BOSTON SHINSHU NEWS

Volume I, Number 3 --- Autumn 1998

"It will all be by the will of the Buddha
that the Nembutsu prospers in your area."

--Shinran

Table of Contents

Words to Think About
Tenth European Shin Buddhist Conference
Wisdom of the Past
Other-power and Self-power: A Parable
Announcements
The 47th Vow
Our Own Thoughts.....a place to share our experiences
Information

Words to Think About

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Report by Rev. Taitetsu Unno

The Tenth European Shin Buddhist Conference was held at historic Oxford University from August 5-9, 1998. This is the third such conference that my wife and I had the opportunity to attend. The other two sites were Vienna, Austria (1990) and Duesseldorf, Germany (1992). This conference is a branch of the International Association of Shin Buddhist Studies (IASBS) and received the support of the International Association of Buddhist Culture, located in Japan, which is the main sponsor of the Jodo Shinshu movement in Europe.

The Oxford conference had representatives from England, Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Poland, Australia, Brazil, USA, and Japan. Approximately 25 people from different countries presented papers sharing their understanding of Shin Buddhism and how it should be transmitted in the Western world. Approximately 40 delegates participated with an additional 20 visitors from Japan who came just for one day to attend the Confirmation Ceremony held during the conference. Five Europeans and an equal number of Japanese were confirmed as Shin Buddhists by the young successor to the present Monshu in Kyoto.

What was most impressive about the conference was the sincerity of all the participants and their dedication to the nembutsu path. None of them was of Japanese descent, and only a few had a working knowledge of the Japanese language, but Jodo Shinshu was clearly appreciated as a profound way of life. Different problems in spreading the nembutsu path are encountered depending on the country, but it was heartening to hear everyone working hard in his or her own ways to spread the Shin teachings. Although the group is small and resources are limited, the seeds of nembutsu have been planted which show definite promise of flowering in the future.

The next Shin European conference is scheduled for August 2000 at a Shin Buddhist Center in Bad Reichenhall, located near Salzburg. (September 7, 1998)

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If even the highest moral action in the world is not a cause for enlightenment, what good is morality at all? Jim Davis, active in a Shin Buddhist sangha in Springfield, Missouri, looks into Shinran's letters (Mattosho) and the Tannisho for the answer to a problem which perplexed many early Shin Buddhists.

Observing the Precepts through Other-Power

by Jim Davis

Shinran believed he was living in the final Dharma age (mappo), a time when the old practices could no longer be successfully completed. He did not teach or give the precepts to his students, because he felt no one had the power to do them. And if one tried to follow them, once accepted, one then had to face up to the karmic consequences of failure. Instead of precepts, he taught a mysticism of pure experience as manifested in the moment of the certainty of enlightenment (shinjin). This experience he considered was a gift freely given to all by Amida, the Buddha of Infinite Light and Life.

There was nothing one must do to 'earn' this gift. To even try was seen to doubt the workings of the Other-Power (Amida's action towards us). Moreover, it was the exactly the person who could not follow the precepts that Amida reaches out to save:

"Amida Buddha made her Vow in compassion for us sentient beings, bound by passions and unable to escape the round of birth and death through our own works. Since the main purpose of her Vow was to enable evil persons to attain Buddhahood, the evil person who relies on the Other-Power is the one who will truly benefit from this Vow and attain rebirth in the Pure Land." (Tannisho 2)

Since: "Maddened beyond control by blind passion, we do things we should not and say things we should not and think things we should not." (Mattosho 16)

By "evil person," Shinran was des-cribing the average persons who find themselves caught up in a world out of control. Since they could not control their passions, as expressed by the keeping of the official precepts of Buddhist tradition, Buddhist society cast them aside (thus arose doctrines that some people can never attain enlightenment, women must become men first, etc.). However, Shinran taught it was just for these types of people, those unable to keep precepts, that Amida Buddha reaches out to free.

Yet this freedom was a very radical freedom and dangerous. Many Nembutsu followers, taking a very superficial view of the Pure Land teachings, reached the same con-clusions as the official slanders of Nembutsu. They interpreted this to mean licensed evil. The repeated rise of this charge and its actual practice was a danger to the early Jodo Shinshu movement and to those who practiced it.

Apparently, the idea arose from the 18th Vow itself (Larger Pure Land Sutra) which saves those who are evil, then one must become evil to be saved. This was a very serious misinter-pretation of Shinran's statement: "there is no need for fear of evil (actions) because there is no evil that obstructs the power of the Amida's Primal Vow (Tannisho 1)." Yet this is not what Shinran intended his statement to mean:

"There was once a man who had fallen into false views. Thinking that the Vow was for the sake of saving those who had committed evil, he deliberately committed evil, saying that it would be the karmic basis for rebirth in the Pure Land. When Shinran heard various rumors about this man, he wrote in a letter that one should not take poison just because there was an antidote. He wrote this letter in order to put an end to this false notion." (Tannisho 13)

Further: "But if a person is deceitful in his relations with others, doing what he should not because he thinks it will not hinder his birth, then it is not an in-stance of being maddened by passion. Since he purposely does these things, they are simply misdeeds which should never have been done." (Mattosho 16)

Shinran, I feel, was teaching a moral situational ethic. He recognized that all of us have certain inherent tendencies of which we have little or no control. Some evil one cannot help but to commit. However, if one did not steal before one said the Nembutsu and then took up stealing afterwards, it would be a case of committing controllable misdeeds. Only one's uncontrollable actions and tendencies from before one's saying of Nembutsu have no effect upon the Vow's working. After one is embraced by Amida, one is never abandoned. However, this experience is evidenced by a profound change. "Even that person who has been inclined to steal will naturally undergo a change of heart if he comes to say the Nembutsu aspiring for the Buddha Land." (Mattosho 16)

What Shinran is saying is that through the experience of awakening to the certainty of enlightenment (shinjin), Amida transforms the individual into growing moral beings. One is embraced just as they are so that one can go on to embrace others. Thus one gradually abandons previous evil through the transfer of merits from Amida. This is not a sudden transformation, it is gradual. This is the meaning of "will naturally undergo a change of heart."

So in closing, just say the nembutsu and try to do good as your nature allows out of compassion for others. Do this not to force oneself into the Pure Land/Nirvana (as you can't!), but purely out of deep gratitude for one's own awakening.

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--from ANJIN KETSUJO SHO,
On the Attainment of True Faith, Translated by Eizo Tanaka,
printed in THE PURE LAND, Vol. 5:1, June 1983, p.35ff.

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• Shin Buddhist Talking Books.  Taitetsu Unno's short and inspiring booklet, GRATITUDE: ITS SOURCE AND POWER  published in 1991 through the Dept. of Buddhist Education of the BCA, is now available as a talking book. Contact person for talking books is Rev. Alfred Bloom (email albloom@aloha.net). Coming soon: The Letters of Shinran.
• English-Japanese Service Book.  The Shin Buddhist service consisting of Shinran's Shoshinge, Nembutsu-wasan, and Eko  in sheet-music style is now available. The booklet is laid out in simple and clear western music notation, with parallel Japanese (romanized) text. Price $10 includes booklet, demo tape (English over Japanese), and shipping. Write to Editor, checks payable to Richard St. Clair.
• FIRST BIRTHDAY!  One of our subscribers, Liz Feess, announces the birth of her son, Jake Alex Feess, on the 20th of July 1998 at 17:42 Pacific Standard Time. Long life and happiness to you both!-- Editor.

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Mindfulness in Plain English

by Stephen H. Kawamoto

"Ordinarily when we watch the working of our mind/body complex, we tend to hide or ignore things which are not pleasant to us and to hold onto things which are pleasant." --Venerable H. Gunaratana Mahathera

What the Venerable Mahathera is describing is the original mind known in Shin Buddhism as bombu. "Ordinarily" implies that "when we watch the working of our mind/body complex", it is an everyday occurrence. Furthermore, the watcher who watches the mind/body complex is driven by evil passions--passions caused by mental act and calculation, each move carefully planned and executed with wilful intent. For no person can truthfully declare that their actions are innocent of any harm and always full of good intentions.

Indeed, we do hide and ignore the unpleasant things in our lives. It may be the thought of doing hard work. We may hide from such work that absolutely must be done by being unavailable. As a result, we may find it pleasant to goof off and avoid hard work. It may be the prospect of meeting new friends in a roomful of strangers. We may ignore anyone in favor of one friend in that sea of strangers. Certainly the prospect of talking to one person we like all night is safer than mingling in a crowded room full of people we do not know.

Often we hold onto the avoidance of responsibility by never doing hard work. Having never done such work, we find it an impossible task to complete when we do have to do a little work. Some people avoid even the simplest of tasks, and their excuses for getting out of such tasks wears thin. As an example, I pick from my life the task of washing dishes. We usually wash dishes as a way of sharing a task at mealtime when sharing meals. The cooks leave it up to the people who did not prepare the meal to clean up after them. When we share meals with other people, it is a fair exchange for the persons who did not gather food nor prepare food to wash the dishes.

When given the task of cleaning dishes after meals, I originally would happily comply. Then I'd only wash perhaps one or two dishes, maybe a pot or a pan, and leave half the dirty plates and cups behind. My excuse was always "Oh I forgot those plates!" or "I felt that I do not want to do all those dishes." Then I would leave to go to my room after spending a half-hour washing dishes. It seemed a waste of my time to wash up after a meal. This is the ordinary mind at work!

Eventually, I ran out of excuses to avoid this simple task of cleaning up after a meal. With the patient guidance of my friend Brian, I took on res-ponsibility for washing up after a meal. Gradually, after a year of avoiding responsibility, the prospect of cleaning dishes has become a welcome task for me. Today, cleaning dishes is probably the simplest of tasks. It still takes me a half-hour to complete that task, but every minute of it is a joy for me.

The change of heart I experienced regarding this simple task is not unlike Ananda sweeping the temple floor. He was the favorite of Gotama because of his sincerity. It is said that Ananda achieved satori sweeping those floors and attained the pure, true and sincere mind of shinjin that transcends the ordinary mind. Truly this is what is mindful of Amida is.

Due to the working of the Nembutsu, I realize that the most unpleasant thing in my life is holding on to the pleasant things in life. As a result of always getting the easy way out of every problem, I avoided responsibility and thus created future problems for myself. For my ordinary mind would try to hide from myself the unpleasant feelings associated with not living up to my responsibility as a human being. I would feel guilty for avoiding being responsible, and deeply ashamed when reminded of my responsibilities. Because my mind was hiding the truth and ignoring reality, I often would often forget the context within which I avoided responsibility.

By not assuming responsibility for our lives we may become dishonest about ourselves and create our own emotional illness. Therefore, it's rational and emotively healthy to face the unpleasant things in life with a mindful awareness of the respon-sibility associated with such things than to lose mindful awareness of everything in my life by avoiding responsibility.

Rather than such responsibility being what is supposed to be done, it's a case of what I sincerely want to do. Having become aware of my responsibility, I cannot avoid fulfilling it. So it may as well be done. And oh! What a challenge it is to assume such responsibility. It keeps us emotionally healthy and satisfied with life.

As a result of mindfulness of Amida, the problems that seem insurmountable are now challenges to accept. By accepting them, I have discovered that they don't seem to be a big deal anyway. While happiness is never a guaranteed result of such efforts, it helps to do any task set before us joyfully and without complaint. For this is the way to happiness: transcend the ordinary mind and be mindful of Amida.

In Gassho
Stephen

Stephen H. Kawamoto resides in Surrey, BC Canada, a rapidly growing suburb of Vancouver, BC. Currently he runs his own computer hardware and software business, barely making ends meet. He is an assistant librarian at Vancouver Buddhist Church. Through it all, the Nembutsu serves as inspiration.

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Last modified: 7 October 1998.