Heart of the Shin Buddhist Path: A Life of Awakening by Shigaraki Takamaro

Author:Shigaraki, Takamaro [Shigaraki, Takamaro]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781614290605
Publisher: Wisdom Publications
Published: 2013-02-18T00:00:00+00:00

One Who Is Falling into Hell

Some time ago I had the following experience. I had been invited to give a Dharma talk at a Buddhist temple in Japan. When the talk was finished and I was resting, a gentleman came over and indicated that he wanted to speak with me. I did not know the gentleman, but when I asked him what he wanted, this is what he said.

My father died when I was very young, and my mother had to work very hard to raise me all by herself. My mother was a woman who lived in very deep shinjin. She was always going around to temples in order to listen to the Buddha-dharma. She also worshipped every day before our family’s obutsudan and spent her days living in the nembutsu. My mother, however, was in the habit of saying the same thing over and over again, “I am falling headfirst into hell, you know. How shameful it is! How shameful!”

I never could understand how she could listen to the teachings of the Buddha so often and say the nembutsu all the time, and yet still say that she was going to hell. I thought that she should not say such strange things, for I believed that someone like my mother would surely be able to avoid falling into hell and would gain birth in the Pure Land. Perhaps it was too close to me then. Also, at that time I had no interest in the Buddha-dharma. So I never asked my mother why she said what she did.

After my mother passed away and I grew older, I started to go to the temple to listen to the Buddha-dharma, just like my mother had, for my mind was troubled by the words that she had constantly uttered, “I am going to hell, you know.” I always worried about where my mother was—whether she had indeed fallen into hell. It always weighed heavily on my mind. However, after hearing your talk today, Sensei, I am finally able to understand. I am truly happy to know without any doubt that my mother is in the Pure Land. So I came here because I wanted to express my thanks to you.

According to my understanding of the nembutsu and shinjin, we will never realize birth in the Pure Land unless we pass through hell. It is not as if the Pure Land is over to the right and hell is over to the left. Rather, I believe that we are able to be born in the Pure Land only when we awaken to the depth of our own defiled passions, the weight of our own karmic evil, and the fact that there is nothing we can do but fall into hell. Shinran stared intently and deeply into himself and said, “I will surely fall into hell.” And yet, at the same time, he was also able to say, “My birth in the Pure Land is assured.” He was sure—for him, it was settled—that he would fall into hell and be born in the Pure Land.

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