Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Prologue 93



This body has no one to rely on,
Like a boat adrift in a boundless ocean.
The radiance of compassion emanates from kalpas in the distant past;
The Vow-Power takes in and accepts people without discrimination.


To forget about one’s own problem of birth-and-death while talking bombastically and volubly about the Dharma doors is an attitude abhorred by Rennyo Shonin. In the face of a dying person at death’s door, to tell him or her all about shinjin and saying the nembutsu, is simply too late.

The dying person whose eyes no longer see can only be saved by the Primal Vow-Power.

‘Other-power is none other than the power of Tathagata's Primal Vow’ (Chapter on Practice from Kyogyoshinsho). The Primal Vow-Power is not intended to save people who like a great deal of speculation. Who is the very sick and dying person? Stunned and ashamed, what remains is

Namu-amida-butsu!     Namu-amida-butsu!

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