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Chijo no kyushu: Hozo bosatsu shutsugen
no igi ... page 2
On the one hand, we are an instance of
those receiving the benefit of the supernatural powers of the Tathagata as
Dharmakaya who, through the agency of Dharmakara Bodhisattva, brings the
eternal Light [to mingle with the dust of our world]; on the other hand,
as we experience an awakening to the karmic evil of our self as seen from
the inside of karmic evil, we discover our self desirous of wholeheartedly
taking refuge. Thus, in Dharmakara Bodhisattva, on the one hand we see a
fatherly figure, and on the other hand we see a flock of gentle creatures
in need of care. But Dharmakara Bodhisattva does not operate as a
third-party mediator between the Tathagata as father of eternal Light and
us sentient beings; rather, the Tathagata becomes a unity with sentient
beings.
One might say the Tathagata operates in the first person and the
second person at the same time. That is, the objective truth (kyaku-tai;
that is, truth as seen from the outside) of our moment of awakening at the
same time bears upon the subjective truth (shu-tai; that is, truth as seen
from the inside) of [that] moment of awakening. It is the seeking of help
(tasukete) occurring at the same time with the proffering of help (tasukerarete).
It is the asking for assistance (tanomite) occurring at the same time with
the offering of assistance (tanomarete). [In this logic] the passenger
aboard ship is at the same time the commander of the vessel. The author of
the Original Vow stands on a par with the seeker for whom the Vow is
intended. And so when I consider who Dharmakara Bodhisattva is, the
circumstances of his birth, and the significance of his being born, I do
so with no small sense of wonder, and with not a little wince of pain.
V.
When to my surprise I discover the totality (sugata;
literally, "form") of this mysterious Dharmakara Bodhisattva -- that is, when
I discover the totality of this mysterious Tathagata of eternal Light -- I
discover at the same time the totality of this mysterious self of mine.
What is Dharmakara Bodhisattva? It is nothing other than this: the
subjective truth (shutai) of our moment of awakening to take refuge [in
the Pure Land] through turning our thoughts (nenzuru) to the Tathagata.
Dharmakara Bodhisattva's 18th Vow is confessive of the fact that the
Tathagata cherishes as [her] own children those sentient beings who
actively take refuge [in the Pure Land of the Buddha].
The founder
[Shinran] Shonin has determined that the 18th Vow represents the
fulfilment of the awakening of faith (shinjin) of the seeker (ki no
shinjin); but here we must consider how as a whole the seeker making this
plea is brought to fulfilment. What does it mean for the Tathagata to
bring to fulfilment that awakening of faith we ought to have? As to
bringing to fulfilment the vow-practice (gangyo) we ought to engage in,
since the notion of vow-practice viewed objectively (kyakkan) can be said
to be comprised of two different elements, there is a tendency to
understand them in this objective [dualistic] way. [A] more proper grasp
of matters would be the subjective [nondualistic] view (shukan) where, as
we get away from the self, we enter the state of the awakening of faith
where not the slightest thought arises. Why then is it said that the
awakening of faith in its truly subjective view -- as the one moment (ichinen)
of present reality that arises as the self draws closer and closer to
Tathagata -- is brought to fulfilment by an objectively viewed Tathagata?
It would seem obvious that the awakening of faith as such should be
understood as garnering that purely subjective perspective on our true
mission in life (shin seimei, literally, true life). This and this alone
cannot be brought to fulfilment by a Tathagata objectively viewed.
This is exactly what Shan-tao and Honen clarified in the
notion of three faiths and 10 thoughts (sanshin junen): that the triad of
faith, vow, and practice (nembutsu; Soga's note) as the karmic cause of
birth [in the Pure Land] is what is guaranteed by the 18th Vow; and
because one stipulation of faith is to gain that subjective view on our
moment of awakening, this goes beyond a merely passive faith in the
Original Vow; [ultimately we are brought to] the point where the Tathagata
brings the Vow to fulfilment through the Name as the perfected means of
Vow-practice (gangyo gusoku); thus it is called the Vow of birth through
nembutsu (nembutsu no ojo no gan). Our founder [Shinran] Shonin
experimented in the depths of his own soul this Vow, and as a result
discovered for himself his own subjective view on Dharmakara Bodhisattva's
Original Vow -- what he, having experimented it in himself, called the Vow
of sincerity and joy (shishin shingyo no gan).
Dharmakara Bodhisattva, as our savior, is straightway
the eternal and distant Tathagata; likewise, when we turn to that eternal
and distant Tathagata, as those who have experimented in ourselves with
[the practices of] sincerity and joy, [those practices are] straightway
our true self's awakening of faith [arrived at by] a subjective view of
sentient beings. Truly, the words, "If there are those who are not
born [in my Pure Land], may I not attain perfect Enlightenment" that
Dharmakara Bodhisattva utters are expressive directly of what the father
of eternal Light would have said; the great message, "With sincerity,
joy, and desire for birth in my Land, [say the nembutsu] down to 10
thoughts (ju'nen)" as the subjective view of sentient beings
everywhere, is what Dharmakara Bodhisattva brings directly to us, whom
[she] regards as [her] children, in [her] experiment to have us engage the
practices to awaken our hearts. While [the practice of] the desire for
birth down to 10 thoughts is [an interpolation of] an objective viewpoint
onto the subjective perspective of us practicers, only [the practices of]
sincerity and joy that awakening (shin) alone can bring are to be
described not as "Tathagata changes into us," but as "Tathagata
comes into direct [unity] with us."
It is the seeker's true self itself that [the practice
of] sincerity requires, however, that is the real core of the 18th Vow,
where so-called other-power salvation of the Original Vow ultimately is
nothing more than the Tathagata [coming into direct unity] with the true
subject (shinshu) of the practicer's moment of awakening and to bring
[him] to take refuge. When Dharmakara Bodhisattva and the Original Vow are
simply viewed objectively in passive faith, in reality there is no one
that experiments with the Original Vow in terms of [the practice of] joy.
Why did the Tathagata raise the matters of sincerity and joy? Why raise
the Vow of sincerity and joy [at all]? Why not simply make the Vow of
birth through the nembutsu? These questions that plumb the depths of our
souls (naikan), are not merely deep problems.
To my mind, the awakening (shin) of sincerity and joy is
the dragon body of the 18th Vow; the epithet, "If there are those who
are not born [in my Pure Land], may I not attain perfect
Enlightenment," is the cloud of awakening (shin) creating that
dragon. The Tathagata, through bringing the practicer to properly
experiment [in themselves] with the true subjective view of sincerity and
joy, brings to fulfillment in the here and now the love of that eternal and
distant parent who swears to forego birth; at the same time, through this
parental love it brings the child to experiment in [the practice of] joy
in sincerity. This is like the dragon being created by the cloud receiving
the life force allowing it to ride upon that cloud and leap upward
dragonlike, all its parts intact.
The 10 thoughts of nembutsu, however, is the dragon eye
of the Original Vow. The dragon body of the moment of awakening, as well
as the cloud of salvation that swears to forego birth, is brought out through the dragon eye of just a single
nembutsu. The dragon of awakening
(shin) begins to move into action through the cloud of salvation, and
through the dragon eye of the nembutsu, the self is brought out. Virtually
the entire body of the dragon of faith lies submerged in the cloud of
salvation; further, as the self is not brought out sufficiently when we
move away from the dragon eye of nembutsu, if we appropriate the light of
revelation through the eye of nembutsu and use our powers to mount the
cloud of salvation, this is not the dragon body of the moment of
awakening. Truly, the dragon of faith lies hidden deep in the cloudy
reaches of salvation, and solely it holds out (kengen) that eye to us.
The
Vow of sincerity and joy can never seek after [that eye] through bringing
forth an objective view. This is seen in the case of those whose dragon
eye of nembutsu has not developed fully, who are seduced by the beauty and
splendor of that cloud brilliant with light, because they have not touched
the true meaning hidden in the great letters spelling out the words
Sincerity and Joy. It is in sincerity and joy that we come in touch with
the great spirit hidden in the recesses of the 18th Vow.
Truly the 18th
Vow testifies to the state of unity unhindered between the child's heart
of sincerity and joy that is naturally [drawn out] by Dharmakara
Bodhisattva and the parent's heart [that swears to forego enlightenment]
should we not be born; this awakening to parent-child unity is telling of
the human character (jinkaku) of that [*Vow]. Dharmakara Bodhisattva in
totality is the unity of seeker and Dharma (ki-ho-ittai). It is also
expressed as the unity of Buddha intuition and ordinary intuition (busshin-bonshin
ittai).
Since Dharmakara Bodhisattva out of parental love accepts all of
the evil karma created by sentient beings, [such love] straightway brings
us to an awareness of the karmic evil of our own being; without accusing
us, it straightway brings us to take full responsibility for our actions;
through experimenting in ourselves with the karmic evil of the ordinary
intuition, we are able to give birth to the Buddha intuition of the child
of sincerity and joy; moreover, through experimenting in ourselves in our
moment of awakening of sincerity and joy, we [participate in] the creation
of the parental love [that swears to forego enlightenment] should we not
be born. The 18th Vow can thus be depicted as a two-tiered unity (niju no
ittai): (Note: The diagram presented by Soga does not format
readily in this document.)
Conditional to my attainment of Buddhahood:
that sentient beings everywhere....... ordinary
intuition: passive, (is on one hand) veiled but is in unity
with the ......sincerity and joy down to 10 thoughts which is Buddha
intuition: and is active, veiled, being united with the awakening of
faith, faith of the seeker.
"If they are not born may I not attain perfect
Enlightenment." This is salvation, faith of the Dharma.
(Note: All these elements are in fundamental unity --
Bloom)
The crux of this two-tiered unity, however, is, needless
to say, the awakening of faith on the part of the seeker (ki), and yet we
cannot ignore the aspect of sincerity and joy brought to expression by an
active yet veiled Buddha intuition. The meaning of the words that the
Tathagata brings to fulfilment our true subjective view, is a subtle one
filled with nuances. "Dharmakara Bodhisattva is the totality that
results when the Tathagata enters into direct unity with us," along
with, "Dharmakara Bodhisattva is of itself revealing of the fact that
the Tathagata becomes sentient beings," are [expressive of] the 18th
Vow.
VI.
The Tathagata as [our] eternal and distant father, more
than existing in some distant kalpa past, [is active] in the present;
throwing [him]self into the saha sea of conflicting realities, he (kare)
has [vowed] to save me, the one who is lost and adrift in the ocean of
human life, and who is immersed in the wretchedness and evil of [the cycle
of] life and death therein; he straightway becomes [our] subjective view
of ultimate truth (shinjitsu kyukyo), and on my behalf (watashi o shite)
rends the long and dark night of ignorance that has engulfed me from ever
before.
While he addresses me explicitly as "nanji,"
or "You[, my friend]" he implicitly brings me (watashi o ba)
to see straightway who I am. The problem of "nanji" [i.e., the
relation of seeker to Tathagata] is straightway the problem of
"self" (waga mondai; literally, "my problem") [the
relation of the seeker to himself]; that is, the one called nanji who is
caught [by the Tathagata] in [the act of] evil karma is my responsibility.
The evil karma of nanji thus is straightway my evil karma. And so he is
privy straightway to the secret of the subjective view of sentient beings
everywhere.
When the term nanji does not simply mean nanji, but also
our [revealed] self, we can feel the heart of sincerity and joy arising in
us. His feeling is as such our feeling [literally, the feeling of us human
beings]. When we distance ourselves from this feeling of awakening (shin),
his feeling, the feeling of Dharmakara Bodhisattva, ceases to exist.
People tend to think of the five kalpas or the eternal kalpas as simply an
old tale (mukashi-banashi), one opposed to our present existence. But the
one moment (ichi'nen) ushering in this feeling of Dharmakara's sincerity
and joy is the absolute one moment containing eternity. Even the first one
moment of awakening (shin) that we feel arising in us is the absolute one
moment containing eternity.
It is the one moment of ji, or historical
event, and at the same time it is the one moment of ri, or eternal truth.
In other words, it is the one moment of ri-ji muge, the unimpeded
dimension of eternity and history. That is why the founder [Shinran]
Shonin praises Vasubandhu's statement, "I, with one heart" from
Gathas on the Pure Land as the one heart vast and unimpeded (kodai muge no
isshin). It is the one moment containing all time and all space (sanse jippo;
literally, the three worlds and the 10 directions). The present of
awakening (shin) is the greater present of Infinite Life. Outside of the
one moment no other moment exists.
Because the worldly think of this one moment as a
relative one moment, they climb to the heights of arrogance with such
notions as Hosha-zan (*Mount Thanksgiving, a reference to the Lotus
Sutra). Hosha-zan stands ever before us, a looming presence right in our
path. We are always situated at the foot of the mountain. Then again, this
should be called Button-zan or Butchi-zan (Mount Buddha-benevolence or
Mount Buddha-wisdom). For hosha, or repaying our debt of gratitude, is
always in the future, whereas the self is in the present's first one
moment of awakening (shin). Apart from the first one moment there is no
awakening (shin); the life of awakening (shin no seimei) is only in the
present. How is it possible for awakening, as the crux of that singular
and unparalleled subjective view, to be projected into the past and placed
on the summit of a relatively-conceived Hosha-zan?
To the extent that awakening (shin) as the ultimate
subjective view coincides with (sunawachi) the true self (shinjitsu no
jiga), whenever we distance ourselves from that one moment of awakening,
we have already distanced ourselves from the Tathagata; when we stand at a
remove from the [true] self (jiga), we pass the time dreaming empty dreams
of illusion and delusion. Hosha-zan is ultimately another such delusory
dream. Its actual state is comprised of nothing more than wrong views and
arrogance. We have merely substituted Tathagata with something to our own
liking.
This becomes clear when we reflect on ourselves in ichi'nen, that
one moment. Thus, in the absolute one moment, comprising the one moment of
Dharmakara's issuing of the Vow and the one moment of [Dharmakara's]
protective thoughts toward us, Dharmakara's issuing of the Vow that took
place eternal kalpas ago dwells in the heartland of our moment of
awakening here and now. These two types of one moment are the alpha and
omega of one and the same one thought. Between them lies the eternity of
practice [undertaken by Dharmakara] and the 10 kalpas that elapse
subsequent to the attainment of Buddhahood, but it will not do to
distinguish these two types of one moment.
Although we speak of the five kalpas of eternal practice
and the 10 kalpas of Buddhahood, all of this is actually assimilated into
the one moment of awakening of the greater present. Dharmakara Bodhisattva
is not an ancient myth (shinwa); it is the fact of our awakening in the
present. If we distance ourselves from this one moment of awakening, [Dharmakara
Bodhisattva] becomes no different from any other myth. If we distance
ourselves from the one moment of awakening of the Pure Land school (Jodo-shu
[here I treat it as a generic term]), since it offers in vain a religion
of inspiration, it does not go beyond being an immature, myth[-ridden]
religion. For Dharmakara Bodhisattva would have no grounding in present
reality. As such, words such as Original Vow, practice, attainment of Buddhahood,
Pure Land, salvation, birth, and so on would be nothing more than mere
ideals.
Though we may praise the salvation realized 10 kalpas
ago as being superior to the Seizan position of the nondiscrimination of
living beings and Buddha (sho-butsu fu-ni), it actually turns out to carry
the same emphasis the Chinzai branch puts on achieving a proper mental
state in the final moments on deathbed (rinju-shonen) [as decisive of
birth in the Pure Land]; but even in the Chinzai branch, while the seeker
resorts to [what I regard as] empty ideas such as depending on the
Tathagata to achieve proper thought in the final moments on deathbed, by
turning to a mythic Vow from eternal kalpas past, [this reveals they
recognize] that salvation has already been consummated. The fact is,
though we may speak of the 10 kalpas or the eternal kalpas or the final
moments on deathbed, none of these has any existence apart from the
realization of the one moment of faith here and now. The moment of
awakening (shinnen) when we are taken up and not denied (sesshu fusha),
verifying our salvation here and now, is itself the promise of the 18th
Vow; it is the proper mental state in the final moments on deathbed; it is
the feeling of gratitude.
Up to then, the voice chanting the nembutsu was but a
lifeless reverberation of physical sound. Such a voice never reaches the
Pure Land. "When [in the moment of] awakening, there arises in your
heart the desire to call the nembutsu, this means your life has been
entrusted to the benefit extended all beings of being taken up and not
denied [Tannisho; freely rendered]. This arising of the desire to say the
nembutsu is more than the will generated from within ourselves; it is the
true state of nembutsu. Though we speak of the one moment of awakening and
the one moment of practice, there are not two kinds of one moment."
What we call the one moment of practice is simply the abstraction of the
active face of the one moment of awakening; it is the tentative status of
a voice issued passively. The one moment of practice is a tentative
status; its basic state is the one moment of awakening. However, since
this is sometimes regarded as two different states, at times nembutsu
[is a practice whose merit] is turned over [to others], at other times
nembutsu [is a practice whose merit] is accumulated [for oneself].
Dharmakara Bodhisattva's fulfillment of the joy of the
Vow takes place in eternal kalpas in the past, and at the same time it is
contained in the one moment of our awakening; as such it is caught in
neither the warp nor woof [of time]. A bodhisattva has first to experiment
in itself the ordinary intuition of those who are eternally caught up in
their present realities, and [working from there] devise a way to give
birth straightway to the Buddha intuition of sincerity and joy [in such
beings]; this is more than just a subjective intuition of one who takes
refuge with singleness of purpose, but [is achieved] through participating
in the creation of the heart of the eternal Tathagata who will not rest as
long as there are those who are not born [in the Pure Land].
Thus, the Buddha intuition that will not rest as long as
there are those who are not born [in the Pure Land] and is created anew
with each moment is an eternal Buddha intuition; at the same time it is a Buddha
intuition that is newly attained. It is old and again it is new. The
portion that never changes is called the Dharmakaya of dharma nature (hossho-hosshin);
the portion being created and renewed with every moment is called the
Dharmakaya of upaya (skilful means) (hoben-hosshin).
VII.
Though all religions may ultimately share the common
trait of being inspired by the Light, this is not a characteristic of a
tariki (other power) religion. When we truly reflect on our [revealed]
selves, more than a religion that praises the light, we find ourselves
having turned to a religion of the Ark. When we sober up to the reality
that presents itself from beneath our very feet, when we discover
ourselves drowning in the depths of the sea of life and death, to our
surprise we at that moment find ourselves aboard the ship [of the Vow].
As
passengers aboard ship, we discover to our surprise that ship [passenger]
and ship owner comprise a unity unhindered (mugeittai). When we
especially awaken to the one moment, in a calm state of mind we sing
praises for the wondrous day we have been blessed with; and discovering
ourselves as a person in the midst of that radiant Light, we suddenly
realize that the sea of suffering of present reality illumined by an
idealized concept of light is not the sea of Infinite Light! And we
realize that we were never meant to be among those dreamily singing
praises to the Light.
Dharmakara Bodhisattva does not establish the Pure Land
after the eternal kalpas of practice; he establishes the Pure Land anew
with each moment of vow-practice, with each new [revealed] self. However,
the [newly] created Pure Land and [revealed] self again are the same as
the eternal and distant Tathagata and that distant Land of Light (komyodo).
But here and now we have the Vow ship of the present. As long as we have
this ship, as distant as the Pure Land of peace and joy may be, it is at
the same time rather close at hand.
The greatest single problem is not the
distance between us and the Pure Land or the Tathagata; it is whether or
not we have as a matter of course awakened to the ship of the universal
vow (gugan no fune). The Larger Sutra of Infinite Life laments, "The
going is easy, but there is none there," and our founder Shinran says
at the beginning of the Shinkan (Faith) chapter of the Kyogyoshinsho,
"For the ordinary and ignorant who are ever sinking in birth and
death, for the multitudes turning in transmigration, it is not the
attainment of the unexcelled, incomparable fruit of enlightenment that is
so difficult; the real difficulty lies in realizing true and real
joy" (Hirota, adapted); this is what lies at the heart of all
statements on the problem of religion.
