Finding new meaning in the nembutsu, part one

Lately, I feel like I’ve gone full circle in some crucial, spiritual ways. Readers will recall about six months ago when I took a critical look at my devotion to Pure Land Buddhism and took this faith to task through exploration of its contemporary critic Jōkei. Later I decided to take a break from Buddhism altogether for a while due to a sense of fatigue with the subject. Since that time, I have been exploring various aspects of Buddhism, Confucian and Taoist thought as well as just taking a break in general due a considerable workload and end of year holiday madness.

But as time has passed I feel like through a gradual process of reduction I have started to settle back on my old Buddhist Pure Land Path, but with a new appreciation. I forget exactly when it began but sometime in the last few weeks prior to going to Japan, I saw a discussion thread online about the importance of putting Buddhism into practice even when you may have misgivings. I once wrote about that years ago but found a new appreciation for this, but I lost that post with the demise of the old blog, but I did recover a related post (another relevant one here). Then as the Holidays started to wind down I started to recite the nembutsu in the Jodo Shu style which I haven’t done in a long time. It felt great, like coming home in a way, but I still wanted to know in my heart if this was the right thing to do.

What concerned me in the past was a fear of somehow neglecting the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha, the founder, if I focused on the wrong priorities, but then I found a passage in the Dhammapada that struck me anew despite having read it many times before:

183. To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one’s mind — this is the teaching of the Buddhas.

And separately, I stumbled upon a passage in the classic Jodo Shu book Raft from the Other Shore:

Furthermore, the story of Amida’s enlightenment reflects the life of Shakyamuni [Buddha]. This means that Amida Buddha is the symbolic expression of the ultimate nature of Shakyamuni Buddha. (pg. 65)

So when I read these two passages I felt that the nembutsu was both a praise of Shakyamuni Buddha and all that he embodied and a simple, straightforward practice that was very lay friendly. It helps one abstain from evil, cultivate merit and cleanse the mind by helping one reflect on their mind and its self-centered behavior.

Like many western Buddhist converts I frequently catch myself falling into the trap of thinking that Buddhism equals sitting meditation. But my efforts to maintain sitting meditation without a teacher have been very inconsistent. Honen, as professor Hattori explains in the book, promoted the nembutsu in particular because anyone could do it. They could come as they are, and that it would be the gateway and foundation for them.

I still reserve some particular doctrinal disagreements with Honen’s (and by extension Shinran’s) teaching, and still side with Jōkei on some criticisms, but then I realized I didn’t really matter in the long-run. Honen was right about the efficacy of the nembutsu as at least a starting point, and a foundation for lay Buddhists like myself. I guess I’ve decided to forgo the doctrinal issues for now, and by a process of reduction, decided that the nembutsu still fits me best. My devotion to Shakyamuni Buddha and all that he represented is expressed when I recite the nembutsu and through my various efforts to lead a wholesome life.

In part two, I hope to talk about some recent conversations and experiences I had here in Japan to help me to reach this conclusion at last.