the goal is to hear the Buddha Amida reciting the nenbutsu. So recitation is no longer experienced as an activity that I am undertaking, but rather becomes transformed into an experience that comes to me (123).
The great summons of the Tathâgata’s calling voice is namely the nembutsu. [People tend] to keep apart, as if they were two separate substances, Amida’s Primal Vow and their own faith, namely the entity that calls and the entity that responds. Among the Tathâgata and the self, they take the former as the caller and the latter as the respondent. However, as long as there is this opposition between caller and respondent, one cannot pretend that the total self has come to self-awareness...My aspiration is truly Amida’s Primal Vow, the calling voice is the answering voice.