Lamenting Divergences
Both before and after I entrusted myself to Amida’s Primal Vow, I spent a lot of time looking on the net for instruction that was in accord with Shinran’s Teaching.
In all my looking (and I did a bunch) I found precious little that lined up with the plain sense of what I had read in Shinran’s Collected Works, and a lot of teachings that were supposed to be Shin Buddhism, but were in fact something else.
Now - I don’t mind that they were something else. Indeed Buddhism is based on the idea that there are 84,000 paths to Buddhahood - and Shin Buddhism is only one of them.
It happens to be (so I have come to believe) the only path that is suitable for plain people in this age of Dharma Decline in order to end suffering once and for all - but there are lots of other paths for those inclined to explore, or pursue them.
What I do mind is when those other paths are presented as Shin - when they deny or distort the fundamental ideas that Shinran spoke about, very plainly, over and over again.
Why do I mind? Because Shin Buddhism, uniquely among all the 84,000 dharma paths to awakening, depends entirely on listening deeply. There is no other practice. For a hungry hearer to listen deeply the left-brained content must be transmitted clearly and accurately, as well as the right-brained feeling tone of simple gratitude.
If the content gets misstated - whether accidentally or deliberately - then the message is garbled, and the hearer is left with a patchwork quilt of Buddhist gobbledygook - a mish-mash of the Path of the Sages and the Path of the Pure Land - rather than the the final teaching of Shakyamuni - the True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way - the Easy Path to Buddhahood - that Shinran was taught and then taught others.
This problem of misstatement is hardly a new problem for Shinran and those who have followed after. One of the most famous of Shin Buddhist teaching documents is a short piece called “The Tannisho” or (in translation) “Lamenting Divergences”, written by a man named Yu-ien, a student of Shinran, after Shinran had died. There’s a link to it in the “resources” section - or else click here.
In the Tannisho, Yu-ien writes down what he remembers from Shinran’s many teaching sessions. In particular, he refutes teachings given in Shinran’s name that diverge from what Shinran himself said.
Yu-ien, a simple layperson who doesn’t understand the sacred Sutras and other texts as his teacher Shinran clearly did, did his best to teach SHIN UGLY - Shinran’s plain teaching for plain people who have no other hope of ending their endless cycles of birth and death - and attaining Buddhahood - once and for all.
He begins The Tannisho with this statement:
As I humbly reflect on the past [when the late master was alive] and the present in my foolish mind, I cannot but lament the divergences from the true shinjin that he conveyed by speaking to us directly, and I fear there are doubts and confusions in the way followers receive and transmit the teaching.
For how is entrance into the single gate of easy practice possible unless we happily come to rely on a true teacher whom conditions bring us to encounter? Let there be not the slightest distortion of the teaching of Other Power with words of an understanding based on personal views.
Here, then, I set down in small part the words spoken by the late Shinran Shonin that remain deep in my mind, solely to disperse the doubts of fellow practicers.
And he closes with this very poignant (to me, anyway) passage:
The Master would often say,
When I consider deeply the Vow of Amida, which arose from five kalpas of profound thought, I realize that it was entirely for the sake of myself alone! Then how I am filled with gratitude for the Primal Vow, in which Amida resolved to save me, though I am burdened with such heavy karma.
Reflecting once more on this expression of Shinran’s inmost thoughts, I find that is does not differ in the least from those precious words of Shan-tao:
Know yourself to be a foolish being of karmic evil caught in birth-and-death, ever sinking and ever wandering in transmigration from innumerable kalpas in the past, with never a condition that would lead to emancipation.
Thus how grateful I feel for Shinran’s words, in which he gives himself as an example in order to make us realize we are in delusion, knowing nothing at all of the depths of our karmic evil or the vastness of Amida’s benevolence.
In truth, myself and others discuss only good and evil, leaving Amida’s benevolence out of consideration. Among Master Shinran’s words were:
I know nothing at all of good or evil. For if I could know thoroughly, as Amida Tathagata knows, that an act was good, then I would know good. If I could know thoroughly, as the Tathagata knows, that an act was evil, then I would know evil. But with a foolish being full of blind passions, in this fleeting world- this burning house- all matters without exception are empty and false, totally without truth and sincerity. The nembutsu alone is true and real.
Indeed, I myself and others speak only falsehoods to each other. In this, there is a truly regrettable thing. When, regarding our saying of the nembutsu, we discuss the nature of shinjin or explain it to people, we ascribe to Shinran even words he never spoke in order to silence others and to settle controversies with our own opinions. This is indeed saddening and deplorable. This matter should be carefully pondered and understood.
These are by no means my own words, but since I do not know the lines of discourse in the sutras and commentaries and cannot understand or discern the profundity of the scriptural writings, undoubtedly they seem foolish.
Nevertheless, recalling a hundredth part- only a fragment- of what the late Shinran said, I write it down. How sad it would be to abide in the borderland instead of being born directly into the fulfilled land, even though one has the fortune of saying the nembutsu.
That there be no differing of shinjin among the fellow practicers, I take my brush with tear in my eyes and record this. Let the title be Tannisho- A Record in Lament of Divergences [from True Shinjin].