- I attended the 2009 Buddhist Churches of America Minister’s Association and National Council
Meetings in Irvine toward the end of February. The National Council Meeting, which is held at this
time every year, is the most important BCA gathering of the year because ministers and
representatives from all the temples in the U.S. meet to make sure that the BCA has firm guidance
for the future.
The BCA, which celebrates the 110-year anniversary of its founding this year, has a lot of big
problems, including a shortage of both ministers and members. However, at present, under the
guidance of the Center for Buddhist Education, many temples like our own have already started to
train minister’s assistants, lay leaders, and youth leaders. To take advantage of each temple’s home-
grown talent to invigorate the temples in the future, the BCA started special programs at each
chapter which have been getting excellent results. We must try to hand down to the next
generations the Nembutsu Teaching which your predecessors have protected to this day through
their efforts and enthusiasm. I sincerely hope that all of us will strive to work together to develop the
BCA.
By the way, when I was chanting the “Shoshin-Ge” at home this morning, I found this phrase in
the hymns: “When we say Namo Amida Butsu / Which surpasses all virtues, / Our heavy
obstructions of evil—pas t, present, and future / Are all unfailingly transformed, becoming small,
slight.” It is one of the Pure Land hymns and I make a point of chanting each of the six hymns in turn
every day.
Shinran Shonin is emphatic that, “To say the Nembutsu, Namo Amida Butsu, is far better than any
other religious practice and it is clearly how a person will be saved.” However, I think that there are
some people in our Sangha who doubt and think that reciting the Nembutsu alone is not entirely
satisfactory, or that it is unreliable because there are so many kinds of Buddhist practice.
How then could Shinran Shonin dismiss all other kinds of practice and declare that only the
Nembutsu is real? Now I would like to give an example and absorb his words with you.
I pose a question to you. If there was an avalanche on a snow-covered mountain, what kind of
person do you think has the best chance of surviving it? According to statistics, it seems the person
most likely to survive is not one who starts trying to trek out, but one who remains calm and
steadfastly awaits his or her rescue. Why on earth is that?
The reason is because during an avalanche, it is most dangerous to expend all your body’s
strength. So trying to move through the snow in order to go down the mountain is a high risk
behavior. More than anything else, the preservation of your strength is most important.
Fortunately, I have never met with an accident on a snow-covered mountain, but I have seen
such scenes in films or dramas many times. If I should meet the same circumstance, I doubt I could
remain calm. I think that I would try to save myself by making my way down the mountain on my own.
However, since learning that this decision would likely be the end of me, I really don’t know what I
would do. Fear and anxiety only grow in my mind.
When I think about it, the way to survive a mountain avalanche and Shinran Shonin’s words, “To
say the Nembutsu is definitely the way a person will be saved,” are linked each other. Namely, to
say the Nembutsu, which some might consider to be most negative and unreliable practice, is
actually the way a person will be saved.
Though this metaphor of the accident on a snow-covered mountain is a familiar story, there are
two important things which we must not forget. Once again, let us go back to the story of the
avalanche.
So, suppose we are all caught in an avalanche. What are the two important things to remember
while we wait to be rescued? They are:
1. We must recognize that our body and mind are weakened, so we definitely should not try to
descend the mountain on our own.
2. We must believe a search will be carried out and people will rescue us.
These are extremely important considerations. I believe that these same points are valid
arguments for saying the Nembutsu. There are a lot of different ways to become enlightened in this
world, but it is not possible to do so on our own. We have to realize this. Then we must believe
firmly that, “Amida Buddha will surely save me.”
However, most important is our belief in the power of the rescue party (Amida Buddha). In other
words, even if we first believe that we are going to be rescued, we might begin to have doubts as to
whether the rescue party is truly going to come to our aid. At that point, we may become restless
and, unable to remain calm, begin to trek out. In the end we would not survive.
Shinran Shonin says, “To say the Nembutsu is definitely the way a person will be saved.” That is,
we must recognize that there is no hope to be saved on our own, and then we must also recognize
that we have no choice except to depend upon Amida Buddha’s power.
Just as people are unlikely to remain calm while trapped alone on a snowy mountain, there w ill
be people who feel that simply reciting the Nembutsu is an unreliable path to enlightenment.
However, to our sorrow, it is a fact that we cannot be saved on our own.
It is for that reason that Amida Buddha, who has compassion for us who are powerless,
established for each of us 48 Vows through five kalpas of profound thought. Then Buddha with the
infinite power made a vow to us, saying, “Recite my Name, I will surely save you.” Shinran Shonin
truly realized the Buddha’s Primal Vow and he entrusted himself to Amida Buddha because he was
able to believe in Buddha’s power.
That’s why the Jodo Shinshu teachings say that we should set aside all practices of self power
and instead entrust ourselves completely to Amida Buddha’s Primal Vow. Simply to recite the
Nembutsu as an expression our gratitude for the Buddha’s compassion is truly the way we can be
saved.
I sincerely hope that each of us will live a fruitful life each day with the Nembutsu as our spiritual
support.
In Gassho,
April, 2009
WHEN WE SAY “Namo Amida Butsu…
by Rev. Yushi Mukojima
| Dharma Message |
