A Dharma Friend Says: “To Let Go Utterly Is Very Hard”

A dharma friend wrote to me yesterday, and said:To let go utterly is very hard.

Here’s my reply.


Hi dharma friend -

“Letting go utterly” is NOT the single practice of Shin Buddhism. We are, in fact, constitutionally INCAPABLE of “letting go utterly” in this Age of Dharma Decline.

This is what Shinran means when he described himself as an evil person. This side of the Pure Land, his grasping mind was STILL forever grasping - long after he had beecome a person of settled SHINJIN. That’s why he said that his mind was STILL full of snakes and scorpions. That’s why he says he was STILL sinking in desire for fame and profit. That’s why he said that hell was STILL his only home.

What a radically HONEST man Master Shinran was!

So…for a man (or a woman) who is constitutionally INCAPABLE of letting go, what can Shinran, or you, or me, or ANY OF US do?

Only one thing: LISTEN DEEPLY - with our left brain and with our right brain, too.

LISTEN DEEPLY, and allow the words to sink in as left-brained content - and then LISTEN DEEPLY some more as the felt sense of that content works its way inside your mindstream all by itself.

That, my friend, is the ONLY praxis for us poor bonbus in this age of Dharma Decline.

We can’t let go - but we CAN listen deeply.

If we will only continue to LISTEN DEEPLY, then Amida Buddha will do EVERYTHING necessary to bring us to HIS (not our) SHINJIN. Once he does, we will experience that spontaneous welling up of gratitude - and True Nembutsu will leap out of our mouth.

As for being grateful…

Just like we can’t let go, we can’t “put on” gratitude. We’re not capable of that either - especially when life seems to be handling us one lemon after another. There’s just so much lemonade any of us can make at one time, and then we just start to sink under the weight of it all. That’s just what it means to be a bonbu - a foolish being of blind passion - in this Age of Dharma Decline.

But putting on gratitude isn’t the single praxis of Shin Buddhism, either. LISTENING DEEPLY is.

So just continue to listen deeply, and be EXACTLY who you REALLY are - not who you THINK you are supposed to be. That’s useless - and WORSE than useless. It’s infinitely better to be an honest moaner and groaner than a tight-faced pious hypocrite. Amida Buddha can - and will - work with each and every one of us - JUST AS WE TRULY ARE - to bring us to HIS settled SHINJIN and to carry us from that one thought moment ALL THE WAY TO BUDDHAHOOD.

No fancy dress, no pious spirituality. All that is just self-powered nonsense that keeps us in the dark. Useless - and WORSE than useless.

Forget all that STUFF. Just be yourself, and listen deeply.

So how can you listen deeply? Here’s one suggestion:

If you haven’t yet read Eiken Kobai’s wonderful book Understanding Jodo Shinshu let me commend it to you without reservation as a way to listen deeply. Allow me to suggest that you download it, print it, and go through it. Slowly.

You won’t understand every single word. Frankly, neither do I. But it has so much solid, basic Shin Dharma - expressed with a clarity and precision that is unmatched in anything else that I have read anywhere - that it is a perfect vehicle for LISTENING DEEPLY to the pristine dharma of Master Shinran.

And thanks so much for your words of appreciation about the Shin Ugly Blog. Truly, we’re all links in Amida’s Golden Chain. All we need to do is…

LISTEN DEEPLY.

NamuAmidaButsu.

Paul R

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