PURE REALM BUDDHISM CONFERENCE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <1>Pure Realm Statement by Ken O'Neill. Pure Realm Buddhism Pure Realm's Japanese Jodo Shin expression is the oldest Buddhist movement in the United States. Despite its relative antiquity, Pure Realm remains the least understood form of Buddhism in the West. D.T. Suzuki has written: "Of all the development Mahayana Buddhism has achieved in the Far East, the most remarkable one is the Shin Teachings of the Pure Land School. "Shin Buddhism is Japan's major religious contribution to the West." Pure Realm Buddhism is rooted in early Indian Mahayana Buddhism. Although we know nothing of the practices and traditions of ancient Indian Pure Realm Mahayana, nonetheless variant Sanskrit editions of two of its three basic sutras have survived. Tibetan translations of those sutras are also extant, but Pure Realm is not known to have been a distinct tradition in that country. Pure Realm took root in China as a Mahayana expression in its own right, and translations to Chinese were made numerous times. The White Lotus Society (c.402) was the first known Chinese Pure Realm organization. Over succeeding centuries, China continued to evolve a variety of Pure Realm soteriologies. In later times Pure Realm amalgamated with Ch'an, forming what is often called "Pure Land Zen". The Japanese Obaku school of Zen is a living example of Pure Land Zen. One gross mistake of the Western Buddhist tradition has been the unfounded disassociation of Pure Realm from other distinctively Mahayana symbolic expressions. Pure Realm has been taken as foreign to the mainstream of Mahayana expression. Nothing could be further from the case. There are two great traditions of Mahayana symbolic expression - the bodhisattva path and the Pure Realm way. Pure Realm makes use of the very same soteriological terms as other Mahayana expressions, but through the media of a differing metaphorical symbolic coding. In 1971, Dr. Edward Conze told a Prajnaparamita seminar at the University of California, Berkeley, "the teaching of Shinran Shonin is the most sublime expression of Mahayana Buddhism." While Japan's first Pure Realm master was Genshin (942-1017) he is today looked upon as an intermediary figure between Chinese and Japanese Pure Realm expression. This is so because he presented his religious conviction without forming a distinct teaching tradition of his own; nevertheless, his contribution was the first formalized Japanese Pure Realm statement. The first distinctively Japanese interpretation of Buddhism was exposited by by Saicho (767-822), founder of Japan's Tendai Buddhism. Saicho's role in Buddhist history amounts to nothing short of a new interpretation of Buddhism; and he formulated the first Japanese soteriological exposition of the teaching, practice and attainment of Buddhism. The seat of his school is on Mount Hiei (Hieizan). While Saicho did not directly contribute to the development of Pure Realm in Japan, two practitioners of Tendai did; moreover, every newly emerged school of Kamakura Buddhism arises from unfulfilled Tendai monks. Dogen and Eisai of Zen, Honen and Shinran of Pure Realm, and Nichiren of the school bearing his name all began their religious careers in Tendai. Nichiren, Honen and Shinran all went on to establish uniquely Japanese schools of Buddhism. Honen (1141-1227) is said to have read the entire Tripitaka and its commentaries at least 3 times; he was considered the most learned of monks on Mt.Hiei. Yet he remained spiritually unfulfilled inspite of his great scholarship. Immersion in the teaching only deepened his sense of unsettlement, for despite its promises of an unexcelled spiritual awakening he had not experienced anything of the kind. That frustration led him to reconsider the very basis of Buddhist practice, leading him to find liberation through the Pure Realm teaching. This point is of fundamental importance to Western practitioners, given the newness of Buddhism in our culture. We, too, have the tendency to disassociate between metaphysical schemes and the actual life we lead. That but heightens our anxiety. And we absurdly seek illusions cast by scriptures and our own desire to believe, rather than understanding that we must first look within to understand who seeks those spiritual rewards. Like Honen, we must reach that point of desperation, tread that dark night of the soul, suffer that disillusionment by means of which we may find a spiritual awakening bringing peace to our hearts. Pure Realm Buddhism is chiefly represented outside of the Far East by the Nishi Honganji, subsect of Japan. With more than ten million adherents in Japan, Nishi Honganji kyodans (districts) exist as the Hompa Honganji Mission of Hawaii (38 temples), the Buddhist Churches of America (61 temples), the Buddhist Churches of Canada (16 temples) and the Brasil Kyodan (51 temples). Additionally, small movements are found in both Mexico and scattered throughout Europe. Higashi Honganji, a sister subsect, has 4 temples in the continental U.S.A., and others in Hawaii. The Jodo sect has at least one Hawaiian temple. The Pure Realm Mythic Image Pure Realm is rooted in the career of a mythic Buddha; his story is "unimaginable" when compared to life as we know it. Eons ago an individual became the bodhisattva Dharmakara (J., Hozo Bosatsu). Like all neophyte bodhisattvas, he made all the necessary vows or commitments to achieve all abilities and qualities required to becoming a Buddha; moreover, he also made vows that were original to his own perception of what a Buddha should be. Since the essence of attaining Buddhahood lies in perfecting ways of leading all sentient beings to spiritual awakening, one of the original vows Hozo made declared that upon his becoming a Buddha, those who sincerely and wholeheartedly call out to him will be spiritually reborn in his realm of enlightenment. After unimaginably long eons of practice, Hozo became Amida Butsu (Skt., Amitabha Buddha). Thus to become spiritually reborn, all we must do is call on Amida by saying "Namu Amida Butsu". Unfortunately mythic expression of spiritual reality is often taken literally, thereby missing the symbolic embodiment of truth. Pure Land easily lends itself to docetism, the view that there are cosmic Buddhas living in other worlds who answer mankind's prayers and intercede in the affairs of the world by magical means. Such an approach externalizes spiritual responsibility with the idea that "somebody will do it for me". Others look for miraculous events and signs of magical manifestations of Buddhas and masters from other dimensions. Pure Realm history has many instances of such docetic misinterpretation, while standard English presentations of Pure Realm rest content with a statement of the mythic expression and offer a theology which does not clarify the soteriological truths embodied in it. Volumes abound on the Shin teaching of Pure Realm; most are useless leftovers from 19th century misunderstandings of Pure Realm metaphor and its terminology. The following characterization of Shin is not in its conventional language of presentation. Instead it is an explanation rooted in an 800 year old tradition with consideration for the mode of expression that is part of the emergent Western Buddhism. My interests do not lie with orthodoxy for its own sake; my allegiance lies with the spirit of free expression and interpretation exemplified by our founder, Shinran Shonin. Accordingly, the following characterization of Shin soteriology is an explanation for those of us of the emergent Western Buddhist tradition. Pure Realm Soteriology Pure Realm, like Zen, is exclusively oriented toward the Buddha's enlightenment. Thus both are sometimes referred to as "Dharmakaya Buddhism" because they orient the practitioner directly to the attitude of the Buddha (J., nembutsu, Skt. buddhanusmrti) rather than rites, rituals and activities pursued to earn merit or extraordinary abilities. However for Pure Realm, Amida is the sole object for cultivating religious awareness, as Shakyamuni Buddha is for Zen. In Zen students the experience of religious understanding is termed kensho, while in Pure Realm it is called shinjin. There is one crucial experience in the life of every Buddhist; that experience indicates that the truth of the Buddha's teaching is not philosophical or theological, but experiential. Generally Mahayana calls that crucial moment "the arising of bodhicitta (bodhi-attitude)". The notion of attitude is fundamental to understanding that experience, but for decades citta and its Sino-Japanese equivalents have been rendered as "mind". Mind is a superfluous term to the process orientation of Buddhist soteriology, since dharma practice makes us aware of the fluctuating stream of consciousness that we mistake for a mind. Attitude implies that psychologically we amount to a number of conditioned dispositional tendencies, and the polar opposite of our attitude is that of those who have awakened to a fuller and enriched understanding of life. Bodhicitta is the "mystical" experience that transforms speculation to understanding, for until we have a living experience of the attitude of enlightenment, all discussion of it might be called gossip. For that reason Pure Realm advocates shinjin as the fundamental basis of knowing anything of spiritual potency. With shinjin we have known with absolute certainty that the claims of Pure Realm are true and real. In that sense alone is faith born. However, Shinjin continues to be badly translated as either "faith" or "faith-mind". The connotation of faith in Western culture means the opposite of this sense of faith, for we take something on faith until we know with certainty, while Pure Realm says faith is certainty! That turning point establishes a rebirth in our understanding; and we acquire several new insights. We know that: 1. We have experienced a spiritual rebirth; 2. We have momentarily experience the Buddha's attitude; 3. We are not enlightened at all; 4. The Buddha attitude exists; 5. Our ultimate freedom lies in the Buddha attitude; 6. We must wholeheartedly rely on the Buddha attitude; 7. We cannot cause the Buddha attitude to arise---that remains outside of our power; 8. Gratitude and thanksgiving naturally arise from our hearts for having received this experience. Buddhism is said to be a practice. Some hold that practices are what cause the Buddha attitude to arise; that is, practices cause Buddha attitude as a result or outcome. However, that simply is not Buddhism! Practice makes us critically aware of the habitual, self-centered nature of our mental and emotional attitude toward life. To make a Buddha, we have to realistically understand the raw material that we start with--- ourselves. And that raw material turns out to be different than we'd imagined it to be. We find the meaning of the three poisons in our own attitude; even the motivation for enlightenment is self-centered, not compassionate and wise. Pure Realm calls self-centeredness jiriki as the polar opposite of tariki, a centeredness that is other than myself. Tariki is the attitude of Buddha. The jiriki-tariki relationship is dynamic, and makes us aware of how impossibly selfish we are in contrast to the unimaginable (for us) wisdom and compassion of the Buddha attitude. Yet we are reminded that by sincerely and wholeheartedly calling namu amida butsu, the Buddha attitude will momentarily come to us. It would seem that jiriki can manipulate tariki. Not so! We have to come to a point of desperation within our realm of self-seeking; we have to realize that we cannot do it ourselves. Try as we might, we cannot become Buddha, we cannot become other than we are. The Buddha attitude patiently awaits that recognition on our part; once it's there, we are embraced by illumination. And we are accepted just as we are. We know at precisely that moment that even the urge to call upon the Buddha has been the working of the Buddha within us. Amida Butsu does not exist until that moment of surrender. Pure Realm Buddhism is called the "nembutsu way". While there is considerable disagreement concerning nembutsu practice, nembutsu is generally identified with the expression "namu amida butsu". Literally, the Chinese characters for nembutsu mean "attitude" (nen) and "enlightenment" (butsu,Buddha). Pure Realm insists that all and everything constituting the enlightenment of Amida is represented in his name and title (name=amida, title=butsu) pronounced as namu amida butsu. The Indian Buddhist origins of this notion may well be tied to magical thinking, or may have been brilliant soteriological insight. We cannot know. In any event, nembutsu can be a very confusing concept because it has multiple meanings and uses. Fundamentally, however, nembutsu is synonymous with the attitude of all Buddhas' enlightenment, while its expression as namu amida butsu celebrates the existence of illumination gained from personal experience. Honen and Shinran seem to differ remarkably regarding the significance of chanting nembutsu, which is the most common practice encountered in Pure Realm. Honen viewed shinjin as central to liberation, and at the same time urged that we continue to recite nembutsu. This position resulted in great controversy, both in his times and later. For many, continued utterance of the nembutsu seemed an additional requirement beyond shinjin itself; that was not Honen's position. Rather he advocated that one should say the nembutsu as often as possible with a firm, wholehearted trust in the power of Amida in every utterance. Shinran's diligent practice of Honen's notion led him to realize that nearly every act we perform is rooted in the jiriki attitude; thus bringing wholehearted, sincere trust to each utterance is nearly impossible. From the depth of his religious awareness, Shinran pointed out that our first utterance of nembutsu, which arises with shinjin, makes spiritual rebirth certain; henceforth, recitation need only come from one's depth of gratitude and joy for having had the experience of shinjin. Shinran viewed continued utterance of nembutsu as a natural response to that powerful spiritual experience of certainty and release. Thus the nembutsu way is called the life of gratitude. Shinran's soteriology is rather simple once you get the point of it. On the other hand, it offers no concrete notion of how one might live it. Over the 800 years of Shin tradition, numerous individuals have experienced shinjin. In some cases, the outright spontaneity of an unpretentious, uncalculating individual marked with genuine gratitude so well exemplifies the nembutsu way that he or she is called a myokonin by others. Recorded information on myokonin emphasizes both gratitude and the "come as you are" calling of Amida. These are people within whom Amida lives, but they are not regarded as saints. The extraordinary shines through their ordinariness, their spontaneity, and their unconventional behavior. That does not mean that they are well liked at all. Myokonin are who they are, without embarrassment or conniving. Most of all, they are vividly human, wonderfully alive with an irrepressible sense of wonder and joy. Their stories read much like those of Zen and Tantric adepts. For them, this very world is a Buddha-realm of awakening. * Ken O'Neill * P.O. Box 796 * Los Gatos, CA 95031