OJO

An old haiku says: "O snail, wherever you die, you are home!" This is Shinran's view of ojo. It is in this world of defilements and illusion we become human beings bound for the Pure Land. When our death occurs, sad and lonely through we may be, at that very moment, the Pure Land occurs. Technically, the two aspects of ojo are "not-body-losing-birth" and "body-losing-birth." In order to experience the one at the time of death, the other must be settled during my life. Thus the problem is the awakening that occurs in this here and now. We must be clear on this point of ojo, having shinjin settled in this life, here and now, clear in our understanding that the awakening experience of shinjin takes place within the time we call our life.

Time, in this Buddhist view, differs from the ordinary concept. Generally, our idea of existence is that it takes place within time, that all things existing happen within "time." However, Buddhism thinks in terms of existence per se as "time." Thus, the very point of my life, that is the fact I am living now, already indicates history and time itself. "I am born," "I die" shows the process of history. Because I am, there is in relation to my own existence history and "time." The Japanese term Gen-zsi conveys the meaning of Now the present-in this way. Gen refers to "this present moment." Zui refers to "living" or "existing." This "now" of genzai forms the basis of the Buddhist notion of "time"-not an objective appraisal of time but "time" as a strong subjective element,

Ordinarily, time is seen as moving lineally from past into future. But in Buddhism, time is real in the "now." From the present you see the past as well as the future, The Chinese character for "past", used in Buddhism, means something past and gone, seen from the vantage point of the present in which we really exist. The future - mirai (not yet, not yet come)- is seen also from this vantage point of ima, now, the present - my present.

In the Buddhist view, we live in a world of illusion created in timeless past, but we say this in the depth of the realization of what we are in the present, The act which is propelling us into hell in terms of the future is rooted in the present realization of the depth and weight of that karmic burden which we carry from the timeless past. Both in our total human and our unique personal condition, this is a problem in the "now," my "now," a now in which the problem is to resolve the self for what it really is.

Objectively speaking, because of this subject, this "self," there is time. Because there is time, there is this self. There fore the ordinary perception of time, an objective time that exists before our birth and after our death, a time determined by calendar year and watch, a "time" that is outside us, is totally different from the Buddhist perception of time, which is subjective. In the "here and now" of Buddhist time, subject and object are united in the vantage point of this present moment in which I resolve the problem of "myself."

The awakening experience of shinjin is fulfilled at this point, which we call the Absolute Now. To realize the Buddha in one's life and simultaneously to realize oneself as a being creating the burden of karma that leads us to hell, can only take place in the absolute of Now, the Absolute Now. In terms of our daily life , the realization and experience of true gratitude happens always in this present moment of "now" for it is in the urgency of this present we feel the lives, the influence, of our parents, of our teachers, of our mates or former mates, our children, our friends, our adversaries, and awaken to a real understanding and appreciation. In terms of the evils we have committed in the past, this is often objective, left in the past. But when we truly awaken to our negative acts, the impact of that realization is always in the present : This very moment! Now!

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