In Jodo Shinshu we offer a prayer to all sentient beings so that they may connect with Amida Buddha:
May all sentient beings make indestructible connections with Amida Buddha,
entrust to Him, say His Name (Namo Amida Bu) in faith and
wish to be born in His Pure Land.
To make indestructible connections with Amida Buddha through
1. entrusting to Him and
2. saying his name IN FAITH is the method.
3. To wish to be born in His Pure Land
is the goal.
To practice a method without a goal makes no sense. The three are therefore inseparable. Reverend Josho explains,
So, if these three combine, that is, if we say the Nembutsu as an expression of faith in Amida and we aspire to be born in His Pure Land, then we’ll go there (“realization”). If one of these is lacking, for example, if we say the Nembutsu without faith and without the wish (aspiration) to be born in the Pure Land, then we’ll not go there. Same will happen if we wish to go to the Pure Land, pretend to have faith but do not say Nembutsu. I use the expression “pretend to have faith” because actually it’s impossible to have faith and to aspire for the Pure Land but do not say the Nembutsu. You can’t have faith and aspiration without Nembutsu, nor true Nembutsu without faith and aspiration (wish) for the Pure Land.
In his recommendations for thinking deeply, the first one Reverend Josho puts at the top of this list :
Think that solving the matter of repeated births and deaths is the most important thing in your life.
When I read the spiritual biographies of my Amidaji kin, there is a resonance where I believe that each of us, has, through bitter personal experiences of suffering, arrived at the place where solving the matter of repeated births and deaths became the most important thing in our lives.
We have to absolutely and without any doubt be focused on escaping the cycle of repeated births and death because it is the method by which to become enlightened beings. However, as ordinary beings incapable of doing the necessary practices, prescribed by Shakyamuni's teachings, through any achievements of our own, the only option is to entrust ourselves to Amida Buddha's benevolence so that, through the power of HIS virtues and merits, we are reborn in His Pure Land.
If we don’t want or don’t feel the urgency of complete freedom from the many sufferings of repeated births and deaths, then Buddhism will remain for us only an object of study, an interesting lecture of mythology or an intellectual delight.
Without this aspiration, we are not wholehearted in our faith. To be born in the Pure Land isn't merely accessing some heavenly realm of eternal happiness where we will reside in harmony with the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, similar to the Christian vision of heaven. We will become fully enlightened beings EQUAL to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. To not aspire to become a Buddha ourselves drains all meaning from our faith. We cannot be Buddhists without believing the words of Shakyamuni Buddha and we cannot be Buddhists without the goal of Buddhahood. Without this aspiration, we remain curious bystanders of what, at best is a fleeting "intellectual delight" to satisfy our hunger for spiritual complacency. Instead of seeking freedom from the prison of samsara, we choose to paint the grim walls in pretty colours. A shallow perception of Buddhism plunges ever deeper into the darkness of delusion, whereas the true Dharmic vision seeks to free us from the prison of samara.
However the walls of samsara, through the effect of "our own evil karma", are insurmountable and it is impossible to free ourselves from this prison on our own, we need help from the other side. That help is Amida Buddha.
Reverend Josho explains,
Just like the seed, the potentiality of any being is to become a Buddha (this is what is meant by all beings have Buddha-nature), but because we live in this samsaric world, itself the effect and echo of our own evil karma, we cannot grow and transform ourselves into Buddhas. This is exactly why we need to let Amida take us to His Pure Land. That Land is the best soil for seeds like us to quickly develop their natural potential and become Buddhas. Unlike the various Samsaric planes of existence, the Pure Land is the soil (realm) of Enlightenment, the perfect garden manifested by Amida Buddha where everything is conducive to Enlightenment.
So the goal of of our faith is clear. It is included in shinjin, faith bestowed upon us by Amida, as Shinran Shonin himself states,
"Shinjin that is the inconceivable working of the power of the Vow
Is none other than the mind aspiring for great Enlightenment".
The steps to take to reach this goal are defined by the teachings through a process:
>>> we attain the Dharmic vision which reveals the reality of suffering in this world
>>> we then gain the aspiration to attain freedom from it through perfect Enlightenment for ourselves and our loved ones
>>> we then realise that this is impossible to fulfil by our own self-powered efforts
>>> we entrust ourselves to Amida Buddha, we say His Name in faith and aspire to be born in His Pure Land
>>> Amida Buddha compassionately responds to our aspiration through shinjin
When we attain the Dharmic vision, each step we take on the Buddhist path is a step bringing us closer to Amida Buddha. It is when we realize that, through self-powered practices, we are incapable of reaching the goal of Enlightenment through our meagre capacities, and that the only true path is through aspiration for Amida's Pure Land, only then can Amida respond to this aspiration by embracing us with His gift of shinjin. Through shinjin we know that, without any doubt, we will be born in the Pure Land and return to this world as enlightened Bodhisattvas capable of helping the sentient beings with whom we have close karmic ties.
Again, in the words of Master Shinran,
"True and real shinjin is the aspiration for Buddhahood. The aspiration for Buddhahood is the aspiration to save all beings. The aspiration to save all beings is the mind that grasps sentient beings and brings them to birth in the Pure Land of happiness".
Samsara is without doubt a prison made up of different levels divided into different cells, some more levels and cells are comfortable than others but in each level the beings who live there are burdened by the chains of karma and endure suffering from the consequences of their actions. The aspiration to be born in the Pure Land is not to escape the prison but to be free ourselves by becoming enlightened beings. This is a very subtle point implied by Master Shinrann's words:
"The aspiration for Buddhahood is the aspiration to save all beings."
We are not escaping in order to run away from samsara, we are gaining the FREEDOM to leave and come back. When we are reborn in the Pure Land we become enlightened Bodhisattvas, endowed with the skills, the wisdom and the compassion and the freedom to return and access any realm in Samsara, in whatever form that is appropriate, in order to guide those we hold dear towards the Pure Land.
NAMU AMIDA BU
Things that may interest you
On the Bodhi Mind as taught in Jodo Shinshu Buddhism:
Articles by Reverend Josho:
Special 2 part Audio by Kosho Arana and Gansen John Welch:
Shinran Shonin, Passages on the Pure Land Way, The Collected Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997