“After hearing the Primal Vow you should have no doubt, think that the Primal Vow is reliable and that Amida Buddha will keep His promise and take you to His Pure Land if you entrust yourself to Him, say His Name and wish to go there.”
-Reverend Josho Adrian Cirlea
To accept the Primal Vow as true is the foundation of our Jodo Shinshu faith, as Reverend Josho explains,
The Primal Vow is true. This is the basis of our faith and of the entire Amida Dharma which was taught by Shakyamuni and the succeeding Masters. Everything starts with this – the Primal Vow is true. If we accept that the Primal Vow is true and we rely on it without any doubt, then we are saved; if not, this life in human form is wasted:
“if in this lifetime still you are entangled in a net of doubt, then unavoidably you must pass once more in the stream of birth-and-death through myriads of kalpas”.
To accept the Primal Vow as true is also to accept It as the ultimate and only method by which all sentient beings can be saved.
“(18) If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings in the lands of the ten quarters who sincerely and joyfully entrust themselves to me, desire to be born in my land, and call my Name, even ten times, should not be born there, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment.”
Its perfection dwells in the simplicity in which it manifests Amida Buddha's Promise of Salvation within a threefold process:
These three points indicate how Amida needs us to respond, none can be omitted, each needing to be present for His Promise of Salvation to be effective.
1. To sincerely and joyfully entrust ourselves in Him
The first aspect is to entrust ourselves to Amida Buddha. We entrust ourselves "joyfully and sincerely" because we understand that even though we are wretched, miserable beings, incapable of attaining Enlightenment through our personal effort, through solely relying entirely on Amida Buddha's power we are saved.
Also, when we entrust ourselves to Him, this implies that we are without doubt that His promise is true and real and that Amida himself, is true and real. Otherwise, how would it be possible to believe in a promise if we don't believe in the person who made the promise? Reverend Josho explains this perfectly :
"If we have faith in someone, then it means we are sure beyond any doubt that he is reliable and that he will keep his promise. Now I will say something which might sound too simple and obvious to be mentioned, but to believe in someone’s promise means that we accept his existence, too. Promises can be made by living persons, in our case by a living, existing Amida Buddha, not by material objects or fictional characters. If you read Harry Potter or a book about Santa Claus, or even Hamlet by Shakespeare, you cannot actually believe that these characters are real. You know they are part of a fiction and whatever they say in their specific novel, you will never think they are actually promising something to you personally."
2. To desire to be born in His Land
The second aspect is the desire to be born in His Pure Land. This means we need to be convinced that this samsaric world is, in reality, a prison, where any hope of happiness for ourselves or our loved ones is a delusion from which we need to free ourselves, and that Amida Buddha's Primal Vow is the only option we have to do that.
One of my Dharma kin, Shaku Joshin, explains this in simple terms:
3.To call His Name
The third aspect is to say/call His Name, NAMO AMIDA BUTSU, the Nembutsu. We say Amida's Name as a response of gratitude towards His fulfilling His Promise but also because we need to reiterate our faith in Him and His Promise being true and real. Saying the Name IN FAITH also means that the first two points of entrusting and wishing to be born are firmly rooted in our hearts and that, moreover, we are firm in the conviction of our rebirth in the Pure Land at the time of our death :
When we accept that Amida Buddha is true and real, that His promise, the Primal Vow, is true and real and that His Land is true and real, we gratefully and wholeheartedly rely on Amida Buddha and know that at the end of this life, we will be reborn in the Land of Bliss.
The hindrance of doubt
We may ask ourselves how the ultimate goal of Buddhahood could be fulfilled by such a simple process. Compared to the challenging requirements of self-powered practices to reach Buddhahood, simply saying the Name and entrusting oneself is what makes the Primal Vow so inconceivable and so difficult to accept for our human tendency towards self-achievement. Many are those who hold back in their faith because of the hindrance of doubt.
In simple words, Reverend Josho offers the following explanation giving several citations from Master Shinran:
To have no doubt, also means that you have abandoned forever any idea of relying on your self-power in the matter of birth in the Pure Land:
"People who say the Name in self-power
All fail to entrust themselves to the Tathagata's Primal Vow"
"Faith is the heart and mind without doubt; [...] To be free of self-power, having entrusted oneself to the Other Power of the Primal Vow - this is faith alone."
Shinran Shonin admonishes us against doubting Amida’s salvation:
"There is no cause for endlessly turning in transmigration
Greater than the hindrance of doubt".
"'Know that because of doubt one remains in the house of birth-and-death' When one doubts the inconceivable karmic power of the great Vow, one remains in the six courses, the four manners of arising, the twenty-five forms of existence, and the twelve kinds of arising. We are to realize that up to now we have been wandering for aeons in such a realm of illusion."
For the salvation power of the Vow to work, it has to necessarily pass through twofold acceptance without doubt of :
our ‘failing to achieve anything’ from any effort of our own
that Amida Buddha, His Pure Land, His Primal Vow, the fulfilment of His Primal Vow, and that He will take us to His Pure Land, are true and real.
Only then can we sincerely and completely entrust ourselves in Amida Buddha and on the power of His Primal Vow to take us to the Land of Bliss where we are certain to attain perfect Enlightenment at the end of this lifetime.
The reason Reverend Josho is so insistent on this point is because of the many modern divergences that exist today in Jodo Shinshu that refer To Amida Buddha as a myth or as the symbol of a higher state consciousness:
"Why am I saying this and make this silly comparison? It is because some nowadays deluded scholars and false teachers in our international sangha are trying very hard to convince people that Amida Buddha is just another fictional character like Hamlet, and not a real Enlightened Person. They also try to present the other element of the Primal Vow – the Pure Land – as being non-existent or something to be attained here and now, in this very existence, and not a place where we should desire to be reborn after death, as the Primal Vow urges us to do.”
For myself, concerning the existence of Amida Buddha and His Pure Land, I have a much simpler perception which is the simple fact that SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA SAYS SO in the Larger Sutra.
In Master Shinran's words,
“If Amida’s Primal Vow is true, Shakyamuni’s teaching cannot be false. If the Buddha’s teaching is true, Shan-tao’s commentaries cannot be false. If Shan-tao’s commentaries are true can Honen’s words be lies? If Honen’s words are true, then surely what I say cannot be empty.”
In my opinion, those who doubt Shakyamuni's account of the story of Amida Buddha and His Pure Land are in complete denial of the Primal Vow. Since they do not believe that Amida Buddha is a true and real person, they are incapable of sincerely entrusting themselves to Him, nor can they aspire to be born in His Pure Land if they don't believe that it is a real place.
I do not say this in criticism, those concerned are merely, in my opinion, not people of true shinjin. Although on an intellectual level, they have significant and unquestionable capacities, their minds remain irresistibly fascinated by the complex beauty of the "provisory practices" and their hearts are simply NOT READY YET to open to the "simple path of faith" offered through accepting the reality of Amida Buddha and His Pure Land:
It becomes very clear to me why the Masters of our lineage said that all those difficult practices of the self-power path (esoteric or exoteric) are just provisory teachings for those who cannot yet follow the simple path of faith in Amida Buddha. Sometimes, even advanced practitioners can't see the most simple truth.
Because people complicate their minds, then complicated practices and teachings were given to them to keep them focused on the Buddha Dharma until they may become open to Amida's simple message of salvation: "entrust yourselves to me, say my Name and wish to be born in my land" (Primal Vow).
-Reverend Josho Adrian Cirlea, extract from a letter to a friend
May all sentient beings make indestructible connections with Amida Buddha
Entrust in Him, aspire to be born in His Land and say His Name in Faith
NAMO AMIDA BU
NAMO AMIDA BU
NAMO AMIDA BU
Shaku Hokai
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