|
 Latest Issue↓
Gunmo:
The Gunmo is a Dharma pamphlet for the Buddhist followers of the sixteen temples,
which has been quarterly published for about 45 years. "Gunmo"
means multitudes of weeds that are nameless and disdained as worthless,
and the Larger Pure Land sutra states  that Shakyamuni Buddha appeared in this world to reveal teachings of the
Way and save Gunmo, multitudes of beings by endowing them with true benefits.
As one of the two original members of the pamphlet that survived, the
Ryokeiji temple priest (Koju Fujieda) has been contributed his essay all
the while and a collection of his essays was published entitled "Gunmo
no Mezame" (Awakening of the Gunmo Beings) a few years ago.
None of his articles have ever been translated in English so far, but
a trial with the last one will be done as follows:
....................................
The Latest Issues
No.189
No.188
No 187
No.186
No.185
No.184
No.183
No.182
No.181
No.180
No.179
No.178
No.177 No.176 No.175
No.189
Am I Going To Be Saved? （2）
Koju Fujeda
Ryokeiji
Temple Priest
Let us hereafter appreciate the latter half of the ten benefits one by
one.
6. The benefit of being constantly
protected by the light of the Buddha’s heart.
(The true nembutsu person is always enwrapped and sheltered by
Amida Buddha’s light.)
“The light of compassion that grasps us
illuminates and
protects us always” expresses the similar meaning in
Shoshinge or Hymn of True
Shinjin and the Nembutsu. Another
phrase in the same Hymn (“Everywhere the
Buddha casts light immeasurable, boundless,…light
surpassing sun and moon”) refers to
the Twelve Lights just
as the same number of hymns in Hymns Based on Gathas in Praise of Amida Budda (“The light of
wisdom exceeds all measure…,” “The liberating wheel of light is without bound…”
etc. ) do. The functions of Amida Buddha’s
heart light are traced here in twelve ways.
Here is Eiichi Enomoto’s
actual impression of the Light: “When Dear Light comes
Entanglement in my
heart
Seems to become loose.”
7. The benefit
of having great joy in our hearts.
(The true nembutsu person has his or her
heart filled with real joy of being saved.)
This
notion is expressed in Shoshinge as “When one realizes shinjin, seeing and
revering and attaining great joy, One immediately leaps crosswise,
closing off the five evil courses.”
In the Great Sutra, there also goes the famous phrase “All
sentient beings who, having heard his Name, rejoice in faith, remember
him even once…will attain birth and dwell in the Stage of Non-retrogression.”
Such
joy, however, is not what makes you go into raptures, but what Myokonin Asahara
Saichi says to himself:
“Look, Saichi, you cannot rely on your
joy;
it disappears and flees away;
What does not flee away is our Parent’s
Compassion;
Namuamidabutsu has captured your heart,
It will surely save you Saichi;
What benevolence! Namuamidabutsu.”
Passing, sentimental joy will soon flee away
in vain, and
if you realize
Amida Buddha’s deep compassion shed on its very vanity, truly heart-felt joy
will well up from the bottom of your heart.
8. The benefit of being aware
of Amida’s benevolence and of responding in gratitude to his virtue.
(The true nembutsu person can lead an
actual life of gratitude to Amida’s benevolence.)
In this light the famous hymn goes:
“Such is the benevolence of Amida’s
great compassion, That we must strive to return it, even to the breaking
of our bodies.”
However, what is His benevolence? I
should say it is
that you have had the purpose of your life finally clarified. You are now settled in the status of becoming a Buddhaleaving the world of delusion, which is really what you were born for. Is there any other benevolence greater than this?How can you return this true benevolence? By saying the nembutsu in gratitude, as Shoshinge
states, “Solely saying the Tathagata’s Name constantly, One should respond with
gratitude to the universal Vow of great compassion.”
Hence the next benefit is opened.
9. The benefit
of constantly practicing great compassion.
(The true nembutsu person can spread Amida’s
Great Compassion to other people.)
Shinran Shonin declares,
“Let those who realize shinjin that is Other Power,
In order to repay the Buddha’s benevolence,
Spread the two aspects* of Amida’s directing
of virtue Throughout all the ten quarters.”
(*The directing of virtue for going forth and that for returning to this world.)
He was convinced that those who have
attained the deep gratitude of shinjin should strive to initiate other people
into the same faith, and it is the real practice of repaying the benevolence,
and actually he did so until he passed away.
“Dharma hearing last night
Telling to my wife
At breakfast table”
Masami
Like this haiku, spreading the Dharma should
starts in your own family, then on to your relatives and friends.
10. The
benefit of entering the stage of the truly settled.
(The true nembutsu person is in the status of being settled to be born in the pure land and attain
Buddhahood.)
The previous nine benefits are combined into
this benefit of the truly settled. Those who have attained
true shinjin and say the nembutsu can thus experience various benefits.
You may say, “Such benefits can
be realized by such a greatsage as Shinran Shonin. It’s beyond me!” But, if you canappreciate Amida’s great compassion
in saying the nembutsu,it naturally relates to the ten
benefits. The point is whether thenembutsu through true shinjin
accompanies you or not.
“When you are alone, with nobody around you
Dear Nembutsu whispers to you
‘You are not alone; you are not alone.’” ---Muso
Kimura
Living a single life all through, Muso Kimura was protected bythe Buddha while constantly
saying the nembutsu and spread the nembutsu shinjin to many
persons; rightly in the stage of the truly settled.
Certainly, the true nembutsu person is going
to be saved.
Japanese
No. 188
Am I Going To Be Saved? (1)
Koju Fujeda
Ryokeiji
Temple Priest
An old woman asked me, “I have heard and
believed in Amida Buddha’s compassion for many years, but am I going to be
really saved?” She sounded like seeking
for some evidence of being saved.
Let’s ask Shinran Shonin. His answer seems to be in the following hymn.
“Those who attain true and real shinjin
Immediately join the truly settled;
Thus having entered the stage of
nonretrogression,
They necessarily attain nirvana.”
“Immediately”
means “in this life,” so the stage of the truly settled and nonretrogression in
this life is the key idea of Shinran Shonin.
What are the concrete features of the truly
settled, then? He describes them in the
True Shinjin chapter of his greatest work The
True Teaching, Practice, and Realization.
“When we realize the diamondlike true mind
(given by the Tathagata), we transcend crosswise the paths of the five (evil) courses
and eight hindered existences (where Dharma hearing is difficult) and
unfailingly gain ten benefits in the present life. ”
So saying, he goes
on to introduce the ten benefits; let’s see the first five here.
1. The benefit of being protected and
sustained by unseen powers.
(“Unseen powers” means gods and
demi-gods, as is
expressed in the following hymn.)
“The gods of the heavens and earth
Are all to be called good,
For together they protect
The person of the nembutsu.”
(Hymn of the Pure Land)
2. The benefit of being possessed of supreme
virtues.
(“Supreme virtues are of the nembutsu, that
is, being able to say the nembutsu is the token that the person has attained its
supreme virtues.)
3. The
benefit of our karmic evil being transformed into good.
(Refer to the episode stated later.)
4. The benefit of being protected and cared
for by all the Buddhas.
(This is shown in the following hymn.)
“When we say ‘Namu-amida-butsu,’
The countless Buddhas throughout the ten quarters,
Surrounding us a hundredfold, a
thousandfold,
Rejoice in and protect us.”
5. The benefit of being praised by all the
Buddhas.
(This is shown in Shoshinge as follows.)
“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.”
These benefits may seem to be taken as the
checkpoints to see whether you are already in the stage of the truly settled,
but Shinran Shonin must have enumerated them as the benefits he actually
experienced in his own life. Especially the third benefit,
for example, is
related to his exile, whose evil he turned to good in that he deepened his
shinjin as non-priest and non-layman and propagated the Dharma in the Kanto
area.
In Japan they say there are three “saka” (slopes)---“nobori-zaka”(upward slope), “kudari-zaka”
(downward slope), and “masaka”(the unexpected), and a series of masaka happened to Dr.
Shuko Tsuchihashi. After he retired from
Ryukoku University and relaxed at his home temple in Yamanashi with his wife
for a couple of years, she passed away due to an unexpected disease. One year later his temple was destroyed by an
accidental fire. Shortly a new temple was rebuilt, but his son, who lived alone
in Tokyo, teaching at a college, killed himself, leaving his wife and two
children. One year after the miserable
funeral, the young wife left the temple with her children.
How is Tshuchihashi sensei doing after
undergoing a series of masaka? When his disciple Dr. Masahiro Asada visited
him one day, he talked about his deceased son only, but he showed a tanka poem
in the temple:
“My parents gone, my wife left me, and my
son hastened;
Beautiful is the glowing cloud in the
west, though.”
Dr. Asada was
moved, “How he could praise the glowing cloud in the western Pure Land after he
was beaten by the manifold masaka!
This must be the token that he had encountered the Tathagata’s wisdom that transforms
the evil into good and realized that benefit himself.”
The benefit of transforming evil into good
or the token of being saved is not what can be certified by someone else, but
what one realizes within oneself.
Japanese
No.187
Bodily
Acquired Dharma
Koju Fujeda
Ryokeiji Temple Priest
The other day
I was truly surprised at the news that Nadeshiko Japan won the championship in
the world women’s soccer tournament.
What was their secret? Someone
said it was because they were free of all other worldly affairs, devoting
themselves to the games. It may be so, but to me, an amateur, it seems that they have acquired soccer
bodily. To have acquired the art bodily means that you do not calculate in your
head how to deal with the ball, but the instant it starts to move, your body
reflexively moves towards it. To play
unconsciously, so to speak, is the state of bodily acquirement.
How many
times of conscious practices, however, have been accumulated before such bodily
acquirement is accomplished? Hundreds of
times? Nay, thousands, or tens of
thousands of times they must have practiced.
The same is applied to arts and skills besides sports. The point is that
before an art is acquired bodily or assimilated with the body, numberless
practices beyond calculation are to be carried out.
Recently I
published a booklet entitled “Dharma Hearing Is Light,” a record of Mr. Gen’ichi
Matsumura, an earenest Dharma-hearer who listened to the Dharma-recorded tapes
a thousand times and took notes of the content of the 760 tapes. He became a
member of the Dharma Tape Club in my temple as soon as I started it and for
thirteen years thereafter until he became ill, he continued to hear those tapes
and write the gist of them. He was a model of what is called life-time Dharma
hearing.
Looking at
his note of Dharma hearing, I am impressed with his neat handwriting on B5
sheets and his rich knowledge of Buddhist technical terms, which are sometimes so
special that young Buddhist students find it hard to take notes of their
teacher’s lecture. The fact that Mr. Matsumura was able to make out what he
heard in the Dharma tapes correctly most of the time proves that he read the
Buddhist scriptures daily, attended the Dharma sessions very frequently, and
had acquired the Dharma with his own body.
Listening to the Dharma tapes a thousand times was a token of his bodily
acquirement of Buddhism.
You might
ask, however, “Why is it necessary to hear the Dharma so often? Isn’t “isshin” (one mind or
single-heartedness) or “ichinen” (one thought or single-hearted faith in Amida)
the most important in Shin Buddhism? Isn’t
it essential to hear the Dharma at the ultimate present time and attain shinjin
once for all as it is stated in Tannisho (A
Record of Lament of Divergences) that for the person of wholehearted single
practice of the nembutsu, change of heart occurs only once? Frequency of Dharma hearing is not the
point. Isn’t how to hear and what to
hear the most critical question?” Then, I would like to react, “Have you experienced such a Dharma hearing and attained shinjin yourself?”
“Change of
heart” is, to be brief, that “we come to know truly that we are possessed of blind
passions, and entrust ourselves to the power of the Primal Vow”(wasan for
Shan-tao), but can we truly come to realize our own blind passions so easily? Why do Shakyamuni and Amida “guide us through
various skillful means, and bring us to awaken the supreme shinjin” (the next
wasan)? While hearing this and that
Dharma talk, the light of Pure Land will gradually and naturally break through
our dark mind as Mr. Matsumura once remarked in his note “gikuri to kita” (“This
startles me”) when he heard about the Three Poisonous Passions and the Five
Evil Actions of the Larger Sutra. In order for you to “encounter
this light” that awakens you to your own dark reality, preparatory nurture is
necessary in terms of frequent Dharma hearing.
Much more
Dharma hearing is necessary for you to understand even vaguely the Light or
Wisdom of the Tathagata. Every time you
hear about it, the greatness and depth of His Vow will be known to the body of
foolishness.
Further,
ordinary people are possessed of blind passions, which they cannot get rid of
throughout their lives. Even if they
have attained shinjin, their blind passions will not be eradicated. That is why His “great compassion is untiring
and illuminates me always.” (Shosinge)
To keep on hearing this in our lives of blind passions is really the way
of life-time Dharma hearing or Bodily-acquired Dharma.
As Shinran
says in his hymn, “Such beings are like people who, imbued with incense, bear
its fragrance on their bodies,” we would like to have the incense of the numbutsu imbued into our bodies.
Japanese
No.186
Dreaming
in a Long Sleep
Koju Fujeda
Ryokeiji Temple Priest
Tidal seas dashing in,
Tidal seas dashing away;
Leaving the human history
Wholly stripped off in dark
By Itsuji Sakon (Kitamoto City)
When I read this tanka poem in the Asahi
Tanka Forum, I was stronglyimpressed by the wording “the human history wholly stripped off.” It surely depicted that nightmarish tsunami in the Eastern Japan, but it
also implies, I sensed, that all Japanese people were awakened to the severe
reality after dreaming a long dream of easy life; their bed cover was stripped
off. The history of the Japanese had been unfolded
until that unforgettable 2:46 pm of March 11, 2011, when in an instant the
history cover was torn off unveiling the dark debris.
Who could foresee this speechless disaster? All Japanese were heart-broken; nay, the
whole world must have been terror-stricken. To make the matter worse,
radioactivity has been lingering around.
What a drastic change! What a sad
thing! While immersed in this grief, I
happened to come across T’an-luan’s words as follows:
“These three worlds are all defiled and have
come into existence because of wrong actions. [Sentient beings in the three
worlds] have been dreaming in a long sleep, not knowing that they should desire
awakening. Therefore, out of great
compassion he resolved, “When I become a Buddha, I will produce a pure land
with unequalled wisdom and emancipate [living beings] from the three worlds.”
(T’an-luan’s Commentary on Vasubundhu’s Discourse on the Pure
Land, translated by Hisao Inagaki, p.142)
Previously, I had interpreted the Tathagata’s
great compassion as what is directed towards our real sufferings, but T’an-luna’s
insight is much deeper. Basically, we
human beings are doomed in the realms of delusion or what is called the three
worlds, but very few of us desire emancipation from that plight; instead, we continue
to dream for three poisons (greed, anger, and ignorance) and five desires
(wealth, sex, food and drink, fame, and sleep (i.e. desire for pleasure)),
ultimately perish in delusion. What a
deplorable life it is!
Miraculously we gained this human life which
is the only chance to leave delusion for enlightenment, but if we fail to make
the most of it and end this precious life in vain, what a regret it will
be! Why not encounter the Buddha’s light
and be awakened to the very purpose of human life? This is nothing but the call of His great
compassion, T’an-luna says.
As in the Larger Sutra the Bhiksu Dharmakara manifested that he wanted
to “remove the roots of afflictions of birth-and-death of all, the great
compassion of the Buddha seems to be directed towards the roots of our
delusion (just as if the bottom of the sea caused the tsunami, which is
quite different from the wind waves on the sea surface); that kind of root
must be our dream in a long sleep．
The modern time seems to be full of dreams (conveniences)
of human culture based on science and rationalism, but it should be noted that
those dreams are dreamt on the bed of the burning house, impermanence, and that
those dreams are infested with nightmares of “life-long evil passions” (for
example, fraud of the earthquake subscription, or cornering the food and stuff
in Tokyo).
Whatever dreams you may be dreaming, they
will surely be broken sooner or later. What would you do when they are broken
and you realize “A human life is nothing but a mere dream of dream”? What would you do when your bed cover is
stripped off your dream and you face the rigid reality? Unless you have heard of the way out of
delusion, you are to remain in the realm of delusion like hell.
The point is whether you want to get out of
the delusion or not. Only those who single-mindedly
wish to be born in the pure land of emancipation from delusion can hear the eons-long
call of Amida Buddha, “Entrust yourself to the Buddha’s True Mind and say the
nembutsu; you will surely be saved,” that is, they have been awakened to the
Tathagata’s great compassion.
Those who are still dreaming in a long sleep
cannot hear His call.
(Those who have been luckily awakened, please wake
them up!)
Japanese
No.185
Without
Calculation (2)
---Birth though the Tathagata’s Working---
Koju Fujeda
Ryokeiji Temple Priest
Japanese people may say, “I was in a bad fix (ojoshita) as my bicycle
had a flat tire,” or “The super express was held up (tachi-ojoshita)
by the record-breaking snowfall,” but such a use of “ojo” is not the
legitimate meaning of “ojo” or Birth into the Pure Land.
It is also a misuse when people say “dai-ojo” (great birth, in verbatim)
implying a “peaceful DEATH.”
What is the true meaning of “ojo”?
Let us peruse Shinran Shonin’s writings. There are four types of the usage
of “ojo.”
(1) “Birth means to be born in the Pure Land.” (Notes on the Inscriptions
on Sacred Scrolls p.505) “We necessarily attain birth in the land of happiness, And thereupon realize
that birth-and-death is itself great nirvana.”(Hymn of the Two Gateways,
p.628) “The realm of nirvana refers to the place where one overturns the delusion of ignorance and realizes
the supreme enlightenment.” (Notes on ‘Essentials of Faith Alone’, p.460)
As seen in the above quotations, Shinran defines “ojo” or birth as going to Amida Buddha’s Land of Happiness and
attaining enlightenment or nirvana, that is, becoming a Buddha. [Nirvana
attainment]
(2) “When one realizes true and real shijin, one is immediately grasped and
held within the heart of the Buddha of unhindered light, never to be abandoned.
… When we are grasped by Amida, immediately---without a moment or a day
elapsing---we ascend to and become established in the stage of the truly
settled; this is the meaning of attain birth.”(Note on Once-Calling and
Many-Calling, p.475)
Shinran’s second definition of “ojo” or “attain brith” is that as
soon as we attain true shinjin, our birth into the Pure Land is settled
and established here. [Assurance of Birth into the Pure Land in the Present
Life]
(3) “When persons attain this enlightenment, with great love and great
compassion immediately reaching their fullness in them, they return to
the ocean of birth-and-death to save all sentient beings; this is known
as attaining the virtue of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra.”(Notes on ‘Essentials
of Faith Alone’, p.454)
Shinran asserts that attaining the
enlightenment of nirvana includes returning to this world to save those who are
suffering in the deluded realm. [Amida’s directing of virtue for returning to
this world]
Among the above three ideas the core is the
first one, because to
attain enlightenment
and become a Buddha is the essential goal of the
Buddhist way. The second idea is a prerequisite resulted
from trueshinjin
of attaining enlightenment. The third is the fulfillment of the Mahayana
Buddhist spirit of attaining Buddhahood oneself and saving all sentient beings
at the same time, as T’an-luan remarks that true wisdom turns out to be true
compassion.
This is Shinran’s answer to the question “What
is it to become a Buddha?” Then, how is it possible for us ordinary
people to attain Buddhahood? Here is
another important insight of Shinran.
(3) “Once you simply realize
that the Vow surpasses conceptual understanding and with singleness of heart
realize that the Name surpasses conceptual understanding and pronounce it, why
should you labor in your own calculation? …. Once you have simply come to realize that Vow and Name surpass conceptual understanding,
you should not calculate in this way or that.
There must be nothing of your calculation in the act that leads to birth.”(Lamp
for the Latter Ages, p.536) “In no way is birth accomplished
through the calculating of foolish beings; neither can it be the object of the
calculation of the eminently wise. Even holy masters of the Mahayana and the Hinayana entrust themselves utterly to the power of the Vow to
attain birth, without calculating in any way. (Lamp for the Latter Ages,
p.550)
Concerning “ojo” or birth as is expressed in the above three sections,
there should be no calculation on the part of us foolish beings because
birth is worked by the Vow that surpasses our conceptual understanding.
[Buddha’s Wisdom that surpasses conceptual understanding]
Shinran
Shonin, from the standpoint of Gutoku or foolish being, completely entrusted
himself to Amida’s Vow that surpasses conceptual understanding, saying the
nembutsu, and was born in the Pure Land. As for the Vow, however, he heard out
the depth of the Vow that aims at himself through Honen Shonin and other
masters, and of course from Shakyamuni Buddha.
He was not credulous at all. One who has realized one’s own disease
would not doubt the diagnosis and prescription of the Doctor he relies on.
“Without
calculation of your own” represents the ultimate of your shinjin. When you are
awakened to the irreparable foolishness of your deep self, how could you afford
to calculate the Tathagata’s Vow that promises to save you as you are? It is a (really?) wise person that calculates.
＜NB: The page numbers are of The Collected Works of SHINRAN Vol.1,
Jodoshinshu Hongwanji-ha>
Japanese
No.184
Without
Calculation (1)
---”I” will go to birth in the Pure
Land---
Koju Fujeda
Ryokeiji Temple Priest
Throughout his life Shinran Shonin possessed
with the strong aspiration to be liberated from delusions and attain
enlightenment (Buddhahood). But what
will it be to be born in the realm of Buddhahood (the Pure Land) at all?
Modern people will surely ask:
1) What will go to the Pure
Land?
2) What is it like to become
a Buddha?
So I
would like to ask these questions of Shinran Shonin.
As for the question of the subject of
pure-land birth, he says, frankly speaking, that it is “I” that goes to be born
in the Pure Land. Many people of modern age think that since the body perishes when one dies,
the soul goes to the other world (Pure Land) , don't they? But, if you peruse Shinran's writings, it will be clear that he does not analyze
or separate
the mind from the body, but refers to “I” as a synthesis of the two, focusing
on how this self is existing. Let us see a few examples.
★“Sentient beings, having
long followed the Path of Sages---
The accommodated and temporary teachings that are provisional means---
Have been transmigrating
in various forms of existence;
So take refuge in the One
Vehicle of the compassionate Vow.”
---Hymns of Pure Land
(If you do not entrust yourself to Amida Buddha’s Original Vow and Nembutsu,
you will remain wandering in the deluded existences.)
The
point is that it is “I” that is in the realms of delusion. The cause of delusion is wild passions, as
Shinran remarks:
“Foolish beings: as expressed in the parable of the two rivers of water
and fire, we are full of ignorance and blind passions….”
---Notes on
One-Calling and Many-Calling
In
reflection you will know it is “you” as a whole being that has appetite orsexual desire, or gets angry the moment you are attacked by others. Yes,
what
is deluded is “I” or “oneself” as a whole being.
★“When sentient beings of this evil world of the five defilements
Entrust themselves to the selected Primal Vow,
Virtues indescribable,
inexplicable, and inconceivable
Fill those practitioners.”
---Hymns of Dharma-Ages
(If you entrust yourself to Amida Buddha's Original Vow and say the Nembutsu,
the virtues of being truly settled here and now, and being born in the
Pure Land, becoming a Buddha, and moreover entering the stage of saving others are given to those people of true Nembutsu practice.)
This
time Shinran says it is also “I” that gets the virtues or merits of shinjin as
is shown in another example:
“Prince Shotoku has compassionately
Urged and led us to enter
The Vow of inconceivable Buddha-wisdom,
So that we now dwell in the stage of the
truly-settled.”
---Hymns of Dharma-Ages
The
stage of the truly-settled means that once we get shinjin, our birth in the
Pure Land is settled here and now. “We” , “I” or “You” as a whole being get the
merits of shinjin.
★“My life has now reached
the fullness of its years. It is certain that I will go to birth in the Pure Land before you, so
without fail I will await you there.”
---Shinran's Letter
What goes to
birth in the Pure Land is also “I” as a whole being. He does not take a
separate view as the body or mind. Why
does he think so? Because birth in the Pure Land is not our own practice, but the Buddha'sexertion. We need not calculate since we entrust
ourselves to His calling“Believe in Buddha's truth and say the nembutsu, and I will make you aBuddha.
Calculation belongs to the realm of knowledge and analysis; shinjin does to the
realm of wisdom and synthesis.
A famous British scientist Michael Faraday once said to his students,
“In this test
tube is a small amount of liquid. It is tears of a student'smother. If you analyze it, it will turn out to be a
bit of salt and water, but you should
realize that her tears are full of deep affection for her son thatcannot be
analyzed even by chemistry.
In the
present age people soon try to analyze anything scientifically, even human life,
but our lives that we live and feel are holistic and synthetic. “I”is nothing but such a generic and intuitive being. What is astray, what
hears Dharma, and what is saved is this “I”, Shinran Shonin asserts.
Japanese
No.183
What will become of you after you die? (3)
Koju Fujeda
Ryokeiji Temple Priest
In the last
questionnaire the item No.17 “How to live now is more important than the
after-death issue got one of the highest reactions, but to think of the true
path of your life is to think of the significance of your life and what you
were born for---a serious task for you.
However, the basic question is what view you have of human life. Most people in this modern age seem to take man as the lord of creation
that rules over the earth, and so you are a member of the superior species
that has built up the gigantic human culture here. Therefore, you may try to look upon the issue
of life from the standpoint that man is “wise and great”.
On the other hand,
in Buddhism, people are said to be destined to wander around the delusory realms
of life-and-death driven by their own karma. Hell, the realms of hungry spirits, animals, asuras, men, and heavenly beings---these
are enumerated as the “six paths”.
Therefore, Buddhism presupposes men in the status of delusion bound by
karma, but the human realm is supposed to be the only sphere where you
can be emancipated from the worlds of delusion to enlightenment. Hence the sacred verse “Human life is hard to
attain and we have attained it; Buddhist teaching is hard to hear and we have
already heard it.” Briefly, all this
notion comes from the viewpoint that man is “stupid and astray”.
Shakyamuni Buddha,
the seven Pure Land Masters, and Shinran Shonin all endeavored very hard to
depart from the transmigration within the delusory realms (delusion, stupidity,
and suffering) and attain nirvana (extinction of evil passions; enlightenment). The final purpose or goal of their life was
nothing but such “liberation” from delusion to enlightenment.
“Through countless
kalpas and innumerable lives,
We did not know
the strong cause of liberation;
Were it not for
our teacher Genku,
This present life
also would pass in vain.”
So remarks Shinran
Shonin in his hymn of Honen (Genku) Shonin, especially realizing the happiest
encounter with his teacher who taught him Amida Buddha’s strong cause of
liberation. Here is Shinran’s purpose or
fundamental course of life distinctly revealed as “liberation” from the
delusory realms.
Recently it has
often been proposed that the purpose of life is to accomplish human life, a
topic that sounds agreeable to modern people.
However, according to Shinran Shonin, accomplishment of human life is
realized only by encountering the “strong cause of liberation” (Amida Buddha’s Original Vow and His Name). In other words, to attain buddhahood by
entrusting yourself to Amida Buddha’s original vow and saying the nembutsu is
decidedly what you were born for. And yet, the “process” of becoming a Buddha starts with “gensho shojoju”
or the status of rightly being established in this life as the one who
is certain to attain enlightenment, protected by Amida’s compassionate
light that accepts all Nembutsu people without fail . On ending your life,
you will be born in the Pure Land to attain nirvana (the highest enlightenment)
and be given inconceivable power to return in incarnation to this defiled
world and save other living beings (what is called “genso eko” or Amida
Buddha’s providence to let us enter the phase of benefitting others).
The very process of all this liberation deserves the accomplishment of
your human life, doesn’t it?
Without this accomplishment
of the Buddhist path, or liberation to enlightenment, whatever you will have
done in your present life would come to an end at your death. If your
after-death world is secured, you will surpass the life-and-death realm and
attain an eternal life. Moreover, you will be enabled to enter the phase of
liberating others (working for the sake of the society). Isn’t this the utmost
accomplishment of your life as a human being?
In the deepest
gratitude of encountering this “liberation”, Shinran Shonin dedicated his whole
life to propagate Buddhism in this world, as a token of returning the great benevolence
he received from Amida and his teachers. We must be reminded here that all his
achievement derived from his self-realization as “gutoku” (a stupid and bald
being), the fundamental concept that “man is stupid and astray”. But for this
basic viewpoint, he would not have entered the way of “liberation.”
Japanese
No.182
What will become of you after you die? (2)
KojuFujieda
Ryokeiji Temple Priest
To the last
questionnaire more than 1100 responses were collected thanks to the cooperation
of my Dharma friends. A statistical survey can be done in the following graph.
In each item from #1 to #18 there are three pillars shown: the gray one
stands for the Devout Group (104), mostly aged, who have heard Dharma very
eagerly, the white for the Young Group in the 20s and 30s who seemingly
have heard Dharma very scarcely, and the black for the Total (1151) including
all generations (80s and above= 101 people; 60s-70s=346; 40s-50s=242; 20s-30s=368),
about half residing in Fukui Pref. and the rest in other prefectures from
Hokkaido to Kyushu, covering temple goers and non-goers, salaried persons
and students
The top three responses of the Total (black) are #2 (Don’t know at all),
#15 (I have entrusted everything to the Buddha), and #16 (This life is
more important than the after-death matter)
#2 (not know) is an
honest response, I think, for nobody can prove the after-death world distinctly
and scientifically. The Young Group (white)
shows the highest response rate here. However,
death certainly comes even if you don’t know about it, hence the relevance of
religion with the after-death matter.
#3 (Man will end in
ashes and that’s all) is a view that denies religion, but such a nihilistic
response was lower than I had feared, even among the Young people. So most
people seem to sense some after-death life, which is presented as various
choices from #4 to #15.
Roughly, #4 to #8
are popular notions. #4 (I will go to some other world
like Hades) was the No. 4 highest in the Total. The Young
Group was as high as the Total, and the YG is higher than the Total in #7 (Come
back as humans) and #5 (Go to heaven).
#9 (All people
become Buddhas equally) to #15 (entrusted) are Buddhist views of after-death
life, and #12 to #15 are of Pure Land teaching; #13 and #14 are especially of
Pure Land Shin Buddhism.
With #15 (I have
entrusted everything to the Buddha, so I don’t care where to go after death),
the Devout Group (of high age) was distinctly high. Their entrustment must come from their deep
Shinjin, I understand.
In the same way their responses in #12 (Since I
have entrusted myself to Amida Buddha’s original vow
and say the nembutsu in gratitude, I will become a Buddha
through His power) and #13 (Since I am rightly established
as one to become a Buddha, the after-death matter is out of question
to me) are clearly higher than the Total. This must be the result of their
earnest hearing of Dharma for years. Therefore their #2 (not know) response
is much lower than the others, showing their insight. Incidentally, however, their
concern of pain at death (#17) is higher than the others; this can be interpreted as the aged people’s realistic apprehension of on-coming
death.
In the Buddhism-related items from #9 to
#15, the Young Group showed no interest except for #9 and #15, in small quantity, though. In the case
of #9, the Japanese term “hotoke” currently has two meanings, “dead body”
and “Buddha” (enlightenment), so when people say man will become a “hotoke” if he dies, they may mean a “dead body.” Even when they mean
Buddha, if they think it is a
matter of course (or even a natural way) for dead people to become Buddhas, they
are taking the matter too easy. I wonder if such impudent simplicity is not intermingled with the YG’s choice of
#15 (entrusted).
#16 (How to live now is more
important than the after-death matter) was the No.3 highest with the Total
and YG, which is a modern view, surely.
Butwhat will be the truest way of
life is a great question. Let’s consider
it in the next issue.
Japanese
No.181
What will become of you
after you die? (1)
Koju Fujeda
Ryokeiji Temple Priest
Recently I started to try this rather
delicate questionnaire on people who are in some relation with me: “What do you
think will become of you after you die?”
“Delicate” I said because in Japan today even the word “death” tends to
be looked upon as a taboo in the daily life, and they seem to think the whole
world has only the phase of “life”, not “life and death.”
Especially among the young generations who
live apart from their parents and other seniors, the term and notion of “death”
might be nothing but a devil or terror.
However, death unfailingly visits everybody, and that equally. The deathrate
of humans is 100 per cent; nothing is more certain than death. So it is
said that in Germany and other countries “death education” is started
as early as at elementary school using the textbook of death.
How do you take your own death? This is a question that every human being
must encounter sooner or later. Only after you have an insight into the problem of “death”, your “life” will be stable and enriched.
In this line, the questionnaire below has
been prepared to confirm what you think of your after-death question. Readers,
why not try to pick up one or two replies out of the seventeen items? If you need another alternative, please write
in No. 18 column freely.
Then please send your reply (the numbers of one
or two items you selected) , together with your sex, age (by ten-year level), residential
state or country, and religion, addressed to me (kjfjd832@mitene.or.jp).
☆Questionnaire:
Q What do you think will become of you after you die?
(Select one or two items)
1 I don’t
want to think about such a theme.
2 I
have no idea at all.
3 I will become ashes and that's all. Nothing will remain
in any form.
4 I will go somewhere I don’t know of; perhaps to “the
other world.”
5 I will go to Heaven (Paradise)
6 I will go somewhere bad like Hell or the realm of hungry
spirits.
7 I will be reborn as a
human.
8 I
will become a star, flower, bird, wind, or rain.
9 Everybody
will become a Buddha without any condition.
10 I have already realized through sitting in Zen and other
practices that I am a Buddha already.
11 I will become a Buddha because I have tried to do good
without doing any evil.
12 Since I worship the Buddha every day and earnestly recite
the ｎembutsu, I will become a Buddha.
13 Since I have entrusted myself to Amida Buddha's original
vow and say the nembutsu in gratitude, I will become a
Buddha through His power.
14 Since I am rightly established as one to become a Buddha,
the after-death matter is out of question to me.
15 Ｉ ｈave entrusted everything to the Buddha. So I don't
care where I will go after death.
16 I don't care what will become of me after death. How to
live in this world is more important than the after-death
question.
17 I fear about the pain and anguish at death rather than the
after-death matter.
18 (Other
reply. Please write it out.)
Reply
Form
☆ The numbers of the items you selected:
( )
( )
☆ If you selected #18, write
your alternative:
☆ About You:
Sex (male
female), Age (80s, 70s, 60s, 50s, 40s,
30s, 20s, 10s)
State ( ), Country ( )
Religion (Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism,
Islamism,
Others )
Thank you for your cooperation.
Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ
No.180
Pure Wish Koju Fujieda
After finishing a Dharma
talk on the defilement of the world, I happened to hear the Buddhist hymn The Four Vows played on the tape.
However numberless the sentient beings
may be.
I vow to save them;
However countless the evil passions may
be,
I vow to overcome them:
However fathomless the Dharma teaching may
be,
I vow to study them;
However high the Buddha’s enlightenment may
be,
I vow to attain it.
These are what is called
the “general vows” which all bodhisattvas are to make when they start on their
Buddhist way. They aim at attaining enlightenment for themselves, which is
“jiri” or benefiting oneself, and at saving other sentient beings, which is
“rita” or benefiting others. These
two-sided vows represent the basic feature of the Mahayana Buddhism or the Bodhisattva Way.
The melody of the hymn is
so fresh and lofty that I have been fond of it since my youth; now that I am in
the latter half of the seventies, I felt revived by the pure beauty of the
song. Aging means that I have seen something
of the world. Though my experience is
limited, I have known the joy and sorrow of life in my own way; I was made to
realize how defiled this world is as is often revealed in the newspapers.
Thus there came into my mind a recollection of
Kenji Miyazawa’s poem “Unbeaten by the Rain.”
Unbeaten by the rain
Unbeaten by the wind
…….(omitted)…….
Free
from greed
He never loses his temper
But always smiles quietly
…….(omitted)…….
If there is a sick child in the east
He goes there to nurse it
If there's a tired mother in the west
He goes to her and carries her sheaves
…….(omitted)…….
He sheds tears at the time of drought
He plods about nervously during the cold summer
Everyone calls him Blockhead
No one sings his praise
Or minds his being there...
That is the kind of person
I want to be
What a humane, lofty wish!
It is a heart-filling poem like a pure fountain in the midst of this
dried up world. It is a poem that induces us to follow his steps.
On the contrary, however, Takuboku
Ishikawa, another famed poet at the time, reveals himself like this:
Such is the sorrow of this man
who has been unable to control
his own insatiable selfishness.
Even if you should wish to live for the sake of others and the
world, denying your egoism, when you confront the realities of your actual
life, you would be shocked by the
rigid fact that your selfishness or ego-attachment totally blocks
your way of pure wish.
It was Dharmakara
Bodhisattva who stood up to save this sorrowful plight of us ego-bound foolish
beings. Based on the bodhisattvas’ general vows, He specifically established
the supreme forty-eight vows, accomplished his lofty wish to attain perfect
enlightenment as Amida Buddha or the Buddha of Unlimited Light and Life, and then
built the pure and ornamented land. This means that the Buddhist Way to accept and convert all
sentient beings into the Buddha’s enlightenment has already been completed. It
is certainly the highest reach of “Pure Wish.”
Shinran Shonin expressed
that reach in a wasan:
Entrust yourself to Amida’s
Primal Vow.
Through the benefit of being grasped,
never to be abandoned,
All who entrust themselves to the Primal
Vow
Attain the supreme enlightenment.
At the age of eighty-five, he was still rejoicing in this Pure
Wish. The wish was Dharmakara Bodhisattva’s, of course, but at the same time it
was Shinran Shonin’s own Pure Wish to be enabled to attain the supreme
enlightenment by Dharmakara Bodhisattva’s, namely, Amida Buddha’s original vow.
The current world seems to
be too much filled by deception, falsehood, scandals, heated competition,
luxury, frantic money-making, negligence of home education, disregard of morals
and spiritual cultivation, and avoiding sincere truth seeking and dharma
hearing, doesn’t it? Isn’t this a dried-up aspect of our life?
At this very time, the Pure
Wish of the bodhisattvas and the Buddha moves our mind all the more.
Beating Me
by
Muso Kimura
Waves come beating and beating
Coming to the banks
Coming to the dried sands
The Name comes beating and beating
Coming to the dried mind
Coming to the dried heart
Namuamidabutsu
Namuamidabutsu.
Let’s make the New Year be
the time to cherish the Pure Wish by all means.
Japanese
No.179
On Repaying the Buddha’s Benevolence (２)
Koju Fujieda
The "on" or benevolence of heaven and earth is how deeply we
feel gratitude for being allowed to live, and in the same way, the benevolence
of Amida’s great compassion is how truly we feel thankful for being able
to tread the bright path to the Pure Land with the Nembutsu in the midst
of delusive passions of greed and anger.
“That we are allowed to live is not the conclusion, but the starting point,”
remarks Rev. Yutai Ikeda. He means that, if you are moved by this deep-felt
realization of the benevolence, you will naturally be led to take the first
step of action towards it.
Surveying Shinran Shonin’s writings, I find two phases in that action,
(1)the recitation of the Nembutsu and (2)the propagation of the Dharma.
The first phase is clearly seen in the following;
“Solely saying the
Tathagata’s Name constantly,
One should respond with gratitude to the universal vow of great compassion.” (Shoshinge)
“Feeling the depth of the Buddha’s benevolence and the gratitude of the
masters and true teachers, I simply recite the nembutsu…” (Collected
Letters)
Both quotations express that to recite the nembutsu is to repay the benevolence.
Why is it that to recite the nembutsu can be interpreted as repaying the
benevolence? The answer is very simple. As the true filial piety consists in the child becoming such a man/ woman
as the parent wished them to be, so if we fulfill the Buddha’s wish by
reciting the nembutsu and being saved, it will be the repaying of His benevolence.
The Buddha’s original vow is: “Living beings in the suffering world,
entrust yourselves in my sincerity and recite my Name, and you will surely
be saved.” If you entrust
yourselves in his Vow and recite the nembutsu as He wishes you to do, it will
satisfy His wish. Therefore, the recitation of His Name coming from Shinjin turns out to
repay His benevolence. This notion is also manifested in the following
wasan:
Persons who truly realize shinjin
As they utter Amida’s Name,
Being mindful of the Buddha always,
Wish to respond in gratitude to the great benevolence.
(Hymn
of the Dharma Age)
Through the compassion of Shakyamuni and Amida,
We have been brought to realize the mind that seeks to attain
Buddhahood,
It is by entering the wisdom of shinjin
That we become persons who respond in gratitude to the Buddha’s benevolence.
(Hymn of the Dharma Age)
Thus, the nembutsu recitation to repay the Buddha’s benevolence is sure
to come from shinjin.
In his True Teaching, Practice, and Realization, Shinran shonin quotes
Shan-tao’s gatha
“To
realize shinjin oneself and to guide others to shinjin
Is among difficult things yet even more difficult.
To awaken beings everywhere to great compassion
Is truly to respond in gratitude to the Buddha’s benevolence.
(pp.120 & 238 of The Collected Works of SHINRAN)
“To realize shinjin oneself” corresponds to (1)the recitation of the
Nembutsu. That “to guide others to shinjin or awaken beings everywhere
to great compassion is truly to respond in gratitude to the Buddha’s benevolence”
corresponds to (2)the propagation of the Dharma as mentioned above.
Now I would like to pay attention to (2)the latter action. In that line
Shinran shonin also sates in Wasan
“Let
those who realize shinjin that is Other Power,
In order to repay the Buddha’s benevolence,
Spread the two aspects of Amida’s direction of virtue
Throughout all the ten quarters.”
(Hymn of the
Dharma Age)
He again refers to the propagation in his True Teaching, Practice, and
Realization:
“When we realize the diamond-like true mind, we…unfailingly gain ten
benefits in the present life.
What are these ten?
….
8. The benefit of being aware of Amida’s benevolence and of responding
in gratitude to his virtue.
9. The benefit of constantly practicing great compassion.
This enumeration seems to me to be related with (2)the
second action.
In the past the emphasis tended to be placed only on (1)the nembutsu recitation
for repaying the benevolence, but now that today’s people are likely to be
detached from the established religion at the time of Shinran’s 750 anniversary approaching,
I think it is important to focus on (2)the second action to propagate the Dharma
as well.
To guide others to shinjin may be the task of us priests, but all those
who follow Shinran’s teachings should also lead a nembutsu life rooted in the deep shinjin
and at the same time transmit the Buddha’s compassion to their family, relatives,
friends and general people. It will become the action of repaying the benevolence,
and especially it is the senior people’s duty, I should say.
Worshipping at the family altar everyday , reciting the nembutsu in gratitude
in everyday life, attending the Dharma sessions, and practicing the Buddhist
rituals---all these will naturally work as a Dharma propagation in the form of bodily
preaching for the younger generation.
However, another step forward ought to be taken by way of inviting people to Dharma hearing, which will be an important action of
(2)Dharma propagation.
“Bookmarks for Dharma hearing” will serve that purpose, I hope.
(See http://ryokeiji.net/english/05/06.html)
(Japanese)
No.178
On Repaying the Buddha's Benevolence (1)
Koju Fujieda
At a morning
meeting in a certain junior high school, the principal asked the students if
they knew the parent’s “on” or benevolence, but nobody answered; the auditorium
was very quiet. Then a boy suddenly raised his hand and said, “It’s my dad.” “What?”
the teacher was bewildered. “Why so?” “Well,
an “on” (male) parent is a dad as a “men” (female) parent is a mom.” (In
Japanese “on-dori” is a cock and “men-dori” is a hen.)
As it is many years since I heard this funny story, I wonder if the
term “on” is correctly understood even by adults nowadays, not to mention
children. However, in Buddhism “on” is a very important notion as is referred
to as “Such is the benevolence of Amida’s great compassion,” or “Wish to
respond in gratitude to the great benevolence.” Therefore, I would like to contemplate
on what “on” really is.
What does “on” mean at all?
The Japanese dictionary says it means “megumi” (mercy/ benevolence), “awaremi”
(pity/ compassion), or “itsukushimi” (affection/ compassion). I interpret
"megumi" as going on giving others nourishing materials and
affections without expecting any return.
For example, what we eat everyday is all the lives of others, which are
really free of charge “megumi” from the heaven and earth. The money we
pay as the price is nothing but the wages for those who nurture it. The
air we breathe and the water we drink are just free, gratis from nature.
We tend to take them for granted, but without these “megumi”, we could
not live for a day. We owe our whole existence to these “megumi”; this fact is the notion
of “on.”
Heaven and earth, however, never ask us to thank them for this benevolence;
they never demand gratitude from us, different from human give-and-take
which is petty enough to bear a patronizing air. This benevolence from
nature is just as immense as a flood,: too immense for us to realize. The greatest “on” lies where we are not
aware.
“What is essential is invisible to you,” says Saint-Exupery in Little Prince. Likewise, we owe the most essential “on,” benevolence to what seems to be invisible.
In the Nin-shisetsu-ron of Nandenzokyo
(Southern Buddhist Sutra Collection Vol.47) goes a passage: “Who are the two people that are the most difficult to find? One is the person who first gives ‘on’ to
others; the other is the person who acknowledges ‘on’ and is moved by it.” It tells how difficult it is to know “on” and how important it is for us to realize and deeply appreciate
it.
Therefore, the concept of “on” is not aimed at the giver, but the emphasis
is put on the receiver in terms of how deeply the latter feels it. As the
proverb goes “You will not know your parents’ “on” until you become a parent,” it
takes time to realize what great “on” you received from your parents.
As Shinran Shonin prefaces his Shoshinge,“I realize the depth and
vastness of the Buddha’s benevolence and compose the following hymn,” he emphatically
mentions “Button” (the Buddha’s benevolence) and “Ondoku” (virtue of
benevolence) in many pages. It shows how
deeply he realized the Buddha’s benevolence in his own being.
The Buddha’s benevolence is very vast in that He always works “one-way”
on us wishing to save us sufferers with His wisdom and compassion. He does not
care whether we know his benevolence or ignore and run away from it, but He
simply wishes for our saving. Such
Buddha’s benevolence makes sense only when we acutely feel “When I consider
deeply the Vow of Amida, which arose from five kalpas of profound thought, I
realize that it was entirely for the sake of such an ungrateful being as me
alone!”
The meaning of “Ondoku” or the Buddha’s benevolence is not that it is
handed to you from the other side. Rather, His vast benevolence touches
your heart when you realize how compassionately He dedicated His life to
accomplish His Wish to save you alone, the being of karmic sin, in the
form of His Name. Therefore, you naturally say “Namuamidabutsu” in
gratitude.
(Japanese)
(Gunmo No.177)
On
Link
Koju Fujieda
This winter I challenged myself to compile a home page in spite of my considerable
age and during this process, I unexpectedly learned the importance of “link.”
When we see various home pages, we always click a menu or word to see a
related screen or page appear instantly. Likewise on the ATM at the bank, the
moment you touch the sign of the procedure you want, the next step will pop up.
I knew that this function is called “Link” in IT.
How can one screen be related to another so
easily? I was surprised when I had to
peep into the backside of those screens while writing the pages of my HP. There
appeared strange lines of numerals, alphabet, and symbols called HTML, which is
a queer language or jargon to a layman, but this language is the very thing
that makes the links work. The series of numerous items are precisely
constructed without a single error. I was marveled at this esoteric contrivance
under the surface of the homepage.
This kind of linking function is not confined to the computer world, but
it works in our daily life. Parents and children, brothers and sisters,
and other relatives are “linked” in their own specific relationship,
and so are superiors and colleagues at one's workplace, and friends and
acquaintances of the same school, community or hobby. To contemplate the
hidden, unconceivable “HTML” behind the superficial links is the Buddhist
eye.
Let's take an example of the link between a parent and a child. There must
be more than a mere biological relationship in that a child was born of
the parents.
“Hello,
my child, what journey have you taken to be born here
with me as your father?”
This is an insightful poem by the novelist
Eiji Yoshikawa He seems to have been piously
pressing his palms together towards the unseen link that brought them together.
This state of mind belongs to the world beyond the scientific “HTML.”
The relationship between the Buddha and us could be traced in the same
way.
Shan Tao remarks:
“When the
sentient beings start the practice of praising the name of the Buddha with
their mouths, He will hear them without fail.
When they worship Him with their bodies, He will surely see them. When they keep Him in mind, He will certainly keep them in mind. Their
three deeds (by the mouth, body and mind) are not separate from His. Hence
His familiar bi-cause.” (Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra)
Thus he confirms how Amida Buddha's light envelops those who practice thenembutsu
or praising His Name. Even if we cannot see it, there is the “link” between the Buddha and
us beyond the superficial world. The link starts from the Buddha and reaches
us. The link mark is the nembutsu. If you click the nembutsu, the Buddha's compassion appears in our mind,
because He surely hears our recitation of the nembutsu. If you worship
Him at the temple or the family altar, that link is also clicked and you can feel
Him seeing you. If you click the thought of His great Original Vow, He will certainly think
of us.
In this way, the Buddha is always linked with us. However wild the ocean
of life and death imbued with evil passions may become, His familiar link
will never be severed.
“My eyes being hindered by blind passions,
I
cannot perceive the light that grasps me;
Yet
the great compassion, without tiring,
illuminates me always.”
(Hymn of Master Genshin)
<Japanese>
（Gunmo No.176)
Poem for Namu-Mom
Koju Fujieda
Slowly and slowly extending my legs
Somewhere around Mom's thigh
Warmth touching my soles
"What are those frogs in the fields?
What are they saying, Mom?"
"That is Dharmakara Bhiksu;
At the hazy moon-lit night
While the villagers are sleeping
Brooding over them, Dear Bhiksu."
(from Kawazusho (Frog Anthology) by Mokusankyo Kuroda)
"When I slept with my Mom listening to her bed talk, my sole touched
her thigh feeling nicely warm."
This nostaligic poem on the days with his mother long ago is quoted
in Rev. Yuzen Matsubara's Poem for Namu Mom (included in Lecture on Shinran's
Thought Vol.2) and
it was introduced by Rev. Doshu Hotegi in his Dharma talk on the occasion
of the first anniversary serivice for the late previous temple wife on
November 3 last year.
"What are those frogs that are croaking in the rice fields, Mom?"
"They are the respectable Dharmakara Buiksu, you know. Even when the
villagers are sleeping at the faintly moon-lit night, he is pondering over
how to save them."
"To the farmers who can never leave the field work in their life
(just like us who
can never leave the muddy field of evil passions for all our life), the
great Bhiksu never leaves the site of Namu (Namas; bowing), wishing with
his hands on the seat that they would awaken from the long sleep in the
dark night." interprets Rev. Matsubara.
Mokusankyo Kuroda (Teiichi) Kuroda was from Ohno, Fukui Prefecture,
just as Rev. Matsubara was so, and studiedChinese literature at Keio University.
After returning home, he succeeded to his family trade of silk spinning
with success. However, after the Fukui earthquake, he changed his mind
and resumed the study of Chinese literature, especially of ancient Chinese
verse. He devoted himself to translating about a thousand pieces of old
Chinese verses and wrote "Futen, My anthology of Kanzan," "Masoho,
Poetry of the Dieties," and "Elegy Yamabato."
"As the youngest child, I was allowed to sleep
with my mom for more years than my brothers and sisters, so I remember her bed
talk about the Dharmakara well. Since the legend of Dharmakara corresponds to
the past life of Amida Buddha that she worshiped, she repeatedly talked about
him many nights,I remember.
"She must have been so full of poetical
sentiment that she was able to repeat the same story freshly each time. Because
Dharmakara was a bhiksu before attaining the Buddhahood, I must have been all
the prouder of his heroic courage to save all the poor sentient beings,"
reflects Mr. Kuroda himself in his note of the poem of frogs.
Mr. Daigaku Horiguchi, a famous poet, once critiqued Mr. Kukroda's literature:
"His poesy is as deep as Tu Fu and Basho and his core spirit is to
return to the eternal, I realized, but he personally says that he entrusts
himself to Shiran's thought of absolute tariki (other power)."
How could he entrust himself to the
Other Power (Amida Buddha)? It must be the fruit of his mother's bed talks of
Dharmakara Bhiksu.
How rich and warm her busom was to be able to talk about
Dharmakara Bhiksu so vividly to her child! Where did she get the source of such
a Dharma story from while she led a field-bound life? We cannot get an answer
without thinking of the Shin Buddhism-oriented area of Ohno Basin where Dharma
meetings and talks are often held like Ho'onko (memorial service for Shinran
Shonin). Certainly she must have heard the Dharma through her farm life while
weeding the paddy fields. When she saw the frogs sitting with two front legs on
the mud, she would think of Dharmakara's wish and endeavor, to be sure.
The
mother who can give her child a Dharma talk in the bed should be called an oasis
in the desert-like world today where there are many cases reported of infaticide
by their own mothers.
(Japanese)
（Gunmo No.17５)
Blind Passions and the
Fleeting World
Koju Fujieda
Ryokeiji Temple
“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.”
(Postscript of Tannisho or A Record of Lament of Divergences)According to these words by Shinran shonin, he pointed out the two conditions,
our blindpassions and the transience of the world (our lives) as the factors
of our life beingunreliable
However, when I checked the frequency of the two terms used in his
own writings(except for his quotations from various sutras and discourses),
it was revealed that “transience” is used only two times in marked contrast
with “blind passions” being used 67 times. What explains this?
Presumably the uncertainty of human lives in his time was a matter of common
knowledge, for people experienced high percentage of infantile deaths,
epidemics, famines, natural calamities, warfare, and so on. The situation
must have been like “Rosy faces are to turn to be white bones in the evening,”
and they were bitterly imbued with this notion as an inevitable reality.
Incidentally a statistic shows that the average life span in the Kamakura
period was 24 years old. Therefore Shinran shonin must have felt no need
to stress the transience of the world.
On the contrary, he could
not overlook evil passions; the greatest problem for those who aimed at the
completion of the Buddhist way was how to get rid of their blind passions.
Especially for Shinran, who single-mindedly sought for the way to transcend the
life-and-death world, this issue of blind passions must have been the most
serious concern. He actually referred to it profusely: for example, “When the one thought- moment of joy arises, Nirvana is attained without severing blind passions” in Shoshinge, “My
eyes being hindered by blind passions, I cannot perceive the light that grasps,
me…,” and “Ignorance and blind passions
abound, Pervading everywhere like innumerable particles of dust…” in Wasan (Hymns).
Now change the viewpoint to
the present time, and what will you see?
Isn’t the tendency quite contrary to Shinran’s time? To the transience of the world or the issue
of our lives, everybody shows the greatest concern with their eyes wide open
and ears pricked up. “Health,” “no ailment,” “longevity,”---all these words
fascinate people. “To live”---what a desirable term! They are ready to stand in a line for information and goods for such wishes.
When it comes to the issue
of blind passions, however, nobody dares to face it; or to be more exact,
nobody dares to mind his/her own evil passions (although they are ready to
react to the evil passions of others). It seems that we are so made as not to
be aware of how our own mind works.
“Peeping into my own mind,
How shameful it is!
The wish to love my own self
much more than anybody else
is sneaking around down below.”
This
poem by Eiichi Enomoto sharply depicts the realities of our mind.
“To
peep into one’s own mind” is beyond an ordinary person, for this insight is
quite different from a mere reflection on one’s failure. To see inside needs a
light. Without a light to illuminate the dark inside, you cannot see there.
This light is from the Buddha, the light of the nembutsu. If you say
Namuamidabutsu and receive the light of wisdom from the Buddha, you will
realize how your utmost self-love has been active sneakily under your
consciousness and you will be led to bow down. “How shameful it is!” is the key
expression of the poet’s attitude.
The other day I was shocked to read a
definition of happiness as introduced in the newspaper.
HAPPINESS, n. An agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.
( Bierce, Ambrose The Devil's Dictionary)
What a chilly
phase of human self-love!
Shinran shonin declares:
“Foolish beings: as expressed in the parable of the two rivers of water and fire, we are full of ignorance and blind passions.
Our desires are countless, and anger, wrath, jealousy, and envy are overwhelming,
arising without pause; to the very last moment of life they do not cease, or
disappear, or exhaust
themselves.”
The Tathagata’s light shines out the reality of ourselves
being one with blind passions throughout life and His Name accomplished by His Primal
Vow savesus as we are without severing our blind passions. He also assures
it in his hymn:
“When we come to know
truly that we are
possessed of
blind passions,
And entrust ourselves to the power of
the Primal Vow,
We will, on abandoning completely our
defiled existence,
Realize the eternal bliss of dharma-nature.”
The transience of life is inevitable; what
we should mind is our blind passions.
(Japanese)
<Comment>
☆I especially like this piece on blind passions and the mention of
this fleeting world - "this burning house". Very very
strong images...it
makes so much sense and it is the purest truth of the matter.
Thank you for setting this down.
Namuamidabutsu
E.H.
|
