Hi everyone,
We’re sliding into February and life keeps unfolding. It can be hard to watch the news at the moment, which reports on the worst suffering in the world but I feel it’s important to witness. At the same time it’s important to keep in mind the lovely things as well. This weekend I spent time in beautiful countryside, with people I love and on Sunday evening chanting mantras at the kirtan Angie led here at the temple. And I’m looking forward to Satya’s listening workshop (in person and online) and our retreat day next weekend.
John Tarrant said that when faced with chaos Zen invites us to go deeper into the chaos. Surely when faced with chaos we all want to find peace? But Zen says go deeper. It does not offer a map or a way out but instead trusts that sitting in the heart of chaos can be meaningful and profound.
Like Zen, Pure Land Buddhism does not offer an easy way out of the chaos. It does not tell us how to make ourselves or the world a better place. It offers us a light.
When Honen lived in Kamakura Japan it was a time of great chaos. There was war. There were earthquakes and a great fire. There was the famine and plagues that follow those events. And then there was the chaos within Honen’s own heart: despite years of practice and study he looked at his wayward thoughts and feelings and felt the impossibility of enlightenment.
In the midst of all of this he discovered the nembutsu: a practice that reminded him of the all-pervasive light of Amida Buddha.
You might look around the world today and notice a similar chaos. You might look inside your own hearts and minds and notice chaos there as well. As human beings it is so easy for us to become unsettled and to give way to what Buddhism calls the three poisons: greed, ill-will and delusion.
In the light of Amida the chaos within our hearts begins to settle and from that place we can find a way forward.
And sometimes our hearts don’t settle easily. Life is tough and we are only human. The light reveals the depth of our unsettled nature and the impossibility of making good choices and at the same time it shows us that we are not alone. Amida Buddha is also present. To know this is a great consolation.
This is the great offering of Pure Land Buddhism. Not a map. Not a way out. Just the light of the Buddha’s wisdom and compassion, always present.
Namo Amida Bu
Namo Amida Bu!
A warm, comforting reminder for all of us who found Pure Land, and knew we were home. Thank you
🙏🪷