MURYOKO
'Infinite Light'
Journal of Shin Buddhism
John Paraskevopoulos
Practice
Extremely difficult is it to put an end to our evil nature;
The mind is like serpents and scorpions.
Our performance of good acts is also poisoned;
Hence, it is called false and empty practice.
(Shozomatsu Wasan 96)
The above wasan addresses itself to an important reality faced by many who aim to follow the Buddhist path. That is, the sense that the integrity of our practices is vitiated by an awareness that even our spiritual life is often beset by egoism, hypocrisy and failure. Despite our most sincere and ardent endeavours, we can find ourselves confronted with the realization that we are no better than we were before and certainly no closer to the expected goal of enlightenment. One does not wish to over-generalize and discount the exceptions to this phenomenon but exceptions they certainly are. For most ordinary people, there comes a time when an impasse is reached, if they have been practicing Buddhism in earnest, with the awareness that however hard one may meditate, practice 'good needs' or pursue whatever Buddhist virtue, one is not necessarily able to divest oneself of the manifold imperfections, infirmities and limitations that plague us as human beings. In fact, it is often through these heroic efforts alone that such an awareness is deeply impressed upon us for the first time. For many, this can be an utterly crushing experience leading to the utmost despair. Such an experience, regrettably, also leads many people to abandon Buddhism altogether because of a feeling that one is somehow a fraud in not being able to measure up to the exacting standards laid down by the Buddha for the attainment of enlightenment and the final eradication of our delusions.
It is certainly true that Buddhism, for the most part, appears to be very demanding in the perfection it expects of those who would follow the path to liberation and awakening. At the time the Buddha was alive, and under his immediate influence, it certainly appears as if many individuals were able to attain enlightenment in their very lifetime. There are many episodes recorded in the sutras of the Buddha helping people to a deeper realization of the Dharma through simple acts such as an exchange of a few words, a smile or the holding up of a flower with nothing needing to be said. The personal presence of the Buddha himself must have been a powerful and unforgettable presence for those fortunate enough to belong to his Sangha or to have crossed his path. Such a presence must also have made possible the almost miraculous transformations in people that one reads about in the scriptures. However, the Buddha himself did prophesy that this would not always be the case and that, with the passage of time following his entry into Nirvana at death, the capacity of individuals with respect to practicing the dharma would degenerate to the point that no one would be able to attain enlightenment through the traditional practices and observances. In fact, he lamented that during the period known as the 'Decadent Age of the Dharma' (in which we currently find ourselves) the Buddha's teaching would exist more in the letter than in the spirit. Whether one considers this explanation as just an allegory or an unorthodox accretion by pessimistic editors of the Buddhist canon, it is difficult to deny that we are living in an age where spiritual life is undergoing a gradual debasement and that one is hard-pressed to find, in the world today, any widespread prevalence of genuinely enlightened people of the stature of the Buddha himself. To be sure, there is no shortage of spiritual leaders today who make extraordinary claims for themselves but who are quickly to discovered to be dangerous, egotistical charlatans who do much more harm than good - 'ye shall know them by their fruits'.
Does this mean that the Buddhadharma is dead and without meaning in the modern world ? Should Buddhism just become an object of quaint curiosity and merely a subject for academic study without any personal engagement with its vital teachings ? Assuredly not. In the thirteenth century, Shinran challenged us to take a very long and hard look at ourselves. He advocated a ruthlessly honest approach in our undestanding of ourselves and the world. He also asked us to take a radically new look at what we mean by practice.
Like all Buddhists of his time, Shinran stressed that practice was essential if one was to secure the primary objective of the Buddhist path - the attainment of Nirvana. But how could he do this when he was such a vociferous critic of human nature and when he despaired of the efficacy of human practice in attaining such an exalted goal ? How could he deprecate our efforts to transcend our human limitations when he remained convinced that our practice was undergirded by self-seeking desires and delusion ?
The answer to this question, while implicit in the doctrines of the Pure Land tradition, only became fully explicit in the insights provided by Shinran to this problem. In effect, Shinran reversed the traditional concept of eko, whereby one transfers to others the merit accrued in spiritual practice, to state that it is ultimate reality itself, or Suchness (tathata) personified as the Buddha of Infinite Light (Amitabha) that 'practices' on our behalf. In other words, the reality which we seek to attain in the state of Nirvana (which is none other than the experience of Suchness or union with the Buddha-nature), has to act as the very catalyst that makes such an attainment possible at all. How else can we, as finite and flawed beings relying on our paltry resources, be capable of scaling the heights of the Infinite without access to the power inherent in the Infinite itself ? If we do not do this, what meaning can merely human practice have ? Shinran uses the powerful image of people 'grasping' at sundry practices as if they were sweeping fire off their heads but getting nowhere in the process. 'Practice' then just becomes another, albeit much more subtle, vehicle for manifesting our blind passions and selfish desires (minds 'like serpents and scorpions') rather than for purifying all traces of our ego-attachment. How is it possible to transcend that which is imperfect and limited through that which is precisely the same ? It turns out, after all, that the very infection we are trying to cure is is the subject of a treatment that is similarly infected.
This profound contradiction struck Shinran very deeply. Accordingly, the only solution, as he saw it, had to be a radical one: complete abandonment of all self-willed attempts to attain enlightenment through purifying practices coupled with a total surrender to the Buddha's working to liberate all sentient beings. Nothing else is required. This may strike some as absurdly simple. Others may question the efficacy of such 'non-practice'. However, when you consider that the only true reality that exists is the Buddha's infinite life, why not rely on it to secure your safe passage to the world of light and bliss that is Nirvana ? Why waste a precious lifetime in fruitless and painful struggle, trying to attain the very thing that is being offered to you without conditions should you only accept it ?
The consequences of doing so are not just posthumous in the sense of becoming emancipated from samsara after death. Our surrender to Amitabha Buddha is an active participation in his spiritual energy which imparts to us his very wisdom and which ensures that our lives are steeped in the Dharma despite our countless defilements. The Buddha's mind that arises in ours in order to embrace and transform it is the compassionate action of Nirvana itself reaching out to save all beings from their perilous condition. The 'bottom line' in any meaningful and valuable spiritual path is its capacity to furnish genuine relief from the suffering and existential travail that mark life in this world of 'endurance'(saha). In unconditionally making the 'self' the object, rather than the subject, of practice, the Pure Land way does precisely that.
The Buddha's 'practice' in emancipating us is manifested as our gradual but spontaneous letting go of the very things that shackle us to our doubts and perplexities. Our objective then is to allow the Buddha to do his work - unimpeded and without resistance. If we are, indeed, capable of any practice at all, then let it be this.