Rev

Reverend's Message

Archives

Faith (Shinjin) – Experiencing Other Power

Rev. William Masuda

As students, seekers, and listeners of the Buddha-dharma, especially in the nembutsu way of Shinran Shonin, we may have a measure of conceptual understanding and practical engagement of the teachings by listening to dharma talks, attending dharma study sessions, reading Buddhist books and articles, attending dharma worship services, meditation sessions, exercising Buddhist ethical and moral practices, and generally maintaining our identity our sense of being Buddhists in numerous other ways. Yet, at the same time, we may experience an inner disquiet and unsettling as we try to live and integrate the dharma into the reality and demands of our daily life. This is not an unusual phenomenon. Our religious longing for wholeness cannot simply be fulfilled and be at peace with an intellectual understanding of dharma or its convenient but sporadic application. A conceptual grasp of dharma often makes it another philosophical exercise and its sporadic application at our convenience may in its inconsistency become practically purposeless.

The nembutsu way of faith does not let us rest in simply our satisfaction with a philosophical understanding, a convenient rational for our inconsistent application of the dharma's ethical and moral implications, and rituals to soothe our temporary sentiments. The nembutsu way of faith addresses our deepest longing for spiritual liberation and freedom. It is significant freeing of our intellectual, emotional, volitional attachments to our ego-self. This realization and awakening occurs in the moment of faith (shin no ichinen) in which we experience our spiritual freedom empowered by the Other Power, which is none other than Amida Buddha. It is a deep, personal awakening and awakening and awareness of the timeless saving power of Amida Buddha's Vow in our life. This moment of faith is sudden, direct, real, and transforming in its realization. This moment goes to the heart of our spiritual life in the Nembutsu.

This moment of faith is likened to realizing our parents' love for the first time by suddenly grasping the magnitude of their deep love and caring for us. In this realized moment, we are at one with our parents and their abiding and enduring love. We see our life and our relationship with our parents in a new light, as mature children accepting and grateful for their presence. We had taken their love for granted or struggled to shape it for our own use, ignoring their on-going loving concerns and care for us. Now, in this moment of realization, we are free of our ego-self and free to accept their love as is. In a spiritual way, we awaken from our ego-centered slumber and transcend our ego-centered concerns and wants by seeing our true karmic self in the light of Amida's immeasurable love and compassion. In this awakening of faith, the negation of our ego-self is the affirmation of our true and real life

Such a deeply personal, existential awakening of faith is extremely important in freeing us to move through and beyond our intellectual graspings and myopic belief and concerns about the Nembutsu in our life. Faith empowers us to freely live within the "indescribable, ineffable, and beyond intellectual comprehension" reality of Nembutsu with an unshakable confidence, clear awareness, and humbling appreciation of its creative unfolding in our karmic life. Faith begets a mature, accepting faith with the workings of Amida's vow and deepens our personal and intimate connectedness and commitment to all life. Faith unfolds our life to wisdom and compassion.

A recent poem by my dharma friend, Ed Dreessen, addresses a personal awareness and appreciation of faith in the following way.

Faith