Orange County Buddhist Church
Orange County Buddhist Church
What It Means To Be Saved By The Vow
In Shin Buddhism you may be familiar with the term of the Vow, or more specifically, Amida’s Vow. You also might have heard over the years how in Shin Buddhism we are “saved” by the vow. For many years this was the source of great confusion for me. What does this mean? How are we saved by the vow? Just because it says in the sutra that the Buddha has vowed to save us, how does that vow actually save us?
The English translations of Shinran’s writings that are published by our Hongwanji translate this vow as the “Primal Vow.” I prefer, however, the translation of Dr. Nobuo Haneda’s. Dr. Haneda translates the term hongan (本願), as “innermost aspiration.” Hongan is not just the vow that is expressed in the sutra, but hongan is the deepest aspiration within our hearts and minds. It is the aspiration to awaken to our true self. This deepest, innermost aspiration, was what stirred Prince Siddartha to seek enlightenment.
In our daily life, we have all kinds of aspirations, or wishes. We might wish to win the lottery. We might wish for a new home or a new car. We might even have loftier wishes, such as to strive to become company president, or to get into Harvard University. These wishes, or aspirations, however, do not equate to the innermost aspiration. When we fail in our worldly aspirations, we become unhappy, depressed, disappointed, or dejected. In contrast, a person who lives with the innermost aspiration, is never unhappy about unfulfilled wishes or depressed about failures in the worldly sense. This is because those aspirations do not equate to the innermost aspiration. The innermost aspiration is the most noble, the deepest, the highest of all aspirations. A person who lives with their innermost aspiration is always living a fulfilled life because they know the most important thing that they are living for.
Shinran says in one of his poems, that a person who touches the innermost aspiration never lives their life in vain. Shinran also expresses this innermost aspiration in one of his wasans that goes as follows:
The mind that aspires to attain Buddhahood
Is the mind to save all sentient beings;
The mind to save all sentient beings
Is true and real shinjin, which is Amida’s
Benefiting of others.
p. 365
Collected Works of Shinran
For Shinran, this innermost aspiration is the deep wish to become Buddha, to become awakened, to discover one’s true self, to live one’s true life. This deep, innermost aspiration to become a Buddha, is also at the same time, the deepest heart that seeks to save all sentient beings. It is the heart and mind that embraces all beings, whether good or bad, rich or poor, wise or foolish.
To live with this vow deep within one’s heart, is to always live a fulfilled life. To live knowing one’s deepest wish is to always have direction, focus, in one’s life. It is to never be lost in confusion or darkness, because one always knows the direction of one’s life.
We have to ask ourselves what is the deepest wish or aspiration of our life. Are we living chasing after worldy wishes or aspirations that we might fulfill, or we might not? If we fail to fulfill them, will we be devastated, without direction or meaning in our life?
During the great depression, when the stock market crashed, many people jumped out of buildings to their death. They could not face life having lost their wealth and fortune. This is because wealth and money are only worldly, small aspirations of life. They are not the innermost aspiration. Someone who lives with the innermost aspiration, even if they lose all their wealth or fortune, their life is not devastated. Their innermost aspiration is not destroyed. Their life continues to be fulfilled.
I once met a wonderful follower of the Nembutsu in Japan, a man who had tragically become a quadriplegic. Through an illness in which he had an extremely high fever, he was left paralyzed from the neck down. A person who lives only with worldly aspirations would find this devastating. You could no longer fulfill your worldly aspirations. How could you fulfill your career aspirations, your financial aspirations, your marital or family aspirations if you suddenly became a quadriplegic. This man, Mukaibo-san, lived with an innermost aspiration. He was a lay speaker of Buddhism. He felt that there was great potential to spread Shin Buddhism in Southeast Asia, and was devoting his life to the propagation of Buddhism there. His innermost aspiration was not affected by his paralysis.
Rev. Gyomay Kubose always used to say, a person should live with a deep wish, a deep vow, a deep aspiration for their life. Take for example, two nurses who work in a hospital. One nurse works with the aspiration of putting in thirty years and being able to retire with a nice nest egg. Daily, this nurse complains, thinking, “They give me too many patients. How do they expect me to take care of all of these patients. These doctors are such a pain to work with. We should get a raise for what we do.”
The second nurse works with an innermost aspiration. This nurse’s vow is to “heal all of the sick of the world.” As this nurse works, the day flies by. Instead of looking at the clock anticipating quitting time, this nurse at the end of the day thinks, “Is it time to go already? But I didn’t have time to take care of this patient or that patient. The patient in room 204 is really suffering. Maybe I could sit with that patient and try to ease their pain for a little while longer. What a gratifying day of work this has been.”
Both are nurses. Both receive the same pay. But one nurse has a worldly wish of making money, and the other nurse has a deep wish to heal the sick, to help those who are suffering.
“To be saved by the vow” means that the vow, the innermost aspiration reverberates within our hearts and minds. We are not saved by the vow just because it says so in the sutra. We are saved by the vow because the vow has become our own wish, our own innermost aspiration to become a Buddha, and to save all sentient beings. This is the highest, unsurpassed aspiration. There is no aspiration that is higher. The aspiration to become president of the United States is not higher. The aspiration to win the Nobel Peace prize is not higher. There is nothing higher than the aspiration to seek Buddhahood, to discover one’s true self, and to save all sentient beings.
This is the vow that is expressed in the sutra as “Amida’s Vow.” But we are saved by Amida’s vow when the innermost aspiration reverberates within our hearts and minds.
Namuamidabutsu,
Rev. Marvin Harada
