The Way of Jodo Shinshu

Jodo Wasan 66

Those who recite the Name with self-power meditatively
    or non-meditatively,
In trusting the Vow of Accomplishing the Ultimate
    Salvation,
Even without being instructed, spontaneously
Turn and enter the Gate of True Thusness.

Tariki

The story of Shakyamuni's journey to enlightenment is well-known. Probably the most famous account is given in the epic poem known as the Buddhacarita attributed to the monk Asvaghosa who was a spiritual advisor to the Gandharan King Kaniksha in the first century BCE. As is often pointed out, Shakyamuni was enlightened 'by himself' having abandoned the guidance of teachers - notably Arada Kalama ans Udraka Ramaputra. However, he did not create his own enlightenment. Shakyamuni was enlightened by the power of the dharma. This is how it happened.

After leaving Udraka Ramaputra, Shakyamuni went to Magadha and underwent ascetic practices in an effort to force enlightenment, thinking, 'no ascetic in the past, none in the present, and none in the future, ever has practiced or ever will practice more earnestly than I.' Yet, after six years of self-torment, during which it is said, he fasted so assiduously that his spine could be seen through his stomach, he realised the futility of these practices and began to eat properly and sit comfortably. Nevertheless, he still engaged in rigorous endevour - this time it was meditation that he took up: 'Blood may become exhausted, flesh may decay, bones may fall apart, but I will never leave this place until I find the way to Enlightenment.' Yet all that happened was that he was assailed by confusing thoughts and 'dark shadows overhung his spirit.' He was beleaguered by 'all the lures of the devils.' Examining each of these thoughts one by one - he rejected them. This process of elimination was a hard struggle, 'making his blood run thin, his flesh fall away, and his bones to crack.'

At the age of 35, Shakyamuni finally reached Enlightenment when the dharma dawned upon him. What happened was that his confusing thoughts and his demons fell away, leaving his mind clear and his spirit free. The dharma, he realised, was the only reality.

The entrusting heart, in the Pure Land Way, is the assurance of enlightenment and not enlightenment itself. We awaken to the entrusting heart in this life and realise buddhahood upon passing beyond this realm of existence. In the Buddha dharma as we have already seen life is a journey in which we pass from stage to stage.

So too, Shinran was able to discern stages in our development within the Pure Land Path and - in a way similar to that which Shakyamuni (indeed all followers of the Buddha dharma) discovered - found it to be a process of elimination. We have already seen that although the nineteenth Vow - the way of many religious practices - portends a form of birth in the Pure Land it nevertheless does not lead to final awakening and full realization of the Buddhist truth. So too the twentieth Vow - that of 'self-power' practice of the nembutsu - leads to a kind of entry into a Pure Land but not final release. But in this verse, Shinran asserts that 'self-power' nembutsu leads to a spontaneous (jinen - also often translated as 'naturally' or 'naturalness') entry into the 'gate of True Thusness'. How? Because implicit in the so-called 'self-power' practice of the nembutsu is trust in the twentieth Vow - and therefore the Name of Amida Buddha - to deliver us. This trust in the nembutsu is, paradoxically a turning away from self-power, a forgetting of self-power, a turning openly, serenely and unself-consciously to the light.

In forgetting the self we momentarily know that there is no self and feel the warm radiant embrace of Other Power (tariki) and that - foolish believers in our own power that we are - that even this, even our actions in seeking the light, in calling the light, in pursuing the light - even these: are the work of the eternal dharma Itself.

Our turning to the light of Amida Buddha is in a sense clearly contingent upon our awakening to the truth of ourselves. Just as Shakyamuni saw that his ascetic practices were an excercise in futility, it is difficult to see why anyone would take up the nembutsu if they had not had some inkling of their 'self' as being of no use at all - as the platform upon which to construct deliverance from samsara. Like Shakyamuni and Shinran we have had some intimation of our demons, of our inner confusion - and therefore turn to the ineffable.

The entrusting of ourselves to the Name and coming to the 'gate of True Thusness', to the entrusting heart, seems at first to be something we have initiated ourselves; but in fact, all we are doing is responding to the call of the Vow to us to entrust it in the Name. In this sense our self-power (jiriki) is in fact the Other Power's work. All nembutsu, however we may view it, is from start to finish the work of Other Power. We did not invent it - any more than Shakyamuni invented the dharma; all we can do is to receive it - as he received the dharma, giving up his struggle, and became enlightened. To receive Amida's Name is to say it; to say it is to trust it; and, because we trust it for our deliverance, we eventually enter the gate of True Thusness.

- 12 August, 2002.

Monkeypuzzle tree.