The Openess That Is Free of Self-Power

I invite you to listen deeply with me, as George Gatenby shares the True Teaching with depth and wisdom. Here is an excerpt from his Commentary on Shozomatsu Wasan 64:


We all know the account of the ‘Great Renunciation’ that is told in the Buddhacarita of Ashvagosa. When Shakyamuni was a prince, his father, the king, kept him cosseted within the palace, where all suffering and misery could be kept out of sight. Eventually the gods arranged events so that the prince was able to venture out of the palace compound. In this journey, the prince encountered an old man, a sick man, a corpse and a mendicant. The mendicant explained that old age, sickness and death were unavoidable facts of existence.

It was only because of these encounters that Shakyamuni was profoundly inspired to seek the way that resulted in his discovery of the Dharma and the liberation of all suffering beings.

In these happenings we can see the relationship between self-power and the way of the entrusting heart. It is self-power that constructs boundaries to the discovery of truth. The palace that confined Shakyamuni is a mark of this.

However, in his openness to truth Shakyamuni did not deliberately conjure the old man, the sick man and the corpse: they presented themselves to him, a manifestation of Other Power. These distressed human beings were his teachers. He did not go looking for them but he understood their significance by laying himself open to the truth that they revealed.

Without this openness, without the three indicators of old age, sickness and death, the Great Renunciation would never have occurred and there would have been no Buddha in this saha world.

Until he went forth from the palace, Shakyamuni was restless and unfulfilled. The price of his freedom began with a bitter encounter and culminated in the bliss of nirvana. Without seeing old age, sickness and death, he would never have seen the Dharma.

In the way of Nembutsu, likewise, we abandon the constrictions of our self-constructed walls of security and venture out to find the true exigencies of life - and in so doing, ultimately find the freedom of the Dharma. We cannot create the Dharma for ourselves, any more than Shakyamuni created the old man, the sick man and the corpse.

The openness that is free of self-power is the process of listening (chomon). We listen with the focus, intensity, single-mindedness and the pressing urgency that we see in Shakyamuni as he sought to understand the harsh reality that was presented in the presence of the old man, the sick man, the corpse and the mendicant, who explained these realities to him.

Of course, the mendicant, who comes to us now, comprises Shakyamuni and the seven Pure Land Masters. We hear the mendicant speak, explaining the mysteries of life and the way out of samsara, every time we lend an ear to the words of Shinran and Rennyo Shonin, and their sincere followers.

As it was for Shakyamuni, so it is for us. Our listening may begin in bitterness, sorrow and pain but culminates in freedom and bliss.


“As it was for Shakyamuni, so it is for us.”

George is so right. Our entrance on the path begins with listening deeply. As we do, we encounter those who open our eyes to “the great negative epiphany”: the profound recognition that life as we know it is essentially DUKKHA - unsatisfactory.

The question that faces us all who have come to know the reality of the great negative epiphany is: what can we do to liberate ourselves from such a prison as this?

As Shakyamuni and the seven Pure Land Masters, and Shinran and Rennyo - and their true students like George explain - there is only one thing we can do: listen deeply, again and again and again.

As George says so movingly: THIS process - the process of listening deeply to the dharma - truly IS the openness that is free of self-power.

  • No practice other than this will bring us to the end of suffering.
  • No ritual will suffice.
  • No meditation will free us once and for all from the bondage of egotism.
  • No chanting or prayers will break the chains of our delusions and obscurations.
  • No good deeds will eliminate our vast karmic debt.
  • No religious scrupulosity will free us from our blind passions.
  • No moral code will guide us out of our darkness.
  • Neither metaphysical knowledge, nor non-dual experience, nor secret teaching, nor arcane philosophy, nor process theology will make us truly FREE.

But if we will only listen deeply to the True Teaching of the Pure Land Way, Amida Buddha himself will bring us to liberation - nirvana - Buddhahood - at long last. In this life, Amida Buddha will give us HIS shinjin. From the total illiterate to the hyper-educated, all we can do is listen deeply. We’re all the same to Amida Buddha. And then, when this life is done, Amida Buddha will cause us to take birth in his Pure Land, where we will quickly attain Buddhahood.

Finally…after endless rounds of birth and death into DUKKHA existence with no hope of escape, our endless journey through darkness is all done.

NamuAmidaButsu

Paul R.

WordPress database error: [Table 'netpaul.wp_comments' doesn't exist]
SELECT * FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_post_ID = '139' AND comment_approved = '1' ORDER BY comment_date

Leave a Reply