[Buddha-l] Jodo Shin Shu and thanksgiving

[Peter D. Junger]

I've started up my blog again at <http://samsara-blog.blogspot.com/> 
and some of the entries relate to matters within the jurisdiction of 
Buddha-Hell.

Here is one about Jodo Shinshu Buddhism---a subject that seems to
be greatly ignored on this list---and thanksgiving, a talk that I
gave at an "interfaith service" about thanksgiving

   As I understand it, my charge here this afternoon is to read or recite
   some passage from the literature of my school of Buddhism, which is
   Jodo Shin Shu---the True School of the Pure Land---, which is the
   tradition of the Cleveland Buddhist Temple.

   So here goes:

   NAMO AMIDA BUTSU. NAMO AMIDA BUTSU. NAMO AMIDA BUTSU.

   Of course, since I recited that in my approximation of the Japanese
   pronunciation of a Sanskrit phrase, I suppose that I owe you some sort
   of explanation.

   So here it is.

   There are many different schools of Buddhism, perhaps as many schools
   as there are Buddhists, for there is nothing that one is
   required to believe to be a Buddhist and each of us can only
   follow our own path.

   But one thing that almost all Buddhists have in common is that they
   have many reasons for giving thanks. Giving thanks is a basic part of
   Buddhist practices: thanks to our parents, thanks to our friends,
   thanks to the lunch we ate today, thanks to things just as they are,
   and especially thanks to the Buddha for the Buddha's teachings.

   Now the central teachings of the Buddha are that all things are
   impermanent, that all things are interdependent, and that no thing, no
   person, has an independent essence---that no person has an independent
   self. The Buddha teaches us that as a result of these truths that
   anyone---and that means every one of us---who clings to impermanent
   things, and especially to the idea that one has an independent self,
   is going to be disappointed and unhappy.

   And finally the Buddha teaches that, if you don't want to be unhappy,
   then you are going to have to truly get rid of the ignorant belief
   that you have a separate self that exists somehow apart from that
   of others. And, of course, since that means that you must recognize
   the fact that you are inextricably interconnected with others, it
   requires that you not only want to attain your own happiness but that
   you want all beings to be happy.

   And so the goal of all Buddhist practices is to attain wisdom and
   compassion. The wisdom to free oneself from the fetters of one's
   ignorance and greed and the compassion to wish that same freedom for
   all others.

   But Shin Buddhists like myself, ordinary ignorant people filled with
   blind passions, have to recognize that we simply lack the capacity to
   free ourselves from the bonds of our ignorance and greed.

   Now the usual translation of NAMO AMIDA BUTSU is: ``I am one with
   Amida Buddha---I am one with the Buddha of Infinite Light and
   Life---I am one with the infinite wisdom and compassion that surrounds
   me.''

   But for an ignorant person like myself it is more likely at first to
   be a cry of existential despair.

   We are, however, taught in the Shin tradition that if we listen
   carefully to NAMO AMIDA BUTSU we will hear Amida Buddha
   calling us to entrust ourselves to the wisdom and compassion that
   surrounds us. And when we truly hear that call, then NAMO AMIDA
   BUTSU becomes: ``Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.'' Every day
   becomes a day of thanksgiving. Every moment becomes an eternity of
   thanksgiving.

   NAMO AMIDA BUTSU. NAMO AMIDA BUTSU. NAMO AMIDA BUTSU.

<http://samsara-blog.blogspot.com/2005/11/giving-thanks.html>

--
Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH
 EMAIL: junger at samsara.law.cwru.edu    URL:  http://samsara.law.cwru.edu