|
Thoughts on Shinjin
“In reflecting on the ocean of
great shinjin, I realize that there is no discrimination between noble
and humble or black-robed monks and white-clothed laity, no
differentiation between man and woman, old and young. The amount of evil
one has committed is not considered, the duration of any performance of
religious practices is of no concern. It is a matter of neither practice
nor good acts, neither sudden attainment nor gradual attainment, neither
meditative practice nor no meditative practice, neither right
contemplation nor wrong contemplation, neither thought nor no-thought,
neither daily life nor the moment of death, neither many-calling nor
once-calling. It is simply shinjin that is inconceivable, inexplicable,
and indescribable. It is like the medicine that eradicates all poisons.
The medicine of Tathagata’s Vow destroys the poisons of our wisdom and
foolishness.”
Several weeks ago I spoke to a group of about 40 high school students
studying world religions from California Polytechnic Prep School. The
instructor has made this an annual field trip for his history class.
Prior to my talk with the students, the instructor told me they were
quite knowledgeable with Buddhism and there was no need to talk down to
them. Not knowing where to begin…. I began with our beautiful murals of
Shakyamuni Buddha and talked about the two major branches of Buddhism …
Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism that trace their roots to the original
teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha. I managed to encapsulate over 2,500
years of Buddhist history into thirty minutes and ended with a brief … a
very brief explanation of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism.
Then I opened it up for questions and/or comments. Immediately the
students bombarded me with questions. One of the first questions that
was asked was … what do Buddhist believe in? … what is the point of
Buddhism? I responded that all Buddhist share the same goal …
Enlightenment. But how does one explain Enlightenment to someone whose
beliefs and concepts are totally contrary from my own.
So then what is meant by Enlightenment? My understanding of
Enlightenment is to awaken. But what do we awaken to? I believe we are
awaken to our ignorance and thus we are liberated from our suffering. We
are awaken to the interdependence and interconnectedness to all things
within the universe.
Enlightenment is the Sanskrit translation of Bodhi. Enlightenment is the
highest state of awareness, in which we realize our spiritual
resolution.
So we can say the goal of all Buddhist is to become a Buddha.
So how does one become Enlightened?…. Well as the Shakyamuni Buddha said
there are 84,000 paths to Enlightenment.
For the Theravada Buddhist of Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, or
Laos, they follow the example of the life of Shakyamuni Buddha. They
leave their home and families, they become monks or nuns that maintain
the precepts and take strict vows. They adhere to the Eightfold path and
maintain strict monastic codes. So you see the role of the monk is very
important. These monks are considered to have the best chance to realize
enlightenment in this life. The regular guy on the street only support
the monks and hope that in some future life they will become monks.
For Mahayana Buddhist which we happen to be, along with the Buddhist of
China, Korea, Mongolia, Taiwan, Tibet, Vietnam and of course Japan we
believe that as house holders, regular people like you and me are unable
to follow strict precepts and of course we can’t even come close in
following the Eightfold path. Therefore we speak of realizing Buddha
mind or Buddha nature rather than attaining total liberation like the
Theravada Buddhist.
Shinran Shonin felt this was the best path for all Buddhist, especially
for regular people, like you and me ….people who are unable to give up
their possessions, unable to leave their families to live a life as a
monk or a nun in some monastery and especially … for the self-centered,
ignorant person like myself.
The reading I began with is from the third chapter of Shinran’s major
work Kyogyoshinsho. It’s the chapter on Shinjin. Shinran
writes “It is simply Shinjin that is inconceivable, inexplicable, and
indescribable. It is like the medicine that eradicates all poisons”.
And just as Shinran stated, Shinjin is very difficult to
comprehend. Worst yet …to translate it from Japanese to English is most
difficult. Shinjin is often translated as “faith”, “true faith”
and “serene faith” but because “faith” carries so much Christian
baggage. I think it best we use it without translation.
Shinran defines “shin” in Shinjin as “truth, reality,
sincerity, fullness, accomplishment, reliance, reverence, discernment,
distinctness, clarity, faithfulness”.
And still these words fall short of expressing Shinjin as the
dynamic force of wisdom. No single translation can do justice to the
meaning of Shinjin. That’s why many of the newer publication of
Jodo Shinshu works leave Shinjin un-translated.
So what is Shinjin? In a nutshell it refers to a spiritual
transformation that takes place within this life, not when you die. It
involves profound understanding, awareness and insight. It is an
awakening to an entirely new mode of being in the world, becoming aware
of one’s own limited human nature and the oneness of all beings.
Shinran equated Shinjin with the initial state of enlightenment
referred to by the Theravada Buddhist as the stage of Non-retrogression.
In reaching this initial state of enlightenment we become aware of
Oneness, the interdependence and interconnectedness of all things in the
universe … in other words we become aware the Other Power or Amida’s
Primal Vow.
We become aware of all the compassion that embrace our everyday life. We
become aware of everything past, present and future that supports our
life. To become aware we live a life a gratitude and appreciation. And
it is this awareness that manifest itself as true person of compassion.
And too …. Shinjin makes you aware of that you are a foolish,
ignorant person, that you are bombu. We become aware that our
greed, hatred and ignorance are deep-seeded and that there is not hope
of getting rid of them though our own effort.
A person of Shinjin is awakened to how he/or she really is….
Stripped of all pretensions, defenses and self-images. The person of
Shinjin is a true disciple of Buddha and yet at the same time the
person of Shinjin is filled with useless self-attachments and
still is burdened with human shortcomings and frailties.
This contradiction is what makes Shinjin so “inconceivable,
inexplicable, and indescribable”. And this is why “Easy Paractice”, as
Nagarjuna called the Pure Land path … not so easy.
In the next issue I would like to discuss how Jodo Shinshu Buddhist
resolve this most difficult issue.
Namu Amida Butsu
|
