The following dialog is from the TV show Seinfeld. It is one of my favorites. It is the Car Reservation scene from Season 3, Episode 11.

Clerk: "Can I help you? Name please."

Jerry: "Seinfeld, I made a reservation for a midsize.”

Clerk: "Okay, let's see here. Well, I’m sorry, we have no midsize available at the moment."

Jerry: "I don’t understand. I made a reservation. Do you have my reservation?"

Clerk: "Yes, we do. Unfortunately, we ran out of cars."

Jerry: "But the reservation keeps the car here! That’s why you have the reservations."

Clerk: "I know why we have reservations."

Jerry: "I don’t think you do. If you did, I’d have a car. See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don’t know how to hold the reservation. And that’s really the most important part of the reservation: 'The holding.' Anyone can just take them."

Clerk: "Let me, uh, speak with my supervisor. I’m sorry, my supervisor says there’s nothing we can do."

Often their humor was based upon the oddities of daily life, everyday frustrations and misunderstandings. In this case, it is a car reservation, one that needs to be both “true” and “real”. “True” in the sense that it was recorded that Jerry wanted a midsize car on a given date and time. This is to “take” a reservation but then they must also “hold” the reservation, meaning that there is actually a midsize car in the lot awaiting his arrival. But for Jerry, the reservation was only “true”. It was not “real” because there was no midsize car set aside for him.

Another example of “true” and “real” is growing older. I know that growing older is “true” but it likely won’t feel “real” until I register for Medicare. That is when it will be both “true” and “real” for me. There is also the opposite case where things can be “real” but not “true”. For example, a Ponzi scheme is “real” but it is certainly not “true”.

“True” and “real” is also especially relevant for Buddhists. The teachings must be both “true” and “real”. For example, the impermanence and interdependence of all life is a profound teaching that is “true”. It accurately describes our reality, both internally and externally. But it only becomes “real” when we experience this truth within our own heart and mind. It must become a lived experience for it to be “real”.

Shinran often uses the compound kanji 真実. This is pronounced Shin Jitsu. These two characters can be translated as Truth & Reality or True Reality. For our purposes, I would like to think of it as True & Real. For Shinran, the teachings accurately describe reality as it is and at the same time transforms our experience of it. Shinran states this in the sixteenth verse of his Shoshinge. He encourages us to:

依         修         多         羅         顯         真         実

E           SHU    TA        RA        KEN      SHIN    JITSU

Rely    “SHU”  “TA”     “RA”      Reveal  True     Real　　

Rely on the sutras that reveal what is True and Real

The transformation of something “true” into something “real” also occurs when we move from something that is prescriptive to something that is descriptive. I saw this occur in the life of Mrs. Helen Fukino, who recently passed away. She received the Dharma name 順真 long ago. It is pronounced Jun Shin. The first character is for “follow” and the second is for “truth”, one of the characters we have been discussing. This compound was initially translated as “To Follow Truth”. “To Follow” is called an infinitive verb. Infinitives are a form of verb that allows them to be used as a noun. It is prescriptive and emphasizes the teachings as something “true”. For example, “it is important for you to follow the teachings”.

However, for her funeral I translated it as “Following Truth”. “Following” is called a present-progressive verb form. Present-progressives are used to indicate a present action that is in progress, being repeated, or to express the future. In other words, Mrs. Fukino was able to take what is “true” and make it something very “real” in her everyday life. A way of life that she was living in the here and now and also on into the future.

We can also think of Buddhism as an action that is present in the moment, continually repeated and then carried on into the future. It is those around us that help us move from the merely “true” to the profoundly “real”. We move from diving into Buddhism head first to being able experience it with our bodies by just floating within the embrace of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Thus, moving from “to follow” to “following”.

Namoamidabutsu, Rev Jon Turner