Question: What did Shinran mean by "mindfulness is
Nembutsu"?
“Saying the Name is in itself
mindfulness;
mindfulness is Nembutsu;
Nembutsu is Namo Amida
Butsu”.
Answer:We need to know that whenever we meet the word
“mindfulness” it is in no way referring to the modern idea of
meditation based on self-power. For Shinran “mindfulness” always
referred to faith and to Amida Buddha. So, he said that mindfulness
is Nembutsu and that Nembutsu is Namo Amida Butsu. What does Namo
Amida Butsu mean? It means “I take refuge in Amida Buddha/Homage to
Amida Buddha”. What does Nembutsu represent? What do we express by
saying Namo Amida Butsu? We express faith, so Namo Amida Butsu or
Nembutsu is the expression of faith. It is faith as there can be no
faith separate from Nembutsu and no genuine Nembutsu separate from
faith. Shinran Shonin said:
"Although the one moment of shinjin and the one moment of
Nembutsu are two, there is no Nembutsu separate from shinjin
(faith), nor is the one moment of shinjin separate from the one
moment of
Nembutsu.”[1]
Rennyo Shonin also said:
"'Namo' means 'to take refuge in'; it means to entrust
yourself to Amida with the assurance of your
salvation.”[2]
So, according to Shinran, mindfulness is faith and the
Nembutsu of faith. It means to be mindful or aware of Amida
Buddha’s Primal Vow and of His indiscriminative salvation. It means
to have the twofold profound convictions according to which 1) we
know that we are people of deep karmic limitations, incapable of
attaining Buddhahood through our own power and 2) that only Amida
Buddha can save us through His Vow Power without asking anything
from us. This is the mindfulness of the Jodo Shinshu Path – to
entrust to Amida Buddha, to be aware of His indiscriminative
salvation and of our karmic limitations, to know that only Amida
Buddha can save us. A person who says the Nembutsu of faith is
aware of all these.
Shinran Shonin also said in Shoshinge:
“When a thought of mindfulness of Amida’s Primal Vow
arises,
At that instant we spontaneously
enter the stage of definite
assurance.
Always reciting only the Name of
the Tathagata,
We should seek to repay our
indebtedness to His Great Compassion”.
To repay indebtedness means to say thank you to Amida
Buddha.
In chapter III of his Kyogyoshinsho, Shinran also
said:
“Deep mind is deep faith. Deep faith is steadfast deep
faith. Steadfast deep faith is decisive mind. Decisive mind is
supreme mind (because this is the Bodhi Mind). Supreme mind is true
faith. True faith is enduring mind. Enduring mind is sincere
mind. Sincere mind is mindfulness.Mindfulness is the true One
Mind. The true One Mind is great joy (relief
at knowing the burden of liberation is taken from your shoulders by
Amida). Great Joy is the true entrusting heart. The true
entrusting heart is adamantine faith. Adamantine faith is the
aspiration for Buddhahood. The aspiration for Buddhahood is the
desire to save sentient beings. The desire to save sentient beings
is the desire to embrace sentient beings and bring them to the Pure
Land of Peace and Bliss. This desire is the Great Bodhi Mind. This
mind is the Great Compassion, for it arises from the wisdom of
Infinite Light.”
Also, Master Jih-hsiu is quoted by Shinran as
saying:
“Those who attain Birth through a single
thought of mindfulness are the same as Maitreya.”
As you well know, Shinran also considered that faith is what
makes you the same as Maitreya, the future Buddha, because in a way
which is somehow similar to Him we are future Buddhas. So, again,
we see that mindfulness actually means faith (shinjin).
In the Hymns in Praise of Amida Buddha, Master
T’an-luan
said[3]:
“His Light shines everywhere at all
times.
For this reason, the Buddha is also
called “Unceasing Light”.
By accepting in
faith the Power of His Light, with continuous
mindfulness,
We all attain Birth. Hence I
prostrate myself and worship Him.”
Here again there is this connection between faith and
continuous mindfulness. What does “continuous mindfulness”
means? It means that one who has faith will always have the twofold
profound conviction of faith: he will always know that he is a
person of deep karmic limitations, incapable of attaining
Buddhahood through his own power and that only Amida Buddha can
save him through His Vow Power without asking anything from
him.There are many other passages in Shinran’s works which show
that mindfulness means faith.
Master Shan-tao also said:
“Of those who abandon the sole practice of Nembutsu and
seek to perform sundry acts, very rarely, one or two out of a
hundred or, very rarely, three or five out of a thousand, will
attain Birth (in the border land which shows how
hard it is to attain birth there!). Why?For the following
reasons: miscellaneous conditions confuse their minds and so they
lose right mindfulness; they are not in accord with the Buddha’s
Primal Vow, they run counter to the Buddha’s teaching, they do not
follow the Buddha’s words, their concentration does not continue,
their mindfulness is interrupted, their merit transference and
aspiration are not sincere and
truthful”[4]
To “lose right mindfulness” means to stop trusting
Amida Buddha, to not be in accord with His Primal Vow (18thVow), to
give up the sole reliance on Amida alone and go against the
teaching of sole reliance on Amida. They cannot focus their
salvation on Amida and their mindfulness of Amida is interrupted
because they are tempted by various other practices. Their merit
transference and aspiration is not sincere and truthful because the
very idea of merit transference is false as no unenlightened person
has genuine supramundane merits and their aspiration is not in
accord with the Primal Vow that is, they do not aspire to birth in
the Pure Land through the Power of Amida. Extremely few of such
people who “abandon the sole practice of Nembutsu and seek to
perform sundry acts”can attain birth in the border land of the
Pure Land if they are very serious in the practice described in the
20th Vow.
“Those who serve gods and yet receive such retributions
–
Why do they not abandon such beliefs and
practice mindfulness of
Amida?”[5]
To “practice mindfulness of Amida” means to think to
Amida with faith.
Master Chih-yuan of Mount Ku
said[6]:
“Through the power of faith, one firmly accepts the Name
in one’s heart. Through the power of mindfulness, one keeps it
without forgetting.”
Faith and mindfulness are
inter-related. Only because one has faith, can one say the Nembutsu
as an expression of faith and never forget it. Faith leads to
Nembutsu and to never forget the Nembutsu, never forget Amida,
never forget that we are weak beings in need of Amida’s helping
hand, never forget that we are saved as we are and assured of birth
in the Pure Land.
This faith is mindfulness. This
faith is Namo Amida Butsu.
[1]Lamp
for the Latter-Ages, letter 11
[2]Thus I
Have Heard from Rennyo Shonin - Rennyo Shonin‘s Goichidaiki
Kikigaki
[3]As quoted by
Shinran in his Kyogyoshinsho, chapter V.
[4]Kyogyoshinsho,
chapter VI
[5]Master
Shan-tao as quoted by Shinran in his Kyogyoshinsho, VI
[6]as quoted by
Shinran in his Kyogyoshinsho, VI.
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