In everyday life whenever we experience our human limitation in outbursts of anger, jealousy, hatred, lust and fear, it is the Buddha Dharma that reveals their true reality to us, making them transparent and showing us the unlimited life that flows below them. When this experience is verbalized, the spontaneous saying of Namu-amida-butsu occurs. The awakening to the limited self (namu) is made possible by the working of unlimited life and light (amida-butsu). Shinran expresses this in a deeply personal way: "When I ponder on the Primal Vow of Amida, established through five kalpas of profound thought, I realize that it is for myself, Shinran, alone" (Tannisho Epilogue). Here Shinran is not speaking as an unreflecting, egocentric being but is affirming the single one, irreplaceable and unique, who lives interrelated and interconnected with all beings. As such, each self is affirmed as manifesting ultimate significance and worth. -- How to Read the Tannisho
Comment:
Though I may be a selfish person, challenged both physically and mentally, what Shinran writes is how I feel too about the Primal Vow.
Thus the title of this entry reflects the True Self, which is described as "the single one, irreplaceable and unique, who lives interrelated and interconnected with all beings."
Thus, through deep meditation and reflection I realize that the Primal Vow was made to benefit each devotee, especially those who have regretted committing the five offenses and slandering the right dharma.
Namu Amida Butsu
Background
'Primal Vow [hongan]
The working of Amida Buddha (dharma-body as compassionate means) issuing forth as the profound desire, wish, or prayer from the deepest source of life itself, dharma-body as suchness, to free all beings from the weight of karmic evil in the ocean of birth-and-death. It is taught in the Larger Sutra, the Chinese translation ascribed to Samghavarman (Kosogai) of the Wu Dynasty (A.D.252), as the Forty-eight Vows of Amida, the most important being the Eighteenth Vow. The Sanskrit original, purva-pranidhana, implies that the Primal Vow, as the manifestation in time, from ten kalpas ago, of that which is timeless, existed prior to (purva) the earliest being, and that it is the basis and foundation of each being, leading it to its self-awareness from the bottomless depths of life..."' - The Collected Works of Shinran: Reading Tools
Bodhisattva Dharmakara made 48 vows of which the 18th is known as the Primal Vow.
The Eighteenth Vow
If, when I attain Buddhahood, the sentient beings of the ten quarters, with sincere mind entrusting themselves, aspiring to be born in my land, and saying my Name perhaps even ten times, should not be born there, may I not attain the supreme enlightenment. Excluded are those who commit the five grave offenses and those who slander the right dharma.
Links:
How to Read the Tannisho: http://www.livingdharma.org/Tannisho/TannishoHowToRead.html
Dharmakara's 48 Vows: http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/48-bosatsu-vows.shtml
Primal Vow:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodo_Shinshu#Doctrine
Collected Works of Shinran: Reading Tools: http://www.shinranworks.com/readingtools/index.htm
3 comments:
Primal Vow (hongan) - The transcendental wish and prayer of the Buddha of Immeasurable Life and Light to bring all beings to supreme enlightenment, including the power to effect its successful realization in the midst of samsaric life.
-- from the Tannisho Glossary
The Five Transgressions - Killing father, mother, monk, injuring the Buddha, and creating schisms in the Sangha (Hinayana Buddhism); vandalizing temples, statues, and scriptures, slandering the teaching, obstructing religious practices, violating the five precepts and committing ten evils (Mahayana Buddhism). -- http://www.livingdharma.org/Tannisho/TannishoGlossary.html
Mastery over being difficult to save (i.e. committing the five transgressions and slandering the right dharma) is found by reading and contemplating Shinran's Kyogyo Shin Sho III:119-123.
Thus, chanting the Nembutsu (Namu-Amida-Butsu) is Buddha-Remembrance. The Nembutsu affirms Amida Buddha, his Buddha-dharma, the bodhisattva Dharmakara and his bodhisattva-dharma.
Regarding buddha-dharma and bodhisattva-dharma, Buddha-dharma are the teachings of the Buddha; and bodhisattva-dharma are the teachings of the Bodhisattva.
In the case of Amida Buddha and Dharmakara Bodhisattva, the three great works of Pure Land Buddhism are the teachings of the Buddha and the Bodhisattva.
These three works are:
The Amida Sutra, The Smaller Pure Land Sutra, and The Sutra on the Visualization of the Buddha of Infinite Lifespan.
Reference:
Mahayana Buddhist Sutras in English: http://www4.bayarea.net/~mtlee/
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