Honen’s Nembutsu for Village Idiots

Someone wrote me saying how confused she was. We dialogued by email, and she was STILL confused.

That happens a lot.

We’re confused people, living in a confused and confusing world.

So I shared with her this wonderful “One Page Document” written by Shinran’s teacher Honen.

She was blessed to read it - because what Honen says here is so SIMPLE.

HONEN’S ONE SHEET DOCUMENT

The Nembutsu that I teach is not the contemplative Nembutsu expounded by many learned masters of China and Japan, nor is it the recitative Nembutsu practiced with full understanding of the meaning of ‘nen’ that becomes clear from study.

It is nothing but saying ‘Namu-Amida-Butsu’ (I take refuge in Amida Buddha) with a conviction that by saying it one will certainly attain birth in the Pure Land.

The Three Minds and the Four Practices, which are spoken of [in relation to the Nembutsu], are contained in the conviction that all attain birth without fail through Namu-Amida-Butsu.

If your faith is based on other ground than this, you may not be received by the Compassion of the two Buddhas (our historical Buddha Shakyamuni and Amida Buddha) and may be left outside the Primal Vow.

However well versed in the lifetime teachings of the Buddha, those who accept the Nembutsu in faith should consider themselves as illiterate, stupid persons.

Without pretensions to wisdom, they should single-heartedly recite the Nembutsu with ordinary devotees of Buddhism of little learning, whether men or women.

Like I said, she was BLESSED to read it.

Why? Because it meets her need as a person without a lot of Buddhist teaching in her background - just like the simple “village idiots” who listend to the preaching and teaching of Honen and Shinran in medieval Japan.

She - and all of us - can simply take refuge in Amida Buddha’s salvation.

She is guaranteed Buddhahood at the end of this life if she does.

Why? Because of Amida Buddha.

Amida Buddha was once a King named Dharmakara who become a monk. As a monk he was a great Bodhisattva - a being who had the compassionate determination to aid the rest of us in our quest as he fulfilled his.

As a Bodhisattva he made, and then fulfilled, 48 vows, becoming in that process the greated of all the Buddhas - AMIDA - the Buddha of Infinite Light and Infinite Life.

His great work was all for one purpose: to save any and everyone who will simply abandon their own efforts and entrust themselves to Him 100%. This is his PRIMAL VOW - the sum and substance of the 48 Vows he made as the Bodhisattva Dharmakara, and then fulfilled.

As soon as we entrust ourselves to HIM completely, our rebirth in the Pure Land is guaranteed.

Trusting in Amida Buddha, abandoning once and for all our own efforts to become enlightened, we are sealed in the present for Buddhahood at the end of this life.

We WILL go to the Pure Land, and WILL become Buddhas, at the end of this lifetime.

When we HEAR that Vow and believe it - simple gratitude arises.

Namu-Amida-Butsu.

Paul R.

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