When we listen to the Dharma, we are not in an isolated chamber far from our troubles – the Dharma is coming to us in the midst of our personal struggles. But also, we receive the teachings with the same mind/body that we receive the current news of the world. So for this summary of our May 2 session, I can’t write about the Larger Sutra without thinking of the recent horrific killings – Jordan Neely to death on the New York City subway, the Asian and Latinx victims of the mall shooting in Allen, Texas and Banko Brown shot in San Francisco.
The essence of the Larger Sutra that Akegarasu and the other teachers are conveying to us is the complete repudiation of what motivated those murders. As the ultimate expression of Mahayana (“large vehicle”), the Pure Land teachings make us aware that all beings are to be equally respected and no one deserves to be killed because they are unhoused, dark-skinned, transgender, born outside the U.S., culturally non-European or a suspected shoplifter.
[Photo from SFist]
As Akegarasu points out in his “Miscellaneous Words” (page 201-203 in Shout of Buddha), some people want to sell Buddhism as a way of feeling good about oneself. He makes fun of those who claim, “Saying the nembutsu makes me feel relieved,” by responding, “When I fart, it makes me feel relieved.” In the Larger Sutra, the whole point of the Buddha telling the Dharmakara story to Ananda is for us to learn that true awakening means the awareness of our inextricable connections to all beings.
In other words, as the 48 vows repeat over and over, my enlightenment does not happen unless I consider all beings as enlightened together with me. But why does Dharmakara need 48 versions of this? My opinion is he is dealing with specific issues that get in the way for him to see all beings as enlightened – for someone else, there might be differently worded vows. So I feel it is helpful to read the vows one by one and think about how they point out particular prejudices Dharmakara is dealing with.
I won’t be going into each vow here in this blog, but here’s a few examples. The first vow is about how easily we condemn others to punishment, feeling that some people should literally “go to hell” for the things they did. The third vow is about skin color – keeping in mind that in the geographical area of the historical Buddha, there is a wide range of skin colors and unfortunately status and beauty standards are based on “lighter the better.” If we can appreciate all colors as looking like gold, then our enlightenment is inclusive of all beings. References to divine eyes, ears and feet are meant to get us to look beyond the limitations of our senses and know that beings can see, hear and move about in many ways not dependent on being able-bodied.
The key vow on these two pages (vows 1-13) is the 11th vow. For Shinran, he witnessed the fulfillment of this vow in the community of Honen’s followers and later in the developing sanghas throughout eastern Japan. Rather than taking a guru’s stance of “I’m enlightened and you’re not, so I gotta teach you,” Shinran saw in Honen’s embrace of people the recognition that everyone is in the truly settled stage and will inevitably attain nirvana. This vow is followed by the 12th and 13th vows that define the name “Amida” – the infinite Light (symbolizing wisdom and pervading through all of space) Amitabha and the immeasurable Life (symbolizing compassion pervading through all of time) Amitayus. For each of us, enlightenment cannot be such a localized, momentary event, so we aspire to awaken to what is all around and all through time.
Coming back from the group tour of Japan, following Shinran’s footsteps from Kyoto to Niigata and through Nagano, I felt it was very inspiring to know how Shinran traveled so widely and encountered hundreds of people he came to see as fellow travelers, seeking the Way. Reading the Larger Sutra reminds us that Shinran’s inspiration came from the aspiration expressed in the Dharmakara story – hongan riki, the power of the innermost aspiration to awaken to oneness.
