How Shin Dharma Transmission Works - And How It Fails
The task of the Shin Sangha - both for itself and for a world lost in delusion - is simple:
Clear speaking of Shinran’s True Teaching.
That’s what needs to be done - and that’s ALL that needs to be done - to change karmic destinies FOREVER.
I’ve said many times on the Shin Ugly Blog: we’re living in a day very similar to the day when Rennyo became the leader of the Shin Sangha, 200 years after Shinran’s death.
At that time, the Sangha was moribund. Dying. Lost in clericalism and navel gazing. Stuck in scholarship and semantics. Exactly opposite of what it was meant to be.
Rennyo RESTORED the sangha. How? By beginning and persisting in the simple work of SHIN UGLY preaching and teaching.
He walked from town to town, and spoke the simple truth of Shinran’s True Teaching: Plain Talk for Plain People About Suffering and the End of Suffering.
He spoke the same thing, over and over, because that’s what it takes for people to truly listen deeply. And he corrected the mistakes being propagated by clerics and scholars who were adulterating the teaching with their own personal views - however lofty and sublime.
He was doing Amida Buddha’s work, the true work of a True Teacher of Shinran’s True Teaching. It has the effect that ONLY the True Teaching of Shinran’s Dharma can have - bringing untold thousands to the great joy and gratitude of SHINJIN - True Entrusting.
Read the letter below (printed with permission, of course) . You’ll see exactly what I talking about: how the very same Dharma tranmission works - on a much smaller scale - in my one-to-one dialogue with a dharma friend made possible by the Internet.
You’ll see exactly how doing Amida Buddha’s work in Amida Buddha’s way really works, in the life of two plain people - who also happen to be college educated westerners:
- One speaks clearly as a person of the same SHINJIN as Shinran
- The other listens deeply with an honest and open heart
- Amida Buddha brings the light of inconceivable SHINJIN to change karmic destiny - FOREVER.
Same as it ever was.
And - I say this with deep sadness - you’ll also see how it FAILS. You’ll see another example of how the Shin Sangha - and particularly the so-called “leadership” - is failing the world in our day.
NamuAmidaButsu.
Paul R.
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Friend: Namu Amida Butsu!
I just read your post Freedom In Shinjin - Part II. It was…well, for lack of a better word, profound.
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I’m really glad it made sense for you on a deep level.
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Friend: Makes me feel kind of dense, actually, for not understanding these things sooner. Maybe the benefits of shinjin (and what benefits!) in samsara were just too near at hand, too “right under my nose,” too…SOMETHING, for me to grasp them.
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That’s what Rennyo was talking about HERE when he spoke about how important it was to have a good teacher to explain Shin dharma, as one of the critical conditions for rebirth.
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Friend: Anyway, the needle on my gratitude-to-Amida-meter is red-hot and nearly off the scale.
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I’m speaking clearly, you’re listening deeply, and Amida Buddha is making it all work.
Same as it ever was.
You’ve taken your place as a link in Amida’s golden chain, in the living transmission of the only dharma that could solve your fundamental problem - and mine.
Write it all down in your journal. Let it be a touchstone for you in the months and years to come.
Bear witness to Amida Buddha’s work in your life, in your own way, if and when opportunity arises. Trust me, it will serve you as much as it serves those you serve by speaking.
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Friend: I’m kind of speechless, right now, actually.
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Actually, you’re speaking with the clarity that only a person of SHINJIN has.
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Friend: (I’d prefer that you didn’t post this letter. It’s late, I’m VERY tired, and probably writing gibberish.)
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Of course I will respect your wishes. But - you are definitely NOT writing gibberish.
Consider this: there are people from around the world (literally) reading the Shin Ugly Blog in exactly the same way you used to read it only a few short weeks ago.
No doubt some of them find it “absolutely repugnant” just as you did.
The truth is: Amida Buddha is working to get their attention, just as he worked to get yours.
He is using their aversion to my direct statement of Shinran’s True Teaching to get their attention and to challenge their complacency, just as he used your aversion.
I am sure I don’t need to tell you that it is APATHY - not aversion - that is the enemy of all the Buddhas, keeping people locked down in unconsciousness for countless lives. Aversion, for some, is a critical and mysterious step on the path of awakening.
So…think about this letter - at this moment a private dialogue between us. Consider what it might mean to someone else - someone just like you - to be able to read it.
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Friend: And let me offer you my sincerest thanks for all the time you’ve given to help me expose, dissect and obliterate my doubts.
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You are welcome, dharma friend. I’m glad that our dialogue has been so worthwhile.
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Friend: You know, it’s kind of funny…before writing to you, I’d made four different attempts to contact, via email, three different Shin Buddhist teachers (two of them nationally-known American authors).
I made it clear that I was relatively new to the Shin path, that I lived far from a temple or sangha, and that I just wanted (even minimal) contact with another Pure Land Buddhist.
NONE of my emails were ever answered.
Interesting.
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This too needs to be broadcast on Shin Ugly Blog for others to see.
Why? Because the Shin Buddhist Sangha is moribund and dying, even as it was in Rennyo’s day.
The morbidity needs to be discussed - as difficult as that discussion is.
Believe me, I wish it wasn’t so. I wish there were 1,000 outstanding teachers, whether scholar, cleric or layperson, that I could point people to, here in North America, or in Europe. Sincere inquirers and Shin newbies NEED good teachers to connect with.
Just as Rennyo says, it’s a critical part of the mix, in order for SHINJIN to take root.
I wish there was a strong and vibrant internet presence, in English - hundreds of websites where Shin Dharma was being presented in plain language for modern people. There would be no need for the Shin Ugly Blog.
But right now there aren’t. Instead of the TRUE teaching of Shinran mostly it’s mushy mysticism or post-modern mythos or philosophical gobbledygook.
We need more Dharma rain. I suffered from this desert, just as you have suffered. Truth be told, I was dying of thirst.
I described my own plight graphically in my introduction to Professor Eiken Kobai’s first book (HERE).
Why? Because my experience of not getting the pure water of Shinran’s dharma, like yours, is a symptom of the terrible malaise. A general alarm needs to be sounded, and sounded again - in order to awaken the Sangha to the reality of the current situation.
I believe that letting people read YOUR story is part of the sounding of that alarm.
As a sangha, we need to reflect deeply - to consider how your karmic need was ignored - and how your karmic destiny was imperiled - by APATHY.
That’s the true cost of apathy in the Shin Sangha - when people who make their living off of the dharma don’t care enough to write you back even one little email - or refer you to another, whether scholar, cleric or layperson -who could have been a true friend in the dharma to you when Amida Buddha was calling.
That sucks - pure and simple. The TRUE Shin Sangha should be ashamed.
Believe me, dharma friend - I have no fear of posting these exact words on the blog. They need to be spoken - bluntly - even as they are spoken with tears.
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Friend: Namu Amida Butsu.
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NamuAmidaButsu, dharma friend.
In spite of everything that apathetic so-called Shin leaders are NOT doing to return to the True Teaching of Shinran, our True Teacher - and everything they ARE doing to re-fashion the Shin Sangha to be a vehicle for their own divergent personal views - and the total lack of care and concern that at least several of them have shown for you who who came hungry and naked, with open heart and empty hand - Amida Buddha reaches out.
He reaches out past our ignorance, stupidity and apathy.
He reached out to me - and now He has reached out to you.
And by sharing Shinran’s True Teaching as best as we can - and our personal experience, whether good, bad or ugly - Amida Buddha reaches out to untold numbers of people in ways too mysterious for us to understand at this time.
The Person and Work of Amida Buddha. The mysterious power of His Primal Vow.
All made manifest…
- By the preaching and teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha in the Larger Pure Land Sutra
- By the Pure land Masters
- By Shinran the Master Teacher of this singular dharma for this age of dharma decline
- By Shinran’s plain spoken student Yuien-Bo, who lamented the divergences of his day with tears.
- By Rennyo the Restorer, who brought the Sangha back from the brink of extinction to AUTHENTIC growth of people filled with the same SHINJIN- not just growth in numbers
- By other True Teachers of Shinran’s True Teaching like Professor Eiken Kobai and Reverend George Gatenby
- By countless others we will never know, until we meet them in the Pure Land at the end of this - our last life as non-Buddhas
- And now by US.
NamuAmidaButsu -
Paul