Muryoko: Journal of Shin Buddhism

SOME SHIN QUESTIONS

How does the nembutsu practiser cope with suffering in his or her daily life? What guidelines exist?

Is prayer a valid or recognized means for obtaining relief from suffering? Is there any teaching about this? Is there any point in "asking for help" or lighting candles?

Is it bad practice (kami) to use the word "God" when patiently explaining the principles of Shin Buddhism to outsiders? (For example, the phrase �God as we understand Him� as commonly used in twelve step programmes to cover any thing or person in which we believe). Rennyo strongly advises us not to get into discussions about our faith. I start to feel guilty about my interest in astrology and my veneration of Kuan Yin.

I know that Amida cordially invites me to participate in the joys of his Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss; but is it fond imagination on my part to suppose that he, in turn, can actively participate in my life "down here"?

Following the previous question: I hear of certain Shin followers who "talk with Amida" as though he were an intimate spiritual friend. Are these people batty, or have they got something going for them that the rest of us are missing out on? Some hard-line Buddhists like Shitoku Peel of Antwerp see Him as nothing more real than the Name � Namo Amida Butsu. A traditional Buddhist friend of mine in England once shut me up with: "Buddha is dead. Forget him." I myself have a soft spot for him.

How can one live with temptation or what Shinran called "his blind passions"? Anger, greed, lust, pride, jealousy, resentment and fear often raise their ugly heads. Depression makes me introspective and ego-centric and "separates me from God" (if I may use that expression again!). Is the utterance of Namo Amida Butsu at these critical moments enough?

OPENING TIRADE

POSTURE AND BREATHING

Know that apart from the Vow-Power
there is no way to birth in the Pure Land. - Zuiken

Namo Amida Butsu.
There is no need for panic.
You are saved.
Tuesday 10 Sept 13, 0420.

For Jan and Christine:
Practising nembutsu
doesn't mean that you can't
do zazen and cook.

THE FIRST TWO DAYS

Vocalize nembutsu whenever and as soon as
the thought of it arises in your mind,
no matter what mood you are in,
however negative or tired you feel!
Better nembutsus � and hence a better mood -
will soon appear, as the result of your
perseverance. Be resolute!

"Those who possess the threefold
devotional heart will realize birth
in the Pure Land of Utmost Bliss
without fail." HONEN.

Namo Amida Butsu -
    do I long for birth
        in the Land of Bliss
or secretly cling
    to this world of suffering?

JULIA GOES TO SCHOOL

Namo Amida Butsu -
    thank you for this
        crummy old human life
which gets me up
    at four in the morning
        to the amazement
            of my teddy bears
and the disbelief
    of my anxious wife.

Namo Amida Butsu
    in the ten quarters -
        thank you for the light
which I perceive
    with my feeble
        sense of sight.

Namo Amida Butsu -
    I must learn to say it
        with gratitude
for the primal vow
    which results in birth.

PLANS FOR TODAY

"The karmic activity that leads to birth
in the Pure Land is the speaking of the Name
of Amida Buddha." - SHAN-TAO

What is �the good life�?
    Simply to recite
        Namo Amida Butsu
and slightly reduce
    the number of
        deliberate derelictions.

VOCALIZING

"Do not fill your precious time with pursuing
man's trifling wisdom when you could be
reciting nembutsu." - HONEN to SHINKU.

Zazen provides
    a perfect platform
        for the practice
            of nembutsu.

SAVED

ESHIN-SOZU once said: "A man's heart
is always distracted by the various conditions
around him. For this reason I merely recite
nembutsu."

One distracted nembutsu
    or even a fearful one
        is better than
            no nembutsu at all.

DIFFICULT MORNING

AMIDA HEARD IT

Confucius says
    the truly good man
        is balanced
            and at peace with himself.

PERSONAL REMARKS

Trusting, to the best of my ability, that I am saved
by the incomprehensible, compassionate working
of Amida's universal vow, I am nevertheless restless,
discontented, irritable � fearful of the hours ahead,
of making mistakes and of dying. Confucius' peace
of mind seems a long way off. Can nembutsu help me?

Namo Amida Butsu! I confess to being easily discouraged.
At times (i.e. mostly) when I am not feeling tip top, the
bugaboos of despondency and self pity creep in. If only I
had the blind faith to recite the nembutsu during these
periods � for I'm certain this would "restore me to sanity"
and the balance known to Confucius and my Tai Chi masters.

Looking back, I am eternally grateful to Master Rennyo
for telling me not to worry about bad karma when reciting.
I am now able to bring up the immense gratitude he often
refers to, and which was impossible to find during my deep
depressions of 30 years ago. Amida's compassion is boundless.

AFTER A HARD DAY

Turning bad karma
    into good karma -
        nothing else happened
                all day.

THE UNHINDERED PATH

Yesterday evening's practice
    was rewarded
        with a delightful dream
in which Mar�a, friends
    and I were busy
        adorning an altar
in my bedroom.

I awoke with Namo
    Amida Butsu on my lips
        and got up
into the bearable samsaric
    world of an old man's
        stiff body.

In the kitchen and the veranda
my nembutsu got under way
without a trace of yesterday morning's
horrible fuzz in my head.

It's four in the morning
    and I'm planning to write
        a thank-you letter to Frits
for kindly sending me The Promise
    of Amida Buddha -
        Honen's Path to Bliss.

"In her crown a motto,
the Virgin of Pilar -
'I am mother of all
who dwell upon this star.'"

Kami-the blissful Spanish virgins
and patron saints along my path
through Bruges, celestial city.

Hakarai � Japanese word
    for the nonsense
        that rattles through my head
when I'm too indolent
        to say nembutsu.

MARIA GETS UP

Fear of sex, fear of sleep, fear of death,
fear of coffee with sugar, fear of love,
fear of anger, greed, failure and hate,
fear of being late, fear of forgetting
the reason why I utter my nembutsu -
all those absurd, irrational fears of
the person haunted with bi-polarity:
I try to wash them off in the shower,
but only nembutsu works.

"Desire is the slayer of the real" -
that's all I know of Blavatsky.
(First thought out on the street).

Make your nembutsu
    a positive affirmation
        of happiness,
a task taken up with joy,
    a treasure.

NEW MOON IN VIRGO

I was out of the hospital
almost as soon as I had arrived -
to find Amida's bus awaiting me
for a pleasant journey home
(as though on a river boat!).

Including the silent ones
    I'd uttered
        over a thousand nembutsus
            and hopefully faced
                the evening ahead.

The Thursday night crowd was on form.
Marjan looked after the newcomer.
Eli needed a new hip operation.
Carine took charge of the kitchen.
With music, John drove me back to my door.
I said nembutsu through the boring bits.

ACOLYTE

Délicious:
    a whole day ahead of me
        and nothing to do
            but say nembutsu.

ANNA NETREBKO IN CONCERT

A restless, impatient
    coach-horse stretches
        its neck and
            paws its shadow.

Namo Amida Butsu
    murmurs the poet
        under the statue
of the two heroes
    who defeated the French
        in 1302.

Feet tied together
    the man on crutches
        gets where he wants to be
            first.

O-JUZU

"Recite nembutsu at all times
    while desiring birth
        in the Pure Land
and await the arrival
    of Amida Buddha.

Aspire to the attainment
    of birth in the Pure Land
        without fearing illness or death."
                - Honen's Essential Teaching.

Amida must know     how attached I am
        to this charming house of ours
(nightfall seduces the garden
    with its five imperishable trees
        as Maria watches television).

Amida must know
    how I cling to my poetry
        like a flimsy reed,
wanting to be remembered
    by future generations -
        O! The utter absurdity.

O-Juzu is their Japanese name,
a solid white bracelet of prayer
that will go down to the grave with me
after my final nembutsu.

PROSTRATIONS

embracing this devotee
    in his obscure corner
        of the Pure Land
            four hours before dawn.

With all its clatter and sham
    the tin-pot world of today
        is the best
I am able to imagine
    and I love it with all my heart.

HOW I SEE HONEN

I see Honen
    as a kindly
        middle-aged man
            with beads in his hands.

Verdi, breakfast time:
    Never far from my thoughts,
        Amida, with O-Juzu
            on the table.

BLISSFUL BANALITY

Just then twenty tourists
came into the joint for lunch -
her prayer was answered.

PORCH SITTING

It's sunny enough to sit on the terrace
and mumble nembutsu under my breath
to the fig tree and half dead roses -
Maria is once more sleeping the sleep
of the just. I suppose she must.

with one of Rida's bottles
    of water from the fridge
        in my left hand,
my white O-Juzu
    fastened round my arm.

CONCLUSION. VARIOUS AUTHORS.

"There is no need for effort on our part.
Buddha's mind and ours are one."
- Rennyo

"To have the joyful heart
is to believe unshakeably
in one's birth."
- Various

EPILOGUE

REPEATING THE NAME

Just go on quietly saying your nembutsu,
while the blackbird sings its song in the garden,
a succulent pear between your finger and thumb.
Namo Amida Butsu, Namo Amida Butsu . . .
This practice opens for you the Pure Land gate,
gently increases your store of happiness and joy.

No matter if Confucius attempts to confuse you
with questions like "What is coming into the room?"
and the teachers of Tarot and Kundalini advise you
not to give vital energy to the opposite sex -
just go on saying it in spite of all annoyances,
an electricity bill, a grouch, an unpleasant mood.

Haste and fear are among the diseases of our time,
weapons which Mara the Tempter uses against us.
Action and inaction battle against one another,
the path gets lost, there is no light on the question.
Be resolute, and forge ahead with the utterance
strongly recommended by the Masters of our school.

All manner of things shall be well,wrote T.S. Eliot,
wisely exercising his poetic and prophetic gifts.
And nothing indeed can bar the progress of the person
who resolutely walks the unhindered Pure Land path,
calling Amida's name ten or ten thousand times a day
as though there were nothing else important left to say.

MURYOKO

'Infinite Light'

Journal of Shin Buddhism

Marcus Cumberlege

LEARNING TO SAY THE NEMBUTSU

PROLOGUE