Chapter 17.
The Expression of Faith, Joy, and Gratitude
The spiritual liberation offered in Shin teaching
manifests itself in a deep level of joy and gratitude. Clearly, however,
Shinshu is not in essence a sentimental faith whose appeal is to the
emotions. There is a starkness about Shinran's thought. Things we
normally might not perceive are illuminated by a new insight into
ourselves and life as it is. However, this starkness does not mean
Shinshu has no relation to sentiments, attitudes, and feelings.
Sentimentalism merely reacts to conditions. Moralism is apt to be
sterile and inhumane. Shinshu provides a balance between pure
sentimentalism and rationalistic moralism through the deep feelings of
joy and gratitude that are the accompaniment of faith, feelings that
permeate the individual who has made the leap into spiritual freedom.
In understanding the joy and gratitude in Shinshu, it
is important not to confuse these feelings with the situation in
contemporary religion where, for many people, the criterion for the
truth of a religious view that they hold is that it makes them happy.
There is a happiness cult today that claims satisfaction and contentment
as the primary qualities offered. We often hear it said, "It
satisfied me," "I am happy." Now we would not say that
such conditions, if they exist, are bad. It would be nice if all could
be happy. However, if that happiness and satisfaction are at the expense
of blinding oneself to the reality of suffering in the world and our own
relation or complicity with it, then it cannot be a true value. It is
egoistic.
Further, if the achievement of satisfaction and
contentment depends on social relations, we may say that it is a social
quality, but not truly religious. The inner qualities of religion must
produce community and bring people together, but study of the great
religious figures, particularly those that suffered persecution and
isolation in exile or even death, shows that these qualities were
founded in deep inner reality and were not dependent on external
circumstances. Thus the qualities which express the deepest aspects of
religious existence are not superficial qualities or values which can be
induced through a variety of manipulations by religious leaders. Rather,
they are states of being which arise from the individual's inner
awareness of his true self and its relation to the Reality which
undergirds all life.
In their deepest sense, the qualities of religious
existence are existential and, if we use a rather technical term, we
would say they are ontic -- in that they reflect the nature of one's
being. They reflect a deep transformation in the evaluation of life and
meaning within the person and are predicated on a commitment, a
reorientation, essentially a conversion of the person, a process which
Shinran speaks of as Turning through the Vows and which he describes as
being accomplished by the transcendence of the "crosswise
leap" (ocho). This is a technical term which Shinran employed from
the Sutras to refer to the immediacy of the moment of faith. It may be
compared to the sudden enlightenment that is emphasized in Zen
tradition. It symbolizes the absolute Other Power basis of deliverance
in Shin Buddhism.
We should understand, in relation to Shinran, that he
underwent a decisive conversion to which he testifies in his reflection
on his life with Honen. It appears in all the events that led up to his
meeting with Honen. His later determination to withstand all criticism
which his wife noted, and which he also asserted, indicate that
transforming commitment whereby he stood on his own being. Despite the
pressures and difficulties of his life, Shinran constantly expressed his
joy and gratitude at the salvation offered to him through Amida Buddha.
But in speaking thus of joy, we are not speaking of happiness! In the
modern situation, happiness is defined as the absence of problems and
difficulties. I know of no religion that speaks of happiness as the
highest attainment of life, but many speak of joy, which is a quality
that arises within the sufferings and problems of life. Joy is the
perception of truth within the experience of ambiguity and doubt.
However, in the early Theravada Buddhist tradition,
joy is merely a mental element which must ultimately be transcended.
Such an orientation derives from the initial emphasis in early Buddhism
that suffering results from our attachments through passion to the
things of the world. All feelings and emotions or sentiments which
reflect passion must be transcended and negated in order to be finally
liberated.
Buddhaghosa (a 430 C.E. translator of Sri Lankan
Buddhist texts to Pali) presents a detailed analysis of the forms of
happiness in his "Vissudhi-magga" (IV-94-101). They are elements in
stimulating the first jhana (meditation). As one proceeds through the
various stages of meditation, Buddhaghosa points out "the bliss, in
other words, the mental joy appears gross to him and in the fourth jhana
they are all transcended." (IV-181-189). It also is a quality which
arises from cultivation of virtue as described by Buddhaghosa in the
Path of Purity:
"Such virtues lead to non-remorse in the mind, to
gladdening, to happiness, to tranquility, to joy, to repetition, to
development, to cultivation, to embellishment, to the requisite (for
concentration), to the equipment (of concentration), to fulfillment, to
complete dispassion, to fading away, to cessation, to peace, to direct
knowledge, to enlightenment, to nibbana. [1]
In the fourth jhana, Buddhaghosa states:
"And at this point, 'With the abandoning of
pleasure and pain and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief
he enters upon and dwells in the fourth jhana...'" [2]
Mahayana tradition took up the themes of earlier
Buddhism, but drew out other nuances. All existence is seen to share the
Buddha nature and at the heart of existence is the urge to compassion.
All life is interdependent so that each assists the other in their
growth and development.
Through its deeper perception of the relation of all
beings, Mahayana opened new dimensions not evident in the earlier
teachings. Early Theravada appears stark, somber, severe in its quest of
enlightenment. Mahayana tradition had a laymen's perspective with some
awareness of the value of human relations. In this altered context,
where devotees work for the salvation of their fellow beings, the sense
of joy became a primary value. The Bodhisattva is depicted as entering
the stage of Joy in the early stages of his career. There is no
indication that he abandons that joy, but that in his deepening
perception of suffering, his heart of compassion expands to include all
within that joy. Har Dayal in his "The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist
Sanskrit Literature" (228-29) describes the quality of Sympathetic Joy (Mudita)
as follows:
"Mudita (sympathetic joy). This word has been variously
translated as 'appreciation,' die Mitfreude,' 'satisfaction,' 'joy,'
'delightfulness,' 'happiness in the happiness of all,' 'das
Freudgeschaftsfuhl,' etc. E. Senart suggests that this may be a Prakrt
form of mrduta (gentleness, softness). But this feeling is said to be
directed towards virtuous and righteous persons (puny-atmakesu). Its
chief characteristics are joy, faith, and freedom from despondency,
craving, jealousy, insincerity and hostility. It is associated with the
alertness of all the faculties.
The Dasabhumika-Sutra is said to have the most systematic presentation
of the stages. The first stage here is also called joyful. According to
the interpretation of the Mahayana Sutra-lamkara, the term indicates
that a bodhisattva feels keen delight (moda) when he knows that he will
soon attain bodhi and promote the good of all beings. This stage is
entered when the devotee attains the "thought of
enlightenment."
What is noticeable in these descriptions is that joy
relates to the mission of the Bodhisattva and his awareness of the
truth. It is the ground on which all his other activities and progress
depends. In such a context, joy does not mean a superficial happiness in
the absence of problems, but is a stimulating and motivating factor for
facing problems. Joy is the confidence of the Bodhisattva that he has
entered into the truth.
The basis for Shinran's emphasis on the joyful
elements in faith goes back to the passage on the fulfillment of the
18th Vow which sees both faith and joy as a result of Amida's transfer
of merit:
"If all sentient beings, hearing the Name and having
joy in Faith even once -- through the Buddha's sincere endowment --
desire to be born in His Land, they can instantaneously obtain Birth and
dwell in the Non-Retrogressive State -- excepted are those who have
committed the five deadly sins and abused the Right Dharma." [5]
The simultaneity of faith and joy is also reflected in
the term for faith: shingyo, which means "faith and joy"
(Joyous faith). In this instance Shinran states:
"With regard to 'Shingyo,' 'shin' means true, real,
sincere, full, utmost, accomplished, function, heavy, discerning, test,
expounding, and loyal; 'gyo' means desire, aspiration, appreciation,
rejoicing, delight, joy, gladness and happiness." [6]
In a wasan, Shinran exclaimed:
"Birth is certainly determined." [7]
He notes elsewhere:
"Those who have received the True Practice and Faith
have much joy in their minds; hence, this stage is called the stage of
Joy." [8]
And, further:
"If ever Pure Faith is obtained, it will not be
perverted or vain. Hence, the sentient beings with extremely deep and
heavy sins attain the Great Joy and receive the great love of all the
holy ones." [9]
In this identification Shinran reveals that Joy is not
a purely sentimental reaction, for he declares:
"Shingyo is the mind full of truth and sincerity, the
mind of utmost trust and reverence, the mind of clear perception (of
Amida's salvation) and steadfastness, the mind of aspiration and
appreciation, and the mind of joy and delight; hence, it is not mixed
with doubt." [10]
The conversional, transforming aspect of the arising
of faith and joy appears in the discussion of the One Mind where Shinran
discusses the character of the Adamantine Mind and the principle of
Crosswise transcendence, which all point back to Amida's gift:
"As I contemplate the True Serene Faith, there is one
thought in the Serene Faith. 'One Thought' reveals the moment of the
first thought of the awakened Serene Faith and it expresses the great
and inconceivable Joyful Mind." [11]
He says:
"The One Mind is the true cause for (Birth in) the Pure
Recompensed Land." [12]
And he identifies all these traits:
"The True One Mind is the Great Joyful Mind. The Great
Joyful Mind is the True Faith. The True Faith is the Adamantine Mind.
The Adamantine Mind is the Mind Aspiring for Buddhahood." [13]
Shinran roots the mental and spiritual quality of joy
not merely in emotional response but in the very foundation of reality
as the expression of Buddha's compassion in the roots of our being. This
joy that was so much a part of Shinran's conception of faith was not a
theoretical formulation, or a result of the relation of terms in a
verbal statement of scripture. It was, rather, a joy of such deep and
pervasive nature that the scriptural passages became a vehicle for him
to articulate what he had experienced as an essential element of his own
existence, and it was in this way that he declared:
"What a joy it is that I place my mind in the soil of
the Buddha's Universal Vow and I let my thoughts flow into the sea of
the Inconceivable Dharma. I deeply acknowledge the Tathagata's
Compassion and sincerely appreciate the masters' benevolence in
instructing me. As my joy increases my feeling of indebtedness grows
deeper. Hereupon I have collected the essentials of the True Teaching
and have gleaned the important passages of Pure Land Buddhism. I only
think of the Buddha's deep Benevolence and do not care about people's
abuse." [14]
For Shinran, this perception of joy and gratitude does
not mean the reduction of tension in life resulting from an individual's
awareness of one's own imperfection as a barrier to the goal of one's
aspirations. It is a joy of an entirely different nature from the
illusory ideal of perfect happiness often found in religious faith.
Shinran acknowledges his deep awareness of his own imperfection, and the
unbridgeable gap between his own self power -- the human condition --
and the goal of becoming one with the Buddha mind of compassion, wisdom,
and the indescribable light of enlightenment.
The Vow of Amida, the
Buddha of Infinite Light and Life, that his compassion embraces each and
every one as he or she is, and that this compassion itself will become
the vehicle to enlightenment for all beings, gives Shinran a faith that
is, at the very moment of its experience in life, a salvation, an
acceptance of the limits of one's human nature and the limitlessness of
Amida's compassion which grasps never to abandon. It is this perception
that is at the root of Shinran's gratitude and joy. Joy exists despite
the imperfection one finds in himself. In his sensitivity to this
experience of the range of suffering, disappointment, and self-deception
in life, Shinran affirms: "Grieve not that ye lack wisdom bright!
He is the torch for eternal gloom. Wail not for sins, for his bark will
take ye across the flood of doom."
In a deep exclamation of his joy and gratitude,
Shinran declares that he feels the work of Amida to have been done for
himself alone. This should not be understood to have been said in a
selfish way, but rather in relation to the acute personal sense of
identity that comes with the awareness of being grasped by the
compassion which lies behind the story of Amida. Shinran's is a joy and
gratitude that penetrates his being, but at the same time, with
existential honesty, he says of himself:
"Truly I know. Sad is it that I, Gutoku Ran, sunk in
the vast sea of lust and lost in the great mountain of desire for fame
and profit, do not rejoice in joining the group of the Rightly
Established State, nor do I enjoy coming near to the True
Enlightenment." [15]
In Chapter IX, "Tannisho," Yuienbo reports Shinran's
sharing this feeling and empathizing with him when Yuienbo asks Shinran
about his inability to rejoice at that which should fill him with joy.
"Impossible is it to leave this old home of agitations where we
have wandered aimlessly since beginningless aeons ago, nor do we long
for the Buddha Land of peace which we have yet to experience -- all due
to blind passion so truly powerful and overwhelming. But no matter how
reluctant we may be, when our life in this world ends, beyond our
control, then for the first time we go to the land of fulfillment. And
those who do not want to go immediately are the special concern of true
compassion. For this very reason the vow of true compassion is
completely dependable; and our birth in the Buddha Land is absolutely
certain. If our hearts were filled with joy and happiness and we desired
to go swiftly to the Buddha Land, we might be led to suspect that blind
passion no longer existed."
To rephrase Shinran's perceptions into our
contemporary mode of expression, we might say that in the midst of his
own self-centered cravings, foolishness, and ignorance, in the face of
the depth of unknown potential for evil in his conscious and unconscious
minds, and in the environment of the disrupted and corrupt world of his
time, Shinran discovered there was a joy in living which gave deep
significance and meaning to his life. Within the depths of his own being
was the fundamental life-promoting force which moves beyond our evils,
beyond our incapacity for good or our unwillingness to do so, beyond our
self- deception and arrogance.
As some psychologists suggest, there are
those who are moved by the death wish and those by life. The people who
are moved by wonder at the power of life place themselves at the
disposal of life and dedicate themselves to enhancing the lives of
others. Such persons, enhancing life, find their own lives fulfilled in
the deep joy of living. It is this life affirmation, this absolute
yielding of himself to the disposal of life of Amida, that is, the
"heart of truth" in Shinran's thought, the "shinjin"
that is the perception-altering moment of faith in Shin Buddhism. Of
such is the element of joy and gratitude in Shinshu.
In the quest for truth, the deepest level of sentiment
should be pursued. Religion is always more than emotion and feeling. It
must be rooted in perception of truth. Shinran's thought eloquently
reinforces that perspective. Because of Buddhism's rigor in discipline
and its association with funerals and afterlife, it is rarely perceived
as a religion of joyfulness. Many Christian religious groups try to
discover the basis for celebrating life even within the midst of a dark
world. Buddhism also has reason to celebrate life, and to affirm it with
joy and gratitude at awakening to the sources of meaningful existence,
the absolute certainty of our acceptance, just as we are, by that which
we respond to and recognize as true, real, and sincere. The institutions
of Shin Buddhism rarely provide ways to express this Buddhist joy,
either in worship or in forms of social community. I believe this is an
area that deserves exploration and study. Joy in living (or life
affirmation) and gratitude even for the very simple fact we have been
given the gift of life, establishes a foundation of ethical existence
that, in Shinshu, goes beyond moralism and egoism to a profound
existential and spiritual level. Like joy, gratitude gives structure to
the Shin way of life.
The realization of joy which is grounded in Amida's
unconditional embrace which never abandons us gives rise to the response
of gratitude which establishes the foundation of Shin Buddhist ethical
existence. Shinran's teaching rejects the traditional mainstays for
controlling behavior either through threats of punishment or lures of
reward through performances of socially-approved actions.
When traditional behavior control mechanisms are
removed, what style of life emerges for believers? The ordinary person
generally conceives religion to be strictly moralistic, concerned only
with doing good deeds and avoiding bad ones in order to win salvation.
For such a person, religion is like a commercial transaction, based on
fear. But with Shinran, all such appeals have been set aside. No
transaction is urged or recommended. On the enormously difficult
"easy path," the only basis of religious action for Shinran is
the expression of gratitude. He asserts:
"Only by constantly reciting the Tathagata's name can
we repay the grace of the Vow of great compassion." [16]
And:
"Though our bodies are (ground) to powder.
The grace of the masters and teachers also we must repay,
Though our bones be crushed." [17]
In a more personal and perhaps intimate way he
declared:
"When I consider well the Vow upon which Amida thought
for five aeons (I reflect) it was for me, Shinran, alone. O how grateful
I am for the Original Vow which aspired to save one who possesses such
evil karma." [18]
As, at the end of the "Kyogyoshinsho," he reflected on
his faith and its source, he wrote:
"What a joy it is that I place my mind on the soil of
the Buddha's Universal Vow, and I let my thoughts float on the sea of
the Inconceivable Dharma. I deeply acknowledge the Tathagata's
Compassion and I sincerely appreciate the Master's benevolence. As my
joy increases, my feeling of indebtedness grows deeper. [19]
Such was the centrality of the theme of gratitude in
Shinran's religious life, a theme stressed in succeeding teachers to the
degree that it is still a centrality in Shinshu life. Of course, Shinshu
is not unique in its expression of gratitude. Other and earlier Buddhist
teachers stressed this element, and it was a major component in
Confucian thought as well. The important new aspect of this expression
in the case of Shinshu is that for Shinran, gratitude becomes the
central expression and indeed the main function of the religious life --
displacing utilitarianism, magic, legalism, and the expectation of
egoistic benefits from religion.
Shinran's stress on gratitude and its centrality and
function, leads beyond the simple practice of recitation of the Name (Nembutsu)
to affect other areas of life and become the basis of a quite new
approach in ethical orientation and human relations. Shinran cautions
his followers against defaming the gods and Buddhas from whom we have
received benefits:
"Through the long ages we were exhorted to the Way by
all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and we are now blessed with meeting the Vow
of Amita Buddha. Should we forget all that we owe and speak ill of all
Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, this will be to forget the great
obligation." [20]
For Shinran, the awareness of gratitude, our
indebtedness to Buddha, directly affects our attitude to the world about
us. Had he expressed himself in a specific detailing of rights to be
cultivated and wrongs to be avoided, his system would have ended in the
kind of legalism that he had escaped. He gives no clear definition of
right and wrong. Rather, Shinran's ethical orientation aims instead at
the formation of positive attitudes toward people and situations based
on a deep sense of gratitude. This sense of gratitude is grounded in the
awareness of one's own potential for evil and the boundlessness of
Amida's compassion which embraces good and evil without discrimination.
This is not to say that Shinran's is an ethic that
tolerates and condones bad acts, but neither does he condemn. Knowing
one's human condition and the inescapable capacity for evil that is the
karmic burden of all humanity, the gratitude that overwhelms the mind
and heart at becoming aware of and embraced by Amida's Vow stimulates
positive and affirming actions. In Shinshu, one stands in awe of
oneself, and aware of one's capacity for anything programmed by one's
karma, strives on the moral level to guide one's thoughts, words, and
actions in a positive. Shinran asks his followers not to nourish hatred
to those who oppose them but to have sympathy and compassion for them:
"Those who live in the Nembutsu should have pity on and
sympathy with those who work out troubles." [21]
And Shinran also wrote:
"Please always say the Nembutsu with the sincerest
heart and pray, to the end of this life and to the extent of the life to
come, for the good of all those who speak ill of the Nembutsu ... If
you but pray for the good of all those wrongly-led persons, telling them
to enter the Way of the Vow of Amita Buddha, you will be repaying what
you owe the Buddha." [22]
Though history records that in one instance, in order
to meet a severe problem in his fellowship, Shinran set down a list of
ethical specifics, it would have been inconsistent of him to do so in
his general approach to Buddhism since he maintained that passion-ridden
beings are unable to keep any such precepts and regulations. Led by
their karma, human beings fall into evil acts and understanding this,
Shinran perceived that rules do not prevent evil. Using modern terms, we
might say that Shinran desired to work at a deeper level of the psyche,
advocating an ethic of transformation rather than the usual religious
ethic of prescription and enforcement. Thus his was an inner rather than
an external ethic, and the clue to this approach comes from Chapter VI,
"Tannisho," where Yuienbo takes up the problem of repentance for evil
deeds. Repentance for evil deeds, as if our salvation depended on it,
implies that only a good person can be saved. Rejecting this self-power
view, Yuienbo writes:
"When our faith is firmly established, our Rebirth in
the Pure Land is to be attained through the Wisdom of Amida -- our own
discretion can be of no avail whatsoever in this regard. By reason of
the "nature" (of the Vow), a feeling of mildness and patience
is naturally developed in our mind, when becoming conscious of our sins,
since we rely devoutly on the power of the Vow. Casting aside all our
own cleverness as to Rebirth, we have to remember the great Blessing of
Amida Buddha with piety and thankfulness. And then naturally we shall
come to recite the Nembutsu -- this also due to the "Nature"
(of the Vow). By this Naturalness it is meant that the Vow works itself
in our mind, unbiased by our idea or discretion... [23]
Here we may note that a by-product of the experience
of Nembutsu is mildness and patience, and that the Nembutsu works in our
minds in an unbiased, undiscriminating, spontaneous way, without design
or calculation on our part. Yuienbo describes the Shin Buddhist ethic of
transformation, the process of acceptance of one's limited
self-awareness of sin, and an assimilation to a positive ideal (Amida's
Compassion) which constantly places itself before our consciousness.
This approach has profound psychological and religious significance,
suggested by methods of behavior modification:
The therapist can intervene most effectively by
concentrating on what the client wants to establish, rather than on what
he must eliminate, by looking at the positive rather than the
negative.24
While there is a difference between a therapeutical
mental health situation and a religious approach, there are similarities
in enabling the individual to surmount his limitations to reach a deeper
satisfaction with himself and life, a depth which can be the basis for
inner strength and positive human relations. What is needed for youth
and society today is not a society of repression or law and order, but a
society with positive ideals in the process of fulfillment, a process
which offers its participants a deep sense of life affirmation and
worthwhileness. It is such a process that is Shin Buddhism.
Shinran's concepts of Joy and Gratitude lay the basis
for a true Buddhist ego-less existence. Buddhism has had as its goal the
experience of non-ego, a state in which we reflect on the nature of
things seen not as our delusory senses wish to perceive them, but as
they really are. To reach this goal, Buddhism had long pursued the
self-power path of sages, as Shinran called it. (A label which had in it
no aura of condemnation or discrimination but simply an acknowledgement
that this way, which may have worked for others, was a way along which
he had encountered absolute failure). The Buddhist tradition has a long
history of attempts to purify the passions and meditate on the Void in
order to realize for oneself the emptiness of things and self. Shinran
perceived that this was not the true way because, paradoxically, the
attempt to obliterate the ego and reduce it to nothing ends by
increasing and strengthening it. In the self-power approach, the ego
becomes more subtle in its pursuit of fame and power. It is a
psychological fact that the more one tries to not do something, the more
likely one is to do it.
Shinran recognized the reality and strength of ego,
but in recognizing the power of compassion to embrace such ego, or in
other words, by acknowledging the absolute bondage of himself to his
human condition, and becoming aware of his own helplessness in effecting
the goal he sought, limitless spiritual freedom became his. Moreover,
the transformation of faith in the Other Power of the Vow replaced the
illusion of ego-power with a sense of gratitude which opens oneself to
perception not only of debt to Buddha but to all who support one's life.
In this way, in Shin Buddhism, the theory of interdependence transforms
from an abstraction to the experience of gratitude as the basic mode of
our existence. Shinran was a realist who showed subtlety in his view,
attempting to rule out of religious life any competitive element that
would give us a chance to measure our goodness against others. The
religious community of Shinshu is one linked in a deep way by their
sharing of an individual commitment to this process, to the Nembutsu as
total existence, to Other Power as the vehicle that takes us beyond the
limits of our greedy, ignorant, grasping, and foolish selves into the
embrace of Reality -- not as we like to see it, but as it is.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of the following word pairs best describes
the nature of religious existence in its deepest sense?
a) satisfaction/contentment b) happiness/peace of mind
c) transformation/joy
2. Which of the following statements does not describe
what "joy" is in the religious sense of the word?
a) happiness in the absence of problems b) the perception of truth within the experience of ambiguity
and doubt c) a quality that arises within the sufferings and problems of
life
3. Shinran uses the word "shingyo" to
indicate the simultaneous relationship between:
a) happiness and peace of mind b) sincerity and
gratitude c) faith and joy
4. Which of the following statements best describes
Shinran's perception of joy? It:
a) increases as a person strives for perfection b) exists despite the imperfection one finds in
oneself c) is a result of the solving of everyday problems
5. In which of the following is the foundation of Shin
Buddhist ethical existence grounded?
a) a strict code of ethics and morals b) reward for the performance of good
deeds c) gratitude for Amida's compassion
6. At one point Shinran declared that the work of
Amida was done for himself alone. In making such a declaration Shinran
was:
a) showing us his arrogance and pride b) indicating the acute sense of personal identity in Amida's
embrace c) demonstrating his self-centeredness
7. Which of the following statements regarding
Shinran's ethical orientation is true?
a) positive attitudes arise from a person's sense of
gratitude toward Amida b) clear definitions of right and wrong are necessary for a religious
life c) because humans are essentially evil in nature, bad acts should be
tolerated
8. Although the Buddhist tradition has a long history
of attempts to purify passions and meditate on the Void, Shinran
perceived that this was not the true way because:
a) this type of practice required too much of a
commitment
b) passions can never be purified and the Void never experienced
c) any attempt to obliterate the ego results is a strengthening of it
Thought Questions
1. In Jodo Shinshu what is the connection between
faith, joy, and gratitude?
2. What is the difference between
"happiness" in the modern sense of the word and
"joy" in the religious sense?
3. In expressing the joy he experienced, Shinran
wrote: "As my joy increases my feeling of indebtedness grows
deeper." To whom did Shinran feel indebted? And why? What effect do
you think this feeling of indebtedness had on Shinran's relationship
with others?
4. The author notes that the institutions of Shin
Buddhism rarely provide ways to express joy, gratitude, and the
affirmation of life, either in worship or in forms of social community.
Do you agree? Disagree? What has been your own experience in regard to
this? What means do you think the institutions (temples) could provide
for the creative and spontaneous expression of such joy and gratitude?
5. For the ordinary person religion is frequently
thought of as being strictly moralistic -- that is, it encourages the
performance of good deeds and the avoidance of bad ones in order to
attain salvation. Shinran's view of religion was very different. How was
his approach different?
6. How can the Shin Buddhist ethic of transformation
as described by Yuienbo be applied to the psychological problems faced
by people today?
Bibliography
Bloom, Alfred: "Shinran's Gospel of Pure Grace," pp.
73-74 Suzuki, DT: "Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist," pp.
143-211
Notes
[1] Buddhagosa, "Path of Purity," I, 140 [2] Buddhagosa,
"Vissudhi-magga,' IV, 183-84 [3] Har Dayal,
"The Bodhisattva Doctrine," 276 [4] Ibid.,
279 [5] Ryukoku Translation Series, "Kyogyoshinsho," p.
90 [6] Ibid., p. 102 [7] Ryukoku Translation Series IV,
"Jodowasan," p. 26 [8] Ryukoku Translation Series,
"Kyogyoshinsho," p. 54 [9] Ibid., p.
89 [10] Ibid., p. 103 [11] Ibid., p.
118 [12] Ibid., p. 119 [13] Ibid., p.
123 [14] Ibid., p. 211 [15] Ibid., p.
132 [16] "Shinshu Shogyozensho II," p.
44 [17] Ibid., p. 523 [18] Ibid., p.
792 [19] Ryukoku Translation Series V, "Kyogyoshinsho," p.
211 [20] Yamamoto, "The Private Letters of Shinran," p.
63 [21] Ibid., p. 65 [22] Ibid., pp.
73-74 [23] Ryukyo Fujimoto trans., "Buddhism and Jodo
Shinshu,"
p. 229 [24] "Psychology Today," November 1973, p.
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