Mrs. Kinji Kanazawa, the former Shimeji Ryusaki, has generously endowed
this New Century publication of Buddhist Study Center Press as a memorial
to her late parents, Torazo and Saki Ryusaki of Kamuela, Hawaii whose Jodo
Shinshu faith sustained their long and productive lives. As issei pioneers
in that Big Island community, they were among the founders of Kamuela
Hongwanji.
The word sutra originally meant 'thread' so that literally, today, a
sutra is the thread that ties the teachings of the Buddha into our lives.
The historical Buddha, Sakyamuni, who lived in northern India more than
2,500 years ago gave many teachings, hundreds of which were repeated,
handed down, and later written by his followers as either Sanskrit or Pali.
Each sutra traditionally begins with "Thus have I heard" and
does not claim to give anything like the exact words of the Buddha, but to
convey the teachings as his listeners heard and understood them.
As Buddhism spread from India to Southeast Asia, and later to Central
Asia, China, Korea, and Japan, the sutras were translated -- not word by
word but teaching by teaching, with imagery suited to the new language,
the new culture, and changing times. Buddhism originally came to Japan
from Korea, but Japanese Buddhist monks for many centuries also made
voyages to China to copy sutras and commentaries, and to study under
Chinese masters.
Shinran, whose profound spiritual insights are the basis of Shin
Buddhism, based his teaching on Sakyamuni's teaching of the nembutsu in
the Pure Land and the Nirvana sutras. He traced his nembutsu lineage on
from Sakyamuni to the great Indian masters Nagarjuna and Vasubandhu, then
on through the writings of the Chinese masters Tao Ch'o, T'an Luan, and
Shan Tao to the Japanese Pureland master Genshin to Shinran's own beloved
'nembutsu only' teacher, Honen.
Shinran's account of his nembutsu way, and his indebtedness to the
writings of these great teachers of the past, is powerfully presented in
his Shoshinge, Hymn of the True Nembutsu, which is a bridge between his
chapters on Shin (entrusting) and Sho (enlightenment) in his six-chapter
masterpiece Kyo-Gyo-Shin-Sho. This collection of passages and Shinran's
commentaries on them, is the major resource for understanding Shinran's
teaching. In most Shin temples, Shoshinge is chanted as a sutra each
morning.
During the first century of Shin Buddhism taking root in Hawaii and
other western, English-speaking areas, Shoshinge, like Sanbutsuge and
Juseige, continued to be chanted in Sino-Japanese. Although Shoshinge is
not in the strict sense a sutra, it can be considered a Shin sutra for it
expresses the heart and spiritual lineage of Shinran's 'true nembutsu
way,'
Jodo Shinshu or Shin Buddhism.
For issei and nisei, the Japanese of Shoshinge and the Sino-Japanese of
Juseige and Sanbutsuge presented no problem of comprehension. But as
Shinshu begins its second century in the west, and expands to a
cosmopolitan sangha, the magnificent meaning conveyed by these sutras is
lost to many who enjoy the deeply satisfying rhythm of the traditions'
chants but have little or no idea of the timeless relevance and
existential depth these sutras can weave into ones life.
English is not an easily chanted language. It does, however, have its own
very different and powerful rhythms. Many, like Shinshu follower George
Gatenby of Australia, and ministerial aspirant Midori Kondo of Hilo, have
come to prefer using the English transmissions here presented.
Shinshu is a personal experience, an individual discovery, encounter,
and commitment that transforms one's life. Ritual, to be meaningful, must
be understood or it becomes an empty set of habits. This small book is
designed to convey the richness of Shin sutras to sansei, yonsei and gosei
(third, fourth, fifth generation youth) who are not familiar with Chinese
or Japanese, and to introduce the living thread of Shinshu as expressed in
these three sutras to the broad range of other races and ethnic groups who
are increasingly drawn to the great natural way of Shinran 's nembutsu
path.
A dharma tape of these three sutras in English is also available from
Buddhist Study Center Press.
-- Ruth Tabrah Editor, BSC Press
Shinran says, "A Buddha is an empathetic person who experiences his
(or her) oneness with everyone he (or she) meets, and a person of wisdom who
experiences one-ness with the timeless cosmic reality we know as Amida
Buddha."
Having had these two experiences, the Buddha is capable of teaching us
to find those experiences also, in order that we may become Buddhas like
him (or her). Shinshu, which is Shinran's Buddhist discipline, teaches
that we ourselves are responsible for the realization of the Buddhahood
which is our universal endowment through the timeless, ongoing fulfillment
of Amida Buddha's Primal Vow.
We must see, feel, and deeply understand Shinshu to carry out that
responsibility. We must see, feel and become deeply aware of the dynamic,
transforming power of the Primal Vow, which assures universal
enlightenment to all.
No matter who we are, young or old, male or female, rich or poor.
Buddhist or non-Buddhist, we are all Shinshuists because we all seek to
experience what is true and real. We live to become Buddhas, fully
awakened, supremely enlightened ones.
We wrongly assume we can achieve this without changing our present
interests and habits, without opening ourselves to inner change. We should
ask ourselves whether we want to settle for a human existence in which
discrimination, bigotry and ignorance abound, where hate, racism, sexism
and selfishness flourish, where we live as if we believe that we will
never die.
OR, whether, instead, we would rather feel an all-embracing love and
respect for all of our fellow beings (including ourselves), where we live
in a daily awareness of the transient nature of life, living fully each
precious unrepeatable moment.
We cannot possibly settle for a blind, hateful existence, for we would
be surrendering the ideal of what we know we can become if we become a
Buddha. When we are willing to remove all prejudice from our thinking, and
when we are willing to see the truth, to love to be at the same time both
free and responsible, the Larger Pure Land Sutra can contribute to the
realization of our ideals.
In any well-considered list of the dozen great Oriental books, the
Larger Pure Land Sutra is certain to appear and yet, reading it now,
during the Space Age, one may wonder at first why this should be so. Since
the sutra was originally written in India during the early part of the
first century, the gist of what the author meant became more and more
obscure with time. This was due partly to the result of the changes in
words' meanings, partly the result of translation, and partly that of
having been copied innumerable times.
Many of us in the modern world may read this sutra for the first time
only to exclaim, "What in the world is the author talking
about?!" Yet, though we may smile away the ancient world view, we
somehow cannot dismiss the sutra itself. Its power to move us persists.
What remains constant as we read it here and now s the profound myth of Amida Buddha which Sakyamuni, the historical Buddha, relates in this sutra
on which Shinshu is based.
It goes like this. Once upon a time, when Amida Buddha was an
unenlightened man called Dharmakara, he vowed that all human beings would
experience their one-ness with him. Our (human) wishes are only desires
unaccompanied by action, but his vow is a desire expressed in successful
effort. Amida Buddha of infinite Light and Eternal Life, his Buddha land
called the Land of Bliss (the Pure Land), and the name of Namuamidabutsu
are the means by which we can understand the true human ideal behind all
three.
These three -- Buddha, the Buddha land, and Namuamidabutsu (the nembutsu)
-- are symbols applicable to the human condition as it exists everywhere and
at all times.
So, today, we read the Sutra not as a historical description of how
Dharmakara became Amida Buddha and established his Buddha land, but as the
work of a Buddha who helps us become conscious of our finitude in our
inward, forward movement towards the achievement of our true, authentic,
infinite selves with total unconditional freedom. In this process of
dynamic growth and change we become thoroughly aware of ourselves and our
situation. We are awakened to the reality that each of us is both sinner
and, surprisingly, at the vary same instant, our own savior.
If we approach the Sutra in this light it ceases to be a
"dead" classic and becomes a spirited book that reminds us we are
able to encounter Amida Buddha only because we are "buddha-beings"
ourselves. It is in the inward flight towards our true selves that we
discover Amida Buddha. But even then we cannot discover Amida as an object,
an 'it.' We become aware of Amida not by some mystical or supernatural
experience, but only in the authentic exercise of our freedom. As one with
Amida we are truly and wholly what we are.
If those who have been alienated from their true selves want to drive
to find their way home, this Sutra can illuminate the way for it states,
"Amida Buddha vowed to those who are in need of help and guidance,
who are lost and confused ... that they will be enabled to restore their
confidence, to awaken to their identity, their one-ness with the Buddha of
Infinite Life and Light."
Joseph Campbell, the noted philosopher who restores our confidence in
the power and validity of myth, aptly called Buddhism "a religion of
identification" in which we move from "the darkness of ignorance to
the illumination of boundless wisdom." It is this passage to our true
identity the Juseige and Sanbutsuge make clear to us.
-- Rev. Shoji Matsumoto
Sanbutsuge: Dharmakara's Song of Praise to
His Teacher, Lokesvararaja Buddha
(A translation of the essential meaning of Shinran Shonin's
interpretation of this gatha from the Larger Pure Land Sutra)
From the beginningless beginning
Of time itself, Dharma -- the true
reality of suchness --
Has constantly been evolving
In its infinite way.
Our ancestor, Dharmakara Bodhisattva,
He who is the treasure house of
Dharma,
Took this name
Upon realizing his true identity
After having heard
from Lokesvararaja Buddha
The teachings that pierce all illusions.
At his first encounter
With the wisdom and reality
That is our
fundamental nature
And the nature of all that exists,
Dharmakara
Bodhisattva experienced such happiness,
Such joy,
That he abandoned his
former way of life and thought.
With his whole body,
His total being,
All
energy, complete determination --
He concentrated on the ultimate state
Of
becoming a Buddha,
One fully awakened to the truth
Of the reality that is
the same
Throughout the universe.
Again seeking out his great teacher
Lokesvararaja Buddha,
The Buddha
who is always
Emancipating the world,
Dharmakara first respectfully bowed,
Placed his forehead on the Buddha's feet
And then,
Rising to walk around
the Buddha three times
While he gazed in awe from all directions
At this
Buddha whom he wished to become,
Feeling the Buddha's inconceivable power,
Dharmakara put his palms together in gassho
And sang in praise.
"You, like whom I wish to become,
Have a countenance radiant with
a light
Of utter sincerity, a light of boundless wisdom
Which shines on
all beings
Transforming vices into virtues!
Your light is the light of
compassion,
The ever-burning light-source
Of peace and happiness,
Penetrating me with its warmth.
When compared to your never-failing light
That of the most precious
jewels,
That of the fiercest flames,
That of the sun and brightest stars
Are like tie black holes of the universe.
Your shinny countenance,
Your most excellent features,
Your color -- which
embraces all colors --
Are beyond compare.
Your voice, emerging from the
depths
Of your boundless compassion,
Resounds like a lion's roar
throughout the universe
Proclaiming that Buddha-ness
Is my true self,
The
true self of each and every being everywhere!
That sublime, most rare compassion
Arising from the wisdom-flow
Of your
ceaseless activity in perfecting
Mindfulness and awareness:
Your ceaseless
activity in perfecting patience,
Strength,
And reflection;
Take you beyond
this world of birth-and-death
To the stage of joy and bliss
At having
become the dharma.
How inconceivable that this last stage,
The fulfillment of
Buddha-hood,
You, a perfected Buddha, made the choice --
Out of Great Compassion --
To return to this world as a bodhisattva
Whose dedication and
yearning
Is to awaken and free each and every one of us.
In your samadhi,
So deep, so total and yet so subtle,
Having become one
With the dharma-ocean of all the Buddhas,
You fathomed its fathomless
depths,
You measured its inmeasurability,
You perceived its most profound
truths.
In you Abhijna, the wisdom of a Buddha
Has for all time replaced the
darkness of ignorance.
In you, Mahakaruna, the compassion of a Buddha,
Has
for all time replaced the darkness of lust.
In you, through selflessness,
Maha-atman, the Great Self of a Buddha
Has for all time replaced the
darkness
Of Self-centeredness.
Indeed, you are Bhagavat!
The Tathagata!
The world-honored one whose
cosmic virtues,
Whose profound and subtle wisdom radiates
Throughout the
immeasurable reaches
Of all the galaxies,
Touching the inconceivable
depths of all that exists.
The impact of your enlightenment, like lightning
Striking throughout
the universe,
With neither exception nor distinction transforms
All that
exists in every world with Bodhi,
The innate nature of Buddha-ness,
The
potential to realize what is true and real.
I, Dharmakara, yearn to experience the samadhi
Which you are
experiencing.
In it, I shall open the gate of the six perfections,
The
gate which includes all dharmas"
Dana-Awareness,
And the resolve to
open this awareness to all:
Sila -- Restraint practiced with
Ksanti, patience,
Virya, strongest
effort,
Dhyana, contemplation that opens the eye of samadhi
To Prajna, the
wisdom that frees and emancipates,
The wisdom of things-as-they-are.
Endlessly, without ceasing,
I shall yearn to attain
Anuttara samyak
sambodhi --
The unparalleled Great Awakening
That transforms the universe
With immeasurable light and life.
This I shall carry out through my practice.
I will endure whatever must
be endured
To attain this for everyone everywhere.
To all who are in need of help and guidance,
For all who are lost and
confused,
Hopelessly wandering in these worlds of illusion,
I vow
They
will become enabled to restore their confidence,
To awaken to their true
identity,
Their great and total Buddha-ness,
Their oneness
With the Dharma
that includes all dharmas,
Their oneness with me.
In every land,
Offerings to gods and buddhas are assumed
To insure the
highest benefit to a devotee,
But I now establish this superior way
Of
becoming a Buddha,
Which I shall follow firmly and forthrightly,
Though it
is the most difficult of all difficulties.
It is a way which cannot be
rivaled
Even by making offerings to gods and Buddhas
More numerous than the
sand grains
In the River Ganges.
- Rev. Shoji Matsumoto and Ruth Tabrah Honolulu, 1984
(continued on
page 2)
