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The Four Seas Throughout - Brothers And Sisters - February 2006 |
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Written by Rev. Bruce Nakamura
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Saturday, 04 February 2006 |
Editor's Note - This is an excerpt from the February 2006 issue of the Buddhist Wheel
I pronouncing Amida’s name is the design of Namo Amida Butsu awakening in me.
My daily joy is my grumbling…
Namandabu.
I pronouncing Amida’s name is the design of Namo Amida Butsu awakening in me…
Namandabu, Namandabu, Namandabu…
~ Shaku Junshin
Rennyo (1415-1499) became the 8th spiritual head of the Hongwanji at the age of forty-three following the death of his father, Zonnyo (1396-1457). Upon his father’s death, the first thing Rennyo did was to undertake his own self-reformation in which he was determined to be in accord with the teachings of Shinran (1173-1262).
Prior to that time the temple hall of the Hongwanji had been divided into upper and lower levels as an indication of the hierarchy of status and class distinctions that existed within it. This attitude was adopted not only by the aristocrats and samurai of those times. It was also found in the temples of the aristocratic Buddhist schools such as the Tendai and Shingon. Rennyo as did Shinran on the other hand, followed the words of T’an-luan (Doran) 476-542): “Since they all practice the same Nembutsu and follow no other paths, all persons throughout the four distant seas are brothers and sisters.” Shinran referred to such persons of the Nembutsu as companions or “fellow followers or practicers (ondobo-ondogyo). In Tannisho “A Record in Lament of Divergences”, it is stated, ‘I, Shinran do not have even a single disciple. What have I taught that is anyone should be called a “disciple.” All persons are disciples of Amida Tathagata; hence, together they are all “fellow-practicers.”
During the lifetime of my great-grandparents, there were higher and lower levels even in an household. Men were served first - the best food that the family could manage. Women always ate after the men were finished. They ate on the lower level or on the ground level. This was also true regarding bathing. Men always bathed first and women later. There was a definite sense of place and hierarchy between men and women in our Asian culture.
The attitude of my grandparents and parents was quite different, although women always waited for men to eat and never ate before them. The males were served, and only then did the women sit to join the family to eat together. There are still tell-tale signs of a family-community dominated by males even in our modern life today. In our temples men and women still sit separately sharing refreshments after the service. Though husband and wives often jest about not wanting to sit together outside the home, there are still indications of a history of hierarchy in which the male took the dominant, and the female, a subordinate role in common, everyday social discourse.
For Shinran, however, what was crucial was that every person is the recipient of Amida Buddha’s compassion (the Primal Vow), as if he or she was the Buddha’s most precious and beloved child -- the only child of Amida Tathagata. Thus all persons are spiritually brothers and sisters who revere Amida Buddha’s compassion and recite Nembutsu as gratitude for being grasped and taken in, never to be foresakened.
I am the only child of Shakamuni and Amida Buddha.
They are father and mother to me Shakamuni exhorts,
“Go forth and seek the Way!”
While Amida always reminds me, “Always return home anytime!”
Namo Amida Butsu.
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