Having met with the power of Hongan
None of us passes his life in vain
Our life becomes the treasure ocean
that is filled with wonderful qualities
The defiled water, our evil passions,
are now an inseparable part of the treasure ocean
-Shinran’s verse on Vasubandhu from Koso Wasan
(Nobuo Haneda translation)
Unless it can be proven otherwise, everyone at the 2006 Maida Center retreat in Berkeley, California can all claim to have attended the very first seminar on Shinran’s Kyogyoshinsho in North America and possibly the whole Western world. Although I had studied parts of Kyogyoshinsho at Otani University in Kyoto, for the attendees from several West Coast states, Chicago and Hawaii, it was their first concentrated exposure to this lengthy work.
The translation of the title Shinran actually gave this work is A Collection of Passages Revealing the True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way but it is commonly known as Kyogyoshinsho (“Teaching, practice, shinjin, realization”), the topics of the first four chapters. Shinran bills himself as the “compiler” rather than the author because the great bulk of the text consists of excerpts from various sutras and commentaries and Shinran’s comments only make up about ten percent. In his opening remarks, Dr. Nobuo Haneda admitted that initially it seemed like a dauntingly difficult text to read, but after his past few years’ study of the Larger Sukhavativyuha Sutra, he can appreciate Kyogyoshinsho as a commentary on that sutra.
For the retreat, we focussed mainly on Shinran’s preface and postscript to the text, which reflect the transition he experienced from a self-centered “provisional” Buddhism to the true Buddhism of awakening to Oneness.
When we initially turn to religion, we all are looking for solutions to our own particular problems. It is “provisional” Buddhism that we practice when attempting to overcome the specific defilements that pose as obstacles to our spiritual fulfillment. But Shinran came to realize that the true teachings of Shakyamuni are about overcoming the one and only obstacle, that is, the attachment to the self. Shinran in a rare autobiographical comment in the postscript of Kyogyoshinsho recalled the turning point of his life occurring when he met his teacher, Honen. In Honen’s embracing acceptance of people from all sorts of lifestyles, Shinran saw the concrete fulfillment of Hongan, the innermost aspiration for oneness with all beings. “You don’t have to change, to make yourself ‘better.’ It’s perfectly okay to be what you are,” is what Honen’s teachings and actions were saying to him. This made Shinran realize how foolishly prideful he was in doing “sundry practices” to cleanse away his various “evil passions.”
Honen and the Pure Land teachings were a force more powerful than anything in Shinran’s private little world of self-centered practices. This force was the Bodhisattva spirit – the aspiration for complete oneness with all things in the here and now. This spirit appreciates all beings, objects and events as an ocean of treasures – everything has meaning and worth, nothing is dismissed or despised.
This transition from the “Path of Sages” (concern only for one’s own enlightenment, wanting to be in a position to look down on everyone else) to the “Pure Land Path” (recognizing the complete oneness and equality of all beings) is illustrated in the story of Ajatasatru in the Nirvana Sutra. Shinran quotes practically the whole story in the “Shinjin” chapter of Kyogyoshinsho. Ajatasatru is wracked with guilt over the killing of his father and seeks out several spiritual masters in order to find a way to purify himself and avoid the horror of falling into hell. When he comes to Shakyamuni Buddha, he sees that even though Shakyamuni is ill and near death, the Buddha welcomes him as an eagerly awaited guest. Just to encounter the Buddha’s selfless concern for others made Ajatasatru see how self-attached he was. In the passage we read at the retreat, Ajatasatru who previously feared hell, now proclaims he will willingly go into hell for the sake of his fellow suffering beings. This, Dr. Haneda pointed out, was how Shinran saw shinjin, the mind/heart which fearlessly embraces all of life, freed from the cocoon of self-attachment.
Throughout his writings, including the Kyogyoshinsho, Shinran expresses this joy of liberation and gratitude for the teachings that brought about his transition from “provisional” to true Buddhism. Although Shinran wrote Kyogyoshinsho with the blood and tears of his struggle with his limited, defiled and deluded self, his focus on the Larger Sutra and the commentaries of the Pure Land masters shows he is breaking through the walls of self (Namu) and becoming a part of the treasure ocean of unlimited Life and Light (Amida Butsu). For us who have just dipped a toe into the vast and deep waters of Shinran’s writings, we hope to learn more from those writings with the guidance of Dr. Haneda and other teachers. As the 750th memorial approaches, I think the best way to honor Shinran is by earnestly listening to the teachings he shares with us as a fellow struggling human being, rather than by putting him on a pedestal as a “great master” and groveling before his image with ceremonious rituals.