Eiken Kobai: The World of Certainty
I commend Professor Eiken Kobai to anyone who is interested in The True Teaching of Shinran Shonin. My dharma friend George Gatenby said, after I pointed him to these two volumes which have been translated into English, that he believes Eiken is the pre-eminent scholar of the Nishi Hongwanji branch of the Shin Sangha.
I can tell you Eiken Kobai’s burden and mission, because it comes off of every single page of the books he writes. It is the same as the burden and mission of our Dharma Master Shinran - and his true heir Rennyo.
It is the burden and mission of helping others who are sincere seekers of full awakening to find “the world of certainty of birth in the Pure Land”.
Meeting Eiken Kobai, first through his books, and then through a personal friendship enabled by the internet, has been one of the most important karmic events of my life on this earth. When I was floundering and being misled by others, his clear voice gave me the True Teaching that I so needed to hear.
Here is a passage from his second book, Misunderstandings of Master Rennyo. You can see how EASY this teaching is to understand - unlike so much of the gobbledygook that is being passed off as “new and improved” Shin Dharma by modernist teachers today. That’s why Shinran and Rennyo could explain it to village idiots in medieval Japan - and that’s why Eiken Kobai could explain it to me.
I am grateful beyond words for Amida’s gift - and for Amida’s sending me a True Teacher in Eiken Kobai to clear away the confusion and doubt others were sowing in my troubled mind. Truly Shinran was right when he declared that “because of others our faith is destroyed”.
NamuAmidaButsu -
Paul R.
THE WORLD OF “CERTAINTY OF BIRTH IN THE PURE LAND IS CERTAINTY OF SALVATION”
The “Creed” written by Master Rennyo begins with the following words:
Casting aside all auxiliary/mixed practices and the mind of self-centered effort with singleness of mind/heart, I rely upon Amida Tathagata for enlightenment in the life to come.
I believe that at the moment of entrustment, my birth in the Pure Land is absolutely assured. Any Nembutsu recited thereafter only expresses gratitude to Amida…
These words express giving up all “auxiliary/mixed practices” performed through “self-centered effort” (jiriki) and also reciting the Nembutsu through that same sort of endeavor in an attempt to be born in the Pure Land. It expresses leaving “that matter of greatest importance” completely up to Amida Buddha.
The moment we leave everything up to Amida Buddha, our birth in his Pure Land is assured. Because of absolute confidence in the Buddha’s ability to cause our “salvation,” any recitation of the Nembutsu after that moment is just an expression of joy and gratitude for our indebtedness to the Buddha.
I believe the expression, “at the moment of entrustment, birth in the Pure Land is absolutely assured,” is extremely important. The moment we leave it all up to the workings of Amida Buddha, we dwell in the “‘group of those assured (of birth in the Pure Land)’ in our ‘present life’” and the conviction that our “birth in the Pure Land is settled” arises and we dwell in a state of complete assurance. And as expressed, “any Nembutsu recited thereafter only expresses gratitude to Amida…,” the Nembutsu (Namo Amida Butsu) that we recite in that realm of assurance is a recitation of gratitude for our indebtedness.
Incidentally, Letter 10, Fascle V, of “Honorable Letters,” which is familiar to all followers of Jodo-Shinshu because it simply and concisely expresses the Venerable Master Shinran’s teaching, contains the passage:
What is taught by the Venerable Master (Shinran) and in his school is that shinjin is fundamental. The reason we do so is because our birth (in the Pure Land) is assured when we discard performing auxiliary/mixed practices and single-heartedly take refuge in Amida because of the “marvelously mysterious” working of his Vow. This state is expressed as “awakening the one thought-moment (of entrusting), and joining the group of those assured (of birth in the Pure Land).” Reciting the Name of the Buddha (saying “Namo Amida Butsu”) should therefore be understood as expressing gratitude to the Tathagata for having established the conditions for our birth (in the Pure Land).
As expressed above, we are urged to join the “‘group of those assured (of birth in the Pure Land)’ in our ‘present life’” through the same “settled shinjin” expressed the “Creed”, and recite the Buddha’s Name in gratitude.
That is what, more than anything, Master Rennyo wanted for us - that we become persons with true and real shinjin, persons whose “karma (for being born in the Pure Land) is determined in everyday life”. In other words, he wished us to be included in the “‘group of those assured (of birth in the Pure Land)’ in our ‘present life.’”
As indicated above, what both the Venerable Master Shinran and Master Rennyo urged was that we become persons with “settled shinjin” and join the “‘group of those assured (of birth in the Pure Land)’ in our ‘present life’” so that we will become Buddhas in the Pure Land. Both masters are in complete agreement on this.
In his “Teaching, Practice, Faith and Attainment,” the Venerable Master Shinran expressed the joy of those in the “‘group of those assured’ in our ‘present life,’” in the following words:
How joyous I am! My heart and mind are rooted in the Buddha-ground of the Universal Vow, and my thoughts and feelings flow within the dharma-ocean, which is absolutely beyond logical comprehension! Profoundly aware of the Tathagata’s immense compassion, I am deeply indebted for my masters’ teaching. My joy grows ever fuller, and my gratitude and indebtedness ever heavier.
As related previously, in the part of the “Hymn of True Faith” related to Queen Idaika;, the Venerable Master expressed his feeling of shinjin using the term “joy”:
In accord with the one thought-moment of joy,
They acquire the “three-fold insight”
And reveal the eternal bliss of dharma-nature Just as (Queen) Idaika did.
In Letter 4 of Fascle IV, Master Rennyo wrote:
I have heard that this is precisely what is meant by “karma (for being born in the Pure Land) is determined in everyday life.” This teaching of “settled shinjin” continues to resound in my ears even now. How grateful I am-and how inadequate it is to say only that.
And so, overwhelmed and thankful for Amida Tathagata’s Primal Vow of “Buddha-centered power,” I will express in a poem what I wrote above, freely giving way to what rises to my lips:
The mind that relies on Amida even once…
That mind is in accord with true dharma.
Burdened with evil karma and relying solely On the Tathagata,
The power of the dharma carries me To the (Pure Land in the) West.When our minds are settled on the path Of hearing the Dharma, Simply say, “Namo Amida Butsu.”
In these passages, Master Rennyo expresses the joy of experiencing the “karma for being born in the Pure Land) determined during everyday life” (being in the “‘group of those assured’ in our ‘present life’”) poetically.
As indicated in Chapter One, I believe those who criticize Master Rennyo for distorting the teachings of the Venerable Master Shinran are those who have absolutely no awareness of the world of joy such as expressed by Master Rennyo above.
Such people have no awarenss of what both the Venerable Master Shinran and Master Rennyo experienced and wished to pass on to us. As in the traditional saying, “Realizing indebtedness to our parents only after having children of our own,” only when we have children of our own do we realize how indebted we are to our parents. Similarly, as expressed by the Venerable Master Shinran:
By entering the wisdom of shinjin
We become able to respond in gratitude
To the Buddhas’ benevolence
(from “Hymns of the Three Periods)
Only when we receive “settled shinjin” do we truly realize the world of being in the “‘group of those assured (of birth in the Pure Land)’ in the ‘present life.’” That is what people who criticize Master Rennyo lack. Stating it even more frankly, they are persons whose shinjin is not yet settled.
In Master Rennyo’s language, they are “those whose shinjin is not yet settled”, “those lacking shinjin” and “in whom anjin is yet to be realized”.