after 'Buddhism of Compassion' by Rev. Josho Adrian Cirlea

     I

   If we look to one’s life we notice that, regardless of its colours, joys, fulfillments or troubles, there are several fundamental phenomena which occur and no one can escape them: illness, aging and death. These three phenomena will eventually affect us, whether we are aware of them or not.

   “Not in the heaven, not in the middle of the ocean, not in the mountain caves: there is no place in this world were death cannot find you.”

   Buddhism regards existence as having three main characteristics, namely: impermanence, suffering and the absence of ego. We will detail the last, later; now i propose we concentrate on the former ones.

   Buddha states that everything is impermanent and in continuous change. Nothing lasts forever. Everyone observes this reality projected in his life. I am not referring only at aging or death but all the things we are involved in. We wish that everything would last forever: our health, our pleasures, our happiness, our love, the affection of others, etc. But yet we feel that these things are slipping through our fingers and we do not enjoy them as much as we’d like to. So we get to suffering which is the other main characteristic of the existence. Given that we do not get what we want and everything is permanently changing, this state of facts will generate suffering. “Everything is suffering”, states Buddha. In Buddhism we speak of five fundamental types of suffering related to:

1. Birth

2. Illness

3. Aging

4. Death

5. The separation from the pleasant things

6. The association with the unpleasant

7. Unfulfilment of desires

8. The sufferings associated with the five constituents of human beings[1].
to which we might add other smaller or bigger types according to one’s hopes.

   After attaining the Enlightement, Shakyamuni Buddha spoke about the Four Noble Truths. These are considered to be the basis of every Buddhist school and their main theme is suffering.

In presenting the Four Noble Truths, Buddha analyses just like a doctor who observes his patient (the human being) and tries to define the illness (the first truth), finds the cause (the second truth), states how it can be cured (the third truth) and prescribes a receipt (the fourth truth).

The Noble Truth of Suffering:
“Birth is suffering, decay is suffering, disease is suffering, death is suffering, to be separated from the pleasant is suffering, not to get what one desires is suffering. In brief all the experiences made with the body and mind, which have craving as their base, are suffering.”

The Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering:
“It is this craving which produces rebirth[2], accompanied by passionate clinging, welcoming this and that. It is the craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence and craving for non-existence.”

The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering:
“It is thecomplete separation from, and destruction of, this very craving, its forsaking, renunciation, the liberation therefrom, and non-attachment thereto.”

The Noble Truth of the Path leading to the Cessation of Suffering:
“It is this Noble Eightfold Path – namely:

Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.”

   The Eightfold Path contains the following sequences (or divisions): right understanding and right thought; these first two elements of the path are grouped together Wisdom. Right speech, right action and right livelihood represent ethics or moral commitment. Right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration represent the spiritual practice.

   Now let us concentrate on the second Noble Truth which states that there is an origin of suffering, namely craving or desire. In the following lines, strongly reffering to this craving or “thirst”, I will shortly explain the Buddhist teaching regarding man.     I will start this explanation with a very sugestive parable from the Buddhist literature. In former days the image of a cart was easily used, but as we are now living in a modern age we will use the image of an automobile. So, imagine you have a car in front of you. Now imagine you loosen one of the wheels and you put it aside. Is the car identical with this wheel? Then take another wheel and proceed in the same way, asking yourselves the same question. Continue in dissembling the car and do not stop till each component of the automobile is taken away. Now ask yourselves again: do all these components taken separately represent the automobile? You will logicaly realize the answer is “no”. So what really is the vehicle? A name given to an ensemble of elements taken together. What is the man from a Buddhist point of wiev? An ensemble of elements gathered at a given moment. These elements are represented by ideas, sensations, feelings, thoughts, etc. All these united represent the human being. This explanation must be kept in mind if we want to understand Buddhism. The man is not something all by itself but an ensemble of various sensations, feelings, ideas, thoughts etc united at a given moment. The fundamental characteristic of this ensemble is tranzition, dynamism. When looking at a man one will see an image of this motion, an image of this ensemble in continuous movement. If one looked at that person when he/she was three years old one wouldn’t have seen the same thing. This is because at that time you observed another aspect of the motion. The components of the personality would have had another aspect and a different form. After twenty years you’ll see, for instance, another John, George or Mike. Something is still preserved but at the same time something changes. I am not identical with my three years old self, and in twenty years time I won’t be completely the same with the one I am now. In Buddhism this is called the non-ego doctrine, which we’ve talked about in the beginning when we said that it was the third characteristic of existence, together with impermanence and suffering. All things exists due to causes and conditions, thus they have no nature of their own or an unchanged identity. This is why they are said to be empty. When causes and conditions come together a certain thing exists, when they dissapear, that thing also dissapears. When causes and conditions change that thing changes too.

“Since all things in the phenomenal world are brought into being by the combination of various causes and conditions, they are relative and without substantiality or self-entity. From the transcendental viewpoint, this absence of self-entity is called emptiness; from the phenomenal viewpoint, it is called dependent generation, and is the central doctrine of Buddhism that denies the existence of any form of eternal or substantial being. When applied to sentient beings’ endless lives in Samsara, it becomes the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination[3].” (Seekers Glossary of Buddhism) These are described in the following way:

1. Through IGNORANCE are conditioned

2. VOLITIONAL ACTIONS or KARMA FORMATIONS. Through volitional actions is conditioned

3. CONSCIOUSNESS Through consciousness are conditioned

4. MENTAL and PHYSICAL PHENOMENA Through mental and physical phenomena are conditioned

5. THE SIX FACULTIES which correspond to the five sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body) and the mind. Through the six faculties is conditioned

6. SENSORIAL and MENTAL CONTACT[4] Through sensorial and mental contact is conditioned

7. SENSATION Through sensation is conditioned

8. DESIRE, THIRST Through thirst is conditioned

9. CLINGING Through clinging is conditioned

10. THE PROCESS OF BECOMING Through the process of becoming is conditioned

11. BIRTH Through birth are conditioned

12. Decay, sorrow, lamentation, pain, despair, OLD AGE and DEATH.

Now let us observe another matter. What is causing this ensemble to move? Buddhism’s answer is: desire and craving (thirst). Our different desires and tendencies determine us to move towards one direction or another, they change our personal history and generate the karma, the action. Karma is the law of cause and effect. The term karma comes from the sanskrit word “karman” which means action; acting with thought, deed and word. As a conclusion, there are three types of karma: karma of thought, of speech and karma of action or body. All that we think, speak or do will affect our personal history. What we are now represents the result of what we thought, said or did in the past, in another lifetime or in the present life; and what we think, speak and do in the present will create us in the future. We’ve said that the man is in continuous change and that after ten years, for example, he is not identical with the one he is today. We’ve said that although he is not the same, something still remains; well, this something is the causal continuity. When a man sets a stack on fire and the fire extends to the whole village and burns down the house of another peasant situated at the opposite side of the village, the first peasant could say that he has nothing to do with this disaster for the fire which burnt the house of the second peasant is not identical with the flame he used for setting his straws on fire. But there is a causal continuity between the first fire and the one which burnt the second peasant’s house. This is how things are concerning the karma. The ensemble in continuous motion, the man, is moved by a desire which generates karma. We are the result of our own karma. Karma may last forever and determines our birth in another life. So we have arrived to what is called reincarnation. But from the Buddhist point of wiev a more appropiate word would be rebirth. When using the term reincarnation it is implied the idea that there would be a self dependent, uncheangable thing which passes from one body to another. But we have underlined in our presentation that the ensemble named man is in continuous motion and trasnformation. So the word rebirth is more adequate. A man in his usual life dies and reborns permanently, according to the changes, the tendencies and the desires which occur. We’ve given earlier the example with the age of three years and twenty years. Physically our cells change every seven years, so we are not even physically the same. The moment we die, our personal karma determines the form and the vehicle, that is the body which the being will have in the next birth. Our desires need a vehicle to follow them and fulfill them in another life. The background where we will be born in another life and tha shape we will have depend on the karma. Buddha states that not even a single man can escape his karma.

The doctrine of karma teaches us that we are completely responsible of what we represent and of what we will become. Nobody besides us, be it god, man or any other being, can be held responsible. We deserve what happens to us, even if it is hard to accept that.

Shakyamuni Buddha once told a parable to his disciples, named “The Four Wives”.

“Once there was a man who had four wives. He had became very ill and was about to die. At the end of his life, he felt very lonely and so asked the first wife to accompany him to the other world.

‘My dear wife’, he said, ‘I loved you day and night, I took care of you throughout my whole life. Now I am about to die. Will you please go with me wherever I go after my death?’

He expected her to answer yes. But she answered, ‘My dear husband, I know you always loved me. And you are going to die. Now it is time to separate from you. Goodbye, my dear.'

He called the second wife to his sickbed and begged her to follow him in death. He said, ‘ My dear second wife, you know how I loved you. Sometimes I was afraid you might leave me, but I held on to you strongly. My dear, please come with me’.

The second wife expressed herself rather coldly. ‘Dear husband, your first wife refused to accompany you after your death. How can I follow you? You loved me only for your own selfish sake.’

Lying in his deathbed, he called his third wife and asked her to follow him. The third wife replied, with tears in her eyes, ‘ My dear, I pity you and I feel sad for myself. Therefore I shall accompany you to the graveyard. This is my last duty to you’. The third wife thus also refused to follow him to death.

Three wives had refused to follow him after his death. Now he recalled that there was another wife, his fourth wife, for whom he didn’t care very much. He had treated her like a slave and had always showed much displeasure with her. He now thought that if he asked her to follow him to death, she certainly would say no.

But his loneliness and fear were so severe that he made the effort to ask her to accompany him to the other world. The fourth wife gladly accepted her husband’s request.

‘My dear husband’, she said, ‘I will go with you. Whatever happens, I am determined to be with you forever. I cannot be separated from you’.

This is the story of ‘A Man and His Four Wives’.

Buddha concluded the story as follows:

‘Every man and woman has four wives or husbands. What do these wives signify?” (Thus Have I Heard – Buddhist Parables and Stories)

The first ‘wife’ is our body which we love day and night. In the morning we wash him on the face, we put clothing on him and shoes. We offer him food and take care of him like the first wife from the story but unfortunately he cannot follow us after death.

The second wife represents our wealth, the material things, money, properties, fame, social position and the job for which we work so hard to obtain and keep. None of these can follow us after death too. We came into this world empty handed. During our life we have the illusion that we obtained a fortune but in the moment of death our hands are again empty. We cannot keep our possesions and success after death in the same way the second wife told her husband: “ You hold me because of your selfishness, but now is time for us to depart.”

What can be understood by the third wife? All people have a third wife. She represents the relations we have with our parents, brothers and sisters, all the relatives, friends and society in general. They will accompany us with tears in their eyes as far as the graveyard, they will be sorry for us and will be sad, but they canot help us with more than that.

The fourth wife is the only one who accompanies the man after death. This is our karma which follows us wherever we go, like a a faitfull wife.

   The question which probably many people ask themselves, is wether this karma can be changed, if Buddhism recognise the existence of free will. Yes, the man can improve his karma although the karmic tendencies from the past (this life or the others) might burden very much his spiritual evolution, which we can see from the following pages. Now I will relate another two parables related with the things I have just said.

   In a time long past, there was an old monk who, through diligent practice, had attained some spiritual powers. He had an eight year old disciple called Sakmi.

“One day the monk looked at the boy’s face and saw there that he would die within the next few months. Saddened by this, he told the boy to take a long holiday and go and visit his parents. ‘Take your time’, said the monk, ‘Don’t hurry back’. For he felt the boy should be with his familly when he died. Three months later, to his astonishment, the monk saw the boy walking back up the mountain. When he arrived he looked intently at his face and saw that the boy would now live to a ripe old age. ‘Tell me everything that happened while you were away’, said the monk. So the boy started to tell of his journey down from the mountain. He told of villages and towns he passed through, of rivers forded and mountains climbed. Then he told how one day he came upon a stream in flood. He noticed, as he tried to pick his way across the flowing stream, that a colony of ants had become trapped on a small island formed by the flooding stream. Moved by compassion for thes poor creatures, he took a branch of a tree and laid it across one flow of the stream until it touched the little island. As the ants made their way across, the boy held the branch steady, until he was sure all the ants had escaped to dry land. Then he went on his way. ‘So’, thought the old monk to himself, ‘that is why his life has been lenghened.” (Thus Have I Heard – Buddhist Parables and Stories)

The deeds we do moved by compassion will change our life in a better way but the deeds rooted in wickedness will affect it negativelly.

It is said in the Dhammapada: “If one speaks or acts with wicked mind, because of that, suffering follows one, even as the wheel follows the hoof of the draught-ox. If one speaks or acts with pure mind, because of that, happiness follows one, even as one’s shadow that never leaves.”

    People often ask themselves why some persons which live an immoral life or without carring about others, have no problem and nothing bad occurs to them. Visakha, one of the disciples of Buddha, speaks about such people in the following story:

“When a certain bhikkhu was standing at the door for alms, my father-in-law was eating sweet milk rice-porridge, ignoring him. Thinking to myself that my father-in-law, without performing any good deed in this life, is only consuming the merits of past deeds, I told the bhikkhu: ‘Pass on Venerable Sir, my father-in-law is eating stale fare.” (Thus Have I Heard – Buddhist Parables and Stories)

    We often meet with people who indulge in consuming “stale fare”; they are those persons whose karma have manifested in a positive way since childhood – rich parents, material advantages, health, etc. – but who are doing nothing else than consuming these fruits which comes from the merits accumulated in other life. However, when the influence of past merits will come to an end, if they are not supplemented with other good and compassionate deeds but with egoism and wickedness, their fall will become inevitable. Dhammapada says: ”The evil deed does not give fruits immediatelly, like the milk which does not curdles as soon as it is milked; it follows the foolish man like the fire which smoulder under the ashes.” The consequences of our good or bad deeds follows us in this life or in the next.

“Thro many a birth in existence wandered I,

Seeking, but not finding, the builder of this house.

Sorrowful is repeated birth.

O housebuilder[5], thou art seen. Thou shalt build no house[6] again.

All thy rafters[7] are broken. Thy ridge-pole[8] is shattered.

Mind attains the Unconditioned[9].

Achieved is the end of craving.”

It is said that Shakyamuni Buddha uttered this this famous song of joy in the night right after His Enlightement.

A Buddha has Infinite Wisdom and Limitless Compassion, helping the sentient beings to break free from birth and death. A fundamental doctrine in Buddhism is the fact that all beings have the Buddha nature. All of them, without any exception, can become a Buddha[10] if they follow the path which Shakyamuni Buddha left for them. In Buddhism the situation is different from Christianity because there isn’t a Creative God, a Ruler, nor a Judge. Everything depends on karma and a Buddha is not a creator, a ruler nor a judge, but His existence in the Universe is supreme. He is just “The Awakened One” and He acts as a guide and saviour, capable of true Compassion which is no longer enchained by the attachments or the illusions of ordinary beings.

Through Buddhism the Ultimate Reality, the Liberation or Nirvana is accesible to all beings who observe the path given by the Buddha.

    In order to better illustrate the fact that all beings have the Buddha nature, the following story is told in the Lotus Sutra:

    “A destitute man once visited the home of a close friend, seeking his help. As the two were enjoying wine together, the poor man fell asleep. Meanwhile, his host was called away on urgent business. Before departing, however, he sewed a jewel into one corner of his friend’s garment. The friend, not aware of this, made no attempt to use the jewel even when in serious straits. Then upon meeting his friend many years later, the man who had sewed it into his garment pointed it out to him and thus enabled him to get out of his difficulties.” (Thus Have I Heard – Buddhist Parables and Stories)

The jewel is the Buddha nature inherent in every one of us. The ignorance of the man who was not aware of its presence represents the illusion which makes us not even looking after it but gratifying ourselves with futile goals.

    The spiritual practice, the experience, is the most important in Buddhism. Buddhism is not an abstraction outside existence, but a vivid, dynamic method which must be lived and experienced here and now. A Jodo Shinshu priest said that the greatest sin in Buddhism is to live your life in vain. The ancient Masters urge us to listen to the teaching and to follow the Path as if this would be the last day of our lives. And this indeed may be the last day of our life. In the Sutra in 42 Sections is told:

    “The Buddha asked a novice: ’How long is the human lifespan? The reply was: ‘A few days’. The Buddha said: ‘The disciple has not yet understood the way’. He asked another novice: ‘How long is the human life span?’ The reply was: ‘The space of a meal’. The Buddha said: ‘The disciple has not yet understood the way’. He asked another novice: ’How long is the human lifespan?’ The reply was: ‘The length of a single breath.’ The Buddha said: ‘Excellent. The disciple understands the way.’”

“I do not have time, life and death are very important”, represent the attitude a buddhist person should have. To emphasize the importance of concentrating on what is truly esential in our spiritual life, Shakyamuni Buddha told His disciples the parable of the man wounded by a poisoned arrow:

    There was a man who had been injured by a poisoned arrow. His friends came immediately to remove the arrow in order to save his life. But the wounded one objects: “I don’t want you to remove this arrow untill I find out who released it towards me, what clan he belonged to, what kind of wood was the blow made of, what feathers were used, etc.” Then Buddha asked His disciples if this man proceded correctly and if he really deserved to wait untill he got the answers to all his questions or if he should just remove the arrow and save his life. It goes without saying that this man was an idiot. But he is not just a character in a strange or funny story; he represents us all who, just like him, preoccupy ourselves with useless and answerless questions, neglecting what is really important: our state of beings drowned in illusions and suffering. There are questions which troubled many spiritual seekers: whether the Universe is finite or infinite and questions regarding the beginning and the end of the world. Silence was the Buddha’s answer, indicating the fact that this kind of questions are spiritually useless: besides the fact that they do not have answers, they don’t lead to an authentic transformation. The arrow is the first to be destroyed, that is the illusion which enchains the beings and leads to repeated birth followed by suffering, and the rest remains to be regarded later.

    The determination we must treat the Buddhist path is lively explained in the following story:

    A Master proposed one day to a non-buddhist king from India to take a man from prison who was sentenced to death and ask him to carry a bowl of oil in his hands for a long distance and back, telling him that he will release him if he doesn’t spill a single drop. Along the road he should send many beautiful women to sing and dance and if he spills a single drop he should executed on the spot. The Master asked the king: “What do you think the prisoner will say if he succeeds to come back without spilling a single drop?”

The king did exactly how the Master told him and the man came back with the full bowl. “What have you seen on the road?” asked the king. “Nothing”, answered the man, “all I did was to concentrate on the oil in order not to spill a single drop. I didn’t hear and see anything else.”

The king asked the Master: “Well, what is the principle here?” The Master answered: “The sentenced man is the same as the Buddhist disciple. Both regard life and death as being too important to lose their time with the vanities of this world.”

    On the contrary, people who are unaware of the gravity of the situation they are in, as beings condemned to roll indefinetely in the suffering circle of illusion, are described by the Buddha in the following parable:

    “A man was forcing his way through a thick forest beset with thorns and stones. Suddenly to his great consternation, an elephant appeared and gave chase. He took to his heels through fear, and seeing a well, he ran to hide in it. But to his horror he saw a viper at the bottom of the well. However, lacking other means of escape, he jumped into the well, and clung to a thorny creeper that was growing in it. Looking up, he saw two mice – a white one and black one – gnawing at the creeper. Over his face there was a beehive from which occasional drops of honey trickled. This man, foolishly unmindful of this precarious position, was greedily tasting the honey. A kind person volunteered to show him a path of escape. But the greedy man begged to be excused till he had enjoyed himself.” (Thus Have I Heard – Buddhist Parables and Stories)

The thick forest beset with thorns and stones is the world of illusion in which we live, with all the obstacles a man has to endure in his life. The elephant represents death; the viper represents old age; the thorny creeper is birth and the two mouses stands for day and night.Honey drops represent the blind passions to which man always dedicates himself with great greed, unaware of his real and desperate situation. “Life is given to us to feel good and enjoy it, isn’t it? Let us have fun as long as we can.” This is how the “wisdom” of the world tells us to live but at the bottom of the well the viper of old age is waiting for us, guiding us to the inevitable death.Or, who knows, the mouses can finish their job earlier.

The man from the parable represents us, beings drowned in illusions of many tipes and the kind person is the Buddha.

As far as Buddhist practice is concerned, we must say that there isn’t one Buddhist practice available to all. So why are there more types of practices and (implicitly) more Buddhist schools? The answer is simple: because there are different types of human beings. In Buddhism there is a doctrine called upaya – that is adequate methods for different people. Buddha’s teaching is adaptable to different categories of human beings, to various characters and capacities. Shakyamuni always had this in mind when preaching for forty five years. There are of course certain fundamental doctrines which belong to all Buddhist teachings such as the ones we spoke of earlier. But there are certain distinctions concerning the practice. To illustrate this I will present the following parable from the Lotus Sutra:

“A father and son parted company while the son was still a very young man. In the course of time the father became very rich, while the son sank into the depths of poverty and beggary. One day, during the course of his wanderings, he happened to come to the palatial home of his father. The father, at once recognizing him, had him brought to his presence. This only frightened the poor man, and the father let him go. Then he sent two men to ask the beggar whether he wished to do menial labor on the rich man’s estate. The beggar consented, and worked in this way for many years.

One day the rich man told the beggar that in view of his many years of honest and conscientious service he would reward him with the charge of all hiw possesions. After several more years had passed, the rich man gathered his entire household and clan and told them that the beggar was his son, from whom he had been parted many years before, and that he was now reclaiming him and declaring him heir to all his possesions. When the beggar heard this, he was amazed, thinking that he had received something quite unexpected, while in fact it was his all along.” (Thus Have I Heard – Buddhist Parables and Stories)

The Lotus Sutra tells us another suggestive parable on the same theme of adequate methods:

“A rich man had a very large house. The house had only one entrance, and the timber of which it was made had dried out thoroughly over the years. One day the house caught fire, and the rich man’s many children, heedless of the fire, continued to play in the house. Their father called to them from outside that the house was afire and that they would perish in the flames if they did not come out. The children, not knowing the meaning of ‘fire’ or ‘perish’, continued to play as before. The man called out once more, ‘Come out children, and I will give you ox-drawn carriages, deer-drawn carriages, and goat-drawn carriages!’ Tempted by the desire for new playthings, the children left the burning house, only to find ox-drawn carriages[11].” (Thus Have I Heard – Buddhist Parables and Stories)

    In this parable, the burning house represents our existence; the fire is the passions caused by anger, greed and ignorance; the rich man represents the Buddha, the children are the sentient beings and the games they play are the pleasures of the senses. Exactly in the same way the children who received ox-drawn carriages, all Buddhists who follow the Way with devotion will reach ultimate Nirvana.

    One of the classifications regarding Budhist practices and teachings is the following:

1. Theravada (the school of the Elders) – based mainly on the practice in the monasteries for attaining personal Liberation[12]. It is spread mainly in South-East Asia.

2. Mahayana (The Great Vehicle) – emphasizes the fact that the Buddha’s main reason for appearance in the world is the Liberation of all beings, no matter of their capacities. The importance of lay devotion is much greater than in the first category. The follower aims to attain Buddhahood for him as well as for the others.

It contains many schools spread mainly in Tibet, China and Japan. The Pure Land tradition, which the Jodo Shinshu[13] school belongs to, is a subdivision of Mahayana Buddhism.

    From now on we will concentrate in our presentation on Mahayana Buddhism. The basis of Mahayana practices and teachings (and of Buddhist ethics) is the filial piety towards all sentient beings. Here are some qoutations which state this principle:

“A disciple of the Buddha should have a mind of compassion and cultivate the practice of liberating sentient beings. He must reflect thus: throughout the eons of time, all male sentient beings have been my father, all female sentient beings my mother. I was born of them.”

Brahmajala Sutra[14]

“All sentient beings, without exception, have been our parents and brothers and sisters in the course of countless lives in many states of existence.”

Shinran Shonin, the founder of Jodo Shinshu school.

The filial piety towards all sentient beings is strongly related with the Buddhist doctrine of interdependence according to which all beings and things in the Universe are closely related and they influence one another. Nobody lives alone and we all depend on each other.

    It is told that in the heaven of the great god Indra there is a wonderful net which has been hung in such a manner that it streches out infinitely in all directions. In each eye of the net there is a glittering jewel, and the net being infinite, it follows that the jewels are also infinite in number. If we arbitrarily select one of them and look closely at it we see that on its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there is an infinite reflecting process occuring.

    This image of the jewel net of Indra is often used in Buddhism to illustrate the infinity of reciprocal relations between all the members of the Universe.

    I will now introduce the term “Bodhisattva” which means “beings of Enlightement”. This word represents the highest ideal in Mahayana Buddhism and comes as a consequence to having understood the notion of cosmic filial piety and the doctrine of interdependence. All beings are invited to share in the Enlightement of a Buddha. In Buddhism the follower walks on the path aiming to attain Liberation (to become a Buddha) not just for himself but also for the others[15]. The one who aspires to his own Liberation and the Liberation of others is a Bodhisattva.

Anyone can be a Bodhisattva if he follows this path, but the practice is not easy at all. The one who wishes to be a Bodhisattva takes the following vows and tries to bring them to perfection:

1. No matter how perfect a Buddha would be, I vow to become like Him.

2. No matter how profound the Dharma (the teaching) would be, I vow to fully understand it all.

3. No matter how numerous the passions would be, I vow to conquer them all.

4. No matter how numerous the beings would be, I vow to save them all.

In Buddhism we speak about two types of bodhisattvas:

1. earthly Bodhisatvas – any buddhist practitioner who embraces the path and is guided by compassion for others and aspires to attain Liberation for himself and the other beings.

2. transcendent Bodhisattvas – bodhisattvas who reached Buddhahood and have taken to an end the practice of the six paramitas – explained below – have perfect wisdom and are no longer enchained by rebirth or death. They appear in various forms[16] in order to help the sentient beings. They represent the subject of the believers’ veneration.

In the buddhist literature there are many definitions for the term “Bodhisatva”, but generaly speaking, this designates the non-selfish action, and the unconditioned offering to all beings. A Bodhisattva aims by his practice to develop the six perfections, also called “the six types of practices by means of which a bodhisattva attains Buddhahood”. These perfections are:

1.Charity, generosity (dana) 2. discipline and proper behaviour (sila) 3. perseverance (ksanti) 4. diligence 5. meditation (dhyana) and 6. higher wisdom (prajna). These represent the Eightfold Path in short.

The fulfillment of the bodhisattva path means to become a Buddha.

    Here is a parable which represents the Bodhisattva ideal and the variety of methods Mahayana Buddhism offers to all beings:

“Let us imagine that there is a famine somewhere, a terrible famine of the kind that still happens in Africa. People are gaunt and emaciated, and there is terrible suffering. In a certain town in the country which has been struck by this famine there live two men, one old, one young (a symbol for the Bodhisattva) who each have an enormous quantity of grain, easily enough to feed all the people. The old man puts outside his front door a notice which reads: ‘Whoever comes will be given food’. But after that statement there follows a long list of conditions and rules. If people want food they must come at a certain time, on the very minute. They must bring with them receptacles of a certain shape and size. And holding these receptacles in a certain way, they must ask the old man for food in certain set phrases which are to be spoken in an archaic language. Not many people see the notice, for the old man lives in a out-of-the way street; and of those who do see it, a few come for food and receive it, but others are put off by the long list of rules… When the old man is asked why he imposes so many rules, he says ‘That’s how it was in my grandfather’s time whenever there was a famine. What was good enough for him is certainly good enough for me. Who am I to change things?’ He adds that if people really want food they will observe any number of rules to get it. If they won’t observe the rules they can’t really be hungry.

    Meanwhile the young man takes a great sack of grain on his back and goes from door to door giving it out. As soon as one sack is empty, he rushes home for another one. In this way he gives out a great deal of grain all over the town. He gives it to anyone who asks. He’s so keen to feed the people that he doesn’t mind going into the poorest, darkest and dirtiest of hovels. He doesn’t mind going to places where respectable people don’t usually venture. The only thought in his head is that nobody should be allowed to starve. Some people say that he’s a busybody, others that he takes too much on himself. Some people go so far as to say that he’s interfering with the law of karma. Others complain that a lot of grain is being wasted, because people take more than they really need. The young man doesn’t care about any of this. He says it’s better that some grain is wasted than that anyone should starve to death.

    One day the young man happens to pass by the old man’s house. The old man is sitting outside peacefully smoking his pipe, because it isn’t yet time to hand out grain. He says to the young man as he hurries past, ‘You look tired. Why don’t you take it easy?’ The young man replies, rather breathlessly, ‘I can’t’. There are still lots of people who haven’t been fed’. The old man shakes his head wonderingly. ‘Let them come to you! Why should you go dashing off to them?’ But the young man, impatient to be on his way, says ‘They are too weak to come to me. They can’t even walk. If I don’t go to them they’ll die.’ ‘That’s too bad’, says the old man. ‘They should have come earlier, when they were stronger. If they didn’t think ahead that’s their fault.’

But by this time the young man is out of earshot, already on his way home for another sack. The old man rises and pins another notice beside the first one. The notice reads:

‘Rules for reading the rules’.”

    Mahayana makes the Dharma accessible to all people, as they are and wherever they are. This is why is called the Great Vehicle which promises to all the chance to attain supreme Enlightenment, offering to them methods adequate to their level of spiritual development. We will read later in this book, how the Main Vow of Amida Buddha takes this tendency on the highest peaks, destroying once and for all the discriminations between young and old, men and women or even good and evil persons.

    Another classification[17] of the buddhist teachings and practices, according to the beings capacities, is the one made by Tao’ch’o from China:

1. Self power way (The Path of Sages).

It is also called the difficult path because it refers to the fulfillment of all the buddhist practices and to the attainment of Supreme Liberation through one’s personal effort. On this path, the follower is fighting alone to cut the passions which enchain him in birth and death. It is a heroic path which requires most of the times that the follower live secluded in the monastery. It requires the accumulation of excellent merits which are thereafter transferred to the aim of attaining Supreme Liberation. Shakyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, is a living example of this hard practice for He is the one who reached Liberation by His own effort, as a result of His practices which lasted many lives untill He got to the life we know now from history. But not all of the human beings are capable of following His example and Shakyamuni was aware of this. That is why, following the strategy of adequate methods (upaya), He foretold a second path called the Path of Other Power or the Easy Path.

2. The Path of Other Power (The Pure Land Way) – a development form of the Mahayana tradition, is based on the help given by Amida Buddha’s Compassion. When a Buddha reaches supreme Liberation, He has Infinite Wisdom and Infinite Compasion and He strives permanently to save all the other beings[18]. Those unable of following the difficult practice of the Path of Sages can follow the path based on the faith in the salvation offered by this Buddha called Amida. The word “Amida” has its origin in sanskrit terms “Amitabha” and “Amitayus” which means Infinite Life and Infinite Light, terms which designate His Wisdom and Compassion. Given the fact that all beings have the Buddha nature this means that from the “beginingless past” to the “endless future” there have been and there will be uncountable Buddhas. One of those Buddhas who reached, according to the sutras[19], the supreme Liberation many kalpas[20] ago, in an era different from the one we live in, vowed that He would save all the sentient beings who believe in Him, regardless of their capacities[21]. We’ve spoken before about the vows taken by a bodhisattva. The four vows are universal and any buddhist follower who aspires to become a bodhisattva takes them when embracing the buddhist path. When he has fullfiled them, he becomes a Buddha. According to Shakyamuni Buddha[22]’s teaching regarding Amida (Shakyamuni Buddha preached about this other Buddha who attained the Liberation in the past) He was himself a bodhisattva called Dharmakara (Hozo in Japanese) who took some vows at the beginning of His practice, but these were different and more profound than the ones taken by other bodhisattvas. These vows, fourty-eight at number, contain a special vow called the Eighteen Vow or the Vow of Salvation through Nembutsu[23]. This vow says[24]:

“If when I attain Buddhahood, the sentient beings of the ten quarters, with sincere mind entrusting themselves, aspiring to be born in my land[25], and saying my Name (Namo Amida Butsu) perhaps even ten times, will not be born there, may I not attain the supreme Enlightement.”

After bringing these vows to perfection through difficult and hard practices performed during many kalpas, Bodhisattva Dharmakara reached supreme Liberation and became Amida Buddha. The practice of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism consists of reciting the Name of Amida Buddha, while entrusting in His Primal Vow and being grateful for the redemption this Vow assures.

The spiritual development on the buddhist path based entirely on personal power is not an easy undertaking. The aspirations awakened in us, no matter how profound or wonderful  they are, can be hindered by the obstacles we may encounter along the path. The influence of past karma can be a real trouble to our spiritual life. The discussion between Shinran and Yuien-bo referring to this subject and related in Tannisho, is very suggestive:

“Good thoughts arise in us through the prompting of good karma from the past, and evil comes to be thought and performed through the working of evil karma. The late Master said, ‘Know that evil act done – even as slight as a particle on the tip of a strand of rabbit’s fur or sheep’s wool – has its cause in past karma.’

Further, the Master once asked, ‘Yuien-bo, do you accept all that I say?’

‘Yes, I do, ‘ I answered.

‘Then will you not deviate from whatever I tell you?’ he repeated.

I humbly affirmed this. Thereupon he said, ‘Now, I want you to kill a thousand people. If you do, you will definitely attain birth’.

I responded, ‘Though you instruct me thus, I’m afraid it is not in my power to kill even one person.’

‘Then why did you say that you would follow whatever I told you?’

He continued, ‘By this you should realize that if we could always act as we wished, then when I told you to kill a thousand people in order to attain birth, you should have immediately done so. But since you lack the karmic cause inducing you to kill even a single person, you do not kill. It is not that you do not kill because your heart is good. In the same way, a person may wish not to harm anyone and yet end up killing a hundred or a thousand people.”

      In the buddhist practice, personal introspection plays an overwelming role. Following the path, the follower becomes “intimate with his own karma” and gets to know many aspects of his personality, probably undiscovered or neglected until then. One of the questions anyone asks when firmly embracing the path and taking the problem of life and death seriously, is: what real chances are there for his efforts to reach their goal, that is attaining ultimate Liberation.

Just like particles of dust thrown in the water which will sink rapidly no matter how small they are, the negative effect of some illusions considered unimportant can have the worst consequences from the spiritual point of view. But a huge stone will never sink if it is put in a boat because in this way it can reach the other shore. Here, the enormous stone stands for negative karma and passions which, if it weren’t for Amida Buddha’s Compassion, would submerge us for eternity in the ocean of birth and death. The boat symbolizes the Vow of Salvation through nembutsu which accepts us just the way we are and takes us on the other realm of Nirvana.

In Jodo Shinshu buddhism, the faith has two important aspects called “The Twofold Profound Convictions[26]”:

1. Profound understanding of the fact that we are merely mortals influenced by our negative tendencies and with no hope of salvation through our personal powers. This represents the deep mindfulness of the human nature just as it is.

2. Profound understanding of the fact that Amida’s Primal Vow will save us with no exceptions and that it is regarding precisely beings like us. This represents the wholeheartedly faith in Amida Buddha’s Compassion. The Awakening of faith in Amida Buddha’s Compassion represented by his Primal Vow, is the crucial experience of a Jodo Shinshu follower. It is called shinjin, which means “entrusting heart”. This experience is the one that leads the practicioner to reach Nirvana. From the moment this faith awakenes and until his death, he is in what is called “the state of those assured of Nirvana” or “the state of non-retrogression|” because from now on he will not be reborn in the forms of existence destined for those still living under the influence of their negative karma.

The awakening of faith in the Compassion of Amida Buddha, represented by

his Primal Vow, is the crucial experience of a Jodo Shinshu follower. It is called shinjin, that is “entrusting heart” in translation. This experience is the one that leads the follower, through the power of the Vow, to the attainment of Nirvana. Since the moment of the awakening of faith  till death he dwells in the “stage of those assured of Nirvana” or the “stage of non-retrogression” because from now on he will not be reborn in the states of existence in which those under the influence of  their evil karma are destined to.

 Rennyo, the eight Monshu (Patriarch) of the Jodo Shinshu school stated in one of

his letters:

“Attaining the entrusting heart lies in understanding the Eighteenth Vow. To understand this Vow means to understand what “Namo Amida Butsu” is. And so, when one takes refuge, that is, “namo”, in Amida in one thought-moment, “making aspiration and directing virtue” is implied. This means that Amida Tathagata directs virtue to us, foolish beings.

This is taught in the Larger Sutra as “bringing all sentient beings to the

attainment of virtues”. So it follows that all the karmic evil and blind passions which we have given rise to since the beginingless past are completely extinguished by the inconceivable Vow-Power. Hence, we dwell in the stage of non-retrogression, or the stage of the truly settled.”

Rennyo emphasizes here another important aspect of Jodo Shinshu teaching – Amida Buddha’s transference of merit towards us. In the practices based on personal power we’ve said that the practitioner “earns” virtues which he transfers for his own liberation. But in the case of the Other Power way, the transference of merits takes place from Amida Buddha to man. This transference of merit is the one that makes the follower capable of attaining Nirvana. There is a hymn that says:

          “When sentient beings of this evil world

           of the five defilements[27]

           Entrust themselves to the selected Primal Vow,

           Virtues indescribable, inexplicable, and inconceivable

           Fill those practicers.

            The merit transference from Amida to the practitioner has two aspects: 1) “the merit transference of going forth” (Oso-Eko) and 2) “the merit transference of going back” (Genso-Eko) . The first one refers to the fact that Amida transfers his merits to us, making us capable of attaining Buddhahood in the Pure Land and the second one means that the person who has thus become a Buddha by sharing the same Enlightenment as Amida, is made capable of returning to this world in order to save all beings.

The Awakening of the Bodhi Mind – the aspiration to attain Budhahood for saving oneself and all beings – is fulfilled in the Awakening of Faith in the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha. Shan-tao said: “Awake your Bodhi Mind to Amida’s Compasion”, that is, aspire to your and other beings Liberation by relying on the Compasion of Amida (his Primal Vow). So, the Awakening of the Bodhi Mind, the obligatory condition in Mahayana of attaining the supreme Enlightenment, appears in Jodo Shinshu  in the form of the entrusting heart (shinjin).

Shinran says in the “Hymns on Patriarchs”:

“Faith is One Mind

One Mind is the Diamond-like Mind;

The Diamond-like Mind is the Bodhi-Mind;

This mind is given us by the Other-Power.”

                            (Hymn on the Patriachs 19)

The One Mind represents the cause of Enlightenment. Since this is the Bodhi-

Mind, it has two aspects[28]:

            “To take refuge with One Mind in the Buddha

            Of Unhindered Light Shining throughout the Ten Directions

            Is the mind aspiring to become Buddha;

            So says Vasubandhu, the Master of Discourse[29].”

                                     (Hymn on the Patriachs 17)

            “The mind aspiring to become Buddha

            Is the mind seeking to save sentient beings;

            The mind that seeks to save sentient beings

            Is True Faith endowed by Amida’s Compassion.”

                                (Hymn on the Patriachs 18)

Contrary to some other’s expectations who consider that a deep spiritual experience must lead to a definitive moral change, achieving the entrusting heart doesn’t necessary imply this. Our karma, although cut and therefore hindered in planting its seeds in another life, continues in influencing our actions and feelings. “The human nature doesn’t change not even after the faith has been awaken, just like a rock which remains a rock even though it is put in a boat[30].” But this boat undoubtedly takes it to the other shore. In the next lines I will present another fragment from Tannisho, which clearly suggests the undiscriminating Compassion of Amida Buddha’s Primal Vow and the apparently impossible coexistence between salvation and blind passions, which normaly would enchain us in life and death.

      “Although I say the nembutsu, the feeling of dancing with joy is faint within me, and I have no thought of wanting to go to the Pure Land quickly. How should it be [for a person of nembutsu]?

      When I asked the Master[31] this, he answered, ‘I, too, have had this question, and the same thought occurs to you, Yuien-bo!

      ‘When I reflect deeply on it, by the very fact that I do not rejoice at what should fill me with such joy that I dance in the air and dance on earth, I realize all the more that my birth is completely settled. What suppresses the heart that should rejoice and keeps one from rejoicing is the action of blind passions. Nevertheless, the Buddha, knowing this beforehand, called us ‘foolish beings possesed of blind passions’; thus, becoming aware that the compassionate Vow of Other Power is indeed for the sake of ourselves, who are such beings, we find it all the more trustworthy.

      Further, having no thought of wanting to go to the Pure Land quickly, we think forlorny that we may die even when we become slightly ill; this also is the action of blind passions. It is hard for us to abandon this old home of pain, where we have been transmigrated for innumerable kalpas down to the present, and we feel no longing for the Pure Land of peace, where we have yet to be born. Truly, how powerful our blind passions are! But though we feel reluctant to part from this world, at the moment our karmic bonds to this Saha[32] world run out and helplessly we die, we shall go to that land. Amida pities especially the person who has no thought of wanting to go to the Pure Land quickly. Reflecting on this, we feel all the great Vow of great compassion to be all the more trustworthy and realize that our birth is settled.

      If we had the feeling of dancing with joy and wished to go to the Pure Land quickly, we might wonder if we weren’t free of blind passions.”

I will give more attention in the following lines to the link between Vow, Faith and Nembutsu, trying to explain better the fact that the last two do not belong to us.

      According to Rennyo sayings there are five conditions which someone must meet in order to be born in the Pure Land[35]:

-         stored good from the past

-         a good spiritual teacher

-         Amida’s light

-         the entrusting heart

-         the saying of the Name

The expression “stored good from the past” has a deep connection with the

law of cause and effect, and represents what we did, said and thought for the wel being of others in the past (this life or other lifes). We must bear in mind that in Buddhism there are two types of merits: the merits resulted from actions aimed at a personal goal or profit and the merits resulted from spontaneous and natural actions, donne only with the goal of helping others. Only unselfish actions and not motivated by a personal interest can belong to the category “good from the past”. This good from the past is a cause which manifests itself as an opening or receptive state of mind towards the message of the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha. In Jodo Shinshu, the main practice is called monto – “to listen” the teaching. A lot of people hear the teacing about the Primal Vow but few are open to it. This openness is very important in our tradition and is the manifestation of the good stored from the past.

In Zen we are told a true story in which a high cultivated person meets with a Master in order to ask him questions about the teaching. The Master invites him to drink together a cup of tea, before answering to all his questions. After he gives him a cup he begins to pour the tea and he stops not even when the liquid pass over the edge of the recipient. Amazed, the man asks why he behaves like this and the Master gives him the following answer: “As this cup is full of tea as it pass over it, so are you, full of  intelectual preconceived ideas. If you want to understand the teaching, you have to become an empty cup.”  The receptivity of mind implies an emptying of mind, to understand not only with the mind but with all our being. The human being always stops to the head and thinks that theoretical understanding is everything. From the Jodo Shinshu point of view, the story above might suggest the awareness of individual limitations, not being full of  himself, that is emptying of the pride which comes from relying on personal power in attaining the ultimate Liberation. This is one of the meaning of the commitment from the Jodo Shinshu Creed[36]: “I rennounce to all other practices based on the false ego”.

            The good spiritual teacher[37] is the one that guides us to the Path which relies on the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha, “he is the messenger who urges us to take refuge in Amida” and his apparition is also a manifestation of the good stored from the past. He can be a a human but also an incident, a book or a sacred text, but his message can be received only in the opened state of mind I explained before.

            Amida’s light represents the working and the wish of Amida Buddha to save all sentient beings drowned in delusion. The manifestation of this work is the Primal Vow.

In this way, because of the good stored from the past we meet with a good spiritual teacher and we are open to his message – the Primal Vow (Amida’s light). At this very moment the so called “the Awakening of Faith” or the apparition of the entrusting hear, happens.

            The entrusting heart means that the follower relies on Amida Buddha for the attainment of Liberation, more precisely on his Primal Vow.

            The saying of the Name appears spontaneous in the same time with the Awakening of Faith, as an expression of it and of gratitude towards Amida Buddha who saves us exactly as we are. Saichi said: “When someone is catching a cold he cannot abstain not to cough. I caught the cold of Buddha’s Dharma and I cannot stop coughing the nembutsu.” Nembutsu does not appear gefore the Awakening of Faith in the same way coughing does not produce a cold but is an expression, a manifestation of it. Saying the Name does not obligatory lead to the Awakening of Faith, the Name is not a prayer or a form of meditation in order to attain Enlightenment. Therefore, we must not be attached to our own recitation and we must not be preoccupied by the number of sayings, because we do not practice nembutsu in order to achieve a certain goal (Enlightenment or other worldly benefits), but as an expression of faith and gratitude. This is the meaning of the words: “saying my Name perhaps even ten times” from the Eighteen Vow. The number of sayings is not important, it can be donne seldom or often, depending on how we feel the need to express our gratitude at a certain moment.

            At first sight it seems that the entrusting heart and the saying of the Name depends on our own efforts: we must strive to have faith and say the name, and we can thus attain Enlightenment.

But this is not the case. What actually happens? Rennyo says:

“Prompted by the working of this light [Amida’s light], those endowed with past karmic good[38] have come to attain the entrusting heart of Other Power. Thus, it has now become clear that the entrusting heart is bestowed by Amida Tathagata. Accordingly, we now clearly know that this is not the mind created by the followers but the great entrusting heart of Other Power given to us by Amida Tathagata.”

Nembutsu, being the manifestation of this “entrusting heart of Other Power”, it logically follows that it also belongs to Other Power. Shinran says in Tannisho:

“Through the inconceivable working of the Vow, Amida Buddha devised the Name[39] easy to keep and easy to say, and promised to receive and grasp those who say this Name. To begin with, then, its through Amida’s  design that we come to say the nembutsu with the belief that, saved by the inconceivable working of the Tathagata’s great Vow of great Compassion, we will part from birth and death. This being realized, our calculation is not in the least involved, and so, in accord with the Primal Vow, we will be born in the true fulfilled land.”

It results that:

Because I am getting closer and closer to the end of this chapter, I think is timely to relate  the famous parable of Shan-tao, called “The Parable of the Two Rivers and the White Path”, which will give us a plastic image of the teaching about the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha.

“I wish to say to all aspirants for birth: I will now present a parable for the practicers in order to protect their Faith and to guard it against attacks by those who have wrong, perverted and unauthentic views. What is the parable?

Suppose a man is traveling a hundred thousand li toward the west. On the way, he suddenly comes upon two rivers: one is a river of fire that extends southward, and the other is a river of water that extends northward. The two rivers are each a hundred paces wide and unfathomably deep, extending endlessly to the north and south. Where they meet, there is a white path, four or five inches wide. This path is a hundred paces long from the east bank to the west. The waves of the water splash and the flames of the fire burn the path. The waves and flames alternate without ceasing.

This traveler has already journeyed far into the open plain where there is no one to be found. Suddenly, there appear many bandits and vicious beasts. Seeing him alone, they approach competing with each other to kill him. Afraid of death, he at once runs to the west. When he suddenly sees this great river, he says to himself, "This river extends endlessly to the south and to the north. I see a white path in the middle, but it is extremely narrow. Although the two banks are close to each other, how can I get across? Undoubtedly, I shall die this day. When I turn round to return, I see bandits and vicious beasts coming closer and closer. If I try to run toward the south or north, I see vicious beasts and poisonous insects vie with each other to attack me. If I seek the path to the west, I will certainly fall into one of the two rivers of water and fire.

His horror at this moment is beyond expression. So he thinks to himself, "If I turn back now, I shall die; if I stay, I shall die; if I go forward, I shall die, too. Since I cannot escape death in any way, I would rather follow this path. Because there is a path, it must be possible to cross the rivers."

When this thought occurs to him, he suddenly hears a voice from the eastern bank urging him, "Take this path with firm resolution. There is no danger of death. If you stay there, you will die." Again, he hears another voice from the western bank calling to him, "Come at once single-heartedly with right mindfulness. I will protect you. Do not fear that you may fall into the calamities of water or fire." Since the traveler hears this voice urging him from the bank and the calling from the other, he resolutely, body and soul, takes the path and proceeds at once without doubt or apprehension.

As he takes a step or two, he hears the voices of the bandits on the eastern bank, "Come back! That path is treacherous. You cannot cross it. Undoubtedly, you are sure to die. We have no evil intentions in pursuing you." Though hearing the calling voices, this person does not even look back. As he proceeds straight on this path with singleness of heart, he, in no time, reaches the western bank and is now free from all danger. There he meets his good friend, and his joy knows no end.”

This traveler who  wanders in “the open plain where there is no one to be found” represents us, mere travelers through the vanity of this life and having no chance of meeting with a good spiritual teacher.

The road is long and difficult  and suddenly we are in front of the two rivers of fire and water. Water represents greed and thirst or blind desires and fire represents hate and anger. In fact the traveler does not stand in front of the two rivers  thinking to take the decision if to go forth or not, but is submerged to his neck in his passions. His situation is desperate. Bandits and ferocious beasts saw him and are trying to reach him and kill him.  While pretending to be his friends they are in fact his passions and illusions. The traveler is terrified and has no hope of escape. From behind, from left and right, the dangers are all the more serious. The rivers lies infinitely because without end is his passions, illusions, hate and greed. A white path is behind him  but its narrow and is continuously splashed by the water and fire of the two rivers. He doubts, he does not believe that he will survive even if he follows this path, but he decides: “since I cannot escape death in any way, I would rather follow this path. Because there is a path, it must be possible to cross the rivers." He thinks to face everything through personal power, acting from by the courage of the desperate man. “I have no other option, I have to go forward, I have to confront my fear, I have to make an effort”. In that moment something exceptional happens. He hears a voice from the Eastern shore. It is the voice of the teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha who urges him to go forward. This means that he listens to the Buddhist teaching. Then, he hears a calling from the West; it is Amida Buddha who tells him: “Come right now!” Everything is very dramatic and full of tension, the danger of death is very close, and the calling of Amida is not a usual one, but hurried and intense. In fact he says: “I beg you, come now, come immediately, there is no time!” There is no requirement or precondition in his calling just to come immediately and with all his trust, this is what is meant by “single-heartedly with right mindfulness”

            The parable says: “Since the traveler hears this voice urging him from the bank and the calling from the other, he resolutely, body and soul, takes the path and proceeds at once without doubt or apprehension.” This is the moment of the Awakening of Faith in the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha, that is the realization of shinjin or “the entrusting heart”. The traveler “hears” the calling of the Buddha. It is not a simple hearing in the common sense of the word, it implies the understanding and the acceptance of the salvation method offered by Amida., which is the Vow of salvation through nembutsu. We notice how the mental state of the traveler changes radically after this acceptance. While he could hardly take the decision before because he had no other option, to follow the white path, now he appears before our eyes as a determined man, ready to listen with all his mind and body the benevolent calling and to rely on it. Nothing can influence him anymore. The bandits from behind him cry out to him and try to convince him to turn back, but he no longer gives them any attention: “though hearing the calling voices, this person does not even look back”. The traversing of the path takes place “in no time”, that is easy. The flames and waves that splash the path are not mentioned again after the moment in which the traveler attains complete entrusting in the Buddha. No internal or external condition can hinder his way. He is in what is called “the non-retrogresive stage”   He cannot fall back and he cannot be deluded by those with different understanding, who have wrong views or follow other practices.

All happens soft and easy  because now he is no longer carried by his personal will but by the power of nembutsu. It is stated in Tannisho: “No evil can obstruct the working of the Primal Vow of Amida.” Personal karma, whether good or bad, has no more effect.

            When he reaches the Western bank “he meets his good friend, and his joy knows no end”. This means the attainment of Perfect Enlightenment, Nirvana, meeting and unity with Amida Buddha. The joy which knows no end indicates “birthless birth”, that is the end of suffering as a being  condemned to birth and death.

            Rev. Sakakibara said: “The white path is the path of Namo Amida Butsu with a width of four or five inches. This apparently narrow and fragile path was laid by Amida from that shore of Enlightenment to this shore of illusion.

I often say to people that Amida actually labored to make this path by himself, hammering piles into the ground and carrying rocks and dirt. And, furthermore, he is loudly calling on us to come. So when we begin to say Namo Amida Butsu, we are already on the path laid by Amida. All that is left to us is to become aware of this. Instead of always looking down at our feet, we should look forward. Then, we will be sure to go over to that shore thanks to Amida’s power. That path is already laid down for us. Everything has already been taken care of, with Amida footing the bill.

I just mentioned that Amida carried the rocks and dirt himself to build the white path. However, our bonno (blind passions) are not the material for the path, but the condition for building it. Without bonno, we would not need the nembutsu.”

      The teaching of the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha represents the peak of Mahayana buddhist tradition and this is because it answers perfectly the goal of Buddha appearance in the world, that is the Liberation of all sentient beings, regardless of their capacities.

      Buddhism is not a religion for the elites, and doesn’t address to a certain category of people, it is not discriminative, it doesn’t choose the heroes and is not seeking heroes. The call of Amida Buddha sounds like this: “Come as you are” and his Compassion makes Nirvana accessible without destroying the blind passions.

Reverend Sakakibara said:

“When you take a bath, you enter with the dirtiest part of the body: your feet. In exactly the same way, you enter the Vow with all your defilements. The nembutsu enters your body through the dirtiest part of your body – the bottom of your feet. Amida does not say you must come with your body cleansed, but that you should come with the body that is doomed to the six realms of transmigration[41]. The Buddha himself comes to you begging you to let him save you. As my teacher, Professor Ikeyama, has expressed it, the Buddha says, bowing to you, “I beg you, please come soon”. Even if you are a defiled being, you will be saved as you are[42]. Namo Amida Butsu is the path of going beyond birth and death. This is the teaching of Amida Buddha.”

      Another reason for which I state that the teaching about the Primal Vow represents the peak of the Mahayana tradition is that the salvation offered by Amida Buddha is not a selfish one but it also implies the salvation of others. To be born in the Pure Land doesn’t represent a destination, but a permanent return. The Jodo Shinshu follower reaches supreme Enlightement in the moment of his death and returns repeatedly in this world, as a Buddha, under various forms in order to save others. So, he fulfills his ideal of bodhisattva and he is in full harmony with the doctrine of interdependence and of comsic filial piety.

Shinran said:

“Compassion in the Pure Land path should be understood as first attaining Buddhahood quickly through saying the nembutsu and, with the mind of great love and great compassion, freely benefiting sentient beings as one wishes.

However much love and pity we may feel in our present lives, it s hard to save others as we wish; hence, such compasion remains unfulfilled. Only the saying of the nembutsu, then, is the mind of great compassion that is throughgoing.”

[1] These are named skandhas (“agregates”). In buddhism, all the phisycal and mental elements of this world are classified in five types of agregates: 1) form (a generic name for all kinds of matter), 2) perception, 3) conceptions and ideas, 4) volition and 5) conscience or mind. In the case of man, form is the body and the rest represent the mind and its processes.

[2] Rebirth in various forms of existence. It will be explained later.

[3] In Buddhism they are as important as the Four Noble Truths.

When a man dies, the actions of his personal will caused by ignorance (the first and second connection in the chain of Dependent Origination) will determine the presence of consciousness in the next life (the third connection) and with it a new being will be born. The first two connections are considered as the two causes from the past (from the previous lives); consciousness, physical and mental phenomena, the six faculties, are the five effects in the present; thirst, clinging and the process of becoming represent the three causes in the present, and birth and death are the two effects in the future (the next lives). See also the explanations about karma and rebirth from the next pages.

[4] In Buddhism we speak about the Eight Consciousness which are generated when our senses encounter their objects: 1) consciousness of sight, 2) consciousness of hearing, 3) consciousness of smell, 4) consciousness of taste, 5) consciousness of touch, 6) consciousness of mind, 7) impure (mind) consciousness, 8) the alaya consciousness.

The meaning of the first five consciousness is easy to comprehend, so I will not dwell upon them.

The consciousness of mind integrates the perceptions of the five senses in concrete images and takes decisions concerning the exterior world.

The impure (mind) consciousness is the source of clinging and so the origin of the sense of ego as well as of the other illusions which are born from the fact that the man takes as real something which is merely apparent.

The alaya consciousness is the place where all the actions and experiences in this life and the previous lives, generated by the seven consciousness, are stoked as karma, being the only consciousness which comes along with every birth. This consciousness influences at the same time the workings of the other seven consciousness.

[5] Thirst.

[6] The body: another form of existence led by illusion, birth and death.

[7] The blind passions (bonno).

[8] Ignorance.

[9] Nirvana – the state of Buddha, Buddhahood, the Pure Land.

[10] The tradition speaks about the existence of more Buddhas who attained Liberation sometime in the forgotten past or who will attain it in the future. As the following pages will show, one of these transcendent Buddhas assist the practitioners toward their own Liberation. Amida Buddha, the main character of the Jodo Shinshu school is one of the most popular and worshiped Buddhas.

[11] The best transport vehicle of that time.

[12] The one who has the goal of attaining personal Enlightenment and personal escape from birth and death is called Arhat. He represents the ideal of Theravada Buddhism.

[13] The term Jodo Shinshu means “The true essence of the Pure Land school” and represents the Buddhist school founded in Japan by Shinran Shonin (1173-1262). It is often used the abbreviation “Shin”.

[14] Brahmajala Sutra in Sanscrit, Fan-wang in Chinese, Bommo-Kyo in Japanese, Pham-Vong Kinh in Vietnamese, Brahma Net Sutra in English.

This is a very important sutra in Mahayana Buddhism, translated into Chinese by Kumarajiva, in 406 c.e. (late Chin dinasty). Not to be confound with the text with the same name which can be found in the Digha Nikaya from Theravada cannon.

[15] The aspiration to attain Enghlitenment for oneself and others is called the Awakening of the Bodhi Mind.

[16] One of the most venerated bodhisattvas is Kannon Bodhisattva (Avalokitesvara in sanskrit) – the Bodhisattva of Compassion, who together with Seishi Bodhisattva, (Mahastamaprapta in sanskrit) attends Amida Buddha.

[17] This classification includes both Mahayana and Theravada teachings and practices.

[18] In Mahayana, unlike the Theravada, the active Compassion of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is often invoked by the followers to sustain and assist them on the path to Enlightenment. Among these, Amida Buddha is the most important because of the easiness ordinary people can follow the method based on him.

[19] Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings recorded by his disciples.

[20] Kalpa is an incomparably long period of time.

[21] “Regardless of their capacities” – a very important aspect which we have to bear in mind when we study Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. Unlike other Buddhas or Bodhisattvas, whose assistance must be accompanied by the smaller or greater efforts of the follower, Amida Buddha is the only Buddha who does not pretend any merit on the part of the practitioner. His saving activity is unconditioned, as we will read in the following pages.

[22] Shakyamuni Buddha preached about this other Buddha, named Amida, who attained Enlightenment in the remote past.

[23] Nembutsu is the reciting of Amida Buddha’s Name – Namo Amida Butsu. “Namo” means “to take refuge in” and “homage to”; “butsu” means “Buddha”.

[24] The quote is from the Larger Sukhavati-Vyuha Sutra (Bussetsu Muryoju Kyo, in Japanese) – Sutra about the Buddha of Infinite Life. It belongs to the Three Pure Land Sutras, the other two being: the Smaller Sukhavati-Vyuha Sutra (Bussetsu Amida Kyo) – Sutra about Amida Buddha, and Amitayur Dyana Sutra (Bussetsu Kammuryoju Kyo) – Sutra of Contemplation on the Buddha of Infinite Life.

[25] It refers to the Pure Land of Amida Buddha; this term is identical with Nirvana. The birth in the Pure Land is called “birthless birth”, that is attaining the Buddha Nature.

[26] This twofold profound conviction is nothing else than Wisdom (right understanding and right thought) from the Eightfold Path, while the spiritual practice (right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration) is represented by nembutsu of the Primal Vow. Ethics or moral commitment (right speech, right action and right livelihood) refers to the attempt of observing the precepts as an expression of gratitude towards Amida Buddha and sentient beings, as we see from the explanations of the next chapter.

[27] The five defilements are the five marks of decay of the world we live in: 1) the defilement of views, when incorect, perverse thoughts and ideas are predominant, 2) the defilement of passions, when all kinds of transgressions are exalted, 3) the defilement of human condition, when people are usually dissatisfied and unhappy, 4) the defilement of life-span, when the human life-span as a whole decreases – according to the sutras, when it is less or close to one hundred years, 5) the defilement of the world-age, when war and natural disasters are rife.

[28] The two aspects of the Bodhi-Mind are to aspire to the attainment of Buddhahood for himself and others.

[29] “Discourse on the Pure Land”, a work which author is Vasubandhu.

[30] Ryosetsu Fujiwara, “A Standard of Shinshu Faith”.

[31] Shinran Shonin.

[32] Saha is a sanskrit term which means “suffering”. It refers to the worlds where the transmigration takes place. It is so called because the beings from this world must endure many sufferings as a consequence of the bad deeds they perform.

[33] Trees from Asia which have poisonous fruits.

[34] Trees from Asia with beautiful smelling flowers.

[35] It is called “The Fivefold Doctrine” in the 11th letter from Gobunsho (Letters of Rennyo).

[36] “I rely on Amida Buddha from all my heart for the attainment of Nirvana . I give up the trust in my powerless self and abandon all practices that relies on the false ego. I know that because of Amida Buddha’s Infinite Compassion I am assured of Nirvana in right moment I put my trust in him. I call his Name, Namo Amida Butsu, with joy and gratitude for the gift of his universal Vow. I am grateful to Shinran Shonin and the succeeding Masters, because they are guiding me to this profound teaching. I will try to live my life in accordance with the nembutsu way they preached.”

[37] Zenjishiki in Japanese, kalyanamitra in Sanskrit. Not to be confounded with the role of the Master in other Buddhist traditions. Shinran says in Tannisho: “For myself, I do not have even a single disciple. For if I brought people to say the nembutsu through my own efforts, then they might be my disciples. But it is indeed preposterous to call persons “my disciples” when they say the nembutsu having received the working of Amida.” Whenever the term “Master” appears in Jodo Shinshu texts with reference to Shinran is only to express gratitude.

[38] The salvation offered by Amida Buddha is not in contradiction with the law of cause and effect and “past karmic good” is a proof for this. The past karmic good leads the follower to meet with a good spiritual teacher and creates an open state of mind towards the working of Amida (Primal Vow), who plants in him his merits (gives rise to the Awakening of Faith and the reciting of the Name) which leads to birth in the PureLand. Imagine that you are in a dark cave (the state of beings who are subject to life and death) and that someone who holds a torch appears at the entrance. He represents the good spiritual teacher and the torch is the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha. It depends on you to let him in, that is to be open toward his calls, but once you ask him to enter, the light spreads everywhere and the dark disappear. The lighting of the room (the Awakening of Faith and the reciting of the Name) is not your action, but that of the torch (the Compassion of Amida Buddha), you just open the door. But even if from now on you will live surrounded by light (you are in the stage of those assured of Nirvana) and in the happiness of its presence, it does not mean that you eradicated all the manners of a being who lived countless of lives in the dark (blind passions continue their influence as long as we live).

[39] The Name and the Vow of Amida are one, none is possible without the other.

[40] Hakarai – “to calculate”. Is a faculty inherent to human nature. Intentionally or unintentionally, man always makes discriminations between good and evil, wise and ignorant, and so on. But the Vow of Amida who relies on the nediscriminatory wisdom , is beyound all human calculations and conceptions. Because man has the tendency to doubt of his salvation and to practice nembutsu for worldly goals, Shinran teaches us to let away all the discriminations and personal calculations .

[41] The six worlds where rebirth may take place: hells, the realm of hungry spirits, animals, humans, demigods or the fighting spirits and gods. All these worlds and the beings who inhabit them are in a greater or lower degree subject to illusions, therefore to pain.

[42] It must not be wrongly understood that Jodo Shinshu followers engage deliberately in bad deeds. Shinran was against this wrong interpretation. He said in one of his letters: “Do not make a linking to poison because you have the antidote”. The Jodo Shinshu follower is urged to have a good behavior and follow the precepts but not with the goal of gaining Emancipation. His efforts to improve his behavior must be an expression of gratitude. See the next chapter.