Jon asked me recently if I'd guest-write for this blog, an offer I gladly accepted. We have spoken often about Dharma and explored commonalities in one another's traditions. I think this dialogue is immensely important.Anyway, for my first post as a (somewhat daunted!) guest I thought I'd begin with a matter central to both Jodo Shinsu and Vajrayana: the primal vow of Amitabha and his Pureland of Great Bliss, Sukhavati (Tib: Dewachen).
Amitabha is especially significant within Tibetan Buddhism as the strength of his promise extends the hope of rebirth in his Pureland to all who have the sincere aspiration to be reborn in Dewachen, even those who lack the capacity or motivation for consistent meditative discipline.
What other significance does Amitabha have for Tibetans and Vajrayana practitioners?
Amitabha is a Dharmakaya Buddha. His Sambogakaya aspect is the Great Bodhisattva, Avalokiteshwara (Tib: Chenrezig) who is the Patron of Tibet, and whose emanations are believed to include His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Amitabha's Nirmanakaya aspect is Guru Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche), renowned as the second Buddha of our age, the Mahasiddha and pandita who first brought the Holy Dharma from India to the Land of Snows. He is revered by all Vajrayana lineages, but emphasised more in some than in others.
The lineage in which I practice has an especially close historical connection to Guru Rinpoche as the patriarchs of the Khon family lineage, which is also known as the Sakya school, include his direct disciple, Nagendrarakshita. Some practices transmitted by the Sakya school to this day were received directly from Guru Rinpoche and passed down through the Sakya family in an unbroken continuum, so for us there is a very strong personal link to Amitabha through his Nirmanakaya manifestation.
Readers of this blog will clearly know more about Amitabha than me, being an ignorant monk from the Tibetan tradition, so I won't elaborate further. What I will do instead is share something that's at the heart of many Vajrayana practitioners' practice: the prayer to be reborn in Dewachen. This prayer, with a beautiful, joyful melody, usually concludes Chenrezig pujas, though is found elsewhere.
Emough from me! Namo Amitabha Buddha.
Eh Ma Ho! (What wonder!)
In the center is the marvelous Buddha Amitabha of Boundless Light,
On the right side is the Lord of Great Compassion (Chenrezig)
And on the left is Vajrapani, the Lord of Powerful Means.
All are surrounded by limitless Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
Immeasurable peace and happiness is the blissful pureland of Dewachen.
As all beings pass from samsara,
May we be born there without taking samsaric rebirth.
May we have the blessing of meeting Amitabha face to face.
By the power and blessings of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
of the ten directions,
May we attain this aspiration without hindrance.
Tadyatha Pantsa Driya Awa Bodhanaya Svaha
Dear Kunga, Thank you for writing this and sharing something of the significance of Amitabha to you and your tradition. I think that dialogue between the Far Eastern traditions and the Tibetan Buddhist traditions has a lot of potential for deepening insights into the Pure Land strand of teachings.
ReplyDeleteI have read that in the Tibetan tradition Amitabha is associated with "discriminating wisdom, which arises when thoughts of desire and craving are transformed and purified." As the Jodo Shinshu teaching aims to help those deeply caught up in blind passions and also in impure discrimination this seem very apt.
hi Kunga, i would echo Kyoshin's thanks for sharing this with us and add please not to feel daunted, we're all exploring here and nothing voiced should claim to or be taken as authority.
ReplyDeleteit's wonderful to learn of the close link to Amitabha in the Sakya tradition, as i never knew that Guru Rinpoche was seen as his Nirmanakaya aspect.
Kyoshin, you point towards a possible area worth exploring imo - this aspect of transformation and purification, and how both traditions approach and address it - maybe something to think about?
thanks once again, really looking forward to where this dialogue may take us all :)
a Dharma friend kindly shared the vidlink to the prayer being sung, very beautiful and quite moving - http://bit.ly/glr8XE
ReplyDeletenamandabu
Ok to move things forward here is a hint of where I am headed with my tentative speculations. Consider Shinran's account of the passions in relation to wisdom under the light of Amida's Vow:
ReplyDelete"Obstructions of karmic evil turns into virtues
It is like the relation of ice and water
The more the ice, the more the water
The more the obstructions, the more the virtues."
and then this from Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche (Penetrating Wisdom: The Aspiration of Samantabhadra, Snow Lion Publications, 2006):
"When we look at these five wisdoms of a buddha, they are actually the nature of the five poisons. [In the case of] The wisdom of discriminating awareness is the absolute nature of passion."
Then consider that the Original Vow / Prayer can be considered as fundamental desire (see also this) and reflect on this, again from Ponlop Rinpoche:
"The essence of our desire is in the nature of Amitabha Buddha, the buddha of the western direction. Amitabha Buddha manifests from the transcendent quality of passion. That nature of Amitabha Buddha manifests in discriminating wisdom.The manifestation of all the buddhas’ speech is embodied in Amitabha. It is the skandha of formation, and belongs to the Padma family.
We could also consider the notion of Amida's 'Call', and reflect on this - again from Ponlop Rinpoche:
"According to Dzogchen, the five poisons are nothing but the manifestation of the
luminosity of rigpa.The red luminous light [asociated with Amitabha] is the manifestation of the quality of rigpa that encompasses and
magnetizes. Like a magnet, it draws all things in that direction. In a similar way, that
very nature of our mind called rigpa encompasses all qualities, encompasses all wisdom.
This means that everything is included within rigpa, nothing is left outside. That’s why
we have this magnetizing red light, which encompasses all the qualities."
Any thoughts?
hi Kyoshin, wow! thanks for sharing. i agree, it is best to be tentative in putting forward and tbh, such dialogue and how to engage in it is new (and a little bit daunting) to me. nonetheless, i find what you say very interesting to consider.
ReplyDeletethe comment from Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche - "When we look at these five wisdoms of a buddha, they are actually the nature of the five poisons. [In the case of] The wisdom of discriminating awareness is the absolute nature of passion." - really reminds me of the whole aspect of enlightenment seeking enlightenment which i wrote about some time ago
it's eye-opening to see his further comments in light of the quote from Shozumatsu Wasan feautured in the Kanamatsu thread you link to.
for myself personally, this also sheds new light on verses from the Vimalakirti Sutra which have been at the forefront of my mind lately.
many thanks, let's try and carry this forward. i'll give it some thought and maybe post something in the next few days (though by all means, don't let me stop you if you think of anything further worth raising or commenting on) :)
Wonderful post. Here's a quote from Machig Labdron from Payne and Tanaka's book, "Approaching the Land of Bliss":
ReplyDeleteFor those who wish to become buddhas swiftly, it is necessary to pray for rebirth in a pure buddha-field. There are differing fields beyond number, and it has been declared that they are difficult to delimit in speech. Among them, in order to be born in the other superior fields excepting Sukhavati, you must attain at least the eight bhumi, having entirely cut off the two obscurations. Even to be born in the middling fields, you must entirely cut off even the most subtle aspects of the obscuration of the afflictions and attain at least the first moment on the path of contemplative cultivation. And for even the least of the fields, you must cut off attachment to self from the roots, and attain the path of seeing, that is, selflessness, the real truth. Until you've attained the path of seeing, though you pray for re-birth in a buddha-field, you'll not achieve it. But even without attaining the path of seeing, should you strive at prayer, while not engaging even in the most subtle disciplinary faults with respect to your commitments and moral training, and purifying sins and gathering the profits of virtue, you may just be born in some of the trifling fields such as Tusita, and even that will be difficult. Because in those fields there is no room for the births of common, ordinary persons (prthagjana), who wallow in the afflictions, from now on you must pray at length! Therefore, it would seem that afflicted, common persons will not be born in the field of a buddha. Nevertheless, through the power of Buddha Amitabha's prayers, birth in the Sukhavati field has been vouchsafed by lord Amitabha himself, for which reason you must by all means strive at prayer for rebirth in Sukhavati! Without doubt, suspicion, laziness, or irresolution, and by means of certainty and with ardent exertion you must pray, while recollecting the array of the Sukhavati field and its qualities. Because even common, ordinary persons, who are burdened with the afflictions, may be born in Sukhavati, it is exceptional. And having been born there, all of your wishes will be realized just a soon as you conceive them, and you will not be tainted by the merest obscuration of affliction. Moreover, because you are permitted to journey to whichever among the buddha-fields you wish, it is exceptional; and it is exceptional because buddhahood is swifter that in the other fields. Because there is nowhere another field that is closer to being attained than Sukhavati, which is endowed with the aforementioned and other qualities beyond all conception, it is exceeding important that your strive in prayer for birth in Sukhavati.
Jon: "let's try and carry this forward. i'll give it some thought and maybe post something in the next few days"
ReplyDeleteSounds good!
The section in the VNS which you linked to reminded me of something I once half-heard at Shogyoji which was along the lines of "the Buddha appears from (or on) the lotus-dais of blind passions" but you would need to check with Sensei about it.
Regarding this whole subject I suspect that it is probably deeply related to Yogacara thought and the relationship between the alaya-vijnana and amala-vijana (cf. Soga Ryojin) but I haven't had a chance to dig much deeper into it.
hi Mr Gordo, many thanks for sharing the Machig Labdron quote. it looks like both traditions have the view of birth in Sukhavati as the easy path - open to both lay and ordained practitioner, and that one need not be skilled in meditation or well versed in scripture, only have a sincere desire and aspiration for birth there.
ReplyDeletei think, judging by that extract though, there appear to be a few differences as well. in so much as the practitioner must pray "with ardent exertion" this appears more similar to Chinese Pure Land thought, where entrusting to Amida was combined with one's own efforts.
Shinran's approach to practice, in particular the nembutsu, signalled a huge change in the development of Pure Land thought though.
i couldn't hope to do it justice but you can read about it here. i suspect though, that the difference in approach of both schools in reality disappears the more in-depth you study their respective teachings. that is speculation on my part though, i must admit.
I like this post. During the summer I was on retreat at a zen vietnamese monastery, and they also happen to practice vajrayana there. Its interesting to see how they're actually quite compatible
ReplyDelete