Editor's Note - This is an excerpt from the December 2004 issue of the Buddhist Wheel

Living together in the Nembutsu will put us all on the same path of Amida’s teachings. My coming here has been fortunate for me because it puts me on the Path of Pure Land. I have encountered much joy along with a few sorrows. I have experienced the joys of supporting each other, of your devotion to the temple and your sincerity in the practice of the Onembutsu. I have also experienced the warmth of your hands clasping mine. Warm hands, warm hearts. But with memories of warm handclasps, I have also experienced the loneliness and sadness of separation, leaving only the warmth that passed between our hands.

Are these the same images that you have of life at this temple? Are your experiences, based on the Dharma, generally pleasant and fulfilling with some suffering sprinkled into them?

I really hope that what you are learning and experiencing of the Dharma in this temple as you chant the Nembutsu is enriching your life as much as mine has been enriched these past two years.

About learning and experiencing, Confucius in his Analects offers two suggestions. First, he says that learning is enjoyable when we carry out into practice what we have learned. To this I say “ Yes!”, because being on the Path of Pure Land with you, I’ve learned more about the Dharma which has made my life richer. The other suggestion is that a friend will always come along when you walk the path. For me this path leads to the Pure Land. I am thankful because I’ve met many good friends who are walking the same path.

Also, in chapter IV of the Tannisho, Shinran Shonin says that the Path of Sages and the Path of Pure Land are different. Compassion in the Path of Sages is expressed through self-power by pity, sympathy and caring for others. While compassion in the Path of Pure Land includes these moral values, they don’t result in salvation. Therefore in the Path of Pure Land we defer to Amida Buddha and the Nembutsu the task of saving others and ourselves. In the meantime Shinran Shonin suggests that with a heart filled with gratitude, each person live life to the limits of personal ability in thankfulness. By doing this, each person demonstrates that “I am precious”.

To Shinran Shonin, it didn’t matter whether or not he was born in the Pure Land. What mattered was that living in the Nembutsu, one awakens to the fact that enlightenment through the Primal Vow will happen. Consequently, today, right now, with your awakening or shinjin you become the truly-settled one. So, having become truly settled about your birth or salvation, you can turn your attention to living a conscious and proud life as a human being. We need not worry about gaining emancipation for others or ourselves; we need to live our lives to the full extent of our abilities, secure in the knowledge that each of us is the object of Amida Buddha’s grace.

Living together day by day in the Path of Pure Land or Nembutsu, we gain an awareness that Amida’s desire of saving us is even greater than that of our family of protecting us. Inevitably this awareness of salvation through Amida Buddha inspires us to live richer, fuller lives. Inevitably we will live our lives unselfishly caring for others. Inevitably we will live productively, contributing to the well-being of society. Just as Shinran Shonin lived in the Path of Pure Land, we will live lives beyond reproach. Namo Amida Butsu.

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