On September 21 we gathered on Zoom for the ninth session of “Warera: Shinran and Solidarity.” We covered “Notes on ‘Essentials of Faith Alone’” from CWS page 463 bottom “To rejoice” to page 465.
I started out saying it is hard right now to feel the spiritual joy that Shinran expresses with all that’s going on around us and in our personal lives. But then I said Shinran lived during very tumultuous times – clan battles, famine, plague, earthquakes etc. and maybe not the most harmonious family life, but he felt that on the deepest level of our being, to know that we all are included in the embrace of unbounded light and life is a reason to feel joyous.
We talked about feeling this joy in our body as well as in our heart/mind such as in the Bon Odori dances that came out of the nembutsu odori movement. Last year the Techno-Hoyo group from Japan stopped in several American cities and hearing the beat of the music, people, young and old, couldn’t help but get on their feet and dance.
Dancing is one way to get out of our calculating minds and feel alive but for most of us in the West, we think of religious salvation (i.e. enlightenment) as something we have to earn, to be worthy of. Becoming aware of our inclusion in the buddhas’ awakening is one of the most difficult of difficulties because it goes against our conditioning that “good things” only go to those who worked for them (for example, the Americans’ reluctance to adopt things like universal health care, accessible public transportation, housing for all and free college is because we don’t want “those lazy people” to enjoy these benefits).
In the passage we covered is an example of Shinran’s creative interpretation of traditional texts. Where Shandao seems to say shinjin is not complete if one of the three minds of the Contemplation Sutra is missing, Shinran asserts that shinjin is complete if there is the One Mind, the wholehearted focus on the powerful aspiration to include all beings in awakening. Shinran shifts attention away from the Contemplation Sutra/Shandao strand of Honen’s disciples to the Larger Sutra/Vasubandhu-Tanluan strand of the One Mind that includes the triple aspects of the 18th vow.
Lastly we looked at how Shinran feels birth in the Pure Land happens eventually for everyone although right now many of us feel stuck on the periphery (borderland, inside the womb-caste or lotus). The description of the “almost there” images reminds us also that although we see so many examples of people we would like to exclude from the Pure Land, they all will get there at some point.
I couldn’t think of any one person to highlight this month, so I want to praise all the people in the Chicago area who have been coming out to protest the ICE raids. At the Broadview detention center they’ve been met with tear gas, pepper bombs and spray and physical violence (notably male agents beating up on women). Other protest locations include the site in Franklin Park where a man was killed by ICE agents. There are similar actions going on in all the cities, large and small, where ICE and CBP are grabbing people they deem as “illegals” and unleashing violence against those who protest these actions.
Last month I wrote about how I admire the disability activists who take action despite their physical limitations. Now I wonder for as little as I’ve done if I’ll be able to do anything because this week I experienced excruciating pain from a bone fracture. My brain is foggy enough but right now I’m writing this doped up on opioids. There are some tests I need to do for my doctor to diagnose my condition but he said there is a possibility my spine and liver may have cancer metastasized from my breast cancer of seven years ago. I shouldn’t be alarmist because I don’t want worrying about my mortality to overshadow the things I can still do, joining with you all in the fight against the dehumanization and destruction in the world.
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