Unit 26 The Foolish Self

Unit 26

Hear the Primal Vow Power, hear it through and through and you will unknowingly be overwhelmed and turned into your ‘foolish self’, a ‘babe-in-arms’.

In the face of Buddha, we become our foolish self. This makes our afterlife (rebirth) attainable as we will naturally think that Amida is trustworthy. Hearing of dharma and becoming your foolish self (a simple person of nembutsu) will have you born into Pure Land.

Initially it was thought that if one has received shinjin, there would be some sort of remarkable changes, either in our mind or behaviour, however it was simply wrong because what happened was that the Buddha made us realize that we were just ‘infants before hearing’.

Commonly, people make an effort to ‘make themselves wiser and learned’ and then boast that they have become wiser men. Birth into the Pure Land simply goes against this; it is the light of wisdom of Buddha that shines and nurtures us and so we are turned into such a humble and self-less being, who are so born into the Pure Land along with our foolishness.

‘Become this or become that’, it is the path of sages that requires one to accomplish oneself in making oneself a Buddha. The Pure Land path is just the opposite of this; it is that our wicked nature is getting uncovered and revealed, and what we simply have is ‘This useless guy that is me’, ‘It is because of the Vow Power that I could be saved’, ‘it is because Buddha is compassionate that I could be saved’.

We are made aware of ourselves as wicked beings predestined to hell by the all-embracing wisdom of Buddha, the Primal Vow Power.

‘Birth into the Pure Land that is definite, salvation that is certain’, such a care for us too  comes from the all-embracing wisdom of Buddha, the Primal Vow Power.

No matter how much you listen to dharma talks , Buddha is always the most revered great enlightened being perfect with the compassion and wisdom, Buddha dharma is beyond conception. The Buddha-wisdom is inconceivable and so is the Vow Power. The compassionate heart of Buddha makes us feel that it is hard to come by, that we are just unfit, so deeply indebted. This feeling is the simple sentiment that arises from the transference of the Vow Power. It is duplicitous not to let such a sentiment shine out.

The fulfillment of the fruition of enlightenment

The Buddha-wisdom is illumining all-round

‘..The light of his Dharma-body

illumines the darkness of the world.’(Hymns of the Pure Land)

by Zuiken Sensei