The Way of Jodo Shinshu

Shozomatsu Wasan 28

When, immediately upon the attainment of true faith,
One becomes a member of the rightly determined,
He is equal to Maitreya, the Buddha-to-be,
And will realise supereme enlightenment.

More About Joy

In this verse, Shinran Shonin sets out the effect of the attainment of 'true faith' (shinjitsu shinjin, Sk. satya prasanna citta - true believing mind.)

This is not really 'belief' or 'faith' in the way that we commonly understand it. Shinran, of course, makes it clear that this moment is a form of bodhicitta (bodaishin). He draws this idea from the writings of T'an-luan. As we have already seen, in the Path of Sages, bodhicitta is the moment at which one begins one's way on the bodhiattva path. It is a moment that gives us the first glimmer of Enlightenment; it is a moment in which the illusory 'self' is transcended and a person understands the Dharma for the first time. The realisation of shinjin is the same.

In the Kyo Gyo Shin Sho, Shinran tells us that at this moment of true shinjin our destiny is settled and we will attain Enlightenment after one more birth, which is the stage equivalent to Bodhisattva Maitreya. Faith is 'diamondlike': it is always there and it is indestructable. Shinran also tells us that the heart of this moment, in which faith is settled, is 'joyful faith' (shingyo, Sk. prasada). This, too is equivalent to the first stage (Sk. bhumi): pramudita.

Interestingly, Shinran also suggests that this moment is 'inconceivable, indescribable and ineffable'. At first sight, we might be tempted to think that he is telling us that joyful faith is actually outside - or beyond - our experience. Of course, the Dharma itself is ineffable. Yet it does touch us, in the person of the Buddha and enlightened teachers - and in its cogent spoken or written form. It thus takes on a form that becomes intelligible. In the same way, shinjin, although it is also ineffable, touches us when it becomes 'true' or 'diamondlike', in the form of joy.

Followers of the Nembutsu do not rely on their own experience as the authority to re-affirm this reality. Instead, they look to their masters and teachers - people like Shinran and Rennyo - and find, in the writings of these people, the affirmation of what they have found themselves. If we, as individuals, experience joy, it means little if it cannot be shown that it is a universal experience with common causes.

Dr Hisao Inagaki reminds us in his survey of the Pure Land tradition that the awakening of faith, true shinjin, is qualified by the character of the individual who is experiencing it, but for many it is indeed an experience of insuppressible joy and relief. For such people, it is enduring reality and deepens as life continues.

The precise nature of this is described by Rennyo in this way:

An old poem reads:

Long ago,
I had happiness wrapped in my sleeves,
now;
it is more than my being can contain.

The meaning of 'Long ago, I had happiness wrapped in my sleeves,' is that formerly, a person not distinguishing between self-power and Other-Power, thought that rebirth was gained by recitation of the Nembutsu. "Now, it is more than my being can contain," means that after one gains a thorough understanding of the difference between self-power and Other-Power and obtains Faith through a singleness of heart, there will be an exceptional difference in the heart that recites the Nembutsu for the purpose of expressing gratitude for the Grace of Amida Buddha. Hence, this happiness (so powerful that it could even cause one to dance with complete abandon) means the joy that is more than one can contain within himself.

- Gobunsho, I.1, tr. Elson B. Snow

Rennyo is here describing a sudden deepening and settling of shinjin. Initially, shinjin is self-generated: one thinks that one is doing the Buddha's work in reciting the Nembutsu. Then, suddenly this is seen as the Buddha doing his own work and the heart and mind is filled with only the Light and Life of Amida Buddha. Life is turned on its head. Faith ceases to be a chore and a burden: it becomes a delight and a source of happiness that is so profound that it has a perfectly tangible effect. Rennyo speaks of the desire to dance with joy! It is a palpable realisation. There is now a lightness and a happiness in Nembutsu - it 'says itself' in celebration. Some people find that Nembutsu and the chanting of Pure Land Sutras is no longer a chore that requires effort; it is done with joy and seems easy; it is something that one always looks forward to.

This moment can be so wonderful that it is easy to mistake it for something else. Yet in the Kyo Gyo Shin Sho, Shinran says that it is neither meditation nor non-meditation. In this Wasan, he reminds us that satori is an event that has yet to come. Shinjin has nothing whatever to do with either the samadhi or the satori that is attained in the self-power Path of Sages.

In spite of Shinran's unambiguous instructions to the contrary, the happiness and elation that true faith brings has always suggested to some who experience it that they have, in fact, attained satori. Yet, Shinran himself reminds us that the bodhicitta of the Path of Sages and that of the Pure Land Way are different in quality and significance. In the Pure Land Way it is the Buddha's Mind Itself that fills the heart and mind of the person of Nembutsu. At the same time a person's own innate reality is seen in stark contrast. The outcome of this awakening is that Enlightenment will occur in the very next birth - when one is finally released from the bondage of samsara.

The mind of the Buddha throws light upon the inner reality of people of Nembutsu and they begin to grow in awareness of their own intractable turbitity. Shinran is an especially acute example of these developments. He constanly spoke of the 'desire to leave this world of samsara'. He distinguished between the mundane and the true. He is said to have spoken of 'being in samsara' while rejoicing that his heart was in the Pure Land. Within himself, Shinran found no wisdom and no light. We shall see this graphically illustrated later in the Shozomatsu Wasan.

Some of Shinran's own followers seem to have claimed that the serene and inexpressible joy of the first moment of true shinjin was tantamount to satori. Such a concept was quickly rejected by the early Shinshu community, which sought to re-assert Shinran's perspective. In one of the earliest third-party reports of Shinran's teaching, the Tanni Sho, it is made crystal clear that true shinjin and satori are not the same thing. One of the main reasons for this rejection is the strong role that the Age of Mappo plays in Shinshu experience and theory. In the Age of Mappo there is no Enlightenment in the Path of Sages.

Nevertheless, the claim that shinjin and satori are the same has continued to re-emerge throughout Shin history. There have, indeed, been prominent teachers in the twentieth century who have maintained that faith, as it is traditionally understood in the Jodoshinshu tradition, is an immature and incomplete interpretation of shinjin. They have sought to reify Shinran's 'true shinjin' not simply as the moment that faith becomes firm and settled - thus sealing our future destiny for Enlightenment - but as Enlightenment itself.

The light of Amida Buddha shows 'things are they really are'. People of Nembutsu-faith grow ever more deeply aware of their nature as 'ordinary beings' (bombu, Sk. prthagjana), who are beset with kleshes (bonno). In the Pure Land Way all virtue and power is invested solely in the Name - Namo Amida Butsu. It is only in this respect that we can speak of such things; shinjin is never distinct from the Name.

In the Kyo Gyo Shin Sho Shinran provides a list of the ten benefits of shinjin in this world. I have posted this list to the right. Readers will see that Enlightenment is not one of them. In any case, it is the Nembutsu that is the 'substance of faith'. In the list you will see that the second benefit is 'the benefit of being possessed of supreme virtues'. The 'virtue' here is solely invested in the Name. It is not 'our' virtue at all.

The Stage of Joy is the moment at which one enters the path to Enlightenment. It is a vital moment and a neccessary event upon the Way. It is a powerful and liberating experience, as Rennyo Shonin suggests. It is this stage that is the equivalent of true shinjin. The first moment of joy belongs at this point in Buddhist experience. Although it is an unspeakably exhilarating and exalted moment on the way to becoming a Buddha, it is but the first step on the Way. By the Power of the Vow of Amida Buddha it is the 'crosswise transcendence', leading to Enlightenment after one more birth.

- December 5, 2004.

Hollyhocks. Adelaide, November 29, 2004.