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Selected passages from Honen Shonin
with commentary
“Once a devotee from the Chinzei district came up to Kyoto to
visit Honen at his cottage.
Before meeting him, he asked
one of Honen’s disciples if it was a good thing to meditate upon
the Buddha’s signs of eminence while one is repeating the Nembutsu.
The reply was that it was an excellent thing to do.
Honen who was sitting in the adjoining room before the Buddha’s
image, overheard the conversation. He opened the sliding door and
remarked, ‘I don’t think so. It is as Zendo (Master Shan-tao) says,
‘If a single one of the sentient beings in the ten quarters of the
world should fail to be born into the Pure Land through calling of
my Name at least ten times, then I refuse for myself the perfect
Enlightenment of Buddhahood. Now the fact is that He did become a
Buddha and now exists as one. So from this we are perfectly sure
that His Great Primal Vow was not in vain. If therefore any
sentient being now does call upon His Name, he shall certainly
attain Ojo (birth in the Pure Land). No matter how much we may
meditate upon the Buddha, we cannot do it in the perfect way as
Shakyamuni explained it (in the Contemplation Sutra). So the only
thing for us to do is to put our trust deeply in the Primal Vow
itself, and call upon the sacred Name with our lips. This is the
one and only way to practice
religion.[1]’”[2]
Commentary:We should always come back to the Primal Vow whenever
we have a question. So, where in the Primal Vow did Amida mention
that we should say His Name while meditating upon His signs of
eminence? Nowhere! The inquiry in the above passage was made on the
basis of the thirteen contemplations in the Contemplation
Sutra which is a provisional teaching for those who still cling
to their self-power. However, it has absolutely no connection with
the Nembutsu of the Primal Vow or the Nembutsu of Amida centered
Power. In His Primal Vow, Amida asked us to entrust to Him and say
His Name “perhaps even ten times”which means that our
relaxed saying of Nembutsu (without being obsessed with numbers)
should be an expression of faith in His Power. It is a simple
saying of the Name without adding anything to it. The Primal Vow
mentions a simple saying of the Name in faith because Amida wanted
this to be the easiest Path among all Dharma methods. As long as He
didn’t consider to add anything else except the saying of His Name
in faith and the wish to be born in His Pure Land, why think we are
smarter than Him and add something else? Certainly, the Primal Vow
does not need any improvement.
More than this, Amida linked this Path of birth in the Pure Land
with His own attainment of perfect Enlightenment:
“If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings of the ten
quarters who sincerely entrust themselves to me, desire to be born
in my land, and say my Name perhaps even ten times, should not be
born there, may I not attain the supreme Enlightenment.” (The
Primal Vow)
As He actually attained Enlightenment, we should have no doubt
that to say His Name in faith leads to birth there. A Buddha never
breaks His promise and He is the only one to know the karmic causes
for birth in His own Pure Land, so have trust in Amida and do
exclusively what He told you to do. Those who think that the
requirements of Amida in His Primal Vow are not enough to cause
birth in His Pure Land doubt His wisdom and do not have genuine
faith.
[1]
Words in brackets are my own.
[2] Honen
the Buddhist Saint - His Life and Teachings, volume III, compiled
by imperial order, translation by Rev Ryugaku Ishizuka and Rev
Harper Havelock Coates, The Society for the Publication of Sacred
Books of the World, Kyoto, 1949, p. 442-443
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