Unit 18 What’s Not Unusual is Rare

Revised 6 July, 2017

Don’t ever rely on your mind. You can be “joyful,” but that is when you are healthy; you won’t feel the same when you are ill and suffering. Therefore, the joyful feeling may or may not arise. It is the same for the nembutsu; it is alright if you feel joyful and it is alright if you don’t. “Salvation is more than certain!” “I cannot feel joyful but even so Amida saves me.” Thinking of this you will feel even more joyful, won’t you? “However forgetful I am, Amida saves me; I constantly do evil, yet Amida saves me.” Thinking of this you will feel even more joyful, won’t you? But people always do the opposite things. Those who truly discern the meaning of this will not purposefully commit evil; quite the contrary, they will be even more mindful and repentant of their deeds.

“I cannot feel joyful but even so Amida saves me” is something beyond imagination. Hence, a sense of joy spontaneously rises. If we purposely intent on getting the joyful feeling it gets even difficult to be felt so. I myself always forget to say the nembutsu. Although I am very forgetful, when I think myself of “having the Oya-sama who never forgets about me,” joyful feeling spontaneously rises again and nembutsu recitation naturally flows.

It is said, “The compassionate Vow is just like a compass.” A compass needle will point to the North Pole no matter what. Though you cannot feel joyful for now, after passing through the hellish realms three to ten times, you will finally give in to the Tathagata’s compassion. No matter how stubborn and rebellious you are, the Tathagata will not abandon you.

It won’t do to compare yourself to people who have been “grasped” as well as the people “who appear to have been grasped (by Amida Buddha).” It won’t do to compare yourself to all the people who seem to “rejoice in faith [shinjin].” You have been fooled by such people! Everyone who goes to the temple to hear sermons has been deceived by these people. When seeing someone happily saying “Namo Amida Butsu, Namo Amida Butsu,” they will think, “It won't do if I don’t act like him; I have not become a person like him yet, and so maybe I have not obtained shinjin. Shouldn’t someone who has realized shinjin behave just like him?”

It won’t do to judge someone by appearances. You won’t be troubled if you don’t judge by appearances. It would be better not to have myokonin than to have them. Because of their presence, the minds of people become agitated. Because such unusual people existed, others get agitated.

It is the people (me) who is not unusual gains deliverance. Who is not unusual?  I am.  “People like me who always forget about saying the nembutsu” gains deliverance. Who gains deliverance? It is me who gains deliverance. “I am such a negligent person in saying the nembutsu.” It is me who gains deliverance. Buddha-dharma is directed to me, myself.

People are attached to form therefore the Diamond Sutra unfailingly tells us not to be attached to form. In the same way, Shinshu is not a religion of form.

If you see someone repeatedly saying “Namo Amida Butsu, Namo Amida Butsu,” you would think this way: “Wow, what an unusual man he is!” This is not the way it should be. Only the people that is not unusual is rare! “Someone not unusual is yet born into the Pure Land.” Doesn’t it sound even more unusual when we think about it in this way? Who is this person? This person who is not unusual is me!