Cultivating Spirituality: A Modern Shin Buddhist Anthology by Mark L. Blum;Robert F. Rhodes

Author:Mark L. Blum;Robert F. Rhodes [Mark L. Blum;Robert F. Rhodes]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-03-30T02:31:00+00:00

This third chapter of the Tannisho is especially relevant for our conception of the ki aspect of deep faith.' It moreover shows that this deep faith in its connection with the idea that the evil person is the true recipient of Amida's compassion. "Even a good person can attain birth in the Pure Land, how much more easily an evil person." These are famous words. They raise the banner of the nenbutsu Dharma-"just say the nenbutsu and be saved by Amida"6-in an uncommonly incisive way, and makes it clear that this Dharma takes the evil person as its true object.

Here, "good person" and "evil person" are defined by their own self-awareness. These expressions have nothing to do with calling somebody else good or evil; it is not a question of pointing out, somewhere beside oneself, good people and evil people, and then declaring that, among them, it is the evil ones that are the true recipients of Amida's vow. The expression, after all, has to do with the ki aspect of deep faith and, therefore, the "good people" intended are people who think of themselves as good and the "evil people" are people who are convinced that they do not possess any cause or means for birth, that they are "people incapable of any observance, and thus doomed to fall into hell." The passage calls "evil person" somebody who deeply believes that he himself possesses neither the power for enlightenment and liberation, nor the wherewithal for birth in the Pure Land.

Kogatsuin,' in fact, recognized as much, but he added the reflection that it may have been especially important at the time the Tannisho was written to stress the privileged position of the "evil person," and that this was all right as long as it was applied to a person whose past good karma opened up, but dangerous to do this in connection with a person wherein this was not the case and that, therefore, the Tannisho should not be shown indiscriminately to ordinary persons. There may be something to be said for this. Ryosho,8 on the other hand, opined that one must make it clear that the terms "good person" and "evil person" are not used here in their ordinary sense and that, if they were taken in their ordinary sense, the alternative position, quoted by Shinran, would rather apply, namely "Even a good person can attain birth in the Pure Land, how much more easily an evil person."

Expressions similar to this one are found in Honen. Honen used the terms "evil person" and "good person" in their ordinary sense. It is the meaning of the words from the standpoint of an observer. But even though our founder Shinran used these words in a different sense, we must not necessarily conclude that HOnen and Shinran contradict one another on this point. The words are the same but the contents are different. HOnen speaks from his standpoint as a guide of other people; Shinran, on the other hand, simply bares his own self-realization, and then waits for people of the same conviction to come forward.

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