Orange County Buddhist Church

A Way of Seeing  (Out of The Mud)

Washi no deiden ni
‘Mida no hasu
Uete morota yo
Namu Amida Bu o
    -          Saichi

                In my [heart of] mud
                ‘Mida’s lotus
                Have I had planted –
                The Namu Amida Butsu
                    -          Saichi / tr. by Donkon Jaan

Many of us are probably familiar with the metaphor of the lotus growing out of the mud without itself being soiled.  It is a metaphor for a Buddha (the lotus) living among all manner of people without being in any way negatively affected.

In Saichi’s short poem, he has taken it one step further and has made the Nembutsu, Namu Amida Butsu, the lotus.  If he had been living in Śākyamuni’s time, he might not have needed the Nembutsu, but, like us, he had no physical Buddha to lead him to enlightenment or to enable him to live a meaningful life.

It is doubtful that anyone else besides Saichi could have made the leap from Amida to Namu Amida Bu as in this metaphor, even though it is a primary teaching in Jodo Shinshu that it is Namu Amida Butsu through which we relate to Amida.

The advantage Saichi has over the rest of us is that he sees no boundary lines between Amida and himself and he sees no boundary lines between the Pure Land and this world.  On the other hand, he knows he is not Amida and he knows this world is not the Pure Land.  Yet, again, he has other poems in which he identifies with Amida; that is, he writes of being one with Amida and of his mind playing in the Pure Land.  For those of us who have not encountered Amida in Namo Amida Butsu, this is very difficult, if not impossible, to understand.  However, Shinran himself, in his Shōshinge, sings of the same relationships with such words as, “fu dan bonnō toku Nehan, (Nirvana is attained without severing blind passions),” [CWS, 70] and “yū bonnō-rin gen jinzū (Then sporting in the forests of blind passions, they manifest transcendent powers).” [CWS, 71]  It should be noted that this last line refers to those who have been born in the Pure Land.  In a sense, Saichi was born in the Pure Land at the moment he entrusted in Amida’s Primal Vow and uttered the Nembutsu in joyful gratitude.

All of these words that I have written here, of course, make sense only if you, the reader, have, as said previously, encountered Amida in Namo Amida Butsu.  This is not to say that you will see Amida, since Amida is without form.  What it does mean is that you have come to see yourself as the true target of Amida’s Primal Vow, just as Saichi did.  Whether you realize that all of a sudden or only gradually while looking back on your life, will depend on your karma and all the interrelationships of causes and conditions leading to that moment.

I hope this makes some sense to you.

Gasshō,
Donkon Jaan
Rev. John Doami

March 2007

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