KGSS Preface: Nembutsu Thanksgiving
In the USA, today is the national holiday of Thanksgiving.
True Nembutsu is simply the Nembutsu of Thanksgiving.
Let’s listen deeply to Shinran, as he explains what Thanksgiving is all about for a person of the same SHINJIN
Oh, how difficult it is to encounter the strong influence of the universal Vow, even in many cycles of birth-and-death! How difficult it is to attain the True Pure Faith, even in millions of kalpas! If you are fortunate enough to attain Practice and Faith, you should rejoice at your close relationship with Amida from the distant past.
Listen deeply. Have you had Shinran’s REALIZATION in your life yet?
- Do you know how difficult is to encounter the strong influence of the universal Vow?
- Do you have any sense of how many cycles of birth and death you have gone through to meet this teaching, this way, in this moment?
- Do you know how difficult it is to attain the True Pure Faith, even in millions of ages (kalpas)?
- Have you been fortunate enough to attain Practice and Faith?
- If so, do you rejoice at your close relationship with Amida from the distant past?
If you can’t answer these questions with Shinran’s Nembutsu of Thanksgiving, you are not excluded from Amida’s Primal Vow!
All you need to do is ask Amida Buddha to show you what is TRUE and REAL - and He will.
Amida waits - for you, for me, for all of us - to lay down our own works, and our own ideas - and finally take full and utter refuge in him alone.
Shakyamuni Buddha urges you, me, all of us - to take refuge in just this way.
Bring nothing with you but your sorrow and your suffering - your delusion and your obscuration. That’s all you have. That’s all ANY of us have.
In that spirit, listen deeply to the True Teaching. Listen deeply to Shakyamuni Buddha and Shinran Shonen.
NamuAmidaButsu - I take refuge in the person and work of Amida Buddha.
NamuAmidaButsu - I come with empty hands and an open heart.
NamuAmidaButsu - I leave behind the foolish thinking that is all I am capable of.
NamuAmidaButsu - I listen deeply to what is being offered, realizing how remarkable this moment of true hearing truly is.
NamuAmidaButsu - I am so grateful - beyond what words can say - that this is my last life of suffering and sorrow - of darkness and disease and death.
NamuAmidaButsu - the Nembutsu of gratitude comes out of my mouth, because Buddhahood awaits me at the end of this life.
Thank you, Amida Buddha, for your inconceivable salvation. NamuAmidaButsu.