On June 21 we had our sixth session of discussing “Notes on the Inscriptions on Sacred Scrolls” (Songō shinzō meimon). We looked at the section CWS 502-3 where Shinran comments on the inscription accompanying a portrait of Tanluan.
It seems all Shinran is doing is explaining what the Chinese biographer wrote about Tanluan. Those details of Tanluan’s life are familiar to those of you who regularly read and study Shoshinge. But I wondered why Shinran doesn’t go into the teachings of Tanluan in this passage but only shows Tanluan was brilliant, learned and highly respected.
My feeling is he has already spoken much to his audience about Tanluan. Maybe it was practically all the time that Shinran says what he’s telling them is what he learned from Tanluan’s explanation of Vasubandhu’s commentary on the Larger Sutra.
As I mentioned last month, at the Higashi Honganji ministers study retreat in Los Angeles, Prof. Takami Inoue spoke about Vasubandhu and Tanluan. Vasubandhu brought out the metaphorical meanings of the Larger Sutra and Tanluan continued that discussion of the Pure Land symbolizing the world of equality and liberation. Inoue-sensei defined “shinjin” as the awareness of not just being embraced by Great Compassion but experiencing our participation in bringing that compassion to the world. He showed that the message Shinran took away from Tanluan’s analysis is that all are included in the Pure Land – that there is no condition you have to meet to qualify for liberation. It was this reassurance of total inclusiveness that probably took Tanluan out of the physical and mental illness he had hoped Taoism would cure.
The “adornments of the Pure Land” are commonly evoked for explaining the fancy gold ornaments around the temple altar and even includes the ministers in their shiny robes. But as I learned from the minister study retreats, the Pure Land adornments described in the sutras are symbols for virtues - “wonderful spiritual qualities” as in Michael Conway’s translation. The “transference of merit” is actually our witnessing and being guided by the virtues of those before and around us. I mentioned that I’ve experienced this in temple sanghas but also in reading accounts such as the Thomas Merton book I’m reading now where he describes the various people who helped him in his somewhat wayward youth.
[Great Compassion at the Northwest Detention Center]
In these blog posts I try to highlight people with wonderful spiritual qualities, those who are doing the shinjin actions of compassion. Due to the repressive law enforcement system going after so-called “terrorists,” I decided not to name her because she’s not a public figure. I’ll call her “Daihi” for now. I first became acquainted with her online as she was working to get Japanese Americans to support the Black reparations campaign. Then I met her in person at the Liberation Obon in September 2024 at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. As part of the group La Resistencia, she is constantly calling attention to the abusive conditions at that GEO Group facility. She is often part of the daily vigil there. Her activism reminds us that all these struggles are interrelated. The descendants of the enslaved and those severely discriminated against should get reparations for the loss of generational wealth and how those historical factors still put many at a disadvantage now. Those in the detention centers are going through a painful disruption in their lives caused by the same racism and hate that drove the system of slavery. Besides the many incarcerated people of Latin American heritage, there are many abducted by ICE and CBP for being outspoken about the genocide in Gaza. All of these injustices and more are what Shinran sees coming from our calculating minds of discrimination. What Shinran received from the Pure Land sutras and the analysis of Vasubandhu and Tanluan is that spiritual awakening is not only for those who meet certain criteria but it is embracing all of us. Great Compassion “Daihi” reminds us that all of us are together in the Pure Land and we must confront and try to heal any suffering caused to one another.
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