December 2012
Dharma Message
By Rev. Yushi Mukojima, Resident Minister
Dharma Message
By Rev. Yushi Mukojima, Resident Minister
"Excluded" Shows the Tough Compassion of Amida Buddha
In the 18th Vow of the 48 vows which Bodhisattva Dharmakara (Amida Buddha) established, he made
this promise: If, when I attain Buddhahood, the sentient beings of the ten quarters with sincere mind
entrusting themselves, aspiring to be born in my land and saying my Name perhaps even ten times should
not be born there, may I not attain the supreme enlightenment.
This 18th Vow is called the selected Primal Vow. Shinran teaches that it is the vow which clearly shows the
real intention of Amida Buddha which is the expression of his great compassion: “I will assure all those
uttering the Nembutsu and entrusting themselves to the Primal Vow, birth in the Pure Land without
exception.”
There is no one who will ever be denied the Primal Vow. Irrespective of your age or sex or whether you are
good or ignorant, the vast vow of Amida Buddha will surely save all beings, abandoning none. Amida
Buddha will never say, “You are an exception.”
However, those of you who are ardent students of Buddhism may question my words. If you object to my
claim, saying, “No, Sensei! There is a proviso in Amida Buddha’s Primal Vow in which he declares that those
who commit the five grave offenses and slander the Buddha Dharma will be rejected.” If this is your
objection, then it shows that you have listened to Dharma talks very well.
Certainly when you read the Large Sutra which includes the 48 vows, Amida Buddha clearly says at the
end of 18th Vow, “Excluded are those who commit the five grave offenses and those who slander the right
Dharma.” Yet Amida Buddha had declared no matter what kind of person one might be, by entrusting
oneself to the Primal Vow and reciting the Nembutsu, one will attain Buddhahood. So why are only the five
grave offenders and slanderers of the Buddha Dharma excluded? According to these conditions, might
there in fact be some excluded from the Primal Vow?
First, what are the five grave offenses? They are (1) killing your father, (2) killing your mother, (3) killing one
who seeks the Buddha Dharma, (4) causing the Buddha’s body to bleed, and (5) causing disunity in the
Buddhist order. In other words, these five grave offenses disrupt or cause trouble for the Sangha group
which believes and rejoices in the Buddhist teachings. Any one of these is considered a serious offense but all
five are the gravest offenses in all of Buddhism.
As the five grave offenses are caused by making light of the Buddha Dharma, those who slander the
Buddha’s teaching are regarded as ones committing the gravest offense. Does this mean that no matter
how vast the compassion of Amida Buddha is, those who commit the five grave offenses and those who
slander the Buddha Dharma are excluded from the benefit of the Primal Vow?
This is the way the 18th Vow had been interpreted in the long history of Buddhism, so it is quite
understandable that you might conclude some will be denied the Primal Vow and therefore you might
challenge the words, “Amida Buddha saves all beings equally without discrimination.”
However, a point to notice here is one made by our founder Shinran Shonin in his writing, “Shoshinge.”
“When ignorant and wise, even grave offenders and slanderers of the Dharma, all alike turn and enter
Shinjin, they are like waters that, on entering the ocean, become one in taste with it.” To be more specific,
irrespective of how ignorant or wise these grave offenders or slanderers of the Dharma are, if they set aside
their mind of calculation and entrust themselves completely to the Primal Vow, the ocean of Amida
Buddha’s boundless compassion will accept all beings in oneness equally and enable them to become
established in the stage of the truly settled in this present life and be born in the Pure Land after their death.
Doesn’t this strike you as odd? The 18th Vow states clearly that the five grave offenders and slanderers of
the Dharma will be excluded from the Primal Vow, yet Shinran says that Amida Buddha accepts all beings
without exception. It is quite a contradiction.
In Jodo Shinshu, the phrase, “Excluded are those who commit the five grave offenses and those who
slander the right Dharma,” is called the passage of deterrence. It is very important for us to regard the
passage of deterrence as another side of Amida Buddha’s great compassion or his tough compassion
which will save all beings without exception. Like those who commit the five grave offenses, we might hurt
others when faced by certain circumstances, or even kill others depending on the situation. And like those
who slander the Dharma, we don’t always live embracing the Buddha Dharma as our spiritual support. So
we should understand that the passage of deterrent is the teaching which makes us become aware of our
true selves.
When we think deeply about it, the Buddha’s use of the word “excluded” is much like a parent who scolds
her child by saying, “If you do such a bad thing, I won’t care about you anymore!”
I think that you can relate to having a child or grandchild. Suppose that this child likes to gamble, playing
cards with his friends for money.
When he goes off to college, his parents might feel more worried about him than lonely for him. It is
because they fear he might become absorbed by the casino, horse racing or the lottery and neglect his
studies. So when he is leaving for school, his parents, who see through their child’s character, might threaten
him, “Listen, if I find out you’re gambling, I’ll disown you.” This is like Amida’s warning of exclusion. When the
child hears that threat, he realizes their concern and parts from them saying, “Alright, I will be careful.”
When he’s away at school, he makes a lot of good friends. Suppose that one of them with whom he eats
lunch happens to really enjoy gambling and claims to make money playing cards at the casino. This friend
invites him to go to the casino with him. But when told by the son that if he gambles he will be disowned, his
friend says, “Your father isn’t here; he won’t ever know.” So finally they decide to go to casino the next
weekend. Since there are many kinds of games like slot machines, black jack and so on, if he wins even
once, because he has always liked gambling, he is gradually hooked.
However, the nature of gambling is that we can’t continue to win. In the end, he finally presses his friends
to pay a debt. Even forced to borrow money from a lot of his friends, he can’t let gambling go.
Meanwhile, Thanksgiving Day passes and his parents receive a phone call from someone who presses
them to pay their son’s debt. Although the parents try to contact their son, he doesn’t answer his phone.
Concerned about his safety, they go to his apartment but cannot find him because he hasn’t been there
for a while. Then they listen to all the details about their son from his friends and desperately try to find him,
meeting some of his wastrel friends.
After much effort, they finally find their son. The son, seeing the distraught faces of his parents, becomes
resigned to them and confesses everything that has transpired. “As I feared, you’ve been gambling!”
Faced with this situation, if you were his dad or mom, what would you do? Would you abandon him,
saying, “I told you if you gambled, I would disown you. So from now on, I will have nothing more to do with
you!”
I don’t believe that you would say that. I think that it is rare for a parent to actually disown a child. Then
what will the parents do? I think that with their son, they would go to the friends from whom their son had
borrowed money, apologize for their son’s behavior, and shoulder his debts.
After that, they would tell their son, “I’m turning a blind eye to this matter this time. You can come home
to us for the New Year’s. But you must never gamble again!” Although I know that there are all kinds of
parents, I believe that the parents’ love for a child is just like this. Therefore, defining what “exclude” means
sees through everything and reveals all about us.
Unfortunately, we are terribly self-centered. We can slander the Buddha Dharma to satisfy our own selfish
needs. We are so foolish that we can even kick the Buddha, and we can live in this selfish way. Even the
Buddha’s teachings we sometimes trample underfoot.
Amida Buddha sees through our selfish choices and wishes that we would not commit the five grave
offenses nor slander the Buddha Dharma. In “Notes on the Inscriptions on Sacred Scrolls,” Shinran Shonin
wrote: “By showing the gravity of these two kinds of wrongdoing, his words make us realize that all the
sentient beings throughout the ten quarters, without a single exception, will be born in the Pure Land.”
Because Amida Buddha understands that we are burdened with the weight of our karmic evil, he
admonishes us, “Please do not act in this way.” Thus the Buddha’s wish became the word “excluded.” So
now we can see that Amida Buddha will never abandon anyone. The Primal Vow is his unconditional and
great compassion which saves all beings without discrimination no matter what their circumstance.
Had the son noticed his parents searching for him and tried to avoid a meeting, he would not have been
rescued nor would his parents have found relief from their worry. The son might not have imagined that his
parents would seek him by visiting his friends. But because his parents refused to abandon their own son no
matter what might happen, they continued to look for him. As a result of their determination, they were
bound to find one another eventually. We, too, will experience this kind of encounter with Amida Buddha
because of his unconditional compassion.
To encounter Amida Buddha means to attain the state without any doubt by simply listening to his Primal
Vow. The state without any doubt is the precious world where we rejoice in the stage of the truly settled;
namely, that we are assured Buddhahood. It is the world of profound joy and security where we are
guaranteed Buddhahood because of the Primal Vow.
Whether we describe it as an encounter with the Primal Vow or as gaining Shinjin, in short, it is the embrace
of the great compassion of Amida Buddha which will never abandon even the grave offender and
slanderer of the Dharma.
In appreciating and respecting the depth of Amida Buddha’s great compassion, we should always reflect
deeply upon our foolishness which can be any kind of behavior depending on the condition, including
gravely offending and slandering the Dharma. And let us rejoice in the fact that there is a Nembutsu way,
namely the way to the Pure Land open for the sake of such as us.
There are few weeks left in this year. My wife and I would like to express our sincere appreciation to all of
our Sangha members for your constant support throughout this year. We were especially deeply moved by
your warm thoughtfulness when our second child Oji was born. Because we still feel inexperienced as
parents, we sincerely hope all of you will give us your guidance.
Please look forward to welcoming a wonderful New Year.
In Gassho,
this promise: If, when I attain Buddhahood, the sentient beings of the ten quarters with sincere mind
entrusting themselves, aspiring to be born in my land and saying my Name perhaps even ten times should
not be born there, may I not attain the supreme enlightenment.
This 18th Vow is called the selected Primal Vow. Shinran teaches that it is the vow which clearly shows the
real intention of Amida Buddha which is the expression of his great compassion: “I will assure all those
uttering the Nembutsu and entrusting themselves to the Primal Vow, birth in the Pure Land without
exception.”
There is no one who will ever be denied the Primal Vow. Irrespective of your age or sex or whether you are
good or ignorant, the vast vow of Amida Buddha will surely save all beings, abandoning none. Amida
Buddha will never say, “You are an exception.”
However, those of you who are ardent students of Buddhism may question my words. If you object to my
claim, saying, “No, Sensei! There is a proviso in Amida Buddha’s Primal Vow in which he declares that those
who commit the five grave offenses and slander the Buddha Dharma will be rejected.” If this is your
objection, then it shows that you have listened to Dharma talks very well.
Certainly when you read the Large Sutra which includes the 48 vows, Amida Buddha clearly says at the
end of 18th Vow, “Excluded are those who commit the five grave offenses and those who slander the right
Dharma.” Yet Amida Buddha had declared no matter what kind of person one might be, by entrusting
oneself to the Primal Vow and reciting the Nembutsu, one will attain Buddhahood. So why are only the five
grave offenders and slanderers of the Buddha Dharma excluded? According to these conditions, might
there in fact be some excluded from the Primal Vow?
First, what are the five grave offenses? They are (1) killing your father, (2) killing your mother, (3) killing one
who seeks the Buddha Dharma, (4) causing the Buddha’s body to bleed, and (5) causing disunity in the
Buddhist order. In other words, these five grave offenses disrupt or cause trouble for the Sangha group
which believes and rejoices in the Buddhist teachings. Any one of these is considered a serious offense but all
five are the gravest offenses in all of Buddhism.
As the five grave offenses are caused by making light of the Buddha Dharma, those who slander the
Buddha’s teaching are regarded as ones committing the gravest offense. Does this mean that no matter
how vast the compassion of Amida Buddha is, those who commit the five grave offenses and those who
slander the Buddha Dharma are excluded from the benefit of the Primal Vow?
This is the way the 18th Vow had been interpreted in the long history of Buddhism, so it is quite
understandable that you might conclude some will be denied the Primal Vow and therefore you might
challenge the words, “Amida Buddha saves all beings equally without discrimination.”
However, a point to notice here is one made by our founder Shinran Shonin in his writing, “Shoshinge.”
“When ignorant and wise, even grave offenders and slanderers of the Dharma, all alike turn and enter
Shinjin, they are like waters that, on entering the ocean, become one in taste with it.” To be more specific,
irrespective of how ignorant or wise these grave offenders or slanderers of the Dharma are, if they set aside
their mind of calculation and entrust themselves completely to the Primal Vow, the ocean of Amida
Buddha’s boundless compassion will accept all beings in oneness equally and enable them to become
established in the stage of the truly settled in this present life and be born in the Pure Land after their death.
Doesn’t this strike you as odd? The 18th Vow states clearly that the five grave offenders and slanderers of
the Dharma will be excluded from the Primal Vow, yet Shinran says that Amida Buddha accepts all beings
without exception. It is quite a contradiction.
In Jodo Shinshu, the phrase, “Excluded are those who commit the five grave offenses and those who
slander the right Dharma,” is called the passage of deterrence. It is very important for us to regard the
passage of deterrence as another side of Amida Buddha’s great compassion or his tough compassion
which will save all beings without exception. Like those who commit the five grave offenses, we might hurt
others when faced by certain circumstances, or even kill others depending on the situation. And like those
who slander the Dharma, we don’t always live embracing the Buddha Dharma as our spiritual support. So
we should understand that the passage of deterrent is the teaching which makes us become aware of our
true selves.
When we think deeply about it, the Buddha’s use of the word “excluded” is much like a parent who scolds
her child by saying, “If you do such a bad thing, I won’t care about you anymore!”
I think that you can relate to having a child or grandchild. Suppose that this child likes to gamble, playing
cards with his friends for money.
When he goes off to college, his parents might feel more worried about him than lonely for him. It is
because they fear he might become absorbed by the casino, horse racing or the lottery and neglect his
studies. So when he is leaving for school, his parents, who see through their child’s character, might threaten
him, “Listen, if I find out you’re gambling, I’ll disown you.” This is like Amida’s warning of exclusion. When the
child hears that threat, he realizes their concern and parts from them saying, “Alright, I will be careful.”
When he’s away at school, he makes a lot of good friends. Suppose that one of them with whom he eats
lunch happens to really enjoy gambling and claims to make money playing cards at the casino. This friend
invites him to go to the casino with him. But when told by the son that if he gambles he will be disowned, his
friend says, “Your father isn’t here; he won’t ever know.” So finally they decide to go to casino the next
weekend. Since there are many kinds of games like slot machines, black jack and so on, if he wins even
once, because he has always liked gambling, he is gradually hooked.
However, the nature of gambling is that we can’t continue to win. In the end, he finally presses his friends
to pay a debt. Even forced to borrow money from a lot of his friends, he can’t let gambling go.
Meanwhile, Thanksgiving Day passes and his parents receive a phone call from someone who presses
them to pay their son’s debt. Although the parents try to contact their son, he doesn’t answer his phone.
Concerned about his safety, they go to his apartment but cannot find him because he hasn’t been there
for a while. Then they listen to all the details about their son from his friends and desperately try to find him,
meeting some of his wastrel friends.
After much effort, they finally find their son. The son, seeing the distraught faces of his parents, becomes
resigned to them and confesses everything that has transpired. “As I feared, you’ve been gambling!”
Faced with this situation, if you were his dad or mom, what would you do? Would you abandon him,
saying, “I told you if you gambled, I would disown you. So from now on, I will have nothing more to do with
you!”
I don’t believe that you would say that. I think that it is rare for a parent to actually disown a child. Then
what will the parents do? I think that with their son, they would go to the friends from whom their son had
borrowed money, apologize for their son’s behavior, and shoulder his debts.
After that, they would tell their son, “I’m turning a blind eye to this matter this time. You can come home
to us for the New Year’s. But you must never gamble again!” Although I know that there are all kinds of
parents, I believe that the parents’ love for a child is just like this. Therefore, defining what “exclude” means
sees through everything and reveals all about us.
Unfortunately, we are terribly self-centered. We can slander the Buddha Dharma to satisfy our own selfish
needs. We are so foolish that we can even kick the Buddha, and we can live in this selfish way. Even the
Buddha’s teachings we sometimes trample underfoot.
Amida Buddha sees through our selfish choices and wishes that we would not commit the five grave
offenses nor slander the Buddha Dharma. In “Notes on the Inscriptions on Sacred Scrolls,” Shinran Shonin
wrote: “By showing the gravity of these two kinds of wrongdoing, his words make us realize that all the
sentient beings throughout the ten quarters, without a single exception, will be born in the Pure Land.”
Because Amida Buddha understands that we are burdened with the weight of our karmic evil, he
admonishes us, “Please do not act in this way.” Thus the Buddha’s wish became the word “excluded.” So
now we can see that Amida Buddha will never abandon anyone. The Primal Vow is his unconditional and
great compassion which saves all beings without discrimination no matter what their circumstance.
Had the son noticed his parents searching for him and tried to avoid a meeting, he would not have been
rescued nor would his parents have found relief from their worry. The son might not have imagined that his
parents would seek him by visiting his friends. But because his parents refused to abandon their own son no
matter what might happen, they continued to look for him. As a result of their determination, they were
bound to find one another eventually. We, too, will experience this kind of encounter with Amida Buddha
because of his unconditional compassion.
To encounter Amida Buddha means to attain the state without any doubt by simply listening to his Primal
Vow. The state without any doubt is the precious world where we rejoice in the stage of the truly settled;
namely, that we are assured Buddhahood. It is the world of profound joy and security where we are
guaranteed Buddhahood because of the Primal Vow.
Whether we describe it as an encounter with the Primal Vow or as gaining Shinjin, in short, it is the embrace
of the great compassion of Amida Buddha which will never abandon even the grave offender and
slanderer of the Dharma.
In appreciating and respecting the depth of Amida Buddha’s great compassion, we should always reflect
deeply upon our foolishness which can be any kind of behavior depending on the condition, including
gravely offending and slandering the Dharma. And let us rejoice in the fact that there is a Nembutsu way,
namely the way to the Pure Land open for the sake of such as us.
There are few weeks left in this year. My wife and I would like to express our sincere appreciation to all of
our Sangha members for your constant support throughout this year. We were especially deeply moved by
your warm thoughtfulness when our second child Oji was born. Because we still feel inexperienced as
parents, we sincerely hope all of you will give us your guidance.
Please look forward to welcoming a wonderful New Year.
In Gassho,
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