To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This story was printed from ShinDharmaNet, located at http://www.shindharmanet.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chijo no kyushu: Hozo bosatsu shutsugen
no igi ...
The Savior on earth: The significance of Dharmakara Bodhisattva's appearance in this world.
by Soga Ryojin
[Collected Works 2:408-421; originally published in Taisho2.7 (July 1913), Seishinkai (World of Soul) journal].
Soga sensei was a noted Shinshu "theologian" teaching at the Otani University in Kyoto. His writings have only gradually been accessible to western people. We are grateful to Mr. Wayne Yokoyama for making this important essay available. It will be useful in Buddhist Christian dialogue and for the study of Shin Buddhism itself. Soga's thought is complex and requires reflection, but we present it as a resource for students and scholars interested in the deeper aspects of Shin thought.
Translator's note: To accommodate what I think is Soga's thought, free renderings of technical terms have been made: shinjin as awakening of faith; shin as awakening; in part in an effort to avoid use of word "faith." Other departures: busshin as Buddha intuition (rather than b. mind), in an effort to avoid use of word "mind"
Diacritical marks have not been inserted.
I.
It was in early June of last year [1912], while I was at Kaneko Daiei's place in Takada, that I at last gained an insight into that exceptional phrase, Nyorai wa ware nari The Tathagata becomes us. And then in late August at Akegarasu Haya's place [in Kanazawa] I came around to understanding, Nyorai ware to narite ware o sukui au It is through the unity of Tathagata and self that the Tathagata manages to save us. Then around October I realized what was meant by, Nyorai ware to naru to wa bosatsu ryutan no koto nari.
The unity of Tathagata and self is sewn up with the event of Dharmakara Bodhisattva's birth [in this world]. While such matters may not have perturbed others in the least, they have been a constant source of annoyance to me these past twenty years. At times I got so worked up about it I thought I would go stark raving mad. Day after day I would thumb through the sacred writings, but could garner no clue as to the significance of these passages. My situation was aggravated by the fact I was beset by all the trivial problems that have colored these dark and troubled times of contemporary Japan. And so attaining this level of clearsightedness was like a ray of light shining at the end of a long and dark tunnel.
I am struck dumb when it comes to expressing such feelings in words. But there was a part of me that was not content to remain silent, and so from October of last year [1912] I began to publish portions of my confessions in my column "Storming winds, pelting rain" [in the journal Seishinkai {World of Soul}]. Also, in the January [1913] issue of the journal Mujinto (Everlasting Light), I published a piece called "Hozo biku kuon no busshin no kongen-sha toshite no genzai no Hozo biku " ("Dharmakara Bhiksu in the Present as the One Awakened to the Eternal Buddha-mind of Dharmakara Bhiksu.")
After [these pieces] came out I received words of encouragement from friends far and wide, but this only made me question my own position further, forcing me to confront some of my deepest fears. Looking back on this time I am surprised by the boldness and sheer arrogance of the enterprise, and I cannot help but lament the paucity of the intellectual resources then at my command as I engaged the task. Now as I reflect the matter, I see this is what is meant by experiencing the reality of "originally there is not a single thing" (ganrai muichibutsu; note that this a passage attributed to Zen's Sixth Patriarch Hui-neng), where, through the help of numerous friends on the Way, even those who heaped on me their contempt and derision, I was made to benefit greatly from the merit of the thoughts they turned over to me, a fact that impresses me greatly even now.
II.
I knew of the name of Dharmakara Bodhisattva (Hozo Bosatsu) from long before and treat it as a major concept now, but truth is, I must confess, there was a stretch when it sat on the shelf for the longest time. Of course I am equally at a loss with what to do with the concept of the Land of Bliss (Gokuraku, literally, Ultimate Bliss), that realm which lays tens of thousands of millions of Buddha-lands to the west. But as I cannot imagine this world of present reality to be the Land of Bliss, then whether I like it or not I have to capitulate to the Land of Bliss in the west. When it came to Dharmakara Bodhisattva, though, I was simply unable to bring myself to believe in the account of the Original Vow being produced from the five kalpas-long contemplation and the aeons-long practice [to fulfil the Vow], nor did I feel myself under any burden of obligation to believe. As a small child being taught the Shoshin-ge (Shinran's Hymn of True Faith), I recall struggling to remember verses I simply couldn't understand, like:
Hozo bosatsu inni-ji, . . .
goko shi'i shi setsuju,
jusei monsho mon jippo
In the causal stage as Dharmakara Bodhisattva . . .
he undertook the five kalpas-long contemplation,
[to achieve] as vowed: that the intoning of the Name would resound
throughout the universe.
Shin believers who hold to a simple faith would be moved to tears when they heard the part about the five kalpas-long contemplation. But once I started to think for myself, whatever attraction I had to this Practice of Vow in causal state soon faded. Instead I found myself interested exclusively in the name Jinjippo muge-ko [Nyorai] Tathagata of Light radiating unhindered in all directions. For the time being I had come to the conclusion that the so-called great law of cause and effect fell into the category of things that had no discernible meaning, but because it was to me inconceivable that humankind could extract itself from beneath the weal of [such a universal principle] as cause and effect, I would explain it [away] by saying that in order for the Tathagata to inform humankind of the Original Vow, the Tathagata was able to bring the thought it sought to transmit to us through manipulating the laws of cause and effect that govern the [lower] laws of the hum! an thought processes; but the truth is, I was so enamored by [the imagery of] Tathagata's radiant Light that it exclusively guided my thoughts to the point it destroyed any budding interest I might have had in the Vow practice in causal state of Dharmakara Bhiksu.
In short, though I would go around talking up the theme of holding to the central belief in the Original Vow, the truth was I regarded the Original Vow to be nothing more than simply the great soul energy (dai-seishin, literally, great spirit) of the Tathagata's true awakening. Dharmakara Bhiksu was nothing more than the temporary name of an incidental figure who appeared briefly for a five kalpas-long contemplation in the greater scenario of the Tathagata's eternal drama. Moreover, it was a drama that did not require our own appearance on stage. Our savior was, for all extents and purposes, simply an emanation out of eternity of the Tathagata of Light unhindered that radiates its effulgence in all directions.
III.
However, when that eternal Tathagata of Light radiating unhindered in every direction becomes the object of our affection [and guides our choices], it becomes an extension of our ideals and ceases to function in the capacity of world savior. This kind of belief, self-serving and intellectualized, is as such enmired in the satori of so-called self-power Holy Path (jiriki-shodo), implying ineffectual practice). Salvation, on the other hand, is a problem of reality. It is the great problem of what we must do as protagonists [in the drama] of life's conflicting realities (jinsei no genjitsu, literally, "the reality of human life").
There is no salvation in store for us when we rely on our empty ideals [to pull us through]. [What we fail to realize is that] all of the gods, Buddhas, and bodhisattvas in every direction in this triple world of past, present and future [manifest] a facet of human ideals. The Name of [the Tathagata] of Light radiating unhindered in every direction contains [all of the merit of] the various names of every god, Buddha, and bodhisattva; as it thus signifies the synthesis of all human desires, it is to this dimension that we must direct our deepest aspirations.
But if we merely become enamored with the idea of Light, we musk ask ourselves: Is the light of wisdom that issues from the truth of our world of ideals sufficient to rend the long dark night of ignorance? Is it sufficient to serve as the proverbial raft whose functioning (gyogo) dispels the suffering of the great sea of life and death that issues from the realities of the human condition? When we step aboard the great Vow ship of compassion, our ideals at last match with our realities for the first time, and the sea of human life with its suffering of conflicting realities as such becomes a vast sea of Light radiating in fullness and in all its unimpeded glory. But when we distance ourselves from the great Vow ship of compassion, the sea again reverts to what it was before, a sea full of suffering, hardship, impediments.
It may seem futile to talk about a Light unhindered shining its rays on the sea of suffering of present reality; indeed, for the person drowning in the depths of that ocean it is only to be expected that he should decry any mention of benefit or gratitude. But what we are seeking after in the here and now is not some empty notion of light, but the Ark of the Vow a-sail on the sea of human realities. A tathagata of Dharmakaya of eternal truth can never become the savior of we who stand face to face with [life's pressing] realities. Our savior in this world of conflicting realities must necessarily be one who mediates the gap between the human world and the Buddha world (ningen-butsu), by appearing in this world of conflicting realities.
In the Christian concept of Trinity, Jesus Christ serves as mediator between God and man, and it is this very role as mediator that makes it impossible for Jesus to truly fulfill his role as world savior directly. If we conceive of God the Father as eternal light, this points to the impossibility of God being able to make intimate contact with the world of human realities. Even if God were the creator of this world, once this world of conflicting realities came into being, there appeared an absolute demarcation between God and this world, such that each exists completely independent of the other.
God of course may be said to be in possession of an original dimension through which God holds dominion over the world of man; but God as such is unable to either better the human condition or to work out man's deliverance. God's utter isolation is especially evident in God's act of sending God's beloved son Jesus into this world of conflicting realities, and it is through Jesus's role as world savior and as medium to the spiritual world that we learn of the design of this God isolated in eternity to become one with humankind.
Thus, between the Father of eternal light and we humans who have fallen into the sea of life and death, there is a gap as great as that between heaven and earth. [God's] sphere of influence would indeed seem not to reach to where we are. It is for this reason that [the Eternal Light] takes on the form of the savior Dharmakara Bodhisattva who mediates the gap between the human world and the Buddha world, merging with [this world of particularities] at the point where the Light [of the Buddha world] mingles with the dust [of this world].
IV.
The question that now engages us is: Who is Dharmakara Bodhisattva? That is, where did he come from, where did he make the Original Vow, where did he practice, where did he attain supreme enlightenment? [It could be said that] he attained supreme enlightenment in the Pure Land in the west, a realm distant from our world of conflicting realities. But there is a problem as to the circumstances surrounding the birth of this mediator to the worlds of human and Buddha. In Christ, however enshrouded he may be in the ideal of Light, it is clear he is a historical figure.
[The claim] that Christ is well qualified to be the savior in this real world is in part grounded in his taking this real world as the foundation [of his ministry]; but at the same time his inability to achieve that goal of savior may be attributed to the fact he occurs as an individual in history. For however great he may be, in final analysis is he not just another human being?, and as far as being a soul in need of deliverance he would have to be a person no different from us. In so being, then, our mediator of the worlds of God and man loses his credentials as savior [of those] in conflicting realities.
For how can [an individual] be [savior] when he is as always who he is [i.e., an isolated individual], and I am always who I am? Even if Christ were a manifestation issuing from the heavenly world, it would be impossible for him as an individual to act as savior to me, another individual. If in this capacity he is unable to become the new savior, his role would then be reduced simply to being nothing more than the first discoverer of a new truth: that God is father to humankind. Christianity in its outward form may thus seem to resemble our religion of so-called other-power salvation (tariki kyusai), but strip away the mask and what it turns out to be is a teaching based on the ideals of self-power effort (jiriki doryoku, that is, the idea that man can save himself by his own efforts).
From the world of such ideals God is portrayed as shedding its light to reveal the ever-deepening gravity of the impediments of human karma, and while we may look to this god in adoration, this can only mean that the groans of effort that rise up in our throats [as we strive to save ourselves] are being made in vain.
By contrast, Dharmakara Bodhisattva is never presented as a historical figure. Dharmakara Bodhisattva instead is born by appearing directly in the hearts and thoughts of we members of humankind. That voice beckoning to living beings everywhere does not come to us from on high, from the lofty reaches of the world of pure light, nor are we being beckoned to by someone objectively distinct personality who exists as an individual separate from us.
The voice of Dharmakara Bodhisattva issues forth from within the breast of each person trapped in the gloomy darkness of suffering and despair. When the Original Vow of Dharmakara Bodhisattva is described as the proverbial raft on the great sea of life and death, it points to the issuing forth of that voice from the depths of our hearts, from beneath the very ground on which we stand. In contrast to all of the idealistic religions of the world that I will call "religions of Heaven," only our religion of salvation in Dharmakara Bodhisattva stands apart as the sole "religion of Earth."
Religions of Light so-called are numerous, but only our Shinshu is a religion of the Ark. Only our Shinshu is a religion addressing the conflicting realities [each of us are experiencing], and as such it is a religion offering true salvation. Phrases such as heizei gojo ["ordinary life is **"] and shinzoku ni-tai ["the two truths of ultimate and worldly nature"] maybe said to express salvation Reality offers, but [in truth] they pay no more than lip service to it. Why is it, one wonders, that there are so many who, whilst singing paeans of praise to the Light as it might turn out in some future time, pass their lives in vain in this sea of life and death, only to vanish forever into its depths?
The truth is that our Shinshu, like the many Light-praising religions throughout the world, also sings praises to the Light Tathagata disperses in every direction. But where the Light *mingles with the dust, we who sing these paeans of [praise to the Light are not being suspended in midair. Our feet are planted firmly on the deck of the ship crossing the great sea of conflicting realities. What this means is we do not exists as isolated individuals who [at death] vanish forever. As long as I am in the great sea of Life, as a passenger aboard the great Vow ship I am enjoying the long crossing as the ship plows the sea of life and death.
When I am forgetful of that ship, though I live out my days pleasantly I am not truly living up to my name as a person who praises the Light. And so when the dust of my conflicting realities mingles with the Light of eternity, this does not mean the dust will not settle [and will be suspended forever]; it is only natural, rather, that of its own weight it still must fall to that place where it must fall. [This is what I mean when I say that, though I mingle with the Light,] I am not a person suspended in midair.
Note that all the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and gods in the triple world [of time] and the ten directions [of space] beckon to us from the Heavens above. Each and every one of them has their own special kind of light to beam down on us. Combining all these lights together into one is the Lord of Blazing Light, Amida Tathagata (Amida Nyorai, Buddha of the Infinite), who manifests the next higher level of reality. Still, adoration and salvation are not the same thing.
Though it is said that the gods and Buddhas do not forsake us and are constantly calling to us and shedding their light on us, on our part, however, when we realize how utterly helpless we are when it comes to saving ourselves, how lacking in resources we are when it comes to living a religious life, instead of abandoning our [revealed] selves, we throw away those gods and Buddhas, and seek desperately for some way to escape. Strictly speaking, the Original Vow would have to be limited to Dharmakara Bodhisattva's 48 vows.
Though there is a tendency to think of other-power salvation as ineffectual, the founder [Shinran] Shonin described true other power as the power of Tathagata's Original Vow. But here we must ask ourselves: What is the power of Tathagata's Original Vow? It must be the ability to save this self of ours trapped in the web of conflicting realities. It cannot be like a beautiful painting of a tasty treat that does not do it for us. Ultimately, though, the power of the great compassionate Kannon (Avalokitsevara) is like this kind of painting, for it has no footing in our web of conflicting realities. It operates as nothing more than a beautiful story.
Dharmakara Bodhisattva's Original Vow is of a completely different order from this. On the one hand, as the mediator of the worlds of humans and Buddhas, [Dharmakara Bodhisattva] is as such the Amida Tathagata who is actively mingling its Light [with the dust of this world]; on the other hand, Dharmakara Bodhisattva sees through the eyes of the protagonist self that truly seeks salvation. If I were to set down the logic in operation (kotowari ; principle), I would say, "The Tathagata is no other than our self (Nyorai wa sunawachi waga nari) or, it would seems to me," [The unity of] Tathagata and self occurs" (Nyorai-waga to naru).
The main [operating principle] in the process of salvation (kyusai shu) is the configuration known as the unity of ki, or seeker, (the moment of awakening, shinnen; [literally, "religious conviction"] Soga Ryojin's notes) and ho, or Dharma (Tathagata, Nyorai) [ki-ho ittai]; from the standpoint of the person undergoing this process, it could also be expressed as the unity of Buddha-intuition (busshin; literally, Buddha-mind) and intuition of the ordinary person (bonshin). "
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 ours 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; but 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 ten 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 ten 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 ten 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 ten 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 moves 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 ten 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 containg all time and all space (sanse jippo; literally, the three worlds and the ten 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 ten 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 ten 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 ten 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 ten 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.