Study Group April 2026 Session

 

On April 19 we had our fourth session of discussing “Notes on the Inscriptions on Sacred Scrolls” (Songō shinzō meimon). We looked at the section CWS 499-500 where Shinran comments on an inscription on a scroll which depicted Nagarjuna, the Dharma teacher which all Mahayana sects consider as their first “high-monk” (literal for kōsō since I want to avoid the term “patriarch”).

 

By highlighting this particular quote, Shinran is letting his audience know that the eminent teacher is advocating what they are already doing – being mindful of the support and virtues coming to them through the nembutsu. We and they don’t have to get into the complex philosophical concepts Nagarjuna is known for among Buddhist scholars and teachers in other sects. It is enough for us to enter the stage of definitely settled by entrusting ourselves to the power beyond our ego-selves.

 

And it is not Nagarjuna on a high perch looking down on poor incompetent people saying, “Your only hope is to do nembutsu because you don’t have the smarts and physical strength for elite practices.” Nagarjuna uses the first person singular “I” in his verse “I take refuge” just as in his Junirai, he repeatedly says “Therefore I bow down in respect to Amida.” Shinran wants us to know we are in the same definitely settled crowd as the great teachers.

 

I quibbled about CWS saying “the Buddha will appear” when it is tathagata, nyorai, “thusness coming.” We have the appearance of this thusness coming at us in our teachers, the texts, events and various living beings (such as the cats who appear on our Zoom call).

 

In our discussion about “entrusting,” a question was raised about how Shinran uses the term “doubt” in contrast to “trust.” I feel the English term is misleading because we use “doubt” in the sense of questioning the truth of something and this continual examination is what we do as Buddhists, especially questioning our own judgments. Shinran used the term gi, utagai, in the sense of being full of reliance on our own self-serving view as opposed to being aware of reality. One example is this gi Shinran says is when we believe in reward and punishment – “I should be rewarded and those other guys should be punished” – when the reality of unbounded compassion is that all beings are embraced, no matter how much we or they messed up.

 

 

[Screenshot of singing protesters in Japan]

 

I know I’m not the only one trying to keep my hopes up during this time of awful stuff going on in the world and all around us. I feel some inspiration from the social media reports of the huge crowds of protesters in the cities of Japan. They are spurred to protest their own government trying to be more militaristic, but in the protests there are also calls for “Free Palestine” and ‘”Stop the War with Iran.” The young folks have their chants and pop/rock music but at various locations I saw the middle aged and older people are singing the song “Do You Hear the People Singing?” from the musical Les Miserables. The Japanese version is based mainly on the English lyrics rather than the original French, but to me the lyrics sound more universal and relevant than the English version. I know after the “no kings” marches and other demonstrations, some critics say nothing changes from people singing and dancing, yet I think we need songs to remind us to fight for freedom and equality. Isn’t that what the nembutsu is calling us to do?

 

Study Group March 2026 Session

On March 29 we had our third session of discussing “Notes on the Inscriptions on Sacred Scrolls” (Songō shinzō meimon). We looked at the section CWS 497-499 on Bodhisattva Mahāsthāmaprāta (which after pronouncing the Sanskrit once, I only used the Japanese version Dai-seishi which is also easier to type). In many pictures and sculptures, Amida Buddha is depicted flanked by the two bodhisattvas, Avalokiteśvara (Jpn. Kannon) and Dai-seishi. And while Kannon is mentioned a ton of times in many sutras and commentaries, Dai-seishi is hardly referenced outside the inscription from the Suramgama Sutra on the scroll Shinran cites.

 

My theory for why Shinran wants to highlight Dai-seishi for his audience is to show Buddhism is about the powerful strength of wisdom and not just the warm fuzzy embrace of compassion.  For his fellow travelers on the Pure Land path, he wanted to let them know that there’s something strong and dynamic in their spiritual liberation despite how society demeans them as weak and passive. The Other Power symbolized by Amida expresses itself as both Kannon (unbounded Life) and Dai-seishi (infinite Light).

 

Shinran in his commentary brings the text from its general sense of extolling meditation (samadhi) to a specific exhortation for the vocal nembutsu. Where the text says awakening (satori) will naturally occur without depending on expedient means, Shinran says that with jinen (inevitability) other practices are not needed at all.

 

We discussed how many Jodo Shinshu ministers (especially the ones from Japan) talk of shinjin as something everyone can just jump into from square one and anyone who indulges in practices besides reciting nembutsu is suspected of being a self-power addict. In the section we read, it is clear that Shinran is not dismissing other practices as bad, but only pointing out that awakening can happen without depending on them. I can speak for the converts by saying I needed to do a lot of other practices in order to realize the efficacy of the nembutsu and my overestimation of my abilities.

 

We talked about how the phrase “Come as you are” can be misleading as a motto for Jodo Shinshu temples. It is meant to be welcoming, telling people there are no pre-requisites for becoming a member. But often it is interpreted as “I don’t need to do anything because Amida accepts me like I am, sitting on my hands and saying nothing.” But the motto comes from the White Path Parable when the traveler is told to “come immediately,” that is, get your rear in gear without overthinking about how to make yourself look good. It signifies a forward movement towards life itself, propelled by the wisdom that breaks through your preconceived notions. The nembutsu is a call to be engaged with reality, to participate in the working of hongan, the most basic aspiration to recognize all lives in one’s existence.

[photo from The Australian]

I wanted to highlight someone who is like Dai-seishi (“great arriving at strength”) and I thought of Susan Abulhawa, who I saw interviewed on the Bad Faith podcast of March 19 on YouTube. She was in the news because people were criticizing the New York City mayor’s wife for providing illustrations for a book to which Abulhawa contributed. The critics were concerned with Abulhawa’s statements criticizing Israel (calling its people “parasites” and various beasts) so the mayor spoke to distance himself and his wife from Abulhawa. On the Bad Faith podcast, Abulhawa spoke eloquently of why she uses those terms for people who do cruel things such as (what she witnessed as a child) making two little boys spit in each other’s mouths like a soccer match in order for a group of children to pass through a checkpoint. Her novel Mornings in Jenin describes the decades of violence and humiliations that the Palestinians have been subjected to.

 

Buddhism teaches us to respect all beings equally but that teaching also tells us to catch ourselves and others thinking, saying and doing things that do not recognize the dignity of all beings. Right now is not the time to only sit silently while children and adults throughout the world are being murdered and maimed by weapons and by deprivation. As individuals there is not much we can do alone but the nembutsu calls us into community and into the actions of wisdom and compassion.