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In 1976 (aged 18) I first came across Padmasambhava when I read “The Tibetan Book of the Dead” (edited by W.Y. Evans-Wentz). This book together with Aldous Huxley’s “The Perennial Philosophy” (which I read earlier that year) had a profound and lasting impact on the rest of my life. These two books resulted in me becoming in 1976 a lifelong part-time student of Buddhism (while working full-time and studying part-time earning 4 University Degrees). I only became a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist many years later (in 2017) but during the intervening years I never gave up interest in and love for Buddhism (particularly Tibetan Buddhism). I was greatly influenced by many wonderful teachers (Westerners as well as Tibetans who taught in English). My favourite teacher was Robert Thurman and his translation of Padmasambhava’s “Tibetan Book of the Dead or B ardo Thodol (The Great Book of Natural Liberation Through Understanding in the Between)” was highly influential in my understanding of Buddhism, in general, and Tibetan Buddhism, in particular. Only during the 1990’s did teachings, lectures, etc. become easily available to Buddhist students worldwide.
Before that I was totally reliant on books, journals, magazines, libraries and solitary self-study as there were no Buddhist teachers or sangha anywhere near me.
Before further discussion of the impact of Padmasambhava’s “Bardo Thodol” on my life, I want to emphasize the vital importance of a good teacher for all students in making progress in understanding Buddhism, in general, and Amida Dharma, in particular. In addition to the example of my struggles and slow progress (despite my best efforts) as a spiritual idiot or bombu in understanding Buddhism, in general, and Amida Dharma, in particular, we have two much more important and powerful Dharma passages that strongly reinforce this message.
The first is from Master Shinran Shonin’s “Hymns on The Larger Sutra”,
HYMNS 68 to 72
68
“It is difficult to encounter a time when a Tathagata appears in the world,
And difficult to hear the teaching of the Buddhas;It is rare to hear the excellent dharma for bodhisattvas, Even in a span of countless kalpas.
[Excellent dharma: the six paramitas. To encounter them is also, for us, extremely rare.]
69
It is difficult to meet true teachers
And difficult for them to instruct.
It is difficult to hear the teaching well,
And more difficult still to accept it.
70
More difficult even than trust in the teachings of Sakyamuni’s lifetime
Is the true entrusting of the universal Vow,The sutra teaches that it is “the most difficult of all difficulties,” That “nothing surpasses this difficulty.”
71
Attaining Buddhahood through the nembutsu is the true essence of the Pure Land way;
The myriad practices and good acts are the temporary gate.
Unless one distinguishes the accommodated and the real, the temporary and the true,
One cannot possibly know the Pure Land that is naturalness (jinen).
72
Sentient beings, having long followed the Path of Sages –
The accommodated and temporary teachings that are provisional means
Have been transmigrating in various forms of existence;So take refuge in the One Vehicle of the compassionate Vow.”
The second is from the Preface to “Tannisho: A Record in Lament of Divergences” by Yuienbo, a student of Shinran:
“As I humbly reflect on the past [when the late master Shinran was alive] and the present in my foolish mind, I cannot but lament the divergences from the true shinjin that he conveyed by speaking to us directly, and I fear there are doubts and confusions in the way followers receive and transmit the teaching. For how is entrance into the single gate of easy practice possible unless we happily come to rely on a true teacher whom conditions bring us to encounter? Let
there be not the slightest distortion of the teaching of Other Power with words of an understanding based on personal views.”
To return to Padmasambhava’s “Bardo Thodol” and the impact it had on my slowly developing understanding of Buddha Dharma and more specifically the search for a true teacher of Amida Dharma, I refer the reader to page 212 of Thurman’s translation where Thurman’s explanatory commentary states:
“Padmasambhava seems almost to have given up getting the
between-being released from the ordinary life cycle into clear light transparency, and is resigned to his being reborn. When he orders the deceased, “Don’t go there!” about one of the unpleasant or horrid states, he is calling for a final act of will and courage, a summoning of the power of renunciation, to recoil from the prospect of such a terrifying rebirth. He is quite aware, however, that a between-being still caught in the currents of habitual drives and evolutionary momentum from former acts will not easily be able to reverse course at this point, not without heroic effort.”
Writing in the 8th century (the Semblance Dharma Age), Padmasambhava has described and explained many mantras, prayers and practices for the benefit of the beings in the bardo state (between death and rebirth). However, we are getting ever closer to the Age of Mappo or the Age Dharma Decline and these self-power practices fail to liberate the terror-stricken bardo being as described by Padmasambhava on page 212:
“Hey, noble one! Though you might wish not to go on, helplessly you are chased by the butchers of evolution [karma]. You find yourself powerless to stop, you must go on. Ahead of you are butchers and killers to drag you along. You will feel as if you are fleeing from overwhelming darkness, hurricanes, tempests, harsh noises, snow and rain, hailstorms, thunderstorms, and violent blizzards. Escaping in panic, you will seek a refuge, and you will feel safe in the previously mentioned beautiful houses, in rock caves, in earthen caverns, in forest thickets, within the round blossoms of lotuses and so forth. Hiding in such places, you will think, “I must not leave here now!” And feeling so anxious about losing your place, you will become very attached to it. Feeling so anxious about meeting the terrors of the between if you go out, hating those terrors, you hide within and assume no matter what kind of inferior body, and you will come to experience various sufferings. All that is the sign that demons and ogres are troubling you. There is a profound, crucial instruction for you at this time. Listen to it and hold it in your mind!”
So, I finally got to the stage of realising how helpless and powerless I really was and still am in freeing myself from samsara. This was after a lifetime of fooling myself, thinking and believing that I was making spiritual “progress.” I only made the breakthrough thanks to the kindness and compassion of my teachers Reverend Josho Adrian Cirlea and Paul Roberts (who helped me understand the necessity of relying completely on Amida’s Other-Power and not trusting in my futile and feeble self-power practices).
My hope is that students may find this essay helpful on their Amida Dharma journey and share it with others so that they too may benefit.
Namo Amida Butsu
GANSEN JOHN WELCH SENSEI