The
autumn moon, glimmering
Emerges
from the billowing clouds
The
‘mound of anjin’ of a bombu is such that it becomes crushed, and crumbles away as
soon as it is built. Until it is distorted beyond recognition, it will be built
again. Bombu does this for a thousand or
a hundred thousand times before they come to realize all of a sudden that the
focal point is not to appease this one mind, but to turn our attention to the
Power of the Tathagata, Buddha-power and the Primal-Vow Power.
“Because
of the Primal-Vow Power, the person who cannot be emancipated becomes emancipated.
Emancipation is right before you, it is right here, right here,
Namu-amida-butsu”.
As a
consequence, in that instant of hearing that ‘my attainment of birth has been settled (ji jo)”, the karmic obstacles
of the three lives, the past, future and present are now all turned into the
sounds of praising the Name [of Amida Tathagata]. When we take in truthfully
the dharma words of our founding teacher the Shonin, we simply show our
reverential trust to the Primal-Vow Power of the Tathagata, and what remains is
‘inconceivable’, ‘inconceivable’.
Zuiken Sama
Great words about the nature of a bombu and the reverential trust. Melvin, many thanks for the translation!
ReplyDeleteI like the way Sensei described about the 'false' anjin that many people refer to or presume, which is essentially 'self-power' or calculation. The import of the 'Other-power' which is described as 'jinen' in 'On Jinen Honi' and many places in Shinran's writings needs to be pondered carefully. Jinen simply means the Other-Power, without adding calculations of bombu.
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