Practicing and Awakening in the Pure Land Sutras of Mahayana Buddhism

For the New Year, I would like to discuss the book Great Faith, Great Wisdom: Practice and Awakening in the Pure Land Sutras of Mahayana Buddhism (2016) by Ratnaguna (Author), Śraddhāpa (Translator). I am not sure how I found this book but the following compelled me to purchase it.

“Unshackled by the binding orthodoxy often found in East Asian Buddhism, the European authors of Great Faith, Great Wisdom offer perspectives that are refreshingly insightful and novel. By stressing the value of ‘imagination’ over ‘understanding’, the book shows why Pure Land Buddhism has been a dominant stream of Mahayana Buddhism for two millennia. Readers will be fascinated by dimensions and sensibilities beyond the usual doctrines and meditations that the West has come to associate with Buddhism.” – Rev. Dr. Ken Tanaka

This book takes a fresh look at the Larger Sutra, the main text of our tradition. Most newcomers to Shin Buddhism find this text off-putting. First, it is not a wisdom text. Rather than appealing to our intellect, it appeals to our imagination. It is a text that needs to be interpreted metaphorically. But the author notes that we often need an academic presentation of the Larger Sutra to begin to appreciate it as a literary work of art rather than a doctrinal treatise. The irony here is not lost on the author or reader.

Second, Ratnaguna also points out that this text is what is called an incomplete teaching in that it does not cover the three pillars: ethics, meditation and wisdom. But this too is very common in Mahāyāna texts. He states that ...

“Mahāyāna sutras are often incomplete teachings, even though some of them are very long – hundreds of pages long in some cases. You’d think with all those pages the authors should be able to get the whole of the path in, wouldn’t you? After all, in the early Pali suttas the Buddha often manages to teach the whole path – ethics, meditations, and wisdom – in just a few paragraphs. The answer to this is that the Mahāyāna sutras assume prior knowledge of the early teachings of the Buddha.” (Page 55)

Third, these types of sutras take a positive approach. Rather than negating the ego-self, it is trying to overwhelm it. The goal is to awaken within us a desire for Awakening. This desire is not based upon our personal wants but instead on our hopes of what could be. The Larger Sutra presents a seemingly imaginary world. It is so far outside our realm of experience that it seems to be make believe. Perhaps even a bit like Disneyland. But this is just the beginning. We start with fantasy that slowly moves us towards a new reality.

The author mentions John Lennon twice. Once for the song Imagine and for the song Instant Karma. At first, we have to imagine an alternative world of peace and love because the world of the ego-self seems so real and concrete. But we have always had it backwards, the world of suffering is unreal while the world of bliss is real. This realization can come in an instant.

So rather than negating the ego-self, we are presented with a new reality that overwhelms it. We are challenged to see the world through a lens of bliss. The only way to make this possible is to appeal to our imagination rather than our intellect until this new reality embraces us. The catalyst for this transformation is faith. Ratnaguna summarizes it like this.

“What surprised me was the idea that our happiness and well-being depend on our having someone or something to revere, the inference being that, if you don’t revere anyone, you’d better find some one you can revere. I suspect that this statement surprised me because of my social conditioning. I’ve been brought up in a largely rational, scientific era, in which religion – and therefore faith – has been, and continues to be, discredited.” (Page 99)

For the Larger Sutra and Shin Buddhists, this someone or something is Amida Buddha and the Pure Land.

 “The fact that the Buddha looked for someone he could honor, and respect suggests that faith is more than simply the desire for Awakening. It continues even after one is fully awake. In his book Faith and Belief: The Difference Between Them (1998), Wilfred Cantwell-Smith states that belief in the modern sense of the word, denotes assent to certain conceptual propositions, whereas faith is a quality of human living. At its best it has taken the form of serenity and courage and loyalty and service: a quiet confidence and joy which enables one to feel at home in the universe, and to find meaning in the world and in one's own life, a meaning that is profound and ultimate, and is stable no matter what may happen to oneself at the level of an immediate event. Men and women of this kind of faith face catastrophe and confusion, affluence and sorrow, unperturbed; face opportunity with conviction and drive; and face others with a cheerful charity.” (Page 99)

As John Lennon might say, you first have to imagine it for it to become an instant reality one whose effects are irreversible, taking us from great faith to great wisdom.

Namoamidabutsu, Rev Jon Turner