Two Compassions
The Shin Ugly truth is this: regardless of who we are, and what we do, we are all living a life that I call ICEBERG US - bound and determined in ways we cannot even see by our own blind passion, our own cravings and aversions, our own ineradicable egotism.
This is why my teacher Shinran, looking deeply and honestly at himself, said for his whole long life, “I am an evil person”…and “Hell is my only home”.
Shinran KNEW he was stuck - that his existential predicament was inescapable - that playing at being a good Buddhist was a worthless exercise.
He had seen through his own agenda - he knew it was just another form of religious self-indulgence in order to convince himself that he was earning some kind of karmic brownie points - while ignoring the truth of his own endless grasping - even his grasping after merit, or the acclaim of others as a good, righteous and spiritual person.
Shinran looked deeply. He saw that all he did - and all he could ever do - was tainted by his egotism, his grasping, his hidden agenda. And he knew enough to know that his ignorance was vaster than his wisdom - that he didn’t even know what he didn’t even know.
Because he KNEW that - deep in his GUTS - he was ready for the gift of Amida Buddha’s salvation, when he finally met his teacher Honen. After 20 years of sincere practice - 24/7 hard time in the monastery seeking to transcend his self-preoccupation and make some serious progress on the road to Buddhahood - he knew he was spinning his wheels.
He knew he was not capable of Buddha’s wisdom, nor Buddha’s compassion. He knew the difference between the GREAT WISDOM of a Buddha, and the small wisdom of a non-Buddha like him. He knew the difference between the GREAT COMPASSION of a Buddha, and the small compassion of a non-Buddha like him.
In the Tannisho (Lamenting Divergences), Yuien recounts what his teacher Shinran said about compassion. His words have a lot to say to many of us who reach out in one way or another to a world that is suffering in so many ways:
There is a difference in compassion between the Path of Sages and the Path of Pure Land.
- The compassion in the Path of Sages is expressed through pity, sympathy, and care for all beings, but rare is it that one can help another as completely as one desires.
- The compassion in the Path of Pure Land is to quickly attain Buddhahood, saying the nembutsu, and with the true heart of compassion and love save all beings completely as we desire.
In this life no matter how much pity and sympathy we may feel for others, it is impossible to help another as we truly wish; thus our compassion is inconsistent and limited.
Only the saying of nembutsu manifests the complete and never ending compassion which is true, real, and sincere.
I, Shinran, have never even once uttered the Nembutsu for the sake of my father and mother. The reason is that all beings have been fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, in the timeless process of birth-and-death.
When I attain Buddhahood in the next birth, each and everyone will be saved.
If it were a good accomplished by my own powers, then I could transfer the accumulated merits of Nembutsu to save my father and mother.
But since such is not the case, when we become free from self-power and quickly attain the enlightenment of the Pure Land, we will save those bound closest to us through transcendental powers, no matter how deeply they are immersed in the karmic sufferings of the six realms and four modes of birth.
There are many of us - Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike - trying in one way or another to engage a hurting world - trying to light a candle and not just curse the darkness.
Truth be told, in every single one of us - and in every single thing we do - our motives are more mixed than we’d like to admit. Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, grand doyenne of Objectivism, had a keen nose to sniff out the secret selfishness that (she claims) perfumes the actions of the altruists in our midst.
Shinran would not have disagreed with her Objectivist diagnosis - and neither would I.
Put in modern language, here’s what Shinran has to say on the subject of ENGAGED BUDDISM - a subject which is very close to the heart of many western Buddhist teachers these days:
You want to engage? It’s all good. By all means do so. It is the compassion of the Buddha arising within you - because Buddha is the fundamental nature of all of us.
Only be honest enough to recognize this as you do:
Our thoughts and actions around Engaged Buddhism are small compassion.
Our compassion is both impure, and limited.
- It is impure because it is bound, like everything else we do, by our blind passion, our egotism, our secret self-promoting agenda. We may not even know it, but that’s the truth.
- It is limited because WE are limited. Though we feel pity, have sympathy, and wish to care for all beings, it is rare that any of us can help anybody as completely as we’d like to.
Small compassion just comes with the territory of being non-Buddhas - foolish beings - inevitably wrapped around the axle of ME and MINE.
So, engaged and engaging Buddhists - let us light our little candles where and when we feel we should.
Let’s not waste too many calories cursing the darkness - because we’re just cursing our own predicament. The darkness in the world, and the darkness in our hearts are one and the same.
And while we are lighting our little candles, and engaging in the small compassion as best as we can, let’s allow ourselves to feel our deepest aspiration - our common aspiration to become TRUE Buddhas at last.
Why? Because only a TRUE Buddha can really understand what the the GREAT COMPASSION really is.
Only a TRUE Buddha can manifest such GREAT COMPASSION with purity and wisdom - and with no limitation whatsoever.
Let us each and all aspire for Buddhahood (Shinran would say) because only when we attain Buddhahood, will we be able to save all beings as completely as we desire, with the TRUE heart of compassion and love.
I can’t tell you how many sincere Buddhists I have known who have gotten entirely wrapped around the axle of contempt and despising for those in power who they see as the oppressors of the world.
It’s such an easy mistake to make. Not the recognition of oppressors - but the contempt and despising.
I know, because I’ve made it myself, over and over again.
During the recent elections here in the US, so many got SO angry with the results. A Shin Buddhist of my acquaintance was honest enough to write on his blog about just how angry he was, and just how unwilling he was to let go of his anger.
He comes off as a pretty peaceful, easy going guy. I admired his honesty in writing about his own RAGE so directly.
This is a characteristic of being a person of the same SHINJIN as Shinran. We know - in our guts - how much we are bound as non-Buddhas by exactly what we see - and often despise - in others.
Sure, we do our little bit. Lots of people do. But we know the SHIN UGLY Truth: how little it really is - and how tainted it is by our own ICEBERG US self-involvement - whether we can see the iceberg, or not.
For just that reason, we yearn for the day when we will not be so bound anymore - when we will be able to manifest not the small compassion of a non-Buddha, but the GREAT COMPASSION of a Buddha.
Knowing that we have no way to get to that place of TRUE Buddhahood based on our own devices, we have simply given up trying to become Buddhas, and entrust ourselves to the complete and utter salvation offered by Amida Buddha instead.
That’s honest, no-baloney Buddhism in this age of Dharma Decline.
That is SHINJIN - true entrusting. It’s what our teacher Shinran was talking about when he said:
There is a difference in compassion between the Path of Sages and the Path of Pure Land.
- The compassion in the Path of Sages is expressed through pity, sympathy, and care for all beings, but rare is it that one can help another as completely as one desires.
- The compassion in the Path of Pure Land is to quickly attain Buddhahood, saying the nembutsu, and with the true heart of compassion and love save all beings completely as we desire.
In this life no matter how much pity and sympathy we may feel for others, it is impossible to help another as we truly wish; thus our compassion is inconsistent and limited.
Only the saying of nembutsu manifests the complete and never ending compassion which is true, real, and sincere.
I, Shinran, have never even once uttered the Nembutsu for the sake of my father and mother. The reason is that all beings have been fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, in the timeless process of birth-and-death.
When I attain Buddhahood in the next birth, each and everyone will be saved.
If it were a good accomplished by my own powers, then I could transfer the accumulated merits of Nembutsu to save my father and mother.
But since such is not the case, when we become free from self-power and quickly attain the enlightenment of the Pure Land, we will save those bound closest to us through transcendental powers, no matter how deeply they are immersed in the karmic sufferings of the six realms and four modes of birth.
Namu-Amida-Butsu.
I take refuge in Amida Buddha.
Knowing that I just don’t have what it takes to manifest the Great Compassion that only a TRUE Buddha can, I say the Nembutsu of True Entrusting in Amida Buddha’s Power so that I will QUICKLY attain Buddhahood - at the end of this life.
I say the Nembutsu so that I will be able to meet countless suffering being in millions of worlds with transcendental power - with unlimited wisdom and infinite compassion - at the end of this life.
I say the Nembutsu of Other Power so that I will be able to join all the Buddhas in the Great Work of breaking through all the prisons of all beings in all worlds - all their karmic suffering in whatever state they may be - at the end of this life.
At the end of this life, I too will go to the Pure Land, quickly attain Buddhahood, and finally go forth to manifest the Great Compassion that Amida Buddha now manifests to me.
Namu-Amida-Butsu.