- fragment from a letter to a friend -
The Name of Amida Buddha is not your property, and it
does not work because of you. It works because of Amida. Your
saying of the Name is effective because Amida put all His Power and
infinite merits in His Name.
If you entrust yourself to Amida Buddha's salvific
Power, then you are saying the Name in accordance with its true
nature, but if you are saying the Name and think that its efficacy
depends on something within yourself, like how often you say it, or
how focused you are when you say it, or on the presence of so and
so virtue and merit in you, then you cannot benefit from all the
blessings of the Name. This is why those who say the Name in self
power (followers of the
20thVow)[1]can go only to
the border land of the PureLand. They may usually say - "but we
rely on Amida's Name, not on ourselves"; however, the reality is
that deep in their minds what they actually do is - "we rely on
ourcapacity to recite as many times as possible". So
they actually think, "the more we recite, the better chances we
have to be born in the PureLand". Well, this is exactly what
hinders them to entrust completely to the Power of Amida Buddha and
be born in the true fulfilled land of the Pure Land (the "center"
of the PureLand) and immediately attain Buddhahood
there.
Now please, do not imagine that people who say the Name
while truly relying on Amida's Power to save, cannot say it many
times! On the contrary, they might say it many times, just like
practitioners of self-power nembutsu. The only difference is that
they are not obsessed with numbers! They are not obsessed with
having the proper state of mind when saying the Name, too! They
do not have the delusion that they can add or contribute with
something from themselves to Amida's salvation. They realize
all these, while they continue to say the Name! They do not abandon
the Name, but on the contrary, they enjoy it with the relaxation
given by the fact that they are already saved.
They do not need to assure their own salvation in each
moment of their life by saying the Name continuously - something
like, "I must be sure that I say the Name all the time, so that if
I die now I can go to the PureLand". They do not need to prove to
Amida that they are worthy of His salvation because they say His
Name all the time. Truly, our salvation is in Amida's hands, not
ours. Its in Amida's Power, in Amida's Name, and not in our own
capacity to recite it often or seldom, or in the various things we
might think we should develop inside our delusional hearts and
minds.
Dear M, say the Name, enjoy the Name whenever you like,
and whenever you can. The sure sign that you are really enjoying
the Name is when you say it without worry of your salvation, that
is, after you entrusted yourself to Amida Buddha. This true saying
of the Name is the Nembutsu of faith and gratitude - the Nembutsu
of the Primal Vow.
Please remember that, in the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha,
the saying of the Name ("saying my Name perhaps even ten times") is
not mentioned alone, but together with faith ("those who entrust
to me, saying my Name perhaps even ten times"). This is
extremely important and it shows what Amida wants from us, that is,
to say His Name while completely entrusting ourselves to Him and
His Power to save. We cannot run contrary to the Primal Vow and
emphasize only the Name while neglecting faith. In truth, the
Nembutsu (saying of the Name) cannot be separated from faith and
faith cannot be separated from the Nembutsu. Those who are not yet
established in faith might say the Name too, and is important that
even people without faith to say the Name, but those who have faith
will surely say the Nembutsu and their saying will truly be in
accord with Amida's instruction from His Primal Vow, "those who
entrust to me, saying my Name perhaps even ten times, wishing to be
born in my land...".
To say the Name while entrusting ourselves completely to
Amida is the genuine Nembutsu - the Nembutsu Amida wants us to
say.
Yours in Namo Amida Butsu,
Josho
PS: Please read the highlighted words in the text as
they lead to more useful articles
[1] The fact that
people without settled faith say the Name exclusively puts them in
connection with Amida Buddha, more exactly with His 20th Vow which
was especially made for those who say the Name but do not
completely rely on Amida's power.
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