Talking with Clara
Clara: Hello Paul, thanks for your kind reply.
I am the same Clara that you know as Rev Clara (last name), Sensei, from (Buddhist organization), disciple of Master (X).
===
Hi Clara. Of course I remember you.
===
Please understand that I posed the comment as a plain person born in the West and with some background in religious studies, not particularly I posed it as a Jodo minister.
===
That makes two of us. I’m a plain person, from the west, with some background in religious studies, and not a Jodo minister either.
===
Clara: It is for me important to see things in a broad view, without dogmatism, in a very open spirit.
===
For me Clara, only one thing is important: to understand suffering, and to come to the end of suffering at last.
For me, “dogmatism” is a religious word, an academic word. I don’t give a hoot about dogmatism either way.
What I care about is nuts and bolts EFFECTIVENESS.
To use Shakyamuni Buddha’s powerful metaphor: I’ve been shot with a poison arrow, and it’s killing me. How will I get the arrow out and stop the poison - once and for all? How can I find the end of suffering at last?
===
Clara: I listen deeply to your words, and the same way, deeply, are my questions posed, asking for your feedback as someone with probably more lights than me.
===
I appreciate the opportunity to dialogue honestly, and deeply, with you.
As to whether I have more or less light than you or anyone else, it matters not one bit.
Amida’s light shines, as Shakyamuni Buddha taught, into every corner of every life in the mulit-verse. I’ve stopped turning away from it, is all.
Whatever light I have comes from coming to the end of my rope, and listening deeply to the dharma given by Shakyamuni Buddha to people who cannot possible climb the mountain of enlightenment via any version of the Path of the Sages.
Caught between the desire for buddhahood, and my own utter incapacity, I hear Amida offer me buddhahood as a complete gift - if I will simply entrust myself to him and his Primal Vow.
The only thing that matters is this: I am grasped, and I will not be abandoned - no matter what.
No matter what, at the end of this life I will be reborn in the Pure Land, and attain Buddhahood at last.
There’s nothing to do - or not to do. I simply depend upon Amida and his Primal Vow.
I’ll get back to the rest of your comment as soon as I can.
Best as ever -
Paul