Nembutsu

“Amidism or Pureland is that form of Buddhism that centres upon Amida or Amitabha, the Buddha of limitless light. An Amidist is one who lives in the light of the Buddha. This form of Buddhism is called Pureland, since Amida's light reveals a realm called the Pure Land where all who enter will be enlightened. Entering, however, does not require any degree of achievement. It is simply a matter of entrusting oneself.

One could say that Pureland is a religion for people who have already failed at other spiritual practices. Where most forms of Buddhism exhort us to practice hard and attain a supreme state called enlightenment that is characterised by a range of superlative virtues, Pureland speaks to those who have discovered through experience that they are actually deluded to the point where a salvation of that kind is not in the offing. It is when one realises that despite unremitting sincere effort, one has not actually managed to keep even one of the Buddha's precepts purely nor even once attained to the state of samadhi without blemish that one may find that the Pureland Gateway begins to speak to one's condition.

To take refuge in the Buddha means to depend upon something outside of oneself for one's safety. The refugee does not know what the future holds. Buddhists are those who see that their spiritual safety in this spiritually dangerous world depends upon the Buddha. To take refuge is to entrust oneself completely. We talk also of taking refuge in the Dharma and the Sangha - the Buddhist teachings and community - as extensions of the Buddha, these being the manifestations of his work in this world. So there is, especially in Pureland Buddhism, an extended sense of the Buddha - Buddha here in our world, manifesting as Dharma and Sangha and engaging with the real world of our time. The Amidist does not look for the goal of the spiritual life within himself so much as in the world around him.


One of the great enigmas of life is the separation of self and other. I am not you. We meet as others to each other. Yet we are not indifferent to one another. Our lives are influenced. We are dependent in a multitude of ways. There is nothing in us that is not dependent upon things that are other. Time, otherness and dependency present a matrix of parameters that bound our life and the Buddha referred to this as "dependent origination" or "co-arising through conditions". We are what we are because of others. We are what we are now because of the past. Yet neither others nor the past are completely determining of what we are. We could not be what we are without them, yet they do not entirely determine us either. Thus, our responsibility in life is complex. We are not free to do anything, yet we do have to choose to do something, and often in circumstances we would not have chosen had we been able to do so.

In Western philosophy, these conundrums have given rise to much thought on the question of personal will. In Eastern thought they have been provocative of questions about the source of the impulse toward the spiritual life. Thus, where the West has argued about free-will versus determinism, the East has been concerned with self-power versus other-power. One is not a Buddhist because one invented Buddhism. One is a Buddhist because one has been inspired by the Buddha. Parallel statements could be made about any other affiliation. The Amidist believes that his spirituality is not primarily a function of his own effort, but a function of having encountered the Buddha. The fact of placing the source of one's spirituality outside of one's self is characteristic of all Pureland Buddhist schools.

The pre-eminent practice of Pureland is, therefore, mindfulness of Buddha. Buddha-mindfulness celebrates the fact that there is an intimate connection between oneself and the Buddha. We can call this connection faith, but it is not exactly what is meant by the word faith in theistic religions. "Amida" means "The Measureless". What this indicates is the Buddha's willingness to accept all beings just as they are, rather than, for instance, to measure their worth and decide accordingly. The Buddha is not the creator of the world, nor does he interfere in natural laws nor does he administer some kind of cosmic retribution. The profound mysticism of Amidism lies in the knowledge that one is already accepted completely and unconditionally. Buddha-mindfulness, therefore, is not a means to attaining something. It is a form of gratitude and wonderment.

Human life involves much affliction. We are dependent upon conditions that are frequently adverse. Along with the exquisite beauty and the noble truth of this life there comes much tribulation. The Buddha was not exempt from this. He too had enemies, suffered from disease, coped with dissension among his friends, and so on. His mother died when he was born. Several attempts were made upon his life. His teachings did not always meet with approving audiences. Sometimes life was hard. At the same time, he attained to a peace of mind that was unusually profound. How so? He trusted the Amida. He lived his life in a bigger light. By trusting him, we trust that light too. Our lives become bigger hearted. A big life can contain more without losing its stability. Buddha was a big person. He was big because he had faith. He recommended that faith to others, and some of them took it on and passed it down to us. They are an other-power for us.

The sort of faith that we are talking about that is the hallmark of Pureland is something that arises in us when we despair of our little selves. While we are still trying to achieve salvation by efforts that originate in our own life project, we will never have faith in anything other than self. Such a self-power orientation, however, is ultimately self-defeating. Our whole life experience is experience of what is other. Even the things we think of as self are other when we think of them. My ideas, my body, by feelings and so on are not me at the point where I hold them in my regard.

Pureland, therefore, provides a philosophical space wherein we may address some of the deep and intransigent dilemmas of our existential being. We exist, so we must act. However the real sources of our acts are never fully known. We want to be perfect in many ways yet find ourselves to be far, far, short of our ideals. We want the world to be pleasant and find it full of sufferings that cannot be eradicated. Thus we live poised between the ideal and the actual. To hold this position of poise is an act of faith. With the ideal comes the actual. With the dark comes the light. With the present comes the shadow of the past and the uncertainty of the future. With samsara comes the Pure Land”.

Dharmavidya David Brazier, February 2003

Primal Vow
Just as it is
Just as you are

Commentary
The most simple and difficult aspect of Amidism is to trust that one is acceptable just as one is. There is nothing whatsoever to achieve. There is no divine punishment or purgatory for sins. There is nothing to achieve, but there is a deep dynamic already at work in our lives and if we allow it then we will find ourselves seized by it. This inner dynamic is called the primal vow. It is an inner longing. Amidism is a matter of awakening to this inner dynamic. It is not a personal possession but rather a function of the inconceivable measurelessness of existence itself that constantly pulls us beyond ourselves. Mostly people do not feel acceptable as they are and so spend a lot of energy on avoidance and escapism - different forms of hiding - and this prevents them from realising what is most deep and sincere. In the eyes of the Buddha they are acceptable just as they are but they create their own hell because they are not acceptable in their own eyes. Of course, one also meets conceited people who purport to be self-satisfied but this is just a shallow front. It is, in fact, impossible to get out of the habit of escapism without some kind of wake up call from beyond ourselves. This wake up is “the voice of the Buddha” in one form or another. Sometimes it is provided by inspiration such as from a spiritual teacher, sometimes by a crisis in our life that gives us a shock, and commonly by some juxtaposition of the two. On the one hand, therefore, we need nothing. On the other hand, we need to be woken up by the Buddha. Then we awaken to natural faith. Faith in Buddhism means to entrust oneself to reality - to things just as they are (tathata) - not to anything supernatural, nor to wishful thinking.

Even if the whole world is on fire
Be sure to pass through it to hear the Dharma;
Then you will surely enter the Path of the Buddha
And everywhere deliver beings from the river of birth and death
- The Larger Pure Land Sutra

Five Refuges
In Amida we take refuge
In the Buddha we take refuge
In the Dharma we take refuge
In the Sangha we take refuge
In the Pure Land we take refuge

Commentary
All Buddhists take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Amida Buddhists additionally take refuge in Amida Buddha and in the Pure Land. The two additional refuges deepen our appreciation of the original three.
The Buddha: By the Buddha is meant the Buddha Shakyamuni, the founder of the Buddhist tradition in this historical epoch, who was a human being who renounced and overcame greed, hate and delusion, thus entered enlightenment and discovered the Primal Vow by means of which he was able to live a life of service to all sentient beings.
The Dharma: Dharma means both the Buddhist teaching and reality. The Buddha pointed out reality: birth and death, bliss and affliction, paths of noble living and paths of corruption. He bade us take our life in hand and set it upon a noble path.
The Sangha: Sangha means the community of those, ordained and lay, who follow the path pointed out by the Buddha. To take refuge in sangha is to commit oneself to being part of the movement that the Buddha founded for the emancipation of this world from delusion.
Amida Buddha: Amida means measureless. The historical Buddha gave teachings about Amida Buddha to help us to see all existence in the aspect of what is immeasurable and ungraspable so that we might turn away from little lives and mean minds and be released into a greater vision.
The Pure Land: There are two paths in Buddhism, the Path of Sages and the Pure Land Path. Amida Buddhism is a Pure Land path, based on faith in the vision of the Pure Land rather than on achieving personal enlightenment by one’s own efforts.


Threefold Faith
Shraddha, Prasada and Abhilasa

Commentary
Shraddha means to have complete faith in the act of refuge. Prasada means to have clarity of mind. Abhilasa means to have pure aspiration and willingness to undertake whatever action may be for the good of all. Faith in all its forms is central to the Amidist approach. All forms of ethical behaviour spring from faith. If there is little faith then there is bound to be a selfish intention even if one’s actions are superficially respectable. Faith in Buddhism refers to the overcoming of self and is the implementation of the doctrine of non-self.


Threefold Mind
Sincerity, Depth, and Longing.

Commentary
Faith is not something imposed from outside. It is something that wells up from within. It is triggered from outside. It is like a hidden treasure that somebody has sewn into our clothing without our knowledge. Perhaps one day somebody points out the lump in the hem of our garment and on closer examination we discover the diamond. The nature of this faith is a feeling of longing for the Pure Land, as if one had been exiled from his true home. Looking closely we discover that this longing is a fundamental part of our nature. It is our deepest place. Being sincerely in touch with this deep longing gives us courage and directs us to “go forth for the benefit of all sentient beings, in the service of gods and humans” to do all that we can to assist the Buddhas to make the Pure Land visible to all so that all are similarly awakened to their most fundamental drive until all are living in the service of all.


Threefold Path
Sila, Samadhi and Prajna.

Commentary
In Amidist Buddhism we do not see ethics, mind cultivation and wisdom as the path leading to enlightenment so much as the path leading from the awakening of faith. If one has faith in the Pure Land then one naturally wants to serve all beings and so one’s behaviour is likely to be kind, compassionate, wise and friendly. Similarly, if one has faith, then one is not troubled by setbacks or confused personal agendas so the mind becomes clear and bright. Amidist Buddhism does not present spiritual perfection as an emotionless or mindless condition. It is a condition in which the feelings of gratitude, awe, longing and reverence become powerful motivators giving a person energy, patience, single mindedness and clarity of purpose.


Threefold Practice
Keeping the Pure Land in mind
Engaging fully with the world of bliss and affliction
Renunciation

Commentary
Keeping the Pure Land in mind means always to be guided by faith. This may be expressed in many different ways. Many practitioners like to recite the names of the Buddha and especially the name Amida, perhaps in the form Namo Amida Bu. Or to visualise the Pure Land in the form described in the scriptures or naturalistically. Some find their faith strengthened through contact with natural phenomena and others through listening to teachers or inspirational study. The most characteristic method in Amidist Buddhism is to call the name of Amida thereby expressing the depth of faith and longing in one’s heart.
Engaging fully with the world of bliss and affliction means that faith atrophies if it is not acted upon. If we have the vision of the Pure Land before us we can hardly help ourselves wanting to make it a reality in everything we do. Even though we may have very poor capacity and have much spiritual blindness, still, if we have faith, we have some light and if we act on whatever light we have, be it ever so small, more light will appear. If we can trust that the light is really Amida - measureless - then we can entrust ourselves to it. The words for bliss and affliction are sukha and dukkha. The Buddha’s said that his whole teaching was concerned with pointing out dukkha and the possibility of its transformation into sukha. We will soon realise that dukkha is really to be understood as whatever threatens our faith and sukha as whatever strengthens it. The Buddha told his followers to go forth into the world to help everybody in every way we can - to resist the conditions of ill, assist the afflicted and demonstrate an alternative.
Renunciation means that if we have faith we do not want to be encumbered with things and habits that get in the way of our living in accordance with that faith. This is where all the common practices of Buddhism come to be seen as valuable: simplifying one’s life, making offerings, bowing, contrition, rejoicing in others, reverence to teachers, spiritual ancestors and the objects of refuge, requesting teaching, generosity, hospitality, non-killing, non-stealing, avoiding sexual misconduct, non-use of intoxicants, right speech and so forth.


Transmission of the Dharma
Without our many generations of teachers we would never have awakened to the truth
Without our awakening to the truth the future generations would be without help.

Commentary
From Shakyamuni Buddha down through Ananda and more than eighty generations of teachers the faith in the Buddhist Pure Land has come down to us and nobody fully awakens this faith without help. The call from without awakens the call from within. Even though a person may be granted a vision of the Pure Land spontaneously, faith matures through the inspiration of living and ancestral teachers.

 

- The Larger Pure Land SutraAll Buddhists take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Amida Buddhists additionally take refuge in Amida Buddha and in the Pure Land. The two additional refuges deepen our appreciation of the original three.: By the Buddha is meant the Buddha Shakyamuni, the founder of the Buddhist tradition in this historical epoch, who was a human being who renounced and overcame greed, hate and delusion, thus entered enlightenment and discovered the Primal Vow by means of which he was able to live a life of service to all sentient beings.: Dharma means both the Buddhist teaching and reality. The Buddha pointed out reality: birth and death, bliss and affliction, paths of noble living and paths of corruption. He bade us take our life in hand and set it upon a noble path.: Sangha means the community of those, ordained and lay, who follow the path pointed out by the Buddha. To take refuge in sangha is to commit oneself to being part of the movement that the Buddha founded for the emancipation of this world from delusion.: Amida means measureless. The historical Buddha gave teachings about Amida Buddha to help us to see all existence in the aspect of what is immeasurable and ungraspable so that we might turn away from little lives and mean minds and be released into a greater vision. There are two paths in Buddhism, the Path of Sages and the Pure Land Path. Amida Buddhism is a Pure Land path, based on faith in the vision of the Pure Land rather than on achieving personal enlightenment by one’s own efforts.Shraddha means to have complete faith in the act of refuge. Prasada means to have clarity of mind. Abhilasa means to have pure aspiration and willingness to undertake whatever action may be for the good of all. Faith in all its forms is central to the Amidist approach. All forms of ethical behaviour spring from faith. If there is little faith then there is bound to be a selfish intention even if one’s actions are superficially respectable. Faith in Buddhism refers to the overcoming of self and is the implementation of the doctrine of non-self.Faith is not something imposed from outside. It is something that wells up from within. It is triggered from outside. It is like a hidden treasure that somebody has sewn into our clothing without our knowledge. Perhaps one day somebody points out the lump in the hem of our garment and on closer examination we discover the diamond. The nature of this faith is a feeling of longing for the Pure Land, as if one had been exiled from his true home. Looking closely we discover that this longing is a fundamental part of our nature. It is our deepest place. Being sincerely in touch with this deep longing gives us courage and directs us to “go forth for the benefit of all sentient beings, in the service of gods and humans” to do all that we can to assist the Buddhas to make the Pure Land visible to all so that all are similarly awakened to their most fundamental drive until all are living in the service of all.. In Amidist Buddhism we do not see ethics, mind cultivation and wisdom as the path leading to enlightenment so much as the path leading from the awakening of faith. If one has faith in the Pure Land then one naturally wants to serve all beings and so one’s behaviour is likely to be kind, compassionate, wise and friendly. Similarly, if one has faith, then one is not troubled by setbacks or confused personal agendas so the mind becomes clear and bright. Amidist Buddhism does not present spiritual perfection as an emotionless or mindless condition. It is a condition in which the feelings of gratitude, awe, longing and reverence become powerful motivators giving a person energy, patience, single mindedness and clarity of purpose. means always to be guided by faith. This may be expressed in many different ways. Many practitioners like to recite the names of the Buddha and especially the name Amida, perhaps in the form Namo Amida Bu. Or to visualise the Pure Land in the form described in the scriptures or naturalistically. Some find their faith strengthened through contact with natural phenomena and others through listening to teachers or inspirational study. The most characteristic method in Amidist Buddhism is to call the name of Amida thereby expressing the depth of faith and longing in one’s heart. means that faith atrophies if it is not acted upon. If we have the vision of the Pure Land before us we can hardly help ourselves wanting to make it a reality in everything we do. Even though we may have very poor capacity and have much spiritual blindness, still, if we have faith, we have some light and if we act on whatever light we have, be it ever so small, more light will appear. If we can trust that the light is really Amida - measureless - then we can entrust ourselves to it. The words for bliss and affliction are sukha and dukkha. The Buddha’s said that his whole teaching was concerned with pointing out dukkha and the possibility of its transformation into sukha. We will soon realise that dukkha is really to be understood as whatever threatens our faith and sukha as whatever strengthens it. The Buddha told his followers to go forth into the world to help everybody in every way we can - to resist the conditions of ill, assist the afflicted and demonstrate an alternative. means that if we have faith we do not want to be encumbered with things and habits that get in the way of our living in accordance with that faith. This is where all the common practices of Buddhism come to be seen as valuable: simplifying one’s life, making offerings, bowing, contrition, rejoicing in others, reverence to teachers, spiritual ancestors and the objects of refuge, requesting teaching, generosity, hospitality, non-killing, non-stealing, avoiding sexual misconduct, non-use of intoxicants, right speech and so forth..From Shakyamuni Buddha down through Ananda and more than eighty generations of teachers the faith in the Buddhist Pure Land has come down to us and nobody fully awakens this faith without help. The call from without awakens the call from within. Even though a person may be granted a vision of the Pure Land spontaneously, faith matures through the inspiration of living and ancestral teachers.

Dh.D.J. Brazier
2002

Shinran (1173-1262), who claimed to be Honen's true disciple, is regarded as the founder of the most important of all 'Pure Land' sects. Shinran's utter reliance on the power of Amida is emphasized by his reinterpretation of the Nembutsu. A single, sincere invocation is enough, said Shinran, and any additional recitation of the Name should merely be an expression of thanksgiving to Amida.

"Your aim in coming here, travelling at the risk of your lives through more than ten provinces, was simply to learn the way of rebirth in the Pure Land. Yet you would be mistaken if you thought I knew of some way to obtain rebirth other than by saying the Nembutsu, or if you thought I had some special knowledge of religious texts not open to others. Should this be your belief, it is better for you to go to Nara or Mt. Hiei, for there you will find many scholars learned in Buddhism and from them you can get detailed instruction in the essential means of obtaining rebirth in the Pure Land. As far as I, Shinran, am concerned, it is only because the worthy Honen taught me so that I believe salvation comes from Amida by saying the Nembutsu. Whether the Nembutsu brings rebirth in the Pure Land or leads one to Hell, I myself have no way of knowing. But even if I had been misled by Honen and went to Hell for saying the Nembutsu, I would have no regrets. If I were capable of attaining Buddhahood on my own through the practice of some other discipline, and yet went down to Hell for saying the Nembutsu, then I might regret having been misled. But since I am incapable of practicing such disciplines, there can be no doubt that I would be doomed to Hell anyway."

Tannisho