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Tariki is that which enables me to see that my bonno stuffed mind and "True Mind" are interrelated in the same way as the interrelatedness of there being no shadow without light, no light without shadow. Thus the more Shinran encountered the light of shinjin in his life, the more he was able to see the darkness of himself.
What he came to understand as not his, but a gift given to him, was this realization that he is a being who cannot hear Amida, cannot hear the Dharma, is falling into hell. His receiving of this gift is what Shinran calls the shinjin of Other-Power. What is "not of me" really is already here. I don't have "True Mind" and yet it is part of me and I am part of it. In expressing his awakening to this, Shinran says, "There is no thought that penetrates it completely, no words that express it fully. " In other words, surprise, surprise! it's inconceivable!
The shocking astonishment of experiencing this gift of what was not here, and yet has always been here, and is now here, is-literally-"no-root shinjin."
When we meet the Buddha here and now in this experience there are no roots of bonno in this gift that is given me although having received it I am still a person rooted in bonno But when I have received this gift that was always there, my ego-centered life is no longer the focus. My focus now becomes non-ego centered life.
Tariki no shinjin does not mean "believing in the Other Power." Shinjin is itself the Other Power. To clearly awaken to and experience the world of nembutsu is to realize that everything we have is given to us. From our side all is received - even the awakening itself is not mine, is given to me, is in itself Other Power.
In regards to this gift of shinjin given by the Buddha and received by us, Shinran urges that we seek it out wholeheartedly. There is, in his letters to his followers after he left Mito-Kanto and returned to Kyoto, a constant admonition to raise the wish to live so as to become Buddhas. Unless this wish emerges in our life, shinjin will not be realized by us.
There is a saying at the end of the Larger Sukhavati Sutra: "Though fires may envelop the totality of our universe, we must transcend it, work through it, and listen to the Dharma." Again, "We must pass through this universal world of fire and listen to the teachings." Shinran reiterates this, emphasizing that we must pass through the fires of blind passion that envelop the universe to listen to the Buddha's Name.
Shinjin is the wholehearted giving of the Buddha to me, but to fully receive this, I too must fully seek the meaning of my existence. There is no 50-50 here, no half-way potential either in the seeking or the receiving of the shinjin which is Other Power. Shin Buddhism is often called the "Easy Way," but it is easy only once you have gotten there! "Easy Way" refers to the way possible for everyday people, in contrast to the "difficult" path of sages which is the fulltime dedication of the monks.
In some sense, no matter which way is followed, the Buddha path is "all easy." In some sense, it is "all difficult." What is essential is a total commitment. Shinran constantly stated how truly difficult is this "easy way" of the nembutsu path that is open to all-lay people, priests, everybody. In the Shoshinge he repeats, "Of all the difficulties none is more difficult that this."
The point of total commitment is that if you want to truly become Buddhas, the possibility for this awakening becomes more real. In Shin Buddhism we talk about cho-mon, "Listening to the Dharma," as the essence of this commitment. "Listening to the Dharma" means listening to oneself, "listening deeply to what is happening to oneself." In Shin Buddhism, "to listen" means "to listen to what one is truly about."
Dogen says: `To study the Buddha's Dharma is to study oneself." To study oneself is to forget-or throw away-oneself, to have that ego-self crushed so it is no longer the center, the focus of one's total thrust in life. When I listen to the teachings, and I find my ego-self being taken away, then I know I am beginning to truly listen to the Dharma. If I listen simply to accumulate knowledge, it is like putting on the clothes I wear. This kind of listening manipulates or uses the Dharma for my own convenience. This is not truly listening.
I do not listen to become "good." I do not listen to make possible my entrance to Pure Land. I do not listen in order to die better or to live better. These kinds of listening all approach the teaching from my own hakarai or self-centered calculation. To really listen means the ego-self which is doing the contriving is taken away from me, is no longer my focus, and is replaced by something True and Real which offers me really nothing beyond the affirmation of life itself.
For example, if I take home what I hear at a lecture or sermon or study class, it will become my crutch. Whatever crutch I have-I must leave it at the session, including what I think I am listening to and hearing about nembutsu. I, in my daily life, have my own treasure chest. Whatever treasures I cling to, as I listen, whatever I think I possess-throw it away! My pride, my impression that listening more will become the seeds of my happiness, the belief in my being different or better in the future, cast it away! When I so strip myself, all that is left is my bonno. There, as I am-that is how Amida affirms and grasps me. I myself, who is totally incapable of anything but selfish calculation, ego inflation,ego gratification.
What is this "something" that accepts me as I am, that moves me to an illumination of the naked reality of myself, that brings me to another focus-myself and yet far greater, far more incomprehensible than myself It is tariki, Other Power, the awakening of shinjin , the experience that through the nembutsu I come to know the unreliability of everything I bank on. I constantly live on the razor's edge, constantly create the karmic seeds that destine me to hell. To truly listen means to cast this aside-to leave it all here, now-to throw away what I am grasping in my life because, ultimately, I have nothing to take with me into my death.
This listening is not simply a matter of listening with my right ear but of listening with a sense of having the very foundations of my being shaken. For example, when the Apollo satellite shot into space, the news of the resonating through the world caused me to reflect on the return of the spaceship which had to come in at a certain angle, otherwise the ship would bounce off the earth's atmosphere. There was no second chance. He had to come at the right angle, and not too steep an angle or otherwise he would burn up in the descent. This is the condition of our way of listening to the teaching. We can bounce back into egocentricity. We can burn out in too steep angle of descent. The approach of our direction to the Pure Land, to the awakening through our listening over and over and meeting various teachers is like that return of the spaceship. We must constantly correct the angle of our listening so we really listen and so that we really encounter the awakening of shinjin.
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