@
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
| @ | @ | @ | @ |
@ |
Post-Mortem
3. The
Relation of the Karma of
Former States of Existence to Ojo
4. Can Never Fall
from Paradise@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
All
selections, except
where noted, come from the Pictorial Biography of Honen Shonin
(Honen Shonin
gyojoezu),
also known as the Forty-eight Fascicle Biography
(Shijuhachikan-den). The
translation is from Honen the Buddhist Saint: His Life and Teaching
by Harper
Havelock Coates and Ryugaku Ishizuka, Chion-in: 1925.
After
the death of the retired
Emperor, an ordained follower (nyudo) called
Chikamori, ex-Governor of the
province of Yamato, arranged during the autumn of 1192, for a memorial
service
for the late Emperor Go-Shirakawa in the Indoji Temple
at Yasaka, in which a priest called Shin Amida-butsu led
the singing, assisted by several others such as Juren, Anraku and
Kenbutsu.
This service lasted for seven days without interruption, and consisted
of the
singing of hymns appropriate to each of the six periods of the day, and
the
repetition of the sacred name. On the closing day of the service,
Kenbutsu the
promoter of it brought various kinds of offerings to Honen, but he
declined
them, saying, "We repeat the nembutsu really for
ourselves, and although it is
true that it also indirectly promotes the progress of our late
Emperor's soul
towards Buddhahood, it is entirely out of place that we should receive
any such
gifts for our prayers." Thus he rebuked him. This was the beginning of
that practice of hymn-singing appointed for the six periods of the day (rokuji
raisan),
which has since become so general.
Chapter
10,
section 4, page 236.
Honen
once said: Concerning
masses for the dead#1 said for seven-day periods . . . That is so, and
you
ought therefore to say masses for yourselves while you are still
living. You
should not depend on those who ought to pray for you after you are
gone, but
exert yourself to practice the nembutsu now, and so
hasten on to the Land of
Perfect Bliss. Here you will attain the five supernatural faculties
(Skt. pancabhijna, Jp. gotsu) and the three
kinds of
knowledge (Skt. trividya,
Jp. sanmyo),
with
which
you may be able to save all sentient beings who wander through the four
modes
of birth and the six transmigratory states, and with which also you may
find
out where your parents, teachers and elders are now living, so as to be
able at
will to come and welcome them to the Land of Bliss. Then having so
done, you
ought also to direct the benefits of your daily nembutsu repetitions to
the souls of
the dead. If you do, Amida Buddha will illumine with his own light the
three
worlds of hell, hungry ghosts and animals, the miseries of those who
are sunk therein
will be mitigated, and when they have finished their lives there, they
too
shall attain to perfect deliverance. It says in the Meditation Sutra, gWhen those
dwelling in the
three places of torment behold this light, they shall all obtain relief
therefrom,
and, after ending their lives there, shall obtain perfect deliverance.h
NOTE
#1:
gmasses for the deadh - The word here translated is shichi-bun-zentoku
΅ͺSΎ (lit. the one who says
mass gets all seven sevenths of the merit). According to the Jizohongan-kyo and Zuigan-ojo-kyo, if
a person says
mass for others, they will get the whole of the merit thus acquired,
while an
extra seventh goes to the benefit of the soul for whom the mass is said.
Chapter
23,
section 6, page 436.
The
Relation of the Karma
of Former States of Existence to Ojo
Honen once said:
People say that a person can
attain Ojo by virtue of merit acquired
in a previous state of existence. And there is no mistake about it, for
through
the bad or good karma of a former life, people may be born to good or
evil in
this fleeting world. And if that be so, how much more must a great boon
like
Ojo be
influenced by the good done in a former existence. At least so it seems
from
the sacred scriptures, and yet on the other hand they seem to teach
that the
attainment of Ojo
by the nembutsu
is quite independent of the good done in a former life. For example, it
would
appear from the Meditation Sutra that even as
wicked a criminal as one
who murders his father and mother, or sheds the blood of a Buddha, may
at death
by but ten repetitions of the nembutsu attain ojo. But those who
have a large
stock of merit from a former state, even without any special
instruction, have
a fear of evil, and their hearts yearn for the way of the Buddhas. So
it is out
of the question for them to be guilty of the the five grevious acts (gogyakuzai). For this
reason, when
people guilty of them attain Ojo by but ten
repetitions, it is plain that
it is not due to the merit they acquired in a former state.
For in the Meditation
Sutra we read, to our comfort, that
even though a person may have committed many bad acts, such as the five
grevious ones, if they but hear the name with the six mystic characters
Na-mu-a-mi-da-butsu, the chariot of
fire (coming
from hell to take the person there) will of itself disappear, and
instead, a
lotus stand will be brought (to take them to the Western Paradise), and
the
vilest of persons, even if they resort to no other means of salvation
than that
of calling upon Amida's name, shall be Born into the Land of Perfect
Bliss. And
though the obstruction of their karma should be of the gravest kind,
and they
have no good karma to give them affinity for the Pure Land, if they
will only
entrust themselves to the power inherent in Amida's great Vow, they
shall
certainly be Born into the Peaceful Land of Bliss.
Chapter
23,
section 2, page 430.
Can Never Fall
from Paradise@@
Question (8):
Though one may wish to be eternally
free from the experience of birth and death, and never to be born again
into
this three-fold world, is it true, as some say, that, even after one
has become
a citizen of the Pure Land, the karma which has brought one there loses
its
efficacy, so that he may be born again here into this three-fold world?
Now I
have no wish to be so re-born, even though I might be born a king, or
born into
the so-called heavenly world above. My one wish is to get entirely free
from
this world, and never return here, and so to this end what should I do?
Honen: Such ideas
are entirely wrong. If one is once
Born into the
Pure Land,
he will never return to this world, but every such one will attain
Buddhahood.
Only in case one wishes to come back to save others, he may indeed do
so, but
by so doing, he does not again return to the round of birth and death.
There is
nothing better than the practice of the nembutsu to get safely
out of this three-fold
world and be Born into the Land of Perfect Bliss. So you ought to
practice it
most diligently.
From the One
Hundred Forty-five
Questions and Answers (Ippyaku-shiju-gokajo mondo)
Chapter
22,
section 12, page 422-427.
Copyright(c) by
1996-2006 Jodo Shu Research Institute