Nembutsu

Great and kind Quan Shi Yin
Give us the grace to know and recognise you,
In whatsoever form you may take,
On the streets, in the shops, in our work, in our leisure.
Give us the courage to recognise you in pleasure and in pain,
In happiness and unhappiness;
Give us the wisdom that comes from the ability to recognise you
In all your myriad forms,
Not merely the ones we want to see;
Give us compassion to forgive those who are in the grip of delusion,
Prejudice and bigotry;
Grant them the power to know the spirit of the Dharma,
Not merely the ability to read rules and scriptures;
Give us the wisdom to know that what the Christian church teaches
Has been taught by the Buddhas for thousands of years;
Give us the courage to take the Sufis by the hand
And, in their dancing, to know the joy of meditation;
Give us the understanding that the Jewish festivals are celebrated by Buddhas;
Teach people to know that peace in the world
Can only be gained if we make peace with ourselves within our own hearts;
Teach us to know that we are responsible,
Every one of us,
For the conflicts that tear the world,
Because of the greed and duality in our hearts;
Teach us to face ourselves as we really are
By holding up your mirror, in all your manifestations, before us;
Teach us that the Buddha Nature is within all beings,
Of whatever colour, religion or species they may be;
Teach us to be grateful to inanimate objects
For making themselves available for our use;
Teach us that we have not the right
To expect trees and plants to give themselves to us
Without our expressing our gratitude;
Give us the common decency, if nothing more,
To improve the lot of animals,
Without whose suffering at the hands of experimenters,
Many of us would not be alive today;
Teach parents that their children have the right to respect,
Attention, love and acknowledgement of their opinions;
Teach children that their parents’ words
Should be listened to and seriously considered;
Appear on the television screens and in the theatres
And show us the dangers of drug addiction and the evils of crime
That we may be saved therefrom;
Help us to know that all living things
Have the same basic fears, hopes, loves, longings, hunger and thirst,
That they only pretend not to have them for fear of ostracism by society;
Teach us not to be made cowards by circumstances and the truth;
Teach us that an angry person is a frightened person;
Help us to be friends to the lonely;
Give us the sight of your thousand eyes
To see where help is needed
And give us the strength of your thousand arms to give that help;
Teach us not to look at others’ faults but to see our own;
Teach all Buddhists that it is better to live in harmony with each other
Than to argue and fight over doctrine and dogma;
Teach those who slander, curse and revile others
That the only person who gets hurt thereby is themselves
For all curses must, by the law of karma,
Return upon the heads of those who utter them;
Teach those who are slandered to have compassion
For those who are wretched and misguided who utter such curses;
Teach us that, in the whole universe,
The only real enemies are fear and superstition;
Grant to those who seek to control others
The courage to face themselves and their desire for power;
Give us the courage to look into the great mirror
That all living things and inanimate objects hold up before us
And see ourselves as we truly are;
Grant us the intelligence to do something about the reflection;
Teach us that the Buddhas and Ancestors undergo no conceivable harm
By our living our lives naturally;
Teach us to know that an enlightened person is a whole person,
Unfettered by the opinions of others;
Teach us to love and enjoy the blue sky,
The sun, the rain, the snow and the storms that nature sends us;
Give us the wisdom to use the opportunity for perpetual training that they bring;
Grant us that, in the winter of our lives,
We may be able to look back down the years without too much regret;
Help us to face that which is called death truly
For if one can see gods and angels at the moment of death and feel no elation;
If one can be set upon by devils and demons and feel no fear,
One knows true freedom.
By such means as these do we live in eternal meditation.

Dhyana Master Houn Jiyu

I am a link in Amida's golden chain of love that stretches around the world. I will keep my link bright and strong.

I will be kind and gentle to every living thing and protect all who are weaker than myself.

I will think pure and beautiful thoughts, say pure and beautiful words, and do pure and beautiful deeds.

May every link in Amida's golden chain of love be bright and strong, and may we all attain perfect peace.

This verse teaches us that we do not practice just for ourselves. We are part of a chain of love. We trust that whatever good we do in life contributes to something bigger than ourselves. It stretches round the world. Each of us is part of the community of all sentient beings. What we do in life may help to cultivate love and peace and kindness, or it may stir up animosity and bitterness. When the winds of bitterness are blowing in the world, it takes faith to remain calm and not be corrupted.

Your radiant face,
Like a mountain peak
Catching the first burst
Of morning light
Has awesome and
Unequalled majesty.
Like black ink by comparison
Are the sun, the moon, or the "mani" treasure.
Tathagata,
Such is your incomparable face.
The melody of your enlightenment
Fills the world
Rare and precious
Are your precepts,
Learning, energy, meditation,
Wisdom and amazing virtue.
The oceanic Dharma
Of all Buddhas
Which you fathom
To its deepest depths
Dispels the 3 poisons
From the heart -
You are like a lion:
Valiant and divinely pure.

Great power!
Deep wisdom!
Awesome light!
Reverberation -
A prayer I make, a Buddha to become
Equal to you, my Dharma king,
To lead all beings to the other shore
Leaving none behind.
The six paramitas
To perfect
With prajna at their head.
Should I become Buddha:
I will fulfil
This prayer completely:
To everyone
I'll bring great peace.
To Buddhas countless
As sand grains
My offerings I make,
And do not flinch
From the trials
Of the incomparable Way,
Powerful,
Straight and true.

Though Buddha lands
And worldly realms
Be numberless
Like sand,
By sheer power
Of aspiration
I'll fill them all
With light.
Let me become a Buddha
And the multitude
Of beings
Will all enjoy
My primordial
Nirvana world.
By indiscriminate compassion
I will enlighten all.
Reborn here from no matter where
In my country their hearts
Will lighten and be joyful,
Happy and at ease.
Oh you Buddha, witness my vow,
My true aspiration,
Establishing my vow on you
Gives me the strength to fulfil it.
Buddhas throughout space and time
Of unimpeded wisdom
Always witness
My heart's practice.
No matter the obstacles, the hardships,
My practice will endure
Through all,
Without regret.

Tan Butsu Ge

Sanbutsuge: Dharmakara's Song of Praise to His Teacher, Lokesvararaja Buddha

(A translation of the essential meaning of Shinran Shonin's interpretation of this gatha from the Larger Pure Land Sutra)

From the beginningless beginning
Of time itself, Dharma -- the true reality of suchness --
Has constantly been evolving
In its infinite way.

Our ancestor, Dharmakara Bodhisattva,
He who is the treasure house of Dharma,
Took this name
Upon realizing his true identity
After having heard from Lokesvararaja Buddha
The teachings that pierce all illusions.

At his first encounter
With the wisdom and reality
That is our fundamental nature
And the nature of all that exists,
Dharmakara Bodhisattva experienced such happiness,
Such joy,
That he abandoned his former way of life and thought.
With his whole body,
His total being,
All energy, complete determination --
He concentrated on the ultimate state
Of becoming a Buddha,
One fully awakened to the truth
Of the reality that is the same
Throughout the universe.

Again seeking out his great teacher
Lokesvararaja Buddha,
The Buddha who is always
Emancipating the world,
Dharmakara first respectfully bowed,
Placed his forehead on the Buddha's feet
And then,
Rising to walk around the Buddha three times
While he gazed in awe from all directions
At this Buddha whom he wished to become,
Feeling the Buddha's inconceivable power,
Dharmakara put his palms together in gassho
And sang in praise.

"You, like whom I wish to become,
Have a countenance radiant with a light
Of utter sincerity, a light of boundless wisdom
Which shines on all beings
Transforming vices into virtues!
Your light is the light of compassion,
The ever-burning light-source
Of peace and happiness,
Penetrating me with its warmth.

When compared to your never-failing light
That of the most precious jewels,
That of the fiercest flames,
That of the sun and brightest stars
Are like the black holes of the universe.

Your shiny countenance,
Your most excellent features,
Your color -- which embraces all colors --
Are beyond compare.
Your voice, emerging from the depths
Of your boundless compassion,
Resounds like a lion's roar throughout the universe
Proclaiming that Buddha-ness
Is my true self,
The true self of each and every being everywhere!

That sublime, most rare compassion
Arising from the wisdom-flow
Of your ceaseless activity in perfecting
Mindfulness and awareness:
Your ceaseless activity in perfecting patience,
Strength,
And reflection;
Take you beyond this world of birth-and-death
To the stage of joy and bliss
At having become the dharma.

How inconceivable that this last stage,
The fulfillment of Buddha-hood,
You, a perfected Buddha, made the choice --
Out of Great Compassion --
To return to this world as a bodhisattva
Whose dedication and yearning
Is to awaken and free each and every one of us.

In your samadhi,
So deep, so total and yet so subtle,
Having become one
With the dharma-ocean of all the Buddhas,
You fathomed its fathomless depths,
You measured its inmeasurability,
You perceived its most profound truths.

In you Abhijna, the wisdom of a Buddha
Has for all time replaced the darkness of ignorance.
In you, Mahakaruna, the compassion of a Buddha,
Has for all time replaced the darkness of lust.
In you, through selflessness, Maha-atman, the Great Self of a Buddha
Has for all time replaced the darkness
Of Self-centeredness.

Indeed, you are Bhagavat!
The Tathagata!
The world-honored one whose cosmic virtues,
Whose profound and subtle wisdom radiates
Throughout the immeasurable reaches
Of all the galaxies,
Touching the inconceivable depths of all that exists.

The impact of your enlightenment, like lightning
Striking throughout the universe,
With neither exception nor distinction transforms
All that exists in every world with Bodhi,
The innate nature of Buddha-ness,
The potential to realize what is true and real.

I, Dharmakara, yearn to experience the samadhi
Which you are experiencing.
In it, I shall open the gate of the six perfections,
The gate which includes all dharmas"
Dana-Awareness,
And the resolve to open this awareness to all:

Sila-Restraint practiced with
Ksanti, patience,
Virya, strongest effort,
Dhyana, contemplation that opens the eye of samadhi
To Prajna, the wisdom that frees and emancipates,
The wisdom of things-as-they-are.
Endlessly, without ceasing,
I shall yearn to attain
Anuttara samyak sambodhi --
The unparalleled Great Awakening
That transforms the universe
With immeasurable light and life.

This I shall carry out through my practice.
I will endure whatever must be endured
To attain this for everyone everywhere.

To all who are in need of help and guidance,
For all who are lost and confused,
Hopelessly wandering in these worlds of illusion,
I vow
They will become enabled to restore their confidence,
To awaken to their true identity,
Their great and total Buddha-ness,
Their oneness
With the Dharma that includes all dharmas,
Their oneness with me.

In every land,
Offerings to gods and buddhas are assumed
To insure the highest benefit to a devotee,
But I now establish this superior way
Of becoming a Buddha,
Which I shall follow firmly and forthrightly,
Though it is the most difficult of all difficulties.
It is a way which cannot be rivaled
Even by making offerings to gods and Buddhas
More numerous than the sand grains
In the River Ganges.

- Rev. Shoji Matsumoto and Ruth Tabrah Honolulu, 1984

Quan Shi Yin Bodhisattva
Practises deeply "other shore wisdom",
Sees the five skandhas completely empty
Goes beyond the world of affliction.
Oh Shariputra,
This world and the Pure Land are not apart!
The Pure Land is not apart from here!
The Form World is the emptiness
The Emptiness World is this world of form.
All the skandhas: regard them like this.
Shariputra, See the Empty character of all:
Not the birth and death world;
Not the defiled and pure world;
Not the gain and loss world.
Be in the empty centre,
Where the five skandhas are absent;
Sensual attachments are absent;
Sensual delights are absent;
Sense made worlds are absent;
Radiance is not lacking,
Therefore no struggle darkness to destroy,
Nor any other of conditioning's chains.
Be free of decay and death.
No need to strive to destroy them.
No affliction, no arising,
No suppressing, no path;
Be not concerned with
Wisdom and attainment.
A bodhisattva relies
On the other shore wisdom
Where mind is no obstacle
So there is no fear.
Going beyond all troublesome states
Just practise nirvana
Like all the Buddhas, past, present and future,
Just rely on other shore wisdom
Thus attain supreme, perfect, enlightenment
Samyak-sambodhi,
Thus to know other shore wisdom
The great inexplicable mantra
The great radiant mantra
The unexcelled mantra
Incomparable mantra
Able to clear away every suffering
It is true. It is not false.
Proclaim the prajna paramita mantra
That is proclaimed and proclaimed like this:
Going, going, going beyond,
Always going beyond, awakening. Svaha!

(Dharmavidya, inspired by Honen Shonin’s Ichimai Kishomon)

For those with the karmic affinity with Amitabha Buddha, wishing to practice a religious life in truly simple faith, freeing themselves of sophistication and attachment to all forms of cleverness, the method of opening oneself to Amitabha’s grace is the practice of Nien Fo with body, speech and mind, particularly verbal recitation of “Namo Amida Bu”. This is not something done as a form of meditation, nor is it based on study, understanding and wisdom, or the revelation of deep meaning. Deep meaning is indeed there for the nembutsu is a window through which the whole universe of Buddha’s teaching can be perceived in all its depth, but none of this is either necessary or even helpful to success in the practice. Rather such study cultivates secondary faculties to be held separate from the mind of practice itself.

The primary practice requires only one essential; realise that you are a totally foolish being who understands nothing, but who can with complete trust recite “Namo Amida Bu”; know that this will generate re-birth in the Pure land, without even knowing what rebirth in the Pure Land truly is. This is the practice for ignorant beings and ignorance is essential for its accomplishment. This practice automatically encompasses the three minds and the mind of contrition as a fourth. To pursue something more profound or more sophisticated, or to have a theory, or to think that understanding will yield greater enlightenment than this is to be misled and to fall back into self-power whereby the whole practice is spoilt. However wise, learned or skilled you may be, set it aside and be the foolish being completely in the performance of the practice. Nothing else is required and anything else is too much. Faith and practice cannot be differentiated.

The Buddha-body is delineated by the precepts. How deficient we are in comparison! By our daily difficulty in the preceptual life, we awaken to the presence of the myriad karmic obstacles without which we would already perceive the land of love and bliss, we would be as the vow-body of Buddha. Thus we know in experience that we are foolish beings of wayward passion. This knowledge of our condition is part of the essential basis when it gives rise to contrition. Thus all obstacles become impediments to faith unless we experience contrition and letting go. Saving grace, as was made clear by Shan Tao’s dream and advice to Tao Cho, only comes through the sange-mon.

If you can perform the practice in this simple minded way, Amida will receive you and you may fear for nothing since all is completely assured. Dwelling in this settled faith you may then use your secondary faculties, your knowledge and skills and accumulated experience, as tools for helping all sentient beings. But do not then think that anything of relevance to your own salvation is thereby accomplished, nor that you are making something of yourself. Whatever merit there may be in your actions of this kind, immediately and totally dedicate it to the benefit of others, that they may enter the Pure Land and that you yourself may not be encumbered by consciousness of virtue which will only contaminate the practice. As Honen says, “without pedantic airs, fervently recite the Name.”