Chapter 18.
The Nembutsu
What is an existential religion? I suggest one
definition be that it is a profound religion embracing and permeating
every facet of everyday life. The history of such a religion, and its
theology, reveals the gradual penetration of insight into every area.
The on going problems and questions of men and women at any time
(including our own), demand that one contemplate the relation of faith
to the activities of everyday life, not in a superficial, quieting,
ritualistic way, but in the most deeply honest, often painful, process
of awareness of self.
Applying such a definition to Buddhism, and
particularly to the Mahayana Pure Land development of Shin Buddhism and
the history of Nembutsu, we can discern a significant line of evolution
culminating in the thought of Shinran. It is an intriguingly open
question as to whether there might not yet be a further step to which
modern Shinshu will address itself.
The term Nembutsu derives from the Sanskrit term
buddhanusmrti, which has the meaning of "meditating on the
Buddha" or "recollecting the Buddha" or visualization
practices. It is this concept which lies behind the system of
meditations in the Meditation Sutra, and this practice which was in line
with the discipline of meditation that was the continuing legacy of
earliest Buddhism. Buddhanusmrti, "meditating on the Buddha,"
was the practice at the basis of Hui-yuan's White Lotus Society in
China, an attempt to achieve a visualization of the Buddha. Until the
Kamakura period in Japan, such Buddhist practices were elitist,
requiring the devotee to excel in virtue and ascetic commitment.
Buddhaghosa of the Pali tradition states:
"It should be developed by one who has taken his stand
on virtue that has been purified by means of the special qualities of
fewness of wishes, etc., and perfected by observance of the ascetic
practices." [1]
Among the meditation subjects which prepare the
individual for enlightenment, there are ten recollections of which the
first three relate to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. In the case of the
Buddha recollection, the meditator focuses on special qualities of the
Buddha. One result of this recollection is:
"He comes to feel as if he were living in the Master's
presence. And his body, when the recollection of the Buddha's special
qualities dwells in it, becomes as worthy of veneration as a shrine
room. His mind tends toward the plane of the Buddhas. When he encounters
an opportunity for transgression, he has awareness of conscience and
shame as vivid as though he were face to face with the Master. And if he
penetrates no higher, he is at least headed for a happy destiny."
[2]
Though this does not specifically indicate that a
visualization of the Buddha takes place from contemplation of his
special qualities, it is inferred in the system of 16 meditations of the
Pure Land "Meditation Sutra" and may be only a small step to the formation
of a total vision of the Buddha:
"But through the power of the Tathagata's vows
fulfilled in a previous life, those who keep the Buddha in mind will,
without fail, be able [to perceive his body]. Just by perceiving the
figure of the Buddha, one gains immeasurable merits; how much more so if
one perceives all the physical features of that Buddha." [3]
The text commends such meditation on the qualities of
Amitayus Buddha, the Buddha of Infinite Life and Light:
"The Buddha of Immeasurable life has eighty-four
thousand prominent features; each feature has eighty-four thousand
secondary attributes; each secondary attribute sends forth eighty-four
thousand rays of light; each ray of light shines out over the worlds of
the ten quarters; and those sentient beings who are mindful of the
buddha are embraced [by that light], never to be abandoned.
"No words can fully describe the lights, the prominent
features, the secondary attributes, and the miraculously created buddhas,
but by concentrating your thoughts [on these things], you can see them
with the mind's eye. For to see these things is to see all the buddhas
of the ten quarters. because you see these buddhas, it is called the
mindfulness-of-the-buddha-samadhi." [4]
Such meditation is recommended to people like Queen
Vaidehi who, after Buddha's passing, required some assurance of a better
life. The text of the Meditation Sutra describes a system of grades of
beings and relates the practice of which each grade may be capable. To
the lowest being, it offers the recitation of the name of the Buddha --
especially to those who cannot, because they are in death throes, think
on the Buddha. In recommending this system, the Sutra states:
"Those who perform this samadhi will be able, in this
present life, to see the Buddha of Immeasurable Life and the two great
bodhisattvas. If a good man or a good woman but hears the name of the
Buddha and the names of the two bodhisattvas, the evil karma binding
that person to birth-and-death for immeasurable kalpas is eliminated.
How much more so if that person is mindful of the Buddha." [5]
Meditation was favored over recitation and regarded as
a higher practice for superior beings such as monks and nuns.
T'an-luan's (Donran) achievement in China was to establish that the mode
of recitation of the name of Buddha as prescribed for the lowest grade
of beings in the Meditation Sutra, fulfilled the principle of "easy
practice" that had been proposed by Nagarjuna and that the
recitation of the name had effectiveness because of the power in names
to evoke the reality they represented. Tao-cho (Doshaku) took up this
theme and transmitted it to Shan-tao (Zendo) who gave a most
comprehensive theoretical basis to the practice of recitation of the
name, and who restated the 18th Vow to read:
"As it is said in the Muryojukyo: 'If, when I
become Buddha, all beings are not reborn, as they recite my name even
down to ten voicings, may I not gain true enlightenment.'" [6]
Once the practice of recitation was established as a
possible alternative to the practice of meditation, rather than a low
grade practice available only to those unable to meditate or incapable
of doing so, it evolved to being regarded as the true practice for
defiled beings of the last or Mappo age, which the last approximately
fifteen hundred years have been presumed to be. Though the believer
might assist his process of salvation with other practices, recitation
of the name, or Nembutsu, was thought to be the most powerful for the
ordinary human being. In Japan, this utter reliance on the power of the Nembutsu
was developed by Honen, who taught that the Nembutsu is the
root of salvation and should not be diluted by auxiliary practices.
Honen, whom Shinran revered throughout his lifetime as his teacher,
developed the principle of senju Nembutsu -- the sole practice of Nembutsu.
Up to this point, the Nembutsu had had a horizontal
universality in comparison with the vertical universality of the elitist
Buddhist practices such as meditation. With Shinran, that universality
became neither horizontal nor vertical, but a practice of universality
itself with his assertion that Nembutsu was not merely an external
practice of a magical character, but the expression of an inner state of
being, a practice and an expression to which there were no barriers, no
discrimination, and no exclusivity. The power of Nembutsu turned, with
Shinran, from an outward to an inner focus, and indeed, from a practice
to what is described in chapter X of "Tannisho" by Yuienbo: "The master
Shinran said, in the Nembutsu no selfworking is true working -- it is
beyond description, explanation, and understanding." And in "Tannisho,"
chapter
VIII:
"The saying of Nembutsu is neither a religious practice
nor a good act. Since it is practiced without my calculation, it is
non-practice. Since it is also not a good created by my calculation, it
is 'non-good.' Since it is nothing but Other Power, completely
detached from Self power, it is neither a religious practice nor a good
act on the part of the practicer." [7]
Shinran interpreted the term Nen, "to
think," in the Nembutsu, to mean Faith:
"Nen (means) to believe the Vow of Tathagata
single-mindedly (literally, without two minds.)" [8]
In a very significant passage in the "Kyogyoshinsho,"
Shinran reveals this change in interpretation in a succinct statement:
"The Adamantine True Mind is called the True Faith. The
True Faith is necessarily accompanied by (the utterance of) the Name.
(The utterance of) The Name is not always accompanied by the Faith
endowed by the Vow-Power." [9]
Shinran thus made the Nembutsu an existential
condition, no longer a practice of recitation but an exclamation of
gratitude for the awareness deep in a believer's being of the Buddha's
embrace which never rejects. No longer is the Nembutsu one among many
practices. No longer is it merely for weak people. With Shinran, it
becomes a sign of faith, when it spontaneously arises at the very
thought-moment the absolute trust-worthiness of Amida's Vow is realized.
The Nembutsu becomes an expression of being, and otherwise has no
meaning except as the yearning repetition of the response to the
totality of Other Power in one who glimpses but has not yet yielded
himself to it and who still clings to attempts to use self power and
calculation, to suppose that life can go as one determines it must for
oneself.
The existential nature of the Nembutsu as a
spontaneous and natural expression of gratitude arising in one's heart
and mind is the essence of Shinshu. Shinran exalted the Nembutsu as
fundamentally the Great Practice in fulfillment of the 17th Vow.
Nembutsu has become not the vehicle for salvation, but the spontaneous
signal that one has realized through Amida's Vow that he is already
saved. The calling of the name in that simple moment is a response of
joy and gratitude. The lifelong recitation of Nembutsu, as practiced by
Shin Buddhists, is no longer a practice for acquiring merit, or
transferring merit, but is instead an expression of thanksgiving, of
appreciation for all that the Vow means in each person's life.
There is a transformation in meaning from a
"recitation of the name" to a response to the "name that
calls us," that calls each human being to awaken to the recognition
of his true and real self and to the web of interdependence that is life
for all beings. It might be said of Shin Buddhism, in modern terms, that
its foundation of living the Nembutsu can also be described as
existentialism without despair.
So, to return to the original question asked early in
this chapter -- whether there might yet be a further step which modern
Shinshu will take. I believe that to be an exciting possibility. In our
time, we may continue to build on the perspectives established by the
Pure Land teachers, by regarding the Nembutsu more comprehensively in
relation to our lives. It is universal in character. It is inward in
root. It must be comprehensive in expression. In Buddhism there has
traditionally been the trilogy of Body-Mouth-Mind which is used in
reference to Buddhist practices. In Shinshu, the compassion that
manifests itself in the Nembutsu must become the motivating force for
all of life, body-mind-mouth: what is done, what is thought, what is
said -- with the emphasis not on "saying Nembutsu" but on
"being Nembutsu." Or, perhaps, the emphasis should be on
"living the Nembutsu," as in a former slogan of Honpa
Hongwanji (Shin Buddhist) Mission of Hawaii.
Now and then, I hear individuals state that the
recitation of Nembutsu doesn't make any sense. It seems like mere words,
but they believe it is a prescribed practice that all believers in Pure
Land teaching should perform. However, Shinran has clearly shown that
there is no meaning in "just" saying Nembutsu, unless it has a
deeper root in one's being. I have also heard that some are concerned
that Shinshu does not have disciplines as, for example, does Zen. In
Shin Buddhism, one does not appear to have to do anything. But again,
what is at stake is not whether we do something or not, not whether we
have or do not have a discipline, but how deeply and comprehensively we
understand the power of the Vow, the total affirmation to which Nembutsu
is the response.
If our actions manifest the great compassion in all
the affairs of our lives, there is implied a great discipline. When
studying the Bodhisattva path, we see that as the perception of
compassion deepens, the Bodhisattva works harder in the learnings and
character he is developing. The point is, Bodhisattvas are not
egoistically oriented. Their labors are for others. Such a
transformation of ordinary life from egocentricity to becoming a part of
the Vow by living the Nembutsu is the option for modern Shinshu.
Relating Nembutsu to the activities of life prevents Shinran's teaching
from merely becoming a spiritual tranquilizer, or sentimental-emotional
religious pietism. It avoids the segmentation of religious existence as
something quite apart from ordinary everyday life, as something only
done in a temple or on Sundays and at funeral and memorial services.
The transformation and "practice" that
Shinshu points to are graphically illustrated in the lives of many
Nembutsu followers and particularly those designated as myokonin. We
will now turn to a study of these outstanding persons of faith.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. The term Nembutsu derives from the Sanskrit term
buddhanusmrti which means:
a) meditating on the Buddha b) calling the name of the
Buddha c) becoming a disciple of the Buddha
2. According to the "Meditation Sutra," for which of
the following groups was the practice of the recitation of the name of
the Buddha originally intended?
a) monks and nuns b) the lowest grade of beings c) well-educated people
3. Shinran regarded the Nembutsu as:
a) a religious practice b) a good act c) neither a
religious practice nor a good act
4. Which of the following statements is false?
a) Shinran made the Nembutsu an existential condition
c) with Shinran, the Nembutsu was no longer one practice among many c) Shinran regarded the
Nembutsu as a vehicle for salvation
Thought Questions
1. In chapter VIII of "Tannisho," it is written that
"the saying of Nembutsu is neither a religious practice nor a good
act." If it is neither of these two things, what is the Nembutsu,
according to Shinran?
2. Do you think the Nembutsu can become the foundation
of the life of the modern Shin Buddhist? In other words, is it possible
for people today to "live" the Nembutsu?
Bibliography
Bloom, Alfred: "Tannisho: Resource for Modern Living,"
pp. 63-64 Bloom, Alfred: "Shinran's Gospel of Pure Grace," pp.
7-25 Shigefuji, Shinei: "Nembutsu in Shinran and His
Teachers: A Comparison"
Notes
[1] Buddhaghosa, "Visuddhimagga," p. 84 [2] Ibid., p.
230 [3] Ryukoku University Translation, "The Sutra of
Contemplation on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life," p. 75 [4] Ibid., pp.
59-61 [5] Ibid., p. 113 [6]
Alfred Bloom, "Shinran's Gospel of Pure Grace," p. 15 [7] Taitetsu Unno translation, Buddhist Study Center
Publication Series Number One [8] "Shinshu Shogyozensho I," p.
617 [9] Ryukoku Translation Series, "Kyogyoshinsho," p.
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