The Way of Jodo Shinshu

Koso Wasan 48

About the practice incompatible with the Truth,
Master Donran comments, saying,
'First the mind of faith [shinjin] is not sincere,
Because it is as though one had it, yet did not have it.'

Sincerity

This verse is the first of a series of five verses which bring the section of Shinran Shonin's Wasan about T'an-luan to a close. In them Shinran draws on a passage in the Ron Chu which has been an important guide to Nembutsu practice ever since it was written. Shinran was able to bring to light an important shift of emphasis in the traditional understanding of this passage of T'an-luan's commentary and we shall discuss this later, as we make our way through these last verses.

Needless to say, it is important to pause at this verse and consider what, if anything, is being asked of us as followers of the Nembutsu Way in the matter of sincerity. In doing so we could, perhaps, return to some earlier questions about the fact that T'an-luan is known as an exponent of both Taoist and Buddhist teaching. He is famous in Japan as a Buddhist but in China he is revered as a Taoist as well. As we have already seen, it is most likely that T'an-luan took up Taoism only for a relatively short time, having initially been a fine exponent of the Four Treatise school of the Madhyamika.

I know of no part of T'an-luan's writing in which he critiques Taoism and yet the Buddha Dharma, for all its tolerance, is traditionally out of sympathy with the Taoist Way. This is because Taoist principles were most commonly used with a view to attaining longevity - something, of course, which was to elude T'an-luan altogether. The Buddhist critique makes sense to me and it is - in fine - that Taoism is not compatible with the Dharma when it encourages attachment to the body. The Dharma, as everyone knows, seeks to posit eternal verities without denying the facts of change and decay - facts which beset all conditioned things. In the Buddhist view any religion that bases itself on an 'eternalist' proposition is false: nothing that is derived from 'causes and conditions' can survive in a static form.

In a broad sense the idea of sincerity in relation to the spiritual life does raise questions about plurality and tolerance. Sincerity is not fanaticism but when it is coupled - as in the passage from T'an-luan's commentary that Shinran is celebrating in this verse - with the developing theme of singlemindedness, it does lend itself to a feeling that the Nembutsu Way ought to exclude all other religious practices and ideas.

In much of the Buddhist world the Nembutsu is just an optional addition to other teaching and practice. Shinran, however, took the latent meaning of sincerity and singlemindedness to its logical conclusion and, in the Kyo Gyo Shin Sho, he goes to great lengths to encourage us to abandon all other religious ideas and practices. He is quite unequivocal and relentless in this matter and, in later generations, his followers came to be known as adherants of the Ikkoshu - the Singleminded School. Indeed, this term is still used in some quarters to describe Jodo Shinshu. It is well-known, too, that some Shinshu monto were over-zealous and negative in their attitude to other religions, thus causing Rennyo Shonin to castigate such behaviour and to rule that sincerity must be combined with religious tolerance.

I rather like the tenor of Rennyo's teaching in this regard. He exhorts us in his letters (ofumi) to keep our faith to ourselves and, without being rude or quarrelsome, just ignore the other gods and buddhas. This suggests a wonderful harmony between the vocation of sincerity and singlemindedness, to which the Nembutsu Way calls us, and the reality that we live in an environment which is filled with many voices and religious teachings. Japan of Rennyo's time was very like our own in that it was home to many spiritual paths, fashions and religions. The way to live is to be respectful and deferential to the religious sensibilities of others, while not compromising our own inclination to remain focussed exclusively on the Nembutsu.

- August 19, 2003.

Bermuda buttercups.