Discovering Your True Life – Summary of Topic #4 in the Treasured Teachings monthly series

On June 27, 2020 on Zoom we watched the lecture “The Role of the Teacher in Zen and Jodo Shinshu,” a presentation by Prof. Melissa Curley of the analysis of Kyoto School philosopher Keta Masako. Prof. Curley said in Keta’s view, the difference between Zen and Shinshu is in Zen the teacher acts as a wall – challenging the student to go over him, while in Shin the teacher serves as a window – the person becoming transparent so the student sees the rich transmission behind him.

For Shinran, all the teachers in his Magnificent Seven scheme are windows, allowing him to see through to the essence of the Buddha’s teachings. In Topic #3, I talked of the Mahayana rebellion, that Nagarjuna had to wrestle the true message of universal awakening away from the clutches of those who wanted to make Buddhist institutions for elites only. Now in this topic, we looked at Tanluan (476-572) who was attracted intellectually to Buddhist philosophy but encountered the living truth of Buddhism only after he was faced with a life-threatening illness.

He abandoned the useless metaphysics of Buddhism and sought the magic formulas for regaining health in Taoism (not the Western idea of Taoism as a purely philosophical path). He happened to encounter Bodhiruci, a monk from Central Asia, bringing Buddhist texts to the Chinese. Bodhiruci showed him the Pure Land teachings of Vasubandhu who focused on the Larger Sukhavativyuha Sutra. In Vasubandhu’s commentary, Tanluan received the awakening to the truth of each life is a part of the Unbounded Life (Amitayus) and Light (Amitabha). He no longer felt anxious about whether and when his illness would terminate his individual life and in his zeal to spread the Pure Land teachings he recovered and went on to live several more years. I said it was like Mr. Noboru Sanwo of Kingsburg, California who was told his cancer would kill him within six months but he lived another ten years once he found the clear presentation of Shinran’s teachings in the works of Shuichi Maida. He became friends with Rev. Gyoko Saito who was a brother-disciple with Maida in Akegarasu’s group. I was fortunate to sit in on one of the study sessions Mr. Sanwo held for people in the Fresno area to discuss Maida’s works and the urgent concerns they each had about hearing the Buddha’s teachings of transcending ego-attachment.

Right now in isolation due to the coronavirus lockdown, it’s hard for me to relate to Tanluan’s joy of giving up the idea of an individual self for the experience of being interconnected to all lives. There’s much to learn from Tanluan so I wait to see him through the window provided by Shinran in the Kyogyoshinsho which I can only look through when given the chance by translators such as Nobuo Haneda (weekly Maida Center class) and Michael Conway (monthly ministers seminar) on the internet these days.