Archives The Words of Ito, Kozen Sensei

Translated with comments by
Rev. William Masuda

The Inconceivable Power of Nembutsu

Unless we directly feel, intuit, and experience, and i the inconceivable power of the Nembutsu in our life, our awareness and entrusting (shinjin) remain incomplete and unfulfilled.

The Nembutsu, which is simply drawn from books or heard in talks, may completely abandon us and be lost when we become extremely ill or break out in a high fever. Illness may strip away our understanding in a millisecond.

Often the understanding of our belief and faith may reflect a self-centered attitude because of our pride in our self effort in gaining the understanding. Our self-pride may be subtle and out of the range of our awareness, but nevertheless, the defensiveness with which we guard our understanding may reflect the tenuousness of our belief and faith.

On the other hand, the awareness and entrusting emerging in from a power beyond our ego-self, i.e., Other Power, strips away the self-centered and prideful attitude of our understanding. Here we feel, intuit, and experience the direct effect of the inconceivable power of the Buddha's light of wisdom (Nembutsu). In this singular moment of awakening (shinjin), we are illumined and affirmed absolutely by the light of wisdom beyond our ego-self. This awakening generates a deep entrusting in Other Power which is not affected nor shaken by the perception of others in their comments and criticisms. A person with such a deep entrusting in Buddha lives each moment gratefully and humbly, even if he is told at times that hell and the Pure Land do not exist, or he is told such thoughts are delusory and false. A person of deep entrusting lives fully and unpretentiously with a joyous heart in the Nembutsu.

The capacity to live karmically in such a joyous and humble way becomes real in our life when we are empowered by the light of Buddha's wisdom - the active wisdom-light of Nembutsu itself. The inconceivable power of Nembutsu moves thoroughly in such a person's life with a deep appreciation and affirmation of being "grasped, never to be abandoned". There is nothing stronger, clearer, and brighter than this awareness. This is the diamond-like faith that Shinran Shonin speaks of with conviction and confidence.

An awakened person of deep entrusting can no longer return to nor cling to his/her ego-centered and self-calculating understanding and beliefs. Even if such self-centered thoughts and graspings appear at times, they are nullified in the light of Buddha's empowering wisdom and compassion. At the basis of his/her being, the pit of one's belly, if you will, such a person is emptied of all self-calculation, self-pride, and conceit regarding his spiritual liberation, understanding, and salvation. In this emptiness, such a person experiences a complete inner joy and freedom in the boundlessness of the Nembutsu. This is the reality of spiritually being at ease with one's self and life. In this reality of the inconceivable richness of the Nembutsu life, one is truly at home - a home whose doors are open to all beings.

Comment: Shinran Shonin's teachings focus fundamentally on our non-dual relationship with the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha, i.e., the deepest wish for the happiness and liberation of all beings from their karmic sufferings. Shinran's teachings of awakening deeply touch on the realization of true and real life as the turning point of our life of happiness in the Nembutsu. This turning point occurs through Other Power - the power beyond our ego-self which is none other than Amida Buddha's unhindered light (Wisdom) and unhindered life (Compassion). Other Power makes our whole-hearted awakening and transformation real and humbling. Other Power too replaces our ego-centered views and concerns as the spiritual center of meaning and fulfillment in our Nembutsu life. The inconceivable power of Nembutsu unfolds a deeply-felt joyfulness and a grateful heart of living in the reality of limitless compassion and deep wisdom sustaining all beings. Love and joy, light and clarity, appreciation, and delight illuminate this journey in samsara - this ocean of birth-and-death. In the words of Shinran:

When the waters - the minds, good and evil, of foolish beings -
Have entered the vast ocean
Of Amida's Vow of wisdom, they are immediately
Transformed into the mind of great compassion.
- Hymns of the Dharma-Ages, #40, CW, p.408

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