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Spontaneity of Shinjin
Rev. William Masuda

GARLAND SUTRA (as quoted by Shinran Shonin)

Osono, a devout person of nembutsu faith, lived in a rural area of Nagoya which was heavily influenced by Jodo Shinshu and Zen. A Zen priest, living near her village, was deeply engaged in his zen training and practices. He heard that Osono was a deeply realized person of her faith and wanted to test his own understanding with hers.

One day he met Osono and asked one question: "What is the name of the Buddha you are worshipping?"

"Amida Buddha", Osono answered.

He then asked, "Where is that Amida Buddha?"

"My spiritual parent (oya) Amida Buddha is far, far away in the west", she answered.

The priest then remarked, "Is that right? Your spiritual parent, Amida Buddha, is really far away then, right?"

"Oh, no!" Osono said. "Though Amida Buddha is far away, right now, at this very moment, he is out of the Pure Land in the west."

The priest was surprised to her this. "If Amida Buddha is out, where is Amida right now?"

Osono broke out into a big smile. "Oh, you ask good questions! Amida Buddha is right here! Right here! Namu-amida-butsu, namu- amida-butsu!" as she invoked her faith.

Later, the priest remarked that Osono was truly remarkable and clear in her understanding of the Buddha's way, and she manifested her awareness spontaneously and instantaneously as the questions were asked. Her depth of awareness and understanding was fully manifest in their exchange.

What makes a person like Osono function in her way? Why is so seemingly free and at ease with her responses? Is she on or off the normal curve?

My sense is that Osono is unburdened with our conventional ways of thinking and judging our religious life. She doesn't struggle in compartmentalizing her religious life from her everyday life. She is spiritual (with spirit) in that her daily conventional and dualistic life is completely at one with an unconventional, non-dualistic awakened dharma life. She lives in an inspired (in spirit) way in a fluid oneness with Amida Buddha. She lives an active nembutsu faith. She lives wholly in the paradox of a true religious life. While she is fully aware of her limited and defiled life, she lives freely in heart and mind within the boundless circle of the Buddha's penetrating wisdom and engaging compassion.

For Osono, the relative and apparent distance and far-ness of Amida Buddha in the west as described in the sutras and commentaries are broken through in an instant, and Amida lives near and closely, in this moment, in the very calling of Namu-amida-butsu. No barrier of doubt hinders her clear and direct faith.

Osono's awareness and movement are spontaneous and natural. No pretensions. No calculation or contrivance. No deliberation or manipulation of thought. Her being freely manifests her heart and spirit. True and real life surge forth in her spontaneity.

Osono is, in the words of the Tannisho, "the person of nembutsu walking the path of unobstructed freedom." There is great delight and play in her spontaneity. Her "clear faculties" weave the relative constructs of far and near, Amida Buddha and her life, into a cohesive, spiritually fluid whole. No dogma, rituals or ceremonial trappings can place a lid on her boundless spirituality. Her Buddha-nature is fully engaged and manifest as shinjin, true faith, itself.

Whenever I visit this dialogue and conversation between Osono and the Zen priest, I cannot help but imagine the rapidity of their illuminating exchange. The depth and breadth of Osono's heart and mind is freely sustained by another power, a power which is "firm and steadfast, nothing can destroy it." I am deeply drawn to her spontaneity and freedom of heart and mind. I too wish to be consistently moving in this dimension in which "shinjin (true faith) alone leads one to seek the virtues of Buddha alone." I wonder if the reader too wishes to move freely in mind and heart with Buddha in a similar way as Osono? Namu-amida-butsu.