Shozomatsu Wasan 94
Although I have taken refuge in the true Pure Land way,
It is hard to have a true and sincere mind.
This self is false and insincere;
I completely lack a pure mind.
Religion and Life
In this verse, 'mind' is the same character as the 'heart' in the term 'the entrusting heart'. Shinran Shonin is telling us that his heart is not entrusting, but false. In the second line, true mind is shinjitsu no shin; the true entrusting heart is shinjitsu no shinjin. In other words, Shinran's heart, or mind, is entirely at odds with Amida Buddha's shinjin.
So begins a series of sixteen penetrating and moving verses, in which Shinran disposes of claims to self-generated faith. The entrusting heart comes only from the Buddha, and is expressed as Namu-amida-butsu. The call of the Vow in Namu-amida-butsu is everything; it is all there is; it is at the heart of life. In accepting it, we accept the Buddha's call.
Shinran was aware of the falsity of human delusions and the power of our self-centeredness, our 'ego', to make us believe in easy half-truths that only work in the service of our self-aggrandisement: people claiming to be the guardians of virtue, putting on airs of piety, self-righteouseness and arrogant superiority. For he knew that the real core of human nature is a seething pit of vipers. Standing in the radiance of the Light that shines unhindered in the ten quarters, he knew that the human heart is filled with greed, anger and delusion; that there is absolutely nothing that is not tainted and mired in its own rapacious self-adoration.
Although I have read commentators who compare Shinran's insight with doctrines like the Augustinian concept of 'original sin', Shinran is not talking about anything that can be redeemed or transformed; nothing can wash away the false mind, that is our inner reality. Instead, it must be apprehended, and seen and understood for what it is. In my view, Shinran is only talking about something that must be abandoned as useless, at the least, and as illusory - and dangerous - at the most. He tells us in Notes on 'Essentials of Faith Alone' that people of shinjin 'cease looking knowingly on their evil heart (ashiki kokoro)'. Shinran, whose shinjin was settled, sees the only light, the only truth, in Namu-amida-butsu - all the rest is vacuity.
Because of his self-awareness, Shinran counters delusions that make people believe that they are capable of comprehending the dharma as an innate internal reality. And in the Preface to the chaper on shinjin, he censures those who think otherwise:
Priests and laymen of the Declining Age, and masters of these days, sunken in the idea 'that one's true nature is Buddha' and 'that the Buddha's Pure Land exists in one's mind', degrade (the belief in) the True Enlightenment in the Pure Land; or, being deluded by the mind of self-power to practice meditative and non-meditative good deeds, they are blind to the adamantine True Faith (kongo no shinshin).1
Shinran is here making us aware that self-centered power ought, for obvious reasons, to be completely abandoned for the true and only reality - Other Power. We will not find truth in the mind that we can see but only lies and illusion, we must instead turn away from ourselves and turn to the light that fills the universe.
In my view, all people of true nembutsu are such because they know that they need to turn from the seething snake-pit within, to the true, the unconditioned. As they grow in this way, and find the power that uplifts them and illumines their lives, they begin to find the extraordinary courage to look within. In doing so, they grow to accept the reality of their dark side. Such deep knowledge in the light of Amida Buddha's wisdom leads to a paradox - complete self-acceptance. This is to find 'peace and comfort in body and mind'; to become a 'true disciple of the Buddha'.
It is like this. Inside our house there is an unknown room, full of dismal, un-nerving and threatening movements. A primordial swamp of disease, rapacity and viciousness. It is beyond bearing, and we run to the outside window and see the fresh green fields, and the golden sunlight. Drawing from it strength and joy, in due course, we find ourselves imbued with something of its strength. Although, in turning inwards, we lose some sense of its immediacy ('the light is dimmed by clouds, but beneath them, there is light' - Genshin), we find that a glowing courage has come to roost.
Then, one day, the time comes to look, unflichingly, into that treacherous and dark room, where there are unseen things and echocing footsteps. The hair rises on the back of our necks, breathless nembutsu burst forth. Flinging the door open, the Light floods in... and the darkness... dissipates, and all those nameless things that thrive upon being unrevealed are seen for what they are... 'falsehearted and untrue'.
These verses of Shinran's convey us to the very nub of true religion. They remind us that true religion thrives in the face of even the most appalling features of living; they remind us that 'problems' like injustice, cruelty, greed, and self-aggrandisement, are not someone else's problem - they are ours, they are sitting on our laps and dwelling in our hearts. It is not for us to preach sanctimonius and pious platitudes to others, thinking that they are lesser beings than we are. Because we are, ourselves, the very same foolish beings, for whom the entire structure of the glorious Buddha Dharma was built.
It is tempting to take refuge in saccharine sentiments and painless shibboleths, but I do not believe that religion is of any value unless it takes us to the door-handle of that darkened, unvisited room: yes, terrified but joyous at once. In the endless journey with the Buddha we go; the journey that Shinran has mapped for us; the journey of Everyman and Everywoman: nembutsu on their lips, and the gleam of the Buddha's Light and compassion showing the way onwards, through the jungle of evil passions.
1. Ryukoku University Translation Centre, Vol. 5, p. 84.
2. Teaching, Practice and Realisation, III, 86; CWS p. 117.
