By the Rev. John Paraskevopoulos
Nirvana is called extinction of passions, the uncreated, peaceful happiness, eternal bliss, true reality … it fills the hearts and minds of the ocean of all beings.
Shinran
This part of our discussion aims to dive into the very heart of Jōdo Shinshū by exploring its key message. In doing so, it is important to keep our language clear and accessible. We encounter much obscurity in Buddhist writing today, including our own tradition. This vagueness is usually caused by doubt, confusion or lack of confidence in what is being taught. However, it’s not enough to simply be lucid; one must also explain why the Dharma matters. What does Shinran have to say that would make any difference to our lives? If teachers and ministers cannot explain the relevance of this doctrine to our contemporaries, then they will have failed them with regard to the most important matters that concern us.
We have previously touched on some of the questions that might prompt us to want more from life than just comfort, security and pleasure. In our self-aware moments, we may sense the need to connect with a dimension of reality that is consistently fulfilling and which makes us feel whole, even when our attempts to discover this prove elusive. The frustration that is felt when we fall short of finding it can be revealing.
The Buddhist seeks for a total happiness beyond this world. Why should he be so ambitious? Why not be content with getting as much happiness out of this world as we can, however little it may be? The answer is that, in actual practice, we are not seen to be content … Our human nature is so constituted that we are content with nothing but complete permanence, complete ease and complete security. And none of that can we ever find in this shifting world.
Edward Conze (1904—1979)
If the very reason for our being, or purpose in life, was simply to secure the goods that only money and health can give us, we wouldn’t continue to feel restless when we’ve obtained them. If we were made for an ephemeral life, we would be perfectly satisfied with perishing everyday things. Our generation, in particular, can certainly boast of greater material prosperity than any before it in human history. But anguish and unhappiness appear to have never been so prevalent as they are today. So, what is going on?
The dissatisfaction that we often feel seems to indicate that the needs of our deeper self remain unmet. What are these needs? Jōdo Shinshū would say that what we hunger for most is Immeasurable Life and Boundless Light. In other words, we want to experience a fuller existence than what this transient world, with its countless pains and disappointments, can give us. This is not, of course, to condemn or renounce the ordinary joys and pleasures that help to make our difficult lives a little more bearable — just that, sooner or later, they will fall short of giving us what we really need.
If we think about it deeply, we may notice that life is simply an endless cycle of birth, suffering and death, and that most are simply engaged in a futile struggle not to die. Whatever our life span, we can choose either to resign ourselves to existing in the shadow of these inevitable truths, or to enjoy our lives to the fullest, with a confidence instilled by knowing the teaching of the Buddha. This existence is then enhanced by the brilliance of limitless life, in which death is merely a rite of passage.
Jōdo Shinshū: A Guide
Jōdo Shinshū offers to take us on a great spiritual journey in the midst of life’s hurly-burly. It promises to grant that for which we truly yearn in our very brief time on this planet. The language of our tradition speaks about this higher reality in terms of a supreme Buddha (Amida) and a realm of utmost bliss (the Pure Land). When cynical people hear such things, they will say that these are fairy tales intended for gullible people to help them deal with their fear of death. Such mockery betrays a grave ignorance, not to mention a lost and precious opportunity for attaining liberation.
All forms of Buddhism believe that Nirvana is the consummation of human life. The Sutra on the Buddha of Infinite Life tells us that it is “pure and serene, resplendent and blissful” and the Nirvana Sutra declares that “it is eternity, bliss, true self and purity … forever free of all birth, ageing, sickness and death”.
Attaining this is the only purpose of our existence in that it spells the end of all suffering and brings us to a state of total spiritual satisfaction. While the complete experience of this perfection is not possible in our limited human form, the Light and Life at the core of existence still permeates our world of birth-and-death.
Pure light, joyful light, the light of wisdom,
Light constant, inconceivable, light beyond speaking,
Light excelling the sun and moon are sent forth, illumining countless worlds; the multitude of beings all receive this radiance.
Shinran
Our tradition teaches that Amida Buddha and the Pure Land are manifested by the realm of Nirvana as forms it assumes in order to reach out and make itself known to us. They aren’t just bloodless symbols but the powerful presence of ultimate reality which we can encounter even in our everyday lives. Amida is the ‘personal’ aspect of Nirvana that embodies its wisdom and compassion, which seeks to give us joy and bring us to our final home. This ‘destination’ (which obviously isn’t geographical) is the Pure Land which represents the eternally blissful nature of Nirvana.
(The Pure Land) is vast in extent, unsurpassed and supremely wonderful, always present and subject neither to decay or change.
Sutra on the Buddha of Infinite Life
The reason why the sutra descriptions of the Pure Land aren’t just fanciful make-believe is that our longing for this realm is so intrinsic to who we are that it’s seen as something permanently grounded in the nature of things. In other words, spiritual reality is the core element of our authentic self (or buddha-nature) as disclosed to us in the experience of shinjin — the awakening, in our hearts and minds, of the benevolent light that is Amida. This realisation allows us to partake in eternity itself, despite the anxiety and confusion all around us.
Although sentient beings are impermanent, still their Buddha-nature is eternal and unchanging.
Nirvana Sutra
The fulfillment of our deepest need as human beings must, therefore, result in the experience of our most abiding joy. Shinran calls this kangi, which means to be gladdened in both body and mind, rejoicing that “one is assured of attaining what one shall attain”; namely, Buddhahood or perfect enlightenment.
If sentient beings encounter the Buddha’s light, their defilements are removed; they feel tenderness, joy and pleasure, and good thoughts arise. If sentient beings in the … realm of suffering see this light, they will be relieved and freed from affliction. At the end of their lives, they all reach emancipation.
Sutra on the Buddha of Infinite Life
How, then, can we come into contact with this transcendental joy in the midst of our workaday routines? Jōdo Shinshū teaches that the initiative behind our awakening to what is ‘true and real’ comes from the side of Amida, who seeks to deliver us from our ego and its torments. This ‘will’ to deliver us from spiritual darkness is embodied in the Buddha’s Primal Vow (hongan) which urges that we surrender to its working.
Entrusting is the mind full of truth, reality and sincerity; the mind of ultimacy, accomplishment, reliance and reverence; the mind of discernment, distinctness, clarity and faithfulness; the mind of aspiration and … exultation; the mind of delight, joy, gladness and happiness; hence, it is completely untainted by the hindrance of doubt.
Shinran
This call to entrust is the nembutsu, which is both the beckoning Name of Amida as revealed to us and our response to this summons in the form of saying Namu Amida Butsu, while keeping the Buddha in mind.
Sentient beings who solely think on Amida Buddha … are constantly illumined by the light of that Buddha’s heart, grasped and protected, never to be abandoned.
Shan-tao
And yet, all this happens as a result of Other-Power (tariki) when our karmic maturity is ripe and we’re able to ‘hear’ (monpo) this call for the first time. Only enlightened reality itself can bring about our enlightenment because flawed and fragile beings such as ourselves cannot contrive that which is ‘true and real’.
Faith does not arise from within one’s self;
The entrusting heart is given by the Other-Power.
Rennyo
Therefore, this can only be a gift that is offered freely, without conditions. If we can accept it, our lives become uplifted and meaningful. This is because the forceful sway of the Dharma helps us to relinquish the futile grind of self-power (jiriki), for our minds are filled with ‘snakes and scorpions’ as Shinran reminds us. This is not to end on a despondent note but, rather, to point us in the only direction where real hope can be found and the means by which our genuine well-being can be assured.
Any attempt, based on reason, to sanctify our lives will fail, no matter how hard we try. Only when we are led by the power of Amida, and by aspiration for rebirth in the Pure Land, can we conquer this life. It does not matter how bad our karma is; it does not matter how imperfect our reason is. The power of Amida purifies us and converts our evil passions into virtues. And, at the same time, a pure, real, serene and eternal life will be infused into our own life which had been miserable, false, finite and unreal. This true life will be constructed upon a framework of faith which becomes, not only the invisible foundation of our life, but also an inner power which enables us to realize purification beyond the realm of ethics. This awakening results in our reciting the nembutsu with complete thankfulness and in happiness. This is the very essence of the teaching of Shinran, a teaching he realized only after a desperate spiritual struggle.
Kosho Otani (1911—2002)
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