At the April 4, 2023 session, we read the last part of Section 6 of the Larger Sutra and read “Fireside Chat” from Shout of Buddha. As a way for Dharmakara to know himself, the teacher Lokesvararaja exposes him to several different Buddha-lands with beings of various characteristics. What I think we should see is that it is Dharmakara who sees the beings as bad vs. good, coarse vs. refined etc. And this passage is about Lokesvararaja guiding him to question why he judges beings so readily on criteria based on his self-interests.
In the Buddha’s time and up to today, there are many people who go about their lives in societies that are fairly homogeneous – in physical appearance as well as cultural beliefs and habits. I read somewhere not too long ago that 40% of white Americans say they have little or no interaction with non-white people in their daily lives. It could be the people in small towns and rural areas, but also people who live in very affluent suburbs. I remember going to see Japanese friends who just moved to Deerfield and when I got on the train it freaked me out seeing all the passengers were white except me in that car. That was in the 1980s but I hear even though Deerfield has a significant Asian population now, some of the nearby suburbs are overwhelmingly populated by high-income whites. And then there is the historic case in the United States where whites lived alongside the indigenous people and enslaved Africans but regarded them as too inferior to treat as fellow human beings.
So in that context, I believe one reason the Pure Land teachings spread in central Asia (current day countries north and west of India such as Pakistan and Afghanistan) is because along the Silk Road, the merchants and other professions supporting trade from China to Europe, came into contact regularly with people who not only looked different but had different cultures and faiths. They were drawn to a teaching that spoke about inclusiveness and how to confront the mental barriers that keep us from seeing all peoples as our equals.
It is a shame that the current authoritarian commentators talk of “diversity, equity and inclusion” as a disastrous policy that leads to poorly skilled non-white people getting jobs and promotions that their white counterparts were more qualified for. The Pure Land teachings recognize the fact of diversity and how we fail to recognize that others should be included and seen as equal. It may seem petty that people will judge others as incompetent or criminal simply based on their hairstyle, clothes and speech, but Dharmakara realizes he needs to spell out all those petty ways he judges people as not being deserving of spiritual liberation.
Our biases are not easy to recognize and overcome so it should be noted that “five kalpas” was a pretty long time for Dharmakara to examine his heart/mind. But something preceded the Buddha and it arose up within to make him seek the way of diversity, equity and inclusion – that something is hongan, that intergenerational aspiration for awakening to the wholeness of life.
In the English translation of “Fireside Chat” I felt something of Joan Sweany’s feeling of being marginalized, judged by the society of her time as being “less than” because she was an unmarried woman of a “certain age,” with intellectual interests instead of domestic skills. As she expressed in her introduction to “Shout of Buddha” she was so grateful and joyful to have encountered the nembutsu teachings through Rev. Saito talking of his teacher Akegarasu. I think the Pure Land teachings make sense when we can identify with the people being marginalized rather than thinking we deserve to be in the company of the elites. It is what Shinran learned from Honen – that we can experience oneness when we know all beings must be included in awakening. Awakening has to be the acceptance of diversity – that each being, no matter how different they are from us, is “alone most noble.”
[Instagram post from Dr. Bernice King, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.]
