On October 19 we gathered on Zoom for the tenth session of “Warera: Shinran and Solidarity.” We covered “Notes on ‘Essentials of Faith Alone’” from CWS page 466 to the middle of page 467.
Shinran explained Shandao’s passage about not appearing wise and good when on self-reflection we see that we are pretty stupid and nasty at times. For the common people he was writing to, I don’t think performative religiosity was their problem as much as it was for the spiritual teachers they came in contact with. And Shinran was telling them he himself had to call out the monk cosplay he easily fell into due to his Mt. Hiei habits.
That passage along with the subsequent passages on breaking the precepts shows us how down to earth Shinran was in honestly describing his own corrupt tendencies which becomes a mirror for us to see our own moral failings. But rather than making us feel miserable, I felt the wording was full of Shinran’s joy at knowing there is a basis that supports his life and embraces him no matter how much he messes up. That basis is from the Larger Sutra – the aspiration that comes to us from beginningless time, deep in each of our beings – that realization that we are all together born in the realm of oneness.
In our discussion we had a chance to nit-pick about the CWS translation where Shinran contrasted the truth of nembutsu with the ko-ke of our heart/minds. CWS keeps saying “empty and transitory” but the “empty” part could be confused with the fundamental Buddhist principle of “emptiness.” “Vacuous and temporary” might make more sense – we’re so petty and vain over things of that have no consistent worth.
Like last month, I apologize for this rough summary. I remember we had good discussions of several points, but I’m finding it hard to write about them. I’m no longer on opioids but it’s hard to concentrate because of my back pain and worries about my mortality (the tests confirmed that my spine and liver have cancer metastasized from the breast cancer I had seven years ago).
I find some relief when I lay on my back in bed, so I’ve been reading books and watching a lot of movies on my smartphone. One movie that I want to promote to you is “No Other Land.” If you haven’t already seen it in theatres, you can now rent it from streaming services and the proceeds go towards helping the subjects of the documentary – the terrorized Palestinians living in the West Bank. Besides feeling empathy for the people being hounded from their homes, schools and farms, it is important to see that there are villains in real life. I can’t help feeling sorry for the young men and women soldiers and civilians who feel they must attack the Palestinian families as if they were insects to exterminate. What twisted education they must have received to have no sense of valuing living beings, the humans along with animals and plants. What cruel society brought them up to believe they are the only worthy people and everyone else needs to be wiped off the land they think they own. The documentary was filmed over four years from 2019 and ended in October 2023, so the horrors of Gaza are not shown but you already witness the genocidal attitude of the Zionists.
Thankfully there are some Buddhist groups who see the destruction of lives in the Palestinians lands and connect it to the larger forces working throughout history and globally. It’s not enough to see our own corrupt thoughts, words and actions – we have to see how groups with economic and political power have been oppressing all those they see as “less than.” The message of equality and respect in the Larger Sutra applies to all of us. The nembutsu calls to us but also calls through us to fulfill hongan, the innermost aspiration to awaken to oneness, throughout the world.
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