Saint Honen said in the Ohara debate,20 “Ultimate Bliss is not far:21 It is made out to be ten myriad million lands West. Amida is in your own mind, manifesting a form on a lotus seat.” He also said, “It should be realized that self-power and other-power mean the same as strength and weakness.” Also, “Although there are strong and weak, both are the power of reality.” Also, “Going from formal practice as cause, entering right into formless bliss as result, restrains the notion of rebirth and enables realization of the unborn noumenon.” Also, “‘Rebirth’ is no birth.”
These points merit serious reflection.
On Diamond Discipline [by the same author] says, “‘Diamond discipline’ means the inherent nature of mind is the substance of the discipline of the Great Vehicle. The substance of discipline in general is the mind of living beings.”
Also, “Why do you seek the realm of Buddha outside your own mind?”
Also, “To begin with, the words remembrancing Buddha should be understood. As for remembrance, having no thoughts is called remembrance. As for Buddha, the buddha of mind is called Buddha.”
Also, “In general terms, Ultimate Bliss is a different name for form, but there is still no form to see; Amida is a different name for mind, but where is there mind to be found? So Ultimate Bliss and Amida are really not external objects, but are in your own mind. Scripture says, ‘It’s not far from here. . . . This mind is Buddha.’”
Surely Honen was really not a bodhisattva of a temporary vehicle; he must have been a great bodhisattva of the complete, all-at-once inconceivable, who deeply pitied people of the terminal era lost in illusion and temporarily manifested embodiment to come liberate strong people. Now when it comes to the One Vehicle teaching of seeing nature, those without great Zen masters who’ve already attained, invariably fall into views of outsiders or the two vehicles, and many commit the sin of slandering truth.
Those who can hear true teaching and attain the way to it transcend everything and immediately ascend to the state of buddhahood. Those who meet false teachers and believe false understandings fall into wrong views, with no hope of ever getting out.
There is benefit and there is harm. There is that which should be honored and that which should be feared. So an era with enlightened guides has abundant benefits, but when there are no teachers, without expedients like this, how could people sunk in confusion be able to form better conditions?22
People of the era of imitation, in conformity with mediocre and lesser minds, are basically humble and reverential, so even if they develop divergent views they don’t become antisocial.23 With the sole exception of those guilty of repudiating the Great Vehicle, everyone else can create conditions for seeing Buddha. That is why there is benefit for mediocre and lesser people.
It’s like a standard remedy, which may not be worth using when you have a good doctor available, but does have some benefit when there’s no doctor. Even so, because a standard remedy has a fixed formula, it is hard for the effect to be thorough. It is not as good as a skilled physician with deep knowledge of the root of illnesses who adjusts the medicine for the specific illness.
This is why our school does not take names or forms but first realizes the mind of Buddha and then the doctrines of Buddha. The teachings he set up may seem contradictory, but their uses of accommodation and opposition all accord with Buddha’s intent. I only pray that those who practice remembrance of Buddha will do their best to ascend to the higher stage, where you forget the notion of rebirth and experience the nonbeing of self-existence. You should find out the inner meaning of remembrancing Buddha, to liberate everyone in the future.
Generally speaking, all the schools, hard to practice and easy to practice, have two principles in common. In the context of expedients, remembrancing Buddha is considered easy to practice, when the mind cannot concentrate on the other practices. In the context of the real vehicles, seeing nature is considered easy practice, as all Buddha’s teachings emerge from this.
The Three Treatises are based on real emptiness. Real emptiness is fundamental knowledge of essential nature. Therefore you must turn to your own mind to clarify fundamental knowledge. Once the fundamental is clear, distinctions become self-evident, like images of objects all appearing in a mirror when it’s clear. Use this to see the eighty thousand sacred doctrines of the treasury of all teachings—the Hosso, Tendai, Kegon, and Shingon; then you know them without having learned them, attain them without having cultivated them. Is this not a way of easy practice?
If you pursue the written word, chasing branches and leaves, in order to clarify the meanings of the schools, your physical faculties are limited, whereas the treasuries of teachings are inexhaustible. Even if you labored for immense aeons, you could not comprehend the path of the subtle mysteries of the Three Treatises.
Hosso [Characteristics of Phenomena] is based on subtle existence.24 Subtle existence means subtle knowledge of differentiation. First turn to your own nature to clarify knowledge of differentiation, and fundamental knowledge naturally cannot but appear. Use this subtle mirror to see the other teachings and the transcendental key of the school, as well as the forms of adaptive practice, are attained at once, with complete clarity. Wouldn’t that be pleasant?
Tendai is based on the unique character of reality of the middle way, considering the two principles of real emptiness and subtle existence to be individually one-sided.25 The character of reality is the totality inherent in our own nature. Therefore, thoroughly clarify your own nature and you transcend the nominal boundary between real emptiness and subtle existence, and the untainted subtle knowledge of the character of reality will naturally appear. Because it completely comprehends everything, it is called round, or complete; because it attains all at once, it is called sudden, or all-at-once. If you see everything with this subtle knowledge, what reason could there be for failing to comprehend?
The Kegon [Flower Ornament] is based on the realm of reality.26 The realm of reality is like where the hundred rivers return to the ocean and lose all their names, equally becoming water of the ocean. In the Kegon teaching, there is nothing else, so samsara and nirvana, afflictions and enlightenment, each atom, each blade of grass, fills the substance of reality, so principle and phenomena interpenetrate, and phenomena interpenetrate, and nature and characteristics merge. This is called the realm of reality.
Pointing to where the mind-flower opens up is called the Lotus of the True Teaching [Hokke]; pointing to where the mind-flower fully blooms is called the Flower Ornament [Kegon]. The Lotus of the True Teaching and the Flower Ornament are one and the same principle and substance; their only difference is of order. Therefore both scriptures are originally included in the Tendai teaching. First you find out the meaning of the character of reality of seeing nature; once you enter the inner sanctum, then the Flower Ornament reality-realm naturally becomes clear. If you know and see in this way, would there be any teaching you didn’t attain? There would only be more, that’s all.27
Shingon is based on the fundamental uncreated. The Hokke and Kegon both teach instantaneous relative origination, so since relative origination has no beginning, it is called fundamentally uncreated. The simple fact of noncreation, however, contains infinite teachings, so all the teachings are esoteric. As soon as you get into verbal discussion, it all falls into exoteric principles; so again, to communicate the nature of reality beyond verbal explanation, esoteric symbols may be shown.
Also, the diamond element is the knowledge of the fundamental uncreated; the womb element is the principle of the fundamental uncreated.28 Real knowledge is firm and solid, so it is called diamond. Real principle is pregnant, so it is called a womb. Whenever principle is spoken of, it is the same as the exoteric scriptures, but when speaking of the principles inherent in the substance of the uncreated, they are all called esoteric for that reason.
Whenever there’s any speech, that’s not the body of reality. To nevertheless consider the body of reality to be the teacher [in Shin
gon], points to the reality inherent in that uncreated substance. Therefore it is called the reality-body expounding the teaching. This teaching only began in the second five centuries [after Buddha’s death], in the time of Nagarjuna,29 because esoteric teaching was not needed in the age of purity of the true teaching; they were able to understand the esoteric principles spontaneously. But when the sun of true teaching set, people’s faculties gradually declined and many got stuck on exoteric principles, so that’s how this [esoteric] teaching got started. This belongs to the Buddha’s inconceivable treasury of empowerment by spiritual projection; it alone goes beyond the forty-nine years [of Buddha’s teaching]. It is like when Bodhidharma arrived [in China] everyone had fallen into dogma, so he simply established a separate practice outside doctrine, not depending on scriptures or treatises. All of this was adaptation to the time and response to potential—there’s never been a fixed teaching.
It is like the case of a skilled physician who does not keep one formula in mind but prescribes various formulas, according to the illnesses. Thus there are fundamentally no two teachings in Buddhism. Those who can find the intent of a school will not fail to attain any of them, will not fail to master any of them.
If we were to impose labels and ranks on them, then keeping precepts, asceticism, all constructed roots of good, are like originating in an isolated village with nothing to foster concentration or insight. Also, when you get lost in the wilds, as long as you have food and clothing you enjoy sightseeing, but when your provisions are exhausted you suffer hunger and cold; the finest rewards of human and celestial states do not go beyond this.
Meditation, concentration, knowledge, and insight are like progressing along a road; without vows of compassion, you’ll stop at an inn, managing a day’s rent, remaining poor and lowly forever. The psychic powers of disciples, individual illuminates, celestials, and outsiders are the results. Lesser-vehicle bodhisattvas may have vows of compassion, but their will is weak and they don’t find out the whole route. It is like going into the house of a territorial official; though he has nobility, it is not yet truly real. To have the spunk to go beyond these stages and find out the whole route is like gazing upon the royal capital.
The meanings of the Great Vehicle schools are all experiences in the royal capital, so the Sanron [Three Treatises] is like the gateway of the citadel, the Hosso [Characteristics of Phenomena] is like the center of the citadel, the Hokke [Lotus of the True Teaching] is like the palace gate, the Kegon [Flower Ornament] is like the audience hall, the Shingon [Mantra] is like the treasury. So, for the principles of all teachings, and the results obtained in the environment and in the people, the Kegon is considered clear and comprehensive, as it shows magnificent arrays in the hall. For all valuable resources and the abode of the Buddhas, Shingon is considered right, because when tasks are done, everything is returned to storage.
And when it comes to entry, the Hokke is considered foremost, because if it is indeed the gate to the palace you naturally go through it, whereas if you mistake the gate you’ll enter someone else’s house. As for the teaching that is entered into, the esoteric is foremost, because the ruler and all precious implements are in the treasury, as things are accomplished in the exoteric realm and concealed in the esoteric.
Even so, when you reach the meanings of the schools, there is no difference at all. It’s like people seeking the abode of the emperor; first the gate of the citadel is pointed out to them, and the wise go all the way into the citadel and don’t stop until they meet the emperor. Those lacking knowledge, in contrast, don’t know the distinction, so they wind up stopping as soon as they reach the gateway to the citadel.
Overall, though there are nominal distinctions in the causal stage, when you reach the resulting realization there is no difference. It is like the hundred rivers have differences but the ocean does not. All the streams of the teaching lead to the ocean of fundamental nature, whereat they equally become knowledge-water of uniform flavor.
All living beings in the world depend on the ocean, so the Sanron and Hosso should not fail to penetrate the Tendai and Shingon, and the Tendai and Shingon should not fail to go through the Sanron and Hosso. The same goes for all the other teachings.
Just beware of all streams of the teaching flowing outward and thus never being able to enter the ocean of the fundamental all-knowledge of the Buddhas. Confucianism, Taoism, and Shinto were all taught according to conditions by bodhisattvas in the stage equivalent to enlightenment who concealed their virtues, hid their light, and appeared to be like other people. These naturally help the teaching of the One Vehicle of seeing nature inwardly, while providing perennial guidelines for society outwardly. Mundane people think they’re mutually exclusive because their doctrines differ and their terms are distinct, so they each conceive views of “them” and “us,” not only doing injury to Buddhism but also obscuring those doctrines, making them worse than the ignorant. How sad!
Sages devised doctrines differently to adapt to the times, but they just wanted people to follow them back to the root. People of high antiquity originally had straightforward minds, so as soon as they heard directions they got right to the source. Even if the instructions were crude, their effect was more than enough. People of the last age lost the substantiality of original nature; seeking vanities in their insubstantiality, they destroyed the truth in its substance. Therefore Buddhism is very detailed and precise, and even so educates and reforms with difficulty—how much the more Confucianism, Taoism, and Shinto!30
Thus the Basic Record Constituting the Supremely Secret Treasure of the Shrine says,31
In the winter of the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Ikume Irihiko Isachi no Mikoto,32 on the night of the ceremony of testing the new crops in the eleventh lunar month, eighty priests and priestesses attended the announcement: “Tonight I have received a revelation of an awesome command of the great spirit.” (Yamato-hime no Mikoto received and announced the revelation of the great spirit.)33 The priests and priestesses were attentive, undistracted, hearing it accurately and clearly. “Humans are the spiritual beings of the earth (self-help); they should take responsibility for tranquility and peace (aspiration). The mind is the host of the spirits (helping others). Don’t hurt the spirit in the mind (courtesy).”
The Spirit Vehicle [Shinto] puts prayer first; unseen assistance is based on honesty. (Necessarily.) When everyone is enabled to attain the Great Way by their original commitments,34 then the world is harmonious, the sun and moon are clear, wind and rain are in season, the country is prosperous, and the people are secure.
Therefore spiritual people kept the primitive and excluded any breath of Buddhism. In general, in the spirit age, people’s hearts were wise and constant, honest and upright. As for the descendants of the earth spirits, such as the ordinary people everywhere in the world, the spirits in their minds are dark; they divide different terms of existence and nonexistence; their minds race compulsively, with never a time of rest. Their hearts break and their spirits scatter; when their spirits scatter, their bodies die.
Humans are endowed with the ethereal energies of heaven and earth; if they do not respect what the ethereal energies produce, seeing the light-progeny of the spirits, because they don’t believe in the taboos of the spirits, they submerge in the darkness of the long night of birth and death, and sigh in the underworld. Because of this, the realized human of the West, in place of the imperial divinity, instructed assiduously, teaching people to cultivate good, giving out teachings according to capacities. Since then the great spirit has returned to the original position.
Ah, it truly is so: In the innocent age of high antiquity, people’s minds were upright and honest and could easily attain the Great Way according to their faculties and capacities. Since spirit people kept the primitive, what need had they for news of Buddhism? Then, as the last age eventually arrived, they lost their original mind and ran seeking outside, pursuing objects in their confusion, thus whirled about in birth and death, s
inking and suffering in miserable states. At this point, if not for the Buddha’s subtle teaching, how could they get free of birth and death?
It also says, “Shinto emerges from the borders of the primeval and returns to the origin of the primeval. The Three Treasures35 refute views of existence and nonexistence to realize the ground of the character of reality. This is the highest ultimate message of the spirits.” Now we point out the primeval as before the creation of heaven and earth, when not a single thought occurs, so when it speaks of emerging from the borders of the primeval and returning to the beginning of the primeval, what is the principle? Nowadays it’s really hard to find people who have ever reached the point where not a single thought occurs—how can there be any who have returned to the origin of the primeval?
When it is said that spirit people keep this state, it is just a term; they don’t get the principle. In our school, the greathearted give up mundane objects and stop myriad concerns, and still find it hard to attain this path even after ten or twenty years. How much the more so for those who are physically bound up in mundane toil and mentally deficient in mediation and concentration, trying to force themselves to keep this teaching! Indeed, since Shinto has such a profound attainment, isn’t it pitiful to think lightly of Buddhism?
Generally speaking, the term spirit refers to mind. When mental pollution is eliminated, it’s like a mirror being clear—this is called spirit. Therefore the Spirit Vehicle uses a mirror to symbolize its substance. The mind-mirror is originally clear and clean, stable and calm—this is called Kunitokotachi no Mikoto.36 The mind-mirror is originally round and bright, reflecting everything without exception—this is called Amaterasu Omikami.37 The Original Record of the Seat of the Great Spirit Toyoukeko says, “Exercising immense compassion, with independent spiritual power manifesting various forms according to various mentalities, creating expedient ways of welfare, it is represented by the names Soul of the Sun, and Spirit That Illumines the Sky. This is the original substance of all things, liberating all classes.”
The Undying Lamp of Zen Page 14
