Buddha is the one who has awakened to the truth. Enlightenment means that the one who; because of his/her ignorance used to view the world and his/her life mistakenly and, because of this, often chose a wrong way of life, awakens to the real state of the world and his/her life. It is to restore the genuine self by coming to possess a true view of the world and one’s life. Having attained enlightenment through his deep insight, Shākya-muni Buddha ascertained that living in an enlightened state is the only way for human beings to live in true happiness. He taught about the true nature of life and led all other people to attain Buddhahood. In this way, Buddhism is a teaching which ultimately leads one to become a Buddha himself.

Looking at our life, we wish to always be young and to always live a happy life. In order to accomplish this end, we try to take good care of ourselves, to save money, to have our children study hard, and to persevere in our efforts for a stable future. We sometimes imagine that our convenient situation surely continue forever, ignoring the truth of impermanence of this world. We, however, are often disappointed by unexpected happenings and circumstances. Even though we all wish for peace without exception, conflicts never cease. Even in the ordinary family, where harmony is to be expected, there is often hostility. At the same time. we are walking on a one way path towards old age, sickness and, without exception, we will all have to sink into the abyss of death in the end. Not being eager to accept such unpleasant realities of life, we try to divert our eyes from it as much as possible or in unconscious level. As a result we consume our un-repeatable precious life in vain without seriously thinking about its meaning. When young Gautama Siddhārhta recognized these realities of life, he abandoned his position as the crown prince of the Shākya Kingdom to seek the solution to these problems. He came to the conclusion that: since he could never be free from the fundamental sufferings of old age, sickness and death, no matter how much he sought immediate pleasures, he could never be happy after all.

Then, what do we do, when we are confronted by the unstable realities of life? Some people pray to gods to protect them from various disasters. Some give up on the present life and beg gods to bring them to a heaven which is filled with joy. Many religions teach that such ways are the solutions to life’s problems. There were many of religious masters who expounded various methods to get rid of suffering in the times of Shākya-muni Buddha. At first young Gautama Siddhārhta studied and practiced some of their teachings. But finding that these teachings did not contain the proper method to solve the problem of suffering, he left and began to find the fundamental way of solving the problem of suffering by him.

When we are faced with successive unhappiness in everyday life, we seek to avoid dealing with the reality. We often pray to gods to protect us from unhappiness. Shākya-muni Buddha never assumed such an attitude. He averted his eyes from the reality because the reality placed the dependence for the solution of our problems onto others. Instead of attributing the cause of suffering to some outward form of existence, he penetrated reality for himself; searched for the cause of suffering, and decided to thoroughly eradicate the cause itself.

In general, religion judges whether something is true or not based upon religious authority, like the words of god. To follow such truth is generally regarded as faith. During the time of Shākya-muni Buddha, such a religious authority existed (which was known as Brahmanism, present Hinduism’s former figure). Nevertheless, he never depended upon this authority or entrusted himself to a god’s will. He faced up to the reality of suffering and discerned the nature of suffering. After serenely observing the cause of suffering and the way of deliverance from it, he discovered the answer at last. This attitude of forcing oneself to face a matter squarely, which is often called to observe a matter squarely or to see the reality as it is, consistently provided the foundation for Shākya-muni Buddha’s speculation.

Not only is this a fundamental Buddhist way of thinking, but also it should be noted that this attitude distinguishes Buddha-dharma from other religions which talk of the revelation of the truth by a god or Supreme Being.

Shākya-muni Buddha was in his deep meditation, observed what all sorts of being in the phenomenal world should be in the state of inter-connectedness, by the workings of his perfected prajnā-pāramitā-wisdom.

Up to that time, it had been thought that the “matter” appeared and the “matter” disappeared. But Shākya-muni Buddha discovered the fact that the “matter” which was perceived as the subject of appearance and disappearance, had not been confirmed its peculiar substance. In a word, the real nature of our external environment cannot be gathered by our perceptive abilities because of its actual incessant fluctuation in a condition of non-stagnant “time”. Then, the views which something stand-still extent “matter” changes its form moment by moment is totally wrong. Eventually, the true reality of the transient form has no individuality of the substance and exists on the stage of the Sūnyatā(void-ness).

Shākya-muni Buddha grasped such a true reality of each existence, since then he never recognized the phenomenal world through the workings of the substantial concept which is formed by the perceptive stand-still aspects like us the ordinary people, and he gained the wisdom of non-discrimination which never works with attaching to anything substantial. After he reached that state, the “ignorance”-the root of all attachments was interrupted and he was totally liberated from all sufferings. Ever since, he had lived for the only purpose to make the people who are suffered by the “ignorance” to liberate. We call such a state of his mind as a “Great Compassion”.

As the result of observing the matter squarely, Shākya-muni Buddha realized many significant truths which people in his time could not realized.

(1) Suffering does not come to us from some higher being outside of ourselves. Our own ego-centric mind, full of self attachment and blind passion, creates the suffering that we are bothered by.
(2) Our ego-centric mind arises from our ignorance of the way things are and from a misunderstanding of true reality.

Regarding the first phrase, we usually see the cause of suffering in something outside of us, such as lack of money or shortage of things. Here we presuppose that if the outside conditions were changed, we would be happy. On the contrary, Shākya-muni Buddha located the cause of suffering as inside of us: in other words, he comprehended that our mind creates both suffering and pleasure.

What does it mean that our mind creates both suffering and pleasure’? We see things through our eyes, we hear sound with our ears, and thereby perceive what things are. After that we judge whether these things are pleasing or disturbing. Although we suppose that we see, hear, and perceive things correctly, can it really be so? We often say that since I did not pay attention to it. I overlooked it’ or it did not reach my ears because I was angry at something else.’ Even if we suppose that we perceive something correctly, its appearance is subject to change according to our mental state.

The nature of our thought, however, is deeply rooted in an ego-centric mind which always indulges in wishful thinking about ourselves and our surroundings. It is this mind that is always greedy to gain wishful things and to reject un-desirous things. It is this mind that fails to recognize the facts truthfully, regards other’s criticisms as faults, and is blind to reason. When we admit that our view of the world is based on such a mind, we see that our picture of the world is already distorted. Yet, we firmly convince ourselves that we see things properly. If not only one person but also other people perceive the world in such a distorted fashion; continually judging what is good or bad based on one’s personal wishes, and insisting on a perceived infallibility of one’s own judgment, it is certain that conflicts will arise among them.

In this sense, what we perceive as suffering does not really have a substance; we are actually terrified of things that we ourselves have created. Sometimes though we do not even notice that we are troubled by such nightmares, and we remain in darkness. This is the state of our existence. That is why we are called a deluded person or a sentient being. Shākya-muni Buddha made clear that our suffering and illusion are derived from evil passions present in our minds.

(Bibliography:)

1. “Approaching the heart of Buddhism.” by Dr. Daishun Ueyama
2. ‘How did Tibetans accept the Buddhism.’ “History of the Tibet” by Dr. Zuiho Yamaguchi

Buddha is the one who has awakened to the truth. Enlightenment means that the one who; because of his/her ignorance used to view the world and his/her life mistakenly and, because of this, often chose a wrong way of life, awakens to the real state of the world and his/her life. It is to restore the genuine self’ by coming to possess a true view of the world and one’s life. Having attained enlightenment through his deep insight, Shākya-muni Buddha ascertained that living in an enlightened state is the only way for human beings to live in true happiness. He taught about the true nature of life and led all other people to attain Buddhahood. In this way, Buddhism is a teaching which ultimately leads one to become a Buddha himself.

Shinran Shōnin (1173 ~ 1263) was a person who lived through a tumultuous period of Japan’s history. He possessed a grave desire to live in accordance with Shākya-muni Buddha’s teachings. What are the Buddha’s teachings that led him to such a serious concern? How did he learn and practice them?

The Buddhist path, in general, consists of three steps. Firstly led by the Buddha’s teachings, the practicer realizes that he is ignorant (a being whose life is based on delusion) and is transmigrating in the cycle of birth and death. Then, he aspires for enlightenment and develops abilities that enable him to see the truth. And as a result he brings delusion to an end and attains buddhahood. General Buddhist practices follow this order.

However, even if we hear the Buddha’s teaching and realize the importance of attaining buddhahood, it is very difficult to eliminate our unceasing delusion and to cultivate wisdom. Unless we have a considerably superior nature and a stiff will, the Buddhist path is hard to accomplish; since deluded people like us are always chasing our present desires without any doubt, do not realize the fact that we are transmigrating in the cycle of birth and death and never stop committing evil acts. It is impossible for such deluded people to succeed in attaining this goal of the Buddhist path.

We will finish our lives in vain without awakening to true selves if we do not recognize the importance of attaining buddhahood. Shākya-muni Buddha took it as his task to let us know how important it is to attain buddhahood. Thus, the Buddha never abandoned us. Especially for such beings, the Buddha revealed the Buddhist path that focuses on the teaching of Other-power. (the power beyond self or the power solely purpose to benefit others). In this teaching, we are given the right cause to attain buddhahood by Amida Nyorai. In the Larger Sūtra, Shākya-muni Buddha taught that the practice of Other-power was accomplished by Amida Nyorai’s intent to save all sentient beings by transferring all of its merits to them.

By comparison, there are many Buddhist teachings and sects that teach a process of attaining buddhahood by a practicer’s own effort are called Self-power Buddhism. Most of the sects, for example Shingon, Zen and Nichiren sects, all follow the teaching of self-generated-effort (Self-power).

The teaching which Shinran Shōnin learned and practiced at Mt. Hiei monastery for twenty years was the Tendai teaching based on the Lotus Sūtra. Tendai teachings fundamentally aim at entering the Pure Land and meeting the Buddha in this life by meditating that the variety of phenomenal things expresses the real state of the universal and eternal truth, and by practicing the six pāramitā practices of the bodhisattva path to eliminate all illusion. However, it requires hard disciplines that last very long time in order to succeed. For instance, extraordinarily hard disciplines like the thousand-day strolling mountain practice is performed by practicers in order to realize it. Certain people may achieve enlightenment through such rigorous practices, but it is impossible for ordinary people like us to accomplish the Tendai sect’s meditations and practices. Only sages are able to master them. That is why, this teaching is called the path of sages. Shinran Shōnin also pursued this path of sages for twenty years during his life at Mt. Hiei monastery.

However, the harder Shinran Shōnin tried to eliminate his illusion, the more clearly he saw the real state of his evil mind. In one of his gāthās, he confessed, “My evil-ness is truly difficult to renounce; the mind is like a venomous snake or scorpion.”(gatha-96) Even when he did good deeds which were supposed to be praised by people, he keenly looked within himself and confessed, “Even doing various good acts is tainted with poison. And so is called false practice.”(ibid.) Through his introspective efforts, Shinran Shōnin saw that he would not be able to attain buddhahood by self-power practices. The conclusion that he came to is not applicable to Shinran Shōnin only, but also to all of us who are in the same position. Supposedly, in Shinran Shōnin’s mind there arose questions such as; whether the path to attain buddhahood was closed to a ignorant person and whether the Buddha had forsaken or abandoned evil people like him.

When Shinran Shōnin was immensely worried and in deep despair, he was taught by Master Honen the path of other-power nenbutsu which was revealed in the Larger Sūtra. He knew that great patriarchs like Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna, Bōdhisattva Vasubandhu and Master T’an’ Luan had testified to the easiness and reliability of the path of other-power nenbutsu and that they all exhorted ignorant people to decide to follow it. The existence of this nenbutsu teaching gave Shinran Shōnin the answer. As soon as Shinran Shōnin heard Master Honen’s teaching, he abandoned the self-power teaching of Tendai and chose the other-power teaching of the nenbutsu as the path by which he would assuredly attain buddhahood.

The teaching of other power nenbutsu was not created by Master Honen. The Buddha who saw into the nature of beings like us had already prepared the teaching of other power for us. However, because most people were only interested in the profound and philosophical Buddhist teachings, they missed the original intent of the Buddha to save all sentient beings equally. Thus, such people mistakenly saw the teaching especially made for deluded people as the lower and inferior teaching. Master Honen and Shinran Shōnin revealed the original intent of the Buddha clearly. What they revealed can be summed up in the following points.

(1) The Buddhist path of other power which exists for the sake of ignorant people the object is not an inferior teaching, it is in fact superior to other teachings simply because it saves even ignorant people.
(2) The nenbutsu practice, by itself, not as a part of other practices, is the right cause for attaining buddhahood.
(3) Although the Buddhist path of other power does not requires us to perform difficult practices, it surely brings us to the attainment of buddhahood. It does not perform a supportive function for other teachings which were told to the sages by the Buddha. And it leads us to the same enlightenment as the other paths do.
(4) There are no differences between the enlightenment of the Other Power teaching and that of Self Power teachings. Because the cause of Other Power is given to us by Amida: although our personal abilities to achieve enlightenment are limited, it nevertheless bring us to the highest enlightenment.
(5) The nenbutsu teaching was taught especially for the sake of ordinary people and ignorant, sometimes evil people, thus this kind of person becomes the primary focus of salvation.

As Shākya-muni Buddha states in the Lager Sūtra, he expounded the teaching “seeking to save the multitudes of living beings by blessing them with the benefit that is true and real.” In other words, since “the multitudes of living beings” includes ignorant and evil people, we can conclude that this Sūtra was taught especially for those who are ignorant and evil because without this “benefit” they would have no way to be included within Amida’s salvation. Since I told an inclusion of even ignorant and evil people is in accordance with Amida’s Eighteenth Vow, we may conclude that Shākya-muni Buddha’s primary purpose for appearing in this world was to reveal this teaching. In this sense, the teachings that save all beings including ignorant and evil people can be called the true teaching’ and the teachings that only save self-power sages can be called the provisional teachings’ or, teachings which do not manifest the Buddha’s intent fully. Seeing this, Shinran Shōnin realized and entrust himself that teachings of the Lager Sūtra was the path which he should follow.