The Promise of a Sacred World
The philosopher Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005) says that there are three ways to appreciate a book, a poem or a song. First, is understanding the time in which it was written. What is the work speaking to. Second, is to look at the work and dicypher why certain phrases and symbols were used by the author. Third, is to appreciate the meaning from the eyes of the viewer.
In our Buddhist tradition, we tend to focus on the first two approaches when reading the Collected Works of Shinran. For example, these are some of the issues that Shinran and his fellow Mahayana Buddhists were struggling with during his lifetime:
1. Amida Buddha
2. Buddha Lands
3. Other-Power
4. Merit Transference
5. Bodhicitta
6. Buddha-Nature
We also often analyze his quotations and word choices, wondering why does Shinran sometimes use one kanji versus another? For example, Shinran uses the term Shinjin (信心) which is often translated as “faith”. The kanji character Shin (信) refers to confidence and Jin (心) means one’s heart and mind. Together they signify a heart and mind that is truly settled in the teachings.
Shinran also frequently uses the term Shingyo (信楽). The first character Shin (信) is the same but Gyo (楽) has the meaning of joy. Shingyo is also translated as faith but it emphasizes the joy of being settled. Some suggest that these are merely synonyms for Shinran but perhaps it is more than that. Sometimes Shinran emphasizes the confident heart and at other times a joyful confidence.
Rev Dr Kenneth Tanaka wrote the Foreward to this book stating that:
Nagapriya discusses at length the various ramifications of what shinjin meant for Shinran, and what it can mean for us in the contemporary world. He also pointed out, as noted earlier, that no one word can fully capture its meaning. (page xvii)
While the translations ‘true entrusting’, ‘entrusting heart’, or ‘surety’ offer some indications [as to shinjin’s orientation], no single word or phrase can capture shinjin’s many shades of meaning ... Translated more freely, shinjin might even be rendered as ‘letting go’ or ‘letting through’. (page xviii)
I might even suggest that we can also think of shinjin as “letting in”.
Following the third approach, this book is somewhat unique in that it explores the emotional content of Shinran’s writings both for Shinran and the reader. Shinran’s sacred world comes to life for us, one that is asking us to join him. Nagapriya focuses on the spritual experience that Shinran is trying to communicate to us through his writings. In some sense, Shinran’s writings can be seen as a very personal spiritual confession.
The main focus of this book is the concept of merit-transerence. Commonly, this is understood as the merit we generate through our own practice. Merit not as merely good karma but as a kind of supercharged spiritual virtue. Shinran radically reverses the arrow of this transference from Amida to ourselves. We are recieveing the benefits of Amida’s practice not our own. Nagapriya explains it in this way.
Amida may be understood as something that is [external] to us, reaching towards us from the outside as it were. At the same time, Amida may symbolize something that is within us, inherent, which is obscured or buried by the clouds of our delusive tendencies. On this reading, then, Amida is not alien to us but is, rather, our deepest nature. The apparent contradiction between Amida on the one hand being outside us and, on the other, being inside points to the paradoxical nature of awakening and the fact that we are in the realm of myth, metaphor, and poetic truth. Amida is not literally ‘out there’. But neither is it adequate to reduce Amida simply to a symbol for our enlightened potential since this would be to co-opt Amida into little more than an [object] of our ego-world. (page 58)
Being aware of the merit we receive leads to a life of gratitude.
Gratitude, by contrast, consists in awakening the imagination, an expansion beyond inward-looking awareness, and a recognition of our interdependence. Its nature is to decenter the self and so see it as more like a node in a web of abundant connections. Gratitude dissolves away self-pity and lack, and helps us to see how we are constant receivers. (page 160)
For now, this is my favorite book. It opened up Shinran’s heart to me so that I can appreciate his teachings emotionally. The meaning is now in front of me and not trapped within the text. It is now within my heart and mind. This book has helped me understand the difference between the confidence of Shinjin and the joy of Shingyo. So no longer synonyms after all.
Namoamidabutsu, Rev Jon Turner
