Orange County Buddhist Church
Orange County Buddhist Church
A WAY OF SEEING (Listening to Dharma)
List’ning to Dharma,
All I am is Namandab.
Namo Amidab.
- donkon jaan
Forgive the contractions. Getting English into a 5 – 7 – 5 syllable haiku-pattern is often very hard, at least for me. Not that Japanese is much easier, but certainly easier than English, if only because many words are shorter or more easily contracted. Of course, that is only a guess, since my command of Japanese is hardly sufficient to truly know. I should study writing haiku in English and forget the Japanese, except when reading haiku in the original.
If I remember correctly, what I’m writing is technically a hokku, because it will consist of a haiku and whatever prompted me to write the haiku, or the meaning or intent of the haiku. It is not usual to write the latter, although I might end up doing so.
“List’ning to Dharma, All I am is Namandab.” This is possibly true of many of us; i.e., while we are truly, really listening to the Buddha Dharma, which is, in our Jodo Shinshu way, the Nembutsu, Namo Amida Butsu, we become one with it. We are interpenetrated with it. The problem is that these occasions, even with Amida’s help, are rare. On the other hand, it takes only a single occasion of hearing the Name, or Nembutsu, in that way for us to be included in the ranks of those truly assured to realize enlightenment, or oneness with Amida as Dharma-body.
Of course, for those of us who have yet to realize even that single occasion, it might almost be never. Listening to the Dharma, as simple as that might sound, is not as simple as it sounds. As stated in earlier essays and Dharma-talks, listening or hearing in a Buddhist manner is very difficult, because it requires that we empty our minds, as it were, of bias, prejudice, or extraneous thoughts, and listen with our whole bodies. We must be able to listen to and hear the true and real intent of the words, without clinging, or becoming attached, to the words. In the end, words are only a means of communicating; they are not what is being communicated.
If someone says, “There is a lion there,” the word “lion” is not a lion. It is merely a convention that English-speaking people use to communicate. It’s as simple as that. There is nothing of substance in the word per se, and, unless the listener understands English, s/he will not understand what the speaker is saying. On the other hand, if s/he sees the lion, s/he will very probably get the point of our words, because the lion is substantial, unlike the word, “lion.”
In the Buddha Dharma, all words are expedients; they are means of communicating. If the words are unsuccessful in doing so, then one must try different words. Unfortunately, I am not always successful; fortunately, I usually get another chance to try. Unfortunately, the listener—you—do not always give yourself another chance to listen. This is true not only, or particularly, with my words, but with others’ words, as well. If we have lost or alienated a friend, for example, perhaps it was because we did not give ourselves another chance to understand what s/he was trying to say.
Like everything else, words are empty. If they seem to make us happy or sad, loving or hateful, it is not that the words have substance; they are only sounds or marks on a page. However, words almost always are intended to evoke a response of some sort. In the case of the Buddha Dharma, they are most often meant to have us see true reality. In Jodo Shinshu, the intent is to have us see our true, real selves. That is why when we truly and really (existentially) listen to the Dharma, all we are is Namandab, a word or words that indicate our deepest gratitude to the Buddha Dharma, which we might apprehend in the form of Amida’s wisdom and compassion. We realize that the only way in which we can free ourselves from our own self-deceit and delusion is through the inconceivable Dharma which is Amida.
Namo Amida Butsu.
Gasshō,
Donkon Jaan
Rev. John Doami
March 2008
