Hi Dharma-friends,

Welcome back to Weekly Wasan!  Today, continue listening to the Shōzōmatsu Wasan or Hymns of the Dharma Ages with five more verses.  Shinran reflects in this group on the present age - the Last Dharma Age - and its difficulties and challenges.  Mired, as we are, in an endless and futile go-round of striving for Awakening through our own limited efforts, we find ourselves stuck.  However, Shinran says that, when we receive the true cause of birth in the Pure Land from Śākyamuni and Amida, we will unfailingly attain Nirvana.  All the Buddhas, countless as the sands of the Ganges, attest to this.

Hope you are enjoying the podcast.  Please check out ambuddhist.org the website of the American Buddhist Study Center, for more good Dharma content.

With palms together, Gary

Hi Dharma-friends!

This episode's verses from the Pure Land Hymns on the Right, Semblance, and Last Dharma Ages are very powerful and are among my favorite expressions of the Dharma by Shinran Shonin.  Shinran is telling us not to worry that our own limitations due to distractions and self-indulgence are too heavy for Liberation.  The Light of Amida's Vow of Wisdom is like a great torch illuminating a dark place.  That Light is boundless and reaches everywhere.  Because saying the Name, Namo-Amida-Butsu, in Shinjin is Amida's own practice, it overcomes literally every obstacle.  Through the working of the wisdom of Amida's Vow, our limited good and evil minds are transformed into Amida's mind of great compassion.  Namoamidabutsu.

Hope you have been enjoying the podcast.  Check out the website of the American Buddhist Study Center ambuddhist.org for more good Dharma content.

Palms together, Gary

Hi Dharma-friends!

Today let's listen to five more verses in the collection "Pure Land Hymns on the Right, Semblance, and Last Dharma Ages."  in today's group, Shinran explains how the Nembutsu teaching is a function of Wisdom.  Our own aspiration for Awakening is in itself caused by the compassion of Śākyamuni and Amida for sentient beings.  Amida entrusts his selected Primal Vow (the Nembutsu) to the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, Mahāsthāmaprāpta.  It is Mahāsthāmaprāpta (Wisdom) who nurtures us on the Pure Land path.  Shinran says that "...since Amida's Vow is wisdom, the emergence of the mind of entrusting oneself to it is the arising of wisdom."

Please be well!

Palms together, Gary

Hi Dharma-friends!

Today we hear 5 more verses from this collection by Shinran Shonin.  A striking image in these verses is Shinran's comparison of those who now follow the Nembutsu path with Maitreya Bodhisattva.  Maitreya Bodhisattva is the next fully enlightened Buddha after Śākyamuni who will appear in the world when causes and conditions are right to do so.  Nembutsu followers, saying the Name of Amida Buddha through Shinjin, realize the same Awakening or Enlightenment as Maitreya when this present life has run its course through the power of the Vow.  Amazing stuff!!

Until next time, please be well!  Check out the American Buddhist Study Center website ambuddhist.org for more good Dharma content.

Palms together, Gary

Hi Dharma-friends!

This is our fiftieth episode!  Today let's listen to five more wasan verses in the section entitled "Pure Land Hymns on the Right, Semblance and Last Dharma Ages." Shinran really gets into the nitty-gritty of his understanding of the Buddha's teaching for our times.  Amida Tathagata has directed his Primal Vow universally towards sentient beings.  When ordinary people of this Last Dharma Age entrust themselves to this Vow and abandon their limited self-powered efforts to achieve merit, they are merged into Amida's universal merits and thereby attain the stage equal to perfect enlightenment.  Shinran says they "receive the benefit of being grasped, never to be abandoned."

If you are enjoying the podcast, please check out the webpage of the American Buddhist Study Center ambuddhist.org for more good content.  Why not send a message to the ABSC at [email protected]

Please be well.  Palms together, Gary

Hi Dharma-friends!

In this episode of the Shōzōmatsu Wasan, we hear 5 more verses.  Shinran, in the earlier verses, having described in somewhat bleak terms the difficulties of the situation in which we find ourselves in this latter Dharma Age, now turns to the way open to us: entrust ourselves to the Vow of Amida Buddha (Unmeasured Light and Life) to liberate all beings through the Nembutsu, become reborn into Amida's Pure Land, and thereby enter into Awakening ourselves with others through the Buddha's great compassion.  Shinran, in the remaining verses in this part called "Hymns on the Right, Semblance and Last Dharma-Ages," will give us his insights about how this wonderful dynamic works. Recall that Shinran wrote these verses toward the end of his life at around 85 years of age and his thoughts are a precious legacy.

Please be well.  Tell your friends about the podcast if you are enjoying it.  You can find more good Dharma content on the website of the American Buddhist Study Center ambuddhist.org

Until next time, Gary

Hi Dharma-friends!

In this episode, we continue the section "Pure Land Hymns on the Right, Semblance and Last Dharma Ages."  Shinran is really making the case that he finds himself (and, therefore, we also find ourselves) in the Last Dharma Age - a very difficult time to find Awakening for ordinary beings such as us.  Shinran is impressing upon us the need to entrust ourselves to the Primal Vow and say the Name, Namo-Amida-Butsu. That is the one guaranteed way to enlightenment.  As Shinran says "...The Buddha's path alone is pure. / Only by going forth and reaching enlightenment can we benefit others / In this burning house; this is the natural working of the Vow."  It is a message of supreme confidence.

Hope you are well and peaceful.  Please come back for the next five wasan in this series soon.  Also, check out the American Buddhist Study Center website ambuddhist.org for more good content.

Palms together, Gary

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Hi Dharma-friends!

In this episode, you can listen to the opening verses of the Shōzōmatsu Wasan collection.  These poems are from the end of Shinran's life when he was around 85 years old.  There are 116 verses in the collection.  The core of the book consists of 56 wasan on the Dharma-Ages, "Pure Land Hymns on the Right, Semblance, and Last Dharma Ages."  Shinran taught from the perspective that he was living at the beginning of the Last Dharma-Age, when only the teaching of Śākyamuni survived. Needless to say that this is the age in which we find ourselves as well. The practices and realization of the earlier ages are beyond the capacities of beings because of the defilements that mark the times.  Shinran wants us to understand exactly where we are and to rely on the only remaining sure path to awakening:  taking refuge in the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha and saying the Name-of-the-Buddha, Namo-Amida-Butsu.

Throughout this podcast, we have been using the translations found in The Collected Works of Shinran (CWS), published by the Jōdo Shinshū Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto.  Volume 2 of that set has invaluable introductory notes and explanations, and everyone is referred to that resource for a nuanced discussion of the Shōzōmatsu Wasan.

With palms together, Gary

Hi Dharma friends,

This episode concludes Shinran's verses on his own teacher, Master Genkū (Hōnen) of Japan, the seventh master in Shinran's Jōdo Shinshū lineage.  In these verses, Shinran reverently recognizes Hōnen as a manifestation of Amida Buddha and describes his passing in terms familiar from the entry of Śākyamuni Buddha into Nirvana.  Shinran concludes the Kōsō Wasan collection with two concluding verses.  In the first, the teachings of all seven masters are summarized and restated:  When sentient beings of this world of five defilements (that is: all of us) entrust themselves to the selected Primal Vow (that is: saying Namo-Amida-Butsu), virtues beyond description, explanation, and conception fill those beings.  Finally, Shinran - our own Master and Teacher - directs the good that he received from these masters toward all sentient beings equally.  Great stuff.

I hope you have enjoyed listening to the Kōsō Wasan.  Next time, we will continue with a third collection written by Master Shinran, the Shōzōmatsu Wasan or Hymns of the Dharma Ages.  There are 116 verses in that collection.