What’s the Difference?

fogueira: What is the difference between Shinran’s teaching and “die on the cushion”?

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The long answer to your question is coming up in Part 3 of “The Easy Path To Buddhahood”, my friend. Bear with me as I write and then proof it. It might take a couple of days.

Here’s a short answer - a dharma snack to tide you over until the full meal is served:

If you (fogueira) die on the cushion tonight, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year or forty years from now:

  • You will still be plagued by our common egotism.
  • You will still be plagued by our common endless cravings and aversions (yes, Zen Masters have them, too).
  • You will still be carrying karmic debt.

In that state - cushion or no cushion - the inexorable working of karma leads inevitably to your next birth as non-buddha in one of the six realms.

That’s why the compassion of all the Buddhas manifests in the form of this final gate for sincere people in your predicament - and mine.

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fogueira: what is the difference between Shinran’s teaching and the “if you want to be given everything, give everything up” of Master Laozi? (not strictly Buddhist, but pretty cigar to me)?

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“Give everything up” is the preparatory stage for becoming a person of SHINJIN - TRUE ENTRUSTING.

When you give EVERYTHING up, that means giving up your hope that you can solve your fundamental problem - and end your suffering at last - by any metaphysical activity whatsoever.

In your case, foggie, that would mean giving up your presumption that sitting on your cushion long enough can take you from the near shore of utter sleep to the far shore of full awakening.

That’s TOUGH to give up…I know. But that’s what giving up really means - and it rubs our common egotism entirely the wrong way.

So let’s go with old Lao here, just for a bit: in order to be given EVERYTHING, will you indeed give everything up, including YOUR dependence on YOUR practice - on YOUR cushion - on YOUR understanding - on YOUR wisdom?

It’s a profound question, foggie. Thanks for raising it.

Now…onto Shinran’s Shin Ugly teaching for HIS answer, which is Eiken Kobai’s answer, and my answer too:

When you “give everything up” you are in the “in-between state” - FINALLY in a place where you can listen deeply, to hear the dharma of Amida’s Primal Vow without the ear potatoes of all our blind passion getting in the way.

What brings each and all of us, finally, to that liminal state where we truly “give everything up”? Only the Infinite Light and Life of Amida shining into the nooks and crannies of our own endarkened hearts and minds.

It turns out that it’s ALL grace, ALL the time. So my take, after 30 years of trying a bunch of other stuff, is why not just give it up - and admit that indeed this is how is REALLY is: grace…or bust.

As I said in a recent post, once I give up, the HARD part of the EASY path is no longer hard. True Entrusting in Amida’s primal vow becomes not just the ONLY thing to do, but the EASY thing to do.

There’s no more struggle, because egotism’s grip is broken.

I move from grunting (with my various self-power efforts of sitting, meditating, chanting, visualizing, studying, etc.) to simple gratitude - in one moment of thought.

And so my next birth, as a True Buddha in Amida’s Pure Land, is a done deal.

Meanwhile, I just live out my life as best as I can, as the plain person I really am. If I want to sit on the cushion, I sit on the cushion. If I want to enjoy a nice walk in the park, I go to the park.

It’s just a plain and natural life. Why? Because having given up EVERYTHING, I can now trust EVERYTHING to Amida, in terms of my transformation into Buddhahood, at last - in this life, and the next. Everything is NamuAmidaButsu - Amida’s business entirely, and not mine at all - at last.

It’s that easy, that simple, and that available.

That’s the TRUE meaning of NamuAmidaButsu - I take refuge in Amida Buddha.

It really is simple enough, and easy enough, for Shinran’s proverbial village idiot in some bleak corner of medieval Japan.

It’s even simple enough for a westerner with a college degree, raised on the New York Times and I Love Lucy, in some bleak corner of New Jersey.

Hmmm…that was more of a dharma snack than I intended, foggie. Let’s call it a light lunch. Dinner will be served a bit later on - with some fresh tea poured by my teacher Shinran.

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