The Year of The Snake

This new year, 2025, is the year of the snake. Snakes often symbolize transformation, rebirth, and healing as they shed its skin. In many cultures, they represent the shedding of old ways and the beginning of something new, just as a snake sheds its skin.

Snake in Buddhism:

You will remember the “three poisons” of human nature; anger is symbolized by the snake, along with greed (rooster), and ignorance (pig).

Also a concept from Hindu mythology influenced by Buddhism is the serpent Mucilanda, which is associated as protector of Sakyamuni Buddha. The Buddhist naga has the form of a great cobra, usually depicted with a single head but sometimes with many heads. The naga which is seen sheltering the Buddha while meditating is known as Mucilanda. Mucilanda is believed to have protected the Buddha from the elements like rain and storm after he attained enlightenment. It is said that the four weeks after the Buddha began meditating under the Bodhi tree, the heavens darkened for seven days, a heavy rainfall started. The mighty king of the serpents, Mucilanda then is believed to have emerged from beneath the earth and protected the Buddha with his hood as the Buddha is considered the source of all protection. When the storm stopped, the serpent king Mucilanda assumed his human form, bowed before the Buddha and returned to his palace in joy. The iconographic representation of this Buddhist folklore is known as the Naga Buddha statues. These artistic representations of the Buddha meditating under the protection of Mucalinda are common in many Buddhist countries which are famous for their unique Buddhist arts, namely in Theravada Buddhist counties such as Burma, Laos, and Thailand.

Spiritual Transformation in Buddhism:

Let me address the important feature of Buddhism and Shin Buddhism in spiritual depth. Buddhism teaches how to transform our understanding of ourselves and our world. It changes our attitudes and intellectual horizons, because of our self-centered notion. Buddhism is not something to be merely believed like a set of doctrine and beliefs, nor is it simply a ritual or a set of rules to follow. It is a spiritual force that works in our lives. Enlightenment in principle means transformation, bodhi or awakening. We waken to the truth from ignorance, delusions, greed, hatreds and prejudices. The awakening brought us help to deal with our anxieties and our unhappiness. Awakening is the transformation of consciousness in Mahayana Buddhism, which can be called as a revolution in our consciousness that arises as we become aware of the truth. We realize many causes and conditions to sustain and guide us to the reality. Buddhist transformation awakens a deep awareness of our interdependence with all others, even with the rest of the world.

Meaning of Transformation in Shin Buddhism – Jodoshinshu:

In Shinran’s thought, the transformation is called "eshin回心" or "turning of the mind." It is hirugaesu, meaning "to change one's mind." This term appears by rendering Shan-tao’s writing, saying “When those who slander the Dharma or who abandon the seeds of Buddhahood turn the mind, they all reach the Pure Land.” Shinran also speaks of our ignorance and mental afflictions transformed into the water of the great treasure ocean of the Primal Vow. Our spiritual corpses are transformed as they flow into the ocean of the Vow.

The ocean of the inconceivable Amida’s Name does not hold unchanged
The corpses of the five grave offenses and slander of the dharma;
The myriad rivers of evil acts, on entering it,
Become one in taste with the ocean water of virtues.
Rivers of afflictions, on entering the ocean –
The great, compassionate Vow
Of unhindered light filling the ten quarters –
Become one in taste with that sea of wisdom.

[Edited by the author, CWS I, p.371, #41- 42.]

Spiritual transformation can happen to anyone who hears without doubt of Amida’s unconditional compassion expressed in the Vow while trying to solve life's problems on our own in frustration. We need to examine ourselves and deluded world through deep introspection.

According to Shinran’s favorite metaphor of ice and water:

Having gained true entrusting majestic and profound
By virtue of Amida’s Unhindered Light,
The ice of afflictions melts without fail,
To become the water of enlightenment

[Edited by the author, CWS I, p.371, #39.]

The Unhindered Light 無礙光 (mugekō) of Amida illuminates our mental afflictions like cold ice, and melts it to the water of Bodhi that is the very content of enlightenment. This occurs naturally and spontaneously without fail because of the Primal Vow that has its own karmic inevitability that ho human or divine forces can obstruct. Shin transformation can be definite in such a paradoxical perspective:

Hindrance of karmic evil becomes the substance of virtue,
As in the case of ice and water.
The more the ice, the more the water,
The more the hindrance, the more the virtue.

[Edited by the author, CWS I, p.371, #40.]

Spiritual transformation can occur to anyone, once realizing the true self. Amida’s voiceless calling reveals to us the spiritual unity of our human aspirations for truth and fulfillment of life. Once reaching the stage of transformation, there will be no retrogression.

I hope we all share the spiritual journey by living in the Buddha-Dharma.

Namo Amida Butsu