Your Deepest Wish – Sutra Study Class Session 10

At the March 7, 2023 session, we went over the third paragraph of Section 6 of the Larger Sutra and read the poem “In Praise of the Original Vow” from Shout of Buddha.

 

I’m very late (3 weeks) writing this review of the class but a lot is going on that makes me wonder why I’m not trying to fulfill my deepest wish with the determination of the person emptying the ocean using a “pail” (the sutra has the character 升 which in the graphic the current Chinese measurement sheng is under two pints).

 

It is this metaphor that inspires Akegarasu to write his poem. In the session I said he’s really on fire here. Although for the longest time translators used “vow,” with Rev. Saito, it made more sense to talk of “wish.” (In the session I mentioned D.T. Suzuki used “prayer” because he wanted to indicate the fervent feeling.) I was always put off by the use of “vow” – it sounds too much like someone else’s promise not like something coming from me (don’t get me started on my experience with wedding vows). But to use “wish” makes sense in seeing how Akegarasu identifies with the Dharmakara story in the Larger Sutra. From seeing his teacher’s earnest seeking, he knew hongan has to indicate one’s own innermost desire, a desire that the Buddha found in himself and wants to awaken in each person by telling this story.

 

In the poem Akegarasu says not to let the wish get covered up by what is going on around you and don’t even let the pleas of family and friends deter you. In the ultimate sense, the wish is for the liberation of all of us and not simply a selfish pursuit.

 

Rev. Saito and Joan Sweany did not translate a couple terms – hodo and gwando. “Gwan” is the old romanization for “gan” but you still see that spelling, particularly on the temples in Hawaii (“Hongwanji”).  The “do” in both terms is “land” like in Pure Land, but I like to think of it more as “soil, earth, ground.” The term “hodo” is defined as “recompense land,” whatever that is supposed to mean. It was pointed out in the session that in Native American beliefs, the land rewards us for taking good care of it – so maybe that is what “recompense” could mean. The wish as the ground we stand on will be fulfilled if we take care of it with the determination of one who empties the ocean.

 

I will attest that Rev. Saito had that kind of determination despite all the circumstances in Chicago, Los Angeles and Honolulu that hampered his quest. I would like to believe his wish is continuing to be fulfilled as his work touches each of us. For him in order to bring that deepest wish for the liberation of all beings to fulfillment, he had to do all he could to bring Akegarasu’s teachings to the English-speaking world, so that through his teacher we can find access to the deep meaning of the Larger Sutra and Shinran’s commentaries. It would be his wish that I be a part of that fulfillment, but these days I feel too mentally sick and physically weak and just want to put the pail down.