In our January 17, 2023 session, we read the second half of the Tan Butsu Ge (aka San Butsu Ge) in Section 5 of the Larger Sutra along with “Kingdom of the First”
(Shout of Buddha pp. 125-126).
This blog post will be a bit disjointed since that’s how my mind is these days, dealing with some physical and mental health issues.
The last verse in the first half of Tan Butsu ge has the “all shook up” expression of Dharmakara – he feels the whole universe shaking because of the wisdom-light coming from Lokesvararaja. This leads to the transition of Dharmakara going from just praising his teacher to vowing to become like his teacher. In religion there’s a lot of praising going on, but the true teachers don’t want to hear praise – they hope to get us off our butts and go forth like they have gone forth, leaving their old complacent lifestyles behind.
During the class, I mentioned being impressed by a local Catholic activist but I couldn’t remember her name. Later that evening I remembered she is Kathy Kelly (see photo below) who is still very active and lives in the temple’s neighborhood (Uptown Chicago). What impressed me about her when I attended a talk she gave at a nearby church is how she comes across as a very humble person who respects everyone, including those who oppose her actions and words. I feel she seems like the Bodhisattva ideal – doing what she sees that needs to be done (such as bringing medicine to embargoed countries) but without any stridency of being the one who is absolutely right.
The Akegarasu article refers to the line in Tan Butsu Ge: koku-do dai-ichi “country-land of number one.” But SBTS* fudges that in their translation using “exquisite” instead of the sense of being the “most noble one” which includes recognizing each being as a “first one.”
*SBTS=Shin Buddhism Translation Series , what we call the “blue book” but it’s not much different from the Numata series translation since both are based on Hisao Inagaki’s work.
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