Real Life with Ryuei

Endon Sho - and a warning against antinomianism

The Endon Sho is a passage from the Introduction by Kuan-ting to the Great Concentration and Insight (Mo Ho Chih Kuan, Maka Shikan) of the Great Master T'ien-t'ai (aka Chih-i). It is still recited by some within Nichiren Shu. In the context of Nichiren Buddhism this could be a description of the practice of chanting and more importantly living the true spirit of Namu Myoho Renge Kyo (a life of devotion to the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Teaching). Here is the translation by Donner and Stevenson:

Perfect and Sudden Calming-and-Contemplation

The perfect and sudden calming and contemplation from the very beginning takes ultimate reality as its object. No matter what the object of contemplation might be, it is seen to be identical to the middle. There is nothing that is not true reality. When one fixes the mind on the dharmadhatu as object and unifies one's mindfulness with the dharmadhatu as it is, then there is not a single sight nor smell that is not the middle way. The same goes for the realm of self, the realm of Buddha, and the realm of living beings. Since all aggregates and sense-accesses of body and mind are thusness, there is no suffering to be cast away. Since nescience and the afflictions are themselves identical with enlightenment, there is no origiina of suffering to be eradicated. Since the two extreme views are the middle way and false views are the right way, there is no path to be cultivated. Since samsara is identical with nirvana, there is no cessation to be achieved. Because of the intrinsic inextistence of suffering and its origin, the mundane does not exist; because of the inexistence of of the path and its cessation, the supramundane does not exist. A single, unalloyed reality is all there is - no entities whatever exists outside of it. That all entities are by nature quiescent is called "calming"; that, though quiescent, this nature is ever luminous, is called "contemplation". Though a verbal distinction is made between earlier and later stages of practice, there is no ultimate duality, no distinction between them. This is what is called "the perfect and sudden calming and contemplation." (pp. 112-114)

Here are some notes to understand that:

1. "dharmadhatu" means something like "phenomenal realm." In particular, "dharmas" are phenomena as defined by the concepts we have in our mind that help us distinguish and identify particular objects.

2. "nescience" is a fancy word for ignorance or fundamental darkness.

Here is the version chanted in Nichiren Shu as found in the Nichiren Shu Service
Book Companion available from the LA Temple:

T'ien-t'ai's En Don Sho

En don sha, sho en jis' so, zo kyo soku chu, mu hu shin jitsu, ke en ho kai,
ichi nen ho kai, is' shiki ik' ko, mu hi chu do, ko kai gyu buk' kai, shu jo kai yaku nen, on nyu kai nyo, mu ku ka sha, mu myo jin ro, soku ze bo dai, mu shu ka dan, hen ja kai chu sho, mu do ka shu, sho ji soku ne han, mu metsu ka sho, mu ku mu shu, ko mu se ken, mu do mu metsu, ko mu shus' se ken, jun itsu' jis' so, jis' so ge kyo, mu bep' po, hos' sho jaku nen, myo shi, jaku ni, jo sho myo kan, sui gon sho go, mu ni mu betsu, ze myo en don shi kan.

There is a special rhythm for chanting this that I learned in Shingyo Dojo. I
would be happy to teach others, but unfortunately you would have to see me face to face for that, or at least talk to me on the phone. In any case, it is not a standard thing that is recited.

I would add that a superficial understanding of this passage can be quite dangerous and lead some to antinomian conclusion. "Antinomianism" is the heretical idea that morality is totally irrelevant to spiritual salvation/awakening because supposedly good and evil are either transcended or pre-empted. Some might conclude this because it seems to negate the four noble truths (suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path to its cessation) and to equate afflictions with enlightenment (bonno soku bodai) and samsara with nirvana (shoji soku nehan). This passage in fact uses the same terminology that was popularized later by medieval Japanese Tendai Original Enlightenment Thought. However, here it is not being used to justify raping, looting, pillaging, and temple burning as acts of innate enlightenment. Rather, it is a teaching for advanced practitioners who have already freed themselves of more gross or obvious forms of attachment, aversion, and ignorance and now must free themselves of spiritual materialism as well. Also, such practitioners must come to understand the immediacy of enlightenment and its direct application in each moment, rather than clinging to a dualistic idea of stages and progress which involves dualistic comparisons, and self-conscious at attainments. Here, even such spiritual ambition and self-consciousness drops away to reveal awakened compassionate activity functioning freely and spontaneously in accord with conditions, conditions that are truly empty but wondrously present. This immediate awakening without grasping or fear is what the Odaimoku expresses, and what we too can realize and express if our practice goes beyond lip service to heart, mind, and gut service.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

Posted by Ryuei at October 22, 2006 09:54 PM