The Way of Jodo Shinshu

Koso Wasan 95

Although my eyes, blinded by passions,
Do not see the brilliant light which embraces me,
The Great Compassion never tires,
Always casting light upon me.

Openness

This verse signifies a phenomenon that I think is almost unique in religious discourse. It is the remarkable quality that is an especially strong feature of the Pure Land Way: personal honesty. One repeatedly encounters the most disarming vulnerability and openness in writers and practicers of the Nembutsu.

It is particularly notable within the Jodo Shinshu tradition. It is not the kind of 'false humility' that begs for contradiction and a surge of ameliorating, if reluctant, praise - like that of the famous character named Uriah Heap in Charles Dickens's novel David Copperfield. It emerges especially from the Chinese and Japanese Dharma Masters - and Shinran - in a quite guileless and unselfconscious way. It seems to me that the reason for this interesting fact is that these people experience a measure of spiritual security that frees them to be open and vulnerable - and from the need to be defensive in the face of criticism.

Shinran was clearly very fond of this sentence from Genshin's Collection of Essential Passages Concerning Birth:

Although I too am within Amida's grasp, blind passions obstruct my eyes and I cannot see [the light]; nevertheless, great compassion untiringly and constantly illumines me.

CWS, p. 93, (Ken Jodo Shinjitsu Kyo Gyo Sho Monrui, Chapter on Shinjin).

This is a surprising statement because one usually expects accomplished practitioners of a spiritual path to claim special mystical insights. To admit that one cannot see the light of Amida Buddha is a refreshing change from the usual claims that one hears. Such claims, rightly or wrongly, often seem self-serving. They are also surprisingly common. Like most people, I have met quite a few individuals who claim special spiritual gifts, which sometimes seem to be at odds with others of their characteristics. One can call to mind people like the clairvoyant who asks one for directions to the bus stop. However, most of us are too polite to do otherwise than to take such claims at face value and to respect the mystery of 'the other'. We are none of us in a position to argue with such claims; it is none of our business and I, certainly, am not qualified to judge.

There is also often a similar dissonance on the part of people who claim attainment within the Buddhist path. My feeling about this is, once again, that an unenlightened person is not qualified to assess the Enlightenment of someone who claims to be an Awakened One. This is precisely the point that Professor Roger Corless makes in The Vision of Buddhism, his introduction to the Dharma. Speaking of his guru in the Tibetan lineage, he says that such a person is enlightened and therefore a Buddha. However, Buddhas have eighty-four characteristic marks, for example, dharmacakras (wheel-like weapons) on the soles of their feet. The problem for Roger was that he could not see these marks and he reminds us that, because he is unenlightened himself, he cannot be expected to see or recognise them.

The quotation of Genshin's words that is found in the Kyo Gyo Shin Sho (above) was clearly very significant for Shinran and he obviously identified with it. This probably lies behind his arresting preference for the phrase 'inconceivable light' as the primary epithet for Amida Buddha. The use of such a phrase makes it clear that even a person of shinjin is not yet enlightened and is therefore unable to behold the 'light that outshines the sun and the moon'. The fact that we are 'blinded by our passions' (bonno, Sk. klesha) suggests that we are suborned by the seeming reality of the mundane world, samsara, into which we are inextricably bound. We are unable to see, let alone comprehend, such supramundane and overwhelming light.

Shinran refers to Genshin's admission that he could not see Amida's light in the Shoshinge - the central gatha of the Kyo Gyo Shin Sho (used for taking refuge every day in our Jodo Shinshu liturgy) - and also this verse of the Koso Wasan. It seems to me that this underscores its significance for Shinran. Shinran was no mystic and made no claims to special attainments of his own.

How, then, is Genshin able to be so confident that 'great compassion untiringly and constantly illumines me'? If he cannot see the light, how does he know that it is there?

It was Shan-tao, who did see Amida Buddha in samadhi, who also provided us with the empirical evidence that the 'great compassion constantly illumines' us. It is the way in which people of shinjin spontaneously grow aware of the severe curtailment of spiritual progress that is due to their 'afflicting passions' (bonno, Sk. klesha) and that Amida's Vow - expressed in the Name - simultaneously addresses this problem. This is 'the two-fold deep mind' (nishu jinshin) that is faith (shin, Sk. prasada).

It is this internal insight that frees people of Nembutsu to be open and to feel no need to claim special qualities or to claim any supernal comprehension that can give them a sense of superiority in their relatonships with others.

- March 27, 2004.

Souvenir rose.