Fellow Travelers

Rev. Gregory Gibbs

We usually contrast moments of insight with perplexity. The study of philosophy, religion, psychology and such is often motivated by a search to escape our state of perplexity, to replace being perplexed with some insight. In this regard I was struck by the following passage written by an analytic philosopher in the Anglo-American tradition:

Certain forms of perplexity - for example, about freedom, knowledge and the meaning of life - seem to me to embody more insight than any of the proposed solutions to those problems. (T. Nagel, The View from Nowhere, Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 4)

This sort of willingness to live in perplexity regarding important matters such as the "meaning of life" is , perhaps, admirable. To merely praise perplexity without a serious effort at clarifying our ultimate and near-ultimate concerns is, nonetheless, facile and perhaps self-serving. Alan Watts wrote a book titled "The Wisdom of Insecurity" which suggested that since everything is constantly changing it is wise of us to feel insecure. This is, to say the least, not helpful. Living with perplexity, with uncertainty actually requires a high degree of security.

The engagement with fundamentalist Christian and Muslim perspectives and with some of what are called Shinko Shukyo (newly arisen religious cults) by educated and otherwise intelligent people is the result of their insecurity. We need to feel very safe in order to say honestly and without bitterness, "I don't know if there is life after death." "I don't know what the meaning of life is." "I'm not sure what is most important to me at this point." et. al.

The Nembutsu and Illumination

My own experience is one of having illumination and security brought into my life by the occasional saying or reflecting upon phrases such as "Namo Amida Butsu." Religious experience, direct access to persons, processes, aspects of reality held in reverence, is available to vast numbers of people on a simple path like that of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. Such experience self-identified as actual engagement with one's ultimate religious concern is considered the province of experts alone by several schools of Buddhist, by many denominations of Christian, and on some interpretations of Muslim thought. By the standards of many religions such experiences are considered rare. The egalitarian spirit which grew with the development of Jodo Shinshu communities in the 15th and 16th centuries was paralleled in this egalitarian concept of religious experience. If a verbal utterance such as "Namanda" is truly felt to be the embodiment of, the actual presence of the Buddha of Limitless Wisdom-light and Endless Life devotees will experience a new or renewed reverence which will transform their experience of their world. Such a democratized notion of religious experience makes profound feelings of presence, reverence and faith accessible to the whole community of believers/practicers. Such illumination, however real it may be, leaves questions of authority and the content of programs of "value creation" open to question.

Subjectivity, Fallibility and Certainty

The skeptic will be likely to judge my experience, or that of another Buddhist, as subjective. How do I know that "Namo Amida Butsu" as it rings out in the back of my mind is the calling voice of the Buddha? So far as its being a matter of objective fact goes I have no defense against a charge of subjectivity. Neither, apparently, did Shinran. This is why he is reported to have said that he did not know if the Nembutsu would lead him to the Pure Land of Amida or to a hellish realm. He did on the same occasion express his utter (subjective) confidence in the path of O Nembutsu - "I simply accept and entrust myself to what a good teacher told me, Just say the Name and be saved by Amida"; nothing else is involved." (Tannisho chapter two.)

What form one perspective is the subjectivity and lack of objective verifiability of our religious experience is, from another perspective, a mark of its deep spirituality. The sort of illumination, of existential certainty, which comes with religious experience flows from and motivates further interpretation and action. The moment of spiritual illumination itself is independent of such meaning-giving activity as (philosophical) interpretation and (ethical & social) action.

On the one hand, Honen and Shinran spent decades writing Buddhist texts which illumine the meaning of "Amida Buddha," "Pure Land," "Nembutsu," and related concepts. When it comes to this question of religious experience, however, they both claimed that the Nembutsu, in forms such as "Namo Amida Butsu," goes beyond having any meaning. As Shinran is reported to have put it:

So far as saying the Nembutsu is concerned, having no fixed meaning is its meaning. This is because it is beyond description, it transcends explanation, it is something beyond our powers of understanding. (My translation of Tannisho chapter ten).

This radical detachment of religious experience from interpretative processes leaves us with great freedom and some perplexity as to what to do. Advice as to what to do may also be drawn from Buddhist tradition, but it remains in the public realm where criticism, re-thinking, and re-conceiving may take place. We may sometimes wish for clearer guidance, but we need this freedom.

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