The next several chapters of the Rissho Ankoku Ron Commentary at Ryuei.net are all about the history of Pure Land Buddhism up to Honen and the first generation of his disciples. It is crucial to understand this if one wants to understand Rissho Ankoku Ron because Rissho Ankoku Ron's primary critique is aimed at the exclusive Pure Land movement of Honen. For those who want to yawm and skip those sections I would urge you to think again. The history of Pure Land Buddhism in India and East Asia demonstrates some very universal traits of human religiosity - the desire to have a heavenly father who will provide salvation on the cheap (meaning no need for any inner transformation - just a ticket to a heavenly afterlife given in return for some lip service and unthinking allegiance to a simple minded creed) - and the constant attempt to reduce any religious tradition to some antinomian formula (meaning an amoral spiritual teaching preaching self-cultivation is either doomed and/or superfluous so one can act as one pleases and ignore all teachings and methods that would say otherwise). Nichiren Buddhism is not exempt from these traits, and certainly it can be seen in other world religions. So the history of Pure Land Buddhism is really also the history of human religiosity and a universal cautionary tale.
I would also like to note that I have met many sincere practitioners of Pure Land Buddhism among those practicing in Korean or Chinese schools or among the Jodo Shinshu (the followers of Honen's disciple Shinran). I would like to note that Chinese and Korean forms of Pure Land are not the same as Honen's (or Shinran's) exclusive nembutsu - and usually they are allied to the Zen schools in the lineage of Lin-chi (Jap. Rinzai) and buttressed by the teachings of the Flower Garland school and led by monks and nuns who follow the full monastic Vinaya as well as the Mahayana precepts of the Brahma Net Sutra. The followers of Shinran are in some ways even more exclusive than Honen but in other ways Shinran had (or expressed) a much deeper and profounder understanding of human nature in my view. I do not deal with Shinran's teachings in my articles on Rissho Ankoku Ron. Also, any individual practitioner should not be judged by the school they are a part of but should be met with in friendship and sincerity as fellow Buddhists with whom we may or may not agree when it comes to particular points. My essays are not to be construed as encouragement for bad manners or sectarianism.
Anyway, at the end of those chapters summarizing the Pure Land movement of Honen I conclude with the following:
It is not unheard of in the sutras for the Buddha to teach a disciple who cannot remember or practice many teachings to only focus on the most essential point. Usually these stories end with the disciple awakening to the meaning of a single verse or phrase and then by virtue of their enlightenment they come to realize the true meaning of all the teachings and come to embody the virtue of all the practices. One example would be the story of the monk Chudapanthaka who supposedly was too dull-witted to remember even a single verse and in despair was thinking of returning to the home life. The Buddha had compassion for him and taught him to simply sweep out the monastery while saying, “Sweep away the dirt” over and over again. Much to the surprise of the other monks, including his sharper but scornful older brother, Chudapanthaka realized that sweeping the dirt really meant sweeping the mind clean of greed, anger, and ignorance and he thereby became an arhat, liberated from birth and death. He was even able to form thousands of replica bodies to sweep the monastery, thus demonstrating his understanding to the other monks and also expressing the multi-faceted nature of his insight into that one phrase.
Mahayana sutras likewise abound in promises that anyone who upholds even a single verse or phrase will attain inestimable merits. So there are plenty of precedents in both the pre-Mahayana and Mahayana canons for the claim that a single simple practice can lead to enlightenment. Nowhere, however, is the claim made that other practices should then be laid aside or abandoned. Rather, the disciples are being encouraged to receive, remember, and live in accord with as much of the Buddha Dharma as they can, even if it is only a verse or a phrase. The idea is not to neglect everything else. Instead, by upholding a single verse or phrase the disciple would then gain access to the true intent of all the teachings and thereby come to understand and practice them as well. One must, therefore, be careful not to simply scour the sutras for an easy practice that will allow one to bypass everything else. Rather, one should choose the verse or phrase that will in fact provide the key to the rest.
It was Nichiren’s contention that Honen had made two fundamental mistakes. The first was to reduce all of Buddhism to the practice of the nembutsu to the exclusion of all else. This was a mistake because Nichiren believed that the nembutsu did not in fact express the Buddha’s true intent - the attainment of enlightenment in this world. The second mistake, a corollary of the first, was to slander the Lotus Sutra; the one sutra that Nichiren was convinced did in fact reveal the true intent. Honen did this when he advocated laying aside all other sutras, teachings, and practices other than the Pure Land sutras and the practice of nembutsu and insisting that they could no longer help people in the Latter Age of the Dharma. Put simply, in the Senchaku Shu, Honen performed a radical act of reductionism by teaching the exclusive practice of nembutsu and in doing so missed the essential point of Buddha Dharma itself by advocating the neglect of the Lotus Sutra.
The articles on the history of Pure Land are these:
Pure Land Buddhism in India and China
The Life and Teachings of Honen
The Pure Land School after Honen
Rejecting the Gateway of the Holy Path
Casting Aside the Miscellaneous Practices
Closing the Gateway of the Mahayana Sutras
The Band of Robbers in the Parable of the White Path
Lay Aside, Abandon, and Set Aside All but the Nembutsu
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
"- the desire to have a heavenly father who will provide salvation on the cheap (meaning no need for any inner transformation - just a ticket to a heavenly afterlife given in return for some lip service and unthinking allegiance to a simple minded creed) -"
This seems to pervade human institutions to some extent. Perhaps communism and fascim are both expressions of this infantile wish? The latter is certainly more heinous in its motivation; but I suspect the former lulls us into sleep, thinking a benevolent state can provide for all. I do not want to get into that. Reading this piece just caused that to pop in my mind; single phrase / one size fits all solutions ...
>>>" ... preaching self-cultivation is either doomed and/or superfluous"
That is attractive. Self cultivation is a lot of work. Getting everything handed to us, as a free gift, through grace, sounds nice. Thinking we are already perfect Buddhas as we are, is gratifying.
>>> "so one can act as one pleases and ignore all teachings and methods that would say otherwise)"
If there is some need to cultivate moi; then that must mean moi is flawed in some way? How can that be? Anyone who suggests that must be evil.
>>> "Nowhere, however, is the claim made that other practices should then be laid aside or abandoned."
Nichiren does either say, or imply that, many times, does he not? On the other hand, he also said both the merits {guna}, and virtues {punya} and maybe even the practical skills {artha} of the Buddha would sort of automatically be transferred to us if we chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo.
I take merits to mean wholesome cetanas, or subtle intentions, that we develop by consciously getting rid of our afflictions and striving to develop healthy motives. Virtues would be innate qualities we possess, but are tarnished, like the jewel hidden in a robe. Those should begin to emerge when we revere the Lotus Sutra. Skills would be practical knowhow, material advantages, or crafts that we must earn through practice.
[that is my tentative take on 功徳利 {kutokuri}; which Karashima of SGI has as a translation of Anusamsa / Dnisamsa -- just an aside]
Back to the point, many infer from Nichiren that there is no need to make any effort to consciously cultivate meritorious mental states like metta, karuna, kshanti, prajna, and so on, because these will come about naturally. So that if the desire to cultivate those arises; we should ignore and suppress that, because it will backfire anyway. We should not rely on our own mind, Sharihotsu. :}
I think what Nichiren was actually saying was that the resolve {samkalpa} to cultivate would arise naturally, as a result of Revering the Lotus Sutra. Then, by all means cultivate. On the other hand, trying to imitate being wise and good, without our mind and heart being into it, is just going to make us frustrated.
We should not rely on lesser ego mind; but we should strive for a purer mind and rely on that.
I am not saying everyone needs to learn all the different chants and meditations out there; or do all the things I have done. I am saying that pro-vision-al practices pro-vide some pro-visions that some of us might need some of the time.
Kindness-compassion cultivations increase human empathy. Concentration meditation makes people smarter. Insight meditation techniques cause criminals to feel remorse and resolve to repent. Meditative visualizations develop visuospatial skills. These things have been studied; they work.
namaste
robin
Posted by: robin at August 26, 2009 08:47 PM>> the merits {guna}, and virtues {punya}
Whoops. Should be: the merits {punya}, and virtues {guna}.
Punya would wholesome causes and the mental states that are behind them. Those would be acquired. Guna would be the natural attributes of a saintly person. Those are innate. That is my studied opinion.
Punya 功 {ku}: merit, reward, good karma
Guna 徳 {toku / doku}: virtue
???? 利 {ri}: The Sanskrit for this is maybe pathu or tīkshnya; which can mean profitable, beneficial; gain, advantage, among other things. Other words for this would include 義 {gi}. and 益 {yaku}. Possibly; artha 事 {ji} (practical affair or matter) and shak 能 {no} (skill or ability)