Comments on: The Pure Land Buffet

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:09:23 +0000

Hi guys,

Stephen: Input greatly appreciated, and you’ve brought up some interesting points: Jodo Shu seems to have evolved and changed over time since it’s inception. Perhaps you could speak on that more?

Kyoushin: +1 on the need for structure. I totally agree. Here in the West, if you don’t like the church you go to, you can pick up and go down the street. Harder to do with Buddhism, so sometimes you just have to take advantage of the sanghas where you can, and if you have some variety, all the better. But within a given tradition, it’s only right to take full advantage of it.

Cheers everyone!

By: Kyōshin

Kyōshin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:02:41 +0000

Rory, I didn’t make any mention of ‘sects’ nor did I say anything about whether or not people should or could study with a variety of teachers. My point was that surely some kind of guidance over what teachings and practices one should attend to is important. Personal curiosity, or emotional or aesthetic affinity aren’t in themselves reliable guides as to what will be the best path for us. As Unno points out the ‘Mantra of Light’ is an obscure practice in the West unlike in Myoe’s day. Whilst acknowledging yours and Doug’s comments, supported by Unno’s book, that Jokei and Myoe, had a somewhat different attitude to transmission than the one I cited, there was it seems a movement in which the ‘Mantra of Light’ was being widely propagated. Where is the equivalent support today? No doubt it is possible to receive initiation into the practice if you search hard enough but generally speaking I would imagine that it is not easy. This has implications. It’s not so much a buffet out there but a wilderness which contains a myriad fruit trees and bushes and in most cases we have no one to tell us whether we can eat safely from them or how we should prepare their fruits.

I have huge respect for the ecumenical outlook that Doug and others show on this blog, and I also think it is harmful to slavishly follow tradition if it means compromising one’s own insights or instincts, but I nonetheless feel that eclecticism in practice is when pursued without any guidance is dangerous as it can easily diffuse the necessary energy and tensions of practice and give the ego-self opportunities to avoid the difficult patches of practice which, though challenging, are often the most fertile ground for development and insight.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 03:17:34 +0000

Yes, a balanced meal Honen enjoyed, he did travel to Shingon and the Nara Sect teachers before he took up the Nembutsu exclusively. Exclusively??? He kept the precepts, he gave the precepts, he recited the Amida Sutra everyday. His student Shoko Shonin every 4 hours (night and day) did prostrations while reciting Shan-tao’s devotion to the six hours of the day, he also recited the Amida Sutra, then he recited the Nembutsu 10,000 times (so six Amida sutra’s 60,000 Nembutsu) and he kept the precepts.
A previous head of the Kamakura Komyo-ji wrote an excellent book called “Zazen and the Nembutsu” (sorry no English translation). I perform all sorts of esoteric ceremonies, I write bon-ji, opening the eyes, removing the spirit, purification, giving offerings to hungry ghosts and pretty much what happens in China and around the world. I transfer merit, do extended periods of prostrations, I have done Sutra copying, and we even beg (takuhatsu).
I am lucky, I have the time, teachers and teaching: the great thing about Honen’s teachings is not the exclusiveness, but the inclusiveness, anyone can do it. But I started out with the basic stuff, cleaning. I raked gardens for years before I was taught the Nembutsu. I raked many more before I learnt how to bow properly.
The buffet is out there, Honen enjoyed it, I enjoy it.
Just watch out you don’t get diabetes.
A bowl of rice is all that is needed to fill a stomach, the Nembutsu is all that is needed to get to the Pureland. A bit of flavour is nice too, just make sure your buffet is a balanced diet.
Just some thoughts from someone who is trying to walk a thin white path…
Stephen

By: Doug

Doug — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 23:09:39 +0000

Hi guys,

Kyoushin: Jokei was a pretty eclectic fellow and records show that depending on his audience or which temple lectured at, his sermon was tailored for the appropriate “deity” or practiced, though a common theme was restoration of Shakyamuni’s central role in Buddhism and a blend of practice and faith.

Myoe was a little different though as Rory pointed out, he was ordained in two traditions and relied on both depending in the occasion.

I highly recommend both books if you get a chance.

Rory: to be honest, my buffet analogy is terrible and falls apart easily. I like the balanced meal idea though. Good point about the study groups though, because we tend to apply sectarianism discoourse to Japanese Buddhism and this breaks down when applied to Nara Buddhism.

By: rory

rory — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:03:37 +0000

Kyoshin; in those days, there were no sects, simply study circles. If you wanted to study with Myoe, yes he was your sensei & you the disciple, but you could {and this was the norm study with other teacher}s. So you could learn different philosophies; Kegon, Hosso, etc various sutras, dharanis, methods of meditation, observing precepts.
Instead of a buffet, I would call it ; a balanced meal.

By: Kyōshin

Kyōshin — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 09:21:09 +0000

Hi Doug, At the end of the day surely Myōe Kōben and Jōkei, though advocating a wider range of practices than the senju-nembutsu folk, surely still did so within a defined teaching framework of teacher-student transmission? As such they or their colleagues would have monitored the progress of their fellow practicers so that they only ‘ate’, to use your analogy, what was appropriate for them within the context of their practice at a given time. If so that’s rather different than exhorting people to “enjoy that buffet, however much or little you prefer” isn’t it?

Best wishes.