This title is a spoof of Shunryu Suzuki’s famous book, “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind“, which I had read a few months back. Suzuki Roshi’s notion of the “Beginner’s Mind” is something that resonates quite a bit in Pure Land Buddhism as well. Lately, I’ve been very interested Honen’s Last Testament, the One-Sheet Document, and have been thinking of using it as a sutra recitation from time to time as part of the recent changes in home Buddhist practice.*
In the One-Sheet Document, there is a line that says:
Even if those who believe in the nembutsu study the teaching which Shakyamuni taught his whole life, they should not put on any airs and should sincerely practice the nembutsu, just as an illiterate fool, a nun or one who is ignorant of Buddhism.
But it’s interesting to note that in the actual Japanese, where he uses the term 尼入道, or amanyūdō. The character “ama” (尼) means a Buddhist nun, while “nyūdō” (入道) means someone who’s just entered the path (of Buddhism).
So like Suzuki Roshi, Honen is warning Pure Land followers not to get arrogant, or proud of their path, but at all times to be humble, as if new students to the path. Honen is not sexist, which is very evident in his letters to women followers, plus his teaching of a direct Buddhist path for women,** but he’s trying to evoke the image of a young, innocent female follower who’s new to Buddhism, and both humble and willing to learn. By contrast, Honen was once quoted as saying “whenever a scholar is born, he forgets the nembutsu.”
This notion is also found in the One-Sheet document where Honen says:
Reciting the nembutsu does not come from studying and understanding its meaning. There is no other reason or cause by which we can utterly believe in attaining birth in the Pure Land than the nembutsu itself.
Honen, in very Zen-like fashion, is telling his followers to not just talk about the nembutsu or the Pure Land, but put it into practice by reciting the nembutsu dilligently and with sincerity and that in time the path would bear fruit. This is not unlike Suzuki Roshi’s comparison to getting wet in the fog:
Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know you will get wet. In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little.
So, for both Zen Buddhists and Pure Land Buddhists, the important thing is to return to the basics, stay humble, be patient (like someone in the fog getting wet little by little), and return to the humble mind of a new practitioner.
Namu Amida Butsu
* – Including the practice of reading aloud in English, not the liturgical Japanese used. I realize more and more how helpful it is to recite something in a language you actually understand.
** – First in the history of Japanese Buddhism at least. In the early scriptures, Buddhist nuns with Shakyamuni attained enlightenment all the time (just read the Therigata), but somehow in later Buddhism this idea was forgotten, and women were seen as unable to attain enlightenment directly unless they were reborn as a man. I have no idea why this is, so I will not speculate.
This blog is the reflection of my efforts to explore fatherhood, Buddhism and my love of Japanese culture. Anything useful I can pass along makes the Internet hopefully a better place.
A few comments on this post:
1. You write that Honen was the first to teach to women a path to which attain enlightenmet. I think you would be wise to reconsider this statement. First of all there is evidence that Genshin included women in his various Pure Land circles (there is a great essay about this by Sarah Horton in “Death and the Afterlife in Japanese Buddhism,” University of Hawaii Press, 2008). Plus Hank Glassman, among others, have shown that there is evidence of monks teaching women in the Nara Period. Richard Bowring may also have done some work in this area that would be worth checking out.
2. For information on the historical Buddha’s views on women there is a wealth of information on Pajapati Gotami, the first women to be admitted into the early Buddhist Sangha. Gotami the Buddha’s aunt needed Ananda to mediate with the historical Buddha so that women could be allowed into the sangha. There has been a lot of academic and non-academic discussion regarding why this was. In short there are a lot of different takes on women attaining enlightenment. There is also some interesting stuff in the Lotus sutra regarding the enlightenment of women.
There is some great stuff in Japanese about all of these issues as well, academic reading but worth checking out none-the-less.
I’ve enjoyed my time here as a lurker for sometime. Thought it was time to contribute to the discussion on a subject that I have long been interested in. Keep up the good work.
eLd
Hi eLd, welcome to the JLR (despite being a lurker
)…
Regarding #1, my understanding is that until Honen, previous teachers of Buddhism to women seemed to teach that Enlightenment, or even rebirth in the Pure Land, was limited to men. Women were taught Buddhism, but usually had to just build up good karma and be reborn as a man. If you do have any help excerpts you can post here, I will gladly update the blog. I definitely appreciate the references nevertheless, particularly Genshin, who I have a great interest in.
For #2, good point about the Buddha’s stepmother. The key though in what I wrote wasn’t whether were allowed or not, but the question of direct enlightenment. From some Pure Land source I read (Traversing the Pure Land path I think), it had said that in Japanese Buddhism at least, they had no problem with nuns, but for various reasons thought they couldn’t reach enlightenment in this life or rebirth in the next. But that clearly contradicts what’s found in the Therigata in that once the Buddha did let nuns ordain, they seemed to hold their own just fine.
As for the Lotus Sutra, yeah, I think you brought a good topic right there. The Lotus Sutra, being the “definitive” Mahayana text, clearly tries to overturn old stigma against women, but later followers seem to forget this at times, and even in the Lotus Sutra, sometimes it contradicts itself by speaking of pure lands where there are no women (somewhere in the last few chapters, maybe the Bodhisattva Medicine King chapter… I forget). Oh well.
Anyways, I definitely love the input, so keep it up and nice meeting you.
Good advice. I have also come across these points in my readings as well.