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.
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?
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