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Editor's Note - This is an excerpt from the October 2005 issue of the Buddhist Wheel Now
there is an ancient and epic story revisited by one of our most
prominent scholars and noted devotees of Shinran’s Pure Land Teaching –
Professor & Reverend Takamaro Shigaraki, who offers a thoughtful
and provocative narrative to Shantao’s “The Parable on the White Path”
(Byokudo). Shinran’s 5th spiritual master of our Pure Land Teaching (Jodo Shin). Exhausted,
having traveled so far and long, a person discovers a crossing – a
crossing like no other. The man is very exhausted having been pursued
by a variety of wild beasts and bandits of sorts. They want to rob,
kill, and devour him. These figures according to Shigaraki’s narrative,
symbolize our worldly attachments such as fame, wealth, and position –
external obstructions to enlightenment. Having traveled so far and long
symbolizes the rarity and great difficulty of having been “born” into
existence as a human being, the greater difficulty of meeting a Buddha,
and the greatest difficulty, one’s spiritual quest for enlightenment
(white path).
For Shigaraki, we all walk a single white path that lies between a
river of surging water and a river of raging fire. The river of water
symbolizes our desires while the river of fire symbolizes our wrath.
The width of that white path is about the width of our hand. Narrow and
perilous is this path as waves of water and fire furiously and
continuously knock this person into the treacherous waters, burnt and
almost drowned. And on the other side, from the other shore, the voices
and visages of the Buddhas, Shakamuni and Amida Buddha, beckon to him
to come over those furious waters, and trust not in worldly fame which
threaten his true and real life. A deeper meaning or
“awakening” hinted by Shigaraki refers to the rivers of fire and water
as internal obstructions, and the beasts and bandits as external
obstructions on this perilous journey to enlightenment. From the
beginning, Shigaraki speaks to Shantao’s parable as an “illustration of
a life of nembutsu and shinjin”, that the entirety of
one’s human life is likened to perilously walking a single white path
between rivers of fire and water. Unaware or not, we are all walking
this “white path”, and this spiritual sojourn on the white path has
precedence. When the nembutsu is no longer
limited to an egocentric practice generated for sake of one’s own peace
of mind or benefit, but as awakening to the wisdom-activity of the
Buddha (Vow) continuously transforming a life deeply trapped and
saturated with self-absorption into a life of gratitude and service to
others, we might begin to understand the true relationship of the white
path and our obstructions to cross-over. Arising
from the rivers of raging fires and surging waters, the very perils and
obstacles to enlightenment itself, transformed through the
inconceivable power of the Buddha’s wisdom-compassion, the white paths
meet these feet, taking us over our rivers of desires and wrath. Thus,
Shigaraki echoes Shinran’s appreciation, -- “no matter how narrow and
full of obstructions that path may be, one who lives in this single,
unhindered path – the path of nembutsu and shinjin – is able to cross over directly the rivers of peril – this is to be deeply considered, and truly appreciated.” I
rejoin the Hilo Hongwanji Sangha with deep gratitude to serve, and ask
your patience, support and encouragement. Together we tread the single
White Path. REFERENCE: THE LIFE OF AWAKENING. The
Heart of Shin Buddhist Path by Takamaro Shigaraki, translated by David
Matsumoto, 2/2005, pp 121-14. Visit our downloads section to get the complete issue. |
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