A
few years ago I was invited to attend an annual Police Chief's Awards
and Recognition Banquet honoring those men and women who had risked
their life during the previous year in the line of duty serving the
community. In his opening address during the award presentation, the
Chief of Police recounted a recent eulogy that was given at the funeral
of a deceased police officer by one of his life-long friends. The
officer was accidentally hit and killed by a passing car while he was
attempting to assist a stranded and disabled motorist by the side of the
road. The friend of the deceased, now an attorney, was recollecting how
both he and the deceased never seemed to excel in anything during their
childhood. Neither of them were exceptionally intelligent, they didn't
get high grades, they weren't very good at sports. They never joined a
fraternity. In high school, both friends decided to go out for the track
team since they weren't very good at anything else. They qualified only
because everyone else had gone out for the more high profile sports such
as the football team. In essence, both friends were just ordinary people
who never excelled at anything in their lives.
The
point that the Police Chief made during his speech that evening at the
banquet, was that this eulogy caused him to think how the men and women
receiving awards that night were also ordinary people — ordinary
people who did something extraordinary in their lives, but not because
they, themselves, were extraordinary. Although these officers being
recognized and honored for their bravery and heroism were not
necessarily extraordinary people, each of them, as each of us, have the
potential to rise to a certain special occasion.
The
Shinshu masters, Donran Daishi, Doshaku Zenji and Zendo Daishi all
identified themselves with common, ordinary people, those of limited
potential or no potential at all. The Pure Land sutras were chosen
because they explained liberation for "ordinary people," as
well as those of “superior spiritual qualities.” Commenting on the Meditation
Sutra, Zendo Daishi (613-681), the fifth of the seven Jodo Shinshu
masters, wrote: "I am
actually an ordinary, sinful being who has been, from time immemorial,
sunken in and carried down by the current of birth-and-death. Any hope
to be helped out of this current has been wholly denied to me."
When
at the age of eighteen, Honen Shonin moved to Kurodani, an area of Mt.
Hiei where the learned priests lived, he encountered Genshin Kasho’s Ojoyoshu. Through Genshin’s mention of Zendo Daishi, Honen-sama
eventually became "exclusively dependent upon" Zendo’s
teaching. It was his reference to the liberation of common, ordinary
beings as we are, amidst the inherent delusion of our human existence,
that changed Honen's life. Without necessarily having fulfilled any
formal prerequisite, other than wholeheartedly entrusting to an
awakening of understanding that the Dharma encompasses even this
delusion, we are assured of eventual release from suffering in the
transmigration of birth-and-death.
In
"rising to the occasion," the terms "common" and
"ordinary" are not used in a derogatory sense, but refer to
the common potential in each of us to hear Amida Buddha's Summoning
Voice and rise to be an "award winner." In this case the
reward is Enlightenment itself. However, as per the guidance of Chapter
9 of the Tannisho, “When I reflect
deeply on my failure to rejoice that my birth in the Pure Land is
settled — something for which a person should dance with joy in the
air and on the earth — I realize all the more clearly, through this
very absence of joy, that my birth is indeed settled. What suppresses
the heart that ought to take joy and prevents me from rejoicing is the
activity of my blind passions. ..... If you felt like dancing with joy
and wished to go to the Pure Land quickly, you might begin to doubt
whether you really had blind passions.”
To become awakened — to see — in
a Jodo Shinshu perspective, does not mean as in a usual sense, that once
you see, you’re no longer blind. In that context, sight replaces
blindness. In a Jodo Shinshu sense, “to see” means to see your
blindness. But yet we still remain blind. We still remain common,
ordinary beings. This interpretation of Shakyamuni Buddha’s teaching
is miraculous, for how is it that common, ordinary people filled with
blind passions can become awakened? When this understanding becomes the
content of our mind, Nembutsu will flow forth naturally and you and I
will truly see, amidst our blindness and the absence of joy.
