Buddhism of the Heart by Jeff Wilson

Author:Jeff Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisdom Publications

The Dharma of Johnny Cash

I’VE BEEN A FAN of Johnny Cash most my life, so I was interested to see the biopic Walk the Line. I thought they did a good job with it. One aspect which I felt should have received more attention was Johnny’s religious feelings. Johnny Cash was a committed Christian of the best type, the kind who struggles with himself and his religion and lives it day to day, without trying to forcefully impose it on anyone else. He saw the dark side in himself that needed taming by a higher power, and for him it turned out to be Jesus.

I’ve never been a Christian and never been seriously tempted to go in that direction, but Johnny Cash’s hard-won spirituality is one I can relate to deeply. Like Johnny I feel myself pulled in directions that I know I shouldn’t, and I have to remind myself of the good things in my life that I jeopardize by giving in. When Johnny sings about “The Beast in Me,” I’m right there with him, and I too “Walk the Line” because I’m aware of how my actions have consequences for those I love. And there’s something so Shin about his conviction that “I’m Just an Old Lump of Coal, But I’m Gonna Be a Diamond Someday.” That’s the country evangelical version of Shinran’s classic conviction that “we who are like bits of rubble will be turned into gold” by the power of the Primal Vow.

His religion isn’t my religion—and yet, at the same time, it is.

Johnny Cash went back to the Pure Land a few years ago, and we’re all poorer without him.

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