Orange County Buddhist Church
Orange County Buddhist Church
I have been writing about the twelve qualities of the light of Amida Buddha, and how one who touches that light also lives with those qualities. I would like to continue with that series this month by discussing another quality, which is wisdom.
Wisdom in a religious sense is not talking about intelligence or understanding. Wisdom is the quality received when one has a deeper religious understanding. Religious understanding means to know oneself deeply, and to know truth deeply. In Shin Buddhism, that truth is Namuamidabutsu. It is to receive and know the Nembutsu as a deep and profound truth.
The Shin Buddhist tradition is rich in examples of devout lay people who, with very little education, came to have a very deep understanding of Namuamidabutsu. These laypeople are called Myokonin in Shin Buddhism.
One of the most striking examples of the wisdom manifested in a Myokonin can be seen in an episode that occurred in Shomatsu’s life. Shomatsu was a devout follower of the Nembutsu, but had very little education. He actually couldn’t really read. Shomatsu attended a local temple and the head priest was very fond of Shomatsu and treated him very kindly. The assistant priest, however, became jealous of the high regard the head priest had for this simple lay person.
Once the assistant priest thought to embarrass Shomatsu and challenge his understanding. Knowing that Shomatsu couldn’t read, he held out the Larger Sutra of Immeasurable Life, the main text of Shin Buddhism. He said to Shomatsu, “I know you are supposed to be deep in your understanding of the Nembutsu. Here is the Larger Sutra. Can you read it to me? What does it say?”
Shomatsu, without any hesitation, opened the sutra and said, “It says, I will save you Shomatsu. I will save you absolutely without fail.”
The priest had an education and intelligence, but no real religious understanding of the text. Shomatsu had very little education, but had an experiential under-standing of the text without even reading it. Shomatsu was an uneducated man but had real wisdom. The priest had intelligence, but was actually ignorant.
For the past three weeks, we have been most fortunate to listen to the wonderful lectures on the Larger Sutra by Dr. Nobuo Haneda. One of the examples he gave to illustrate wisdom was most striking.
In Shin Buddhism, we gain wisdom by hearing, by listening to the teachings. Through listening, by having the mind and spirit of a student, of a seeker, we very naturally acquire wisdom. It is like in the old days, when they didn’t have electricity, and even candles were scarce. In order to see at night to study or read, there were some who gathered fireflies, and put them into a little cage. These fireflies gave off light with which one could read or study at night.
Haneda-Sensei explained that going out to listen to the Dharma is like going out to gather fireflies. In the beginning we might have only a few fireflies, or just a little wisdom, but through years of listening and seeking, we accumulate fireflies, and the light of our wisdom begins to grow, like having more fireflies in our little cage.
It is interesting to note that Shinran Shonin, although he was extremely well studied in the sutras and Buddhist texts, considered himself an ignorant fool. This was the pen name he gave himself, which was “Gutoku.” Shinran, in seeing his own inner self, the depth of his own ego, received the light of wisdom of Amida. However, Shinran expresses himself as a simple, ordinary person. One who is truly wise, shows themselves as being foolish. One who is truly foolish, shows themselves to being really wise.
Shinran Shonin, in his poems, called Wasan, writes of this light of wisdom of Amida.
The light of wisdom exceeds all
measure,
And every finite living being
Receives this illumination that is
like the dawn,
So take refuge in Amida, the true and
real light.
p. 325
Collected Works of Shinran
Very beautifully and poetically, Shinran expresses his religious understanding that all beings are illuminated by the light of wisdom that is Amida Buddha. May we touch upon this light of wisdom as the truth of Namuamidabutsu that warms and radiates our hearts and minds.
Namuamidabutsu,
Rev. Marvin Harada
