Tag: buddhist practice

Attend to All & Each: A Dharma Talk

Posted on by Christopher in amida buddha, Bright Dawn, Bright Dawn Buddhism, Uncategorized

Dharma Talk
Salt Lake Buddhist Fellowship
Christopher Kakuyo Sensei
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As I develop the content for our Certified Dharma Teacher course, I’ve been reflecting on what makes our fellowship unique. While many of us find inspiration in the Pure Land tradition and its teachers, we are not Shin Buddhists or any other traditional Pure Land Buddhist Sangha—nor do we claim to be. The Dobokai Movement within Shin Buddhism has significantly influenced us, yet we remain a trans-sectarian community rather than a Pure Land sangha. So, what exactly are we?

We are a fellowship of seekers exploring the Way of the Buddha. Together, we find meaning in the symbols and myths of the Pure Land. This is particularly true for the mythopoetic and archetypal figure of Buddha Amida, who represents boundless light and life. Amida embraces everything and everyone just as they are, reflecting the heart of the phrase “come as you are.”

I also want to address those who lean more toward a secular perspective—our differences may not be as significant as they seem. In many meaningful ways, science and poetry, religion, and philosophy are not at odds with each other; they are simply different languages we use to explore what it means to be human. For today’s dharma talk,
I want to start with a poem I wrote that we recite each Sunday before our chanting. Here is the poem:

Come as you are
Is the call of Buddha
Just as you are
Namu Amida Butsu
Is the invitation we give
To ourselves
To others
To all Living Beings
To the totality of our lives, just as we are.
So come, come as you are,
Attend to all and each
Namu Amida Butsu
Stop torturing yourself
With all those made-up stories
Of who you think you are
and aren’t, regardless
of who you are or
are not
Regardless
Of what you have done or
left undone
and enter the gate of boundless compassion
Namu Amida Butsu.

My writing of this poem aims to convey the significance of Namu Amida Butsu — or the nembutsu — for us and our community. I am attempting to take something from a very different place and time, Medieval Japan, and infuse its meaning and healing power in a way that resonates with our lives today.

Like much of art, poetry serves as a form of translation, an effort to articulate the inexpressible, something that transcends concept and language but exists in the heartbeat, pulse, and breath.

Over the past few months, we have explored some of the teachings contained in these verses. We will revisit them repeatedly from various perspectives at different times. Just as an open field or a hidden canyon reveals its secrets to those willing to be still in changing light, so too do the teachings of the Buddha. We examine the same teachings through the evolving context of our lives, uncovering new truths. As Gyomay Kubose Sensei has said, “truth is forever revealing itself in all forms and phases of life.”

Today I want to focus mainly on one verse from the poem,

So come as you are,
Attend to all and each
Namu Amida Butsu.

Let’s focus on the idea of “Attending to all and each.” I want to discuss this theme today.

At the heart of these words lies the essence of what we do after accepting Amida’s invitation, which we can translate as “come as we are.” We must tend to ourselves as part of the whole and recognize others as part of that whole. This is a fundamental teaching of Buddhism: spiritual friendships are essential to our journey. The refuge of the sangha, which is the third jewel of Buddhism, encompasses this entire path. We rely on one another to awaken.

One aspect that draws me to the traditional story of Amida Buddha, the archetypal figure of boundless compassion, is the theme of interdependence.

The mythic Amida Buddha makes a series of vows at the beginning of his bodhisattva career to help all beings attain supreme enlightenment. His compassion is so vast that he pledges not to achieve enlightenment and become a Buddha if even one living being does not awaken.

I cherish this story because it beautifully illustrates how we are all interconnected. To put it plainly: our awakening is dependent on one another. Amida Buddha’s enlightenment depends on our awakening. We need each other to truly wake up.

To further express this idea, I want to share a poem by Saichi, a myokonin from the Shin tradition. Myokonin were often uneducated and straightforward individuals who could convey profound spiritual truths through their words. Saichi, a carver of wooden shoes and a poet, refers to Amida Buddha as Namu Amidabutsu, and for him, there was no distinction between the two names. This poem captures the essence of our discussion.

I’m so happy, I’m so-o happy,
I’m so happy, I’m so-o happy.
Namu Amidabutsu , Namu Amidabutsu,
Namuamidabu comes to Saichi’s rescue,
Saichi rescues Namuamidabu.
That’s something else, don’t you think?

I love how Saichi and Amida rescue one another – there is no hierarchy – only interdependence. The natural outflow of this understanding of interdependence is the attending to all and each. As Emerson has written, “All are needed by each one.” So what does it mean to attend to one another and ourselves?

The English word attend comes from the 14th-century French entendre—to pay attention to stretch toward something or someone, take care of, attend, and be present with or for. At the heart of attending and tending is attention—presence.

The reciprocal invitation to “come as we are” must be more than words. When we respond to the call of Namu Amida Butsu, we extend that same invitation to ourselves, others, and our entire lives, just as they are. We demonstrate our commitment to this invitation through our presence, by showing the courage to engage repeatedly in our lives and in the lives of others. We must be willing to reveal our front and back sides, listening deeply to ourselves and others without judgment. Through this simple act, we support one another.

By accepting this reciprocal invitation and showing up, we express our aspiration to pay attention to what life is right now, in the present moment, rather than wasting energy on how life should be. By embracing all aspects of our lives as they are—including our wounds, which interact with one another—and being there for one another, we can discover the Buddha in our everyday existence. This includes attending to our joy, love, and the aspiration for healing and wholeness, as well as recognizing the many ways these elements manifest. By accepting the invitation to come just as we are, we support another person just as they are. We attend to each other amidst the ever-changing and uniquely intricate process of becoming who we are.

What makes this possible? Something about the way we hold space, the acceptance and compassion we have longed for, unfolds the intricate layers of who we believe we are. These simple words—” come as you are”—carry profound meaning. When we accept this invitation, we experience an opening, a softening of boundaries, and a natural freedom that comes from learning to let go of shame and the belief that we need to be someone other than ourselves to be loved.

This opening, this attentiveness and care for one another, reflects the essence of who we are—our innate Buddha-nature, which emerges from the phrase “come as you are – Namu Amida Butsu.” Here lies the healing energy of nembutsu. In this welcoming space, revealed by the invitation, we find the opportunity to become ourselves in each moment—an awakening, a ripening.

As the poet Rilke expressed,

“All becoming has needed me.”
My looking ripens things, and they
come toward me to meet and be met.”

Our attention, intention, and presence are essential for growth and transformation. They enable us to meet one another as we truly are, rather than through the distorted lens of societal narratives and borrowed stories that have shaped our identities.

So why do we need the Buddha’s invitation to “come as you are”? Many of us seek this reassurance; we need the Buddhas to tell us that it’s okay to be ignorant, wounded, and beautifully imperfect. It is amidst our ordinariness that we find our awakening. As Koyo Kubose Sensei writes, “Every spiritual journey begins in the dark.” In responding to this call, we can release all the narratives about who we are or are not, who we believe we should be, and the burdens of our past actions or inactions.

At the core of everything is this invitation; in a practical sense, anything can serve as a teacher, a bodhisattva. Even darkness and challenges can become Buddhas, guiding us toward awakening. Our complicated lives can also be gifts that lead to enlightenment. We have heard the call, and our initial steps may be tentative and prolonged. The first step is to accept, nurture, and embrace our lives just as they are. However, this acceptance is not passive; it is the opposite.

This form of acceptance does not excuse apathy, nihilism, or harmful behavior. It does not justify an abuser’s actions. Instead, it may involve a heart-wrenching realization that my partner is abusive and that I need to leave, or that I am a perpetrator and need to seek help.

The hardest part is accepting our wounded selves. Whatever we are running from inside needs our attention, intention, and presence; it longs for our compassion. This invitation creates a space where I can nurture my darker and wounded sides, knowing that I am embraced and will never be abandoned just as I am. Because of this understanding, we can finally address what needs attention and begin to embrace our inner wholeness.

Carl Jung once said, “I would rather be whole than good.” This sentiment embodies what it means to reach the Pure Land. We do not go to the Pure Land because we are good; rather, we go because we are whole—whole in the compassion of Amida Buddha. The Pure Land represents all of us gathering in an open field, a place beyond the concepts of good and evil, as described in one of Rumi’s poems. The Pure Land exists beyond these judgments.

As D.T. Suzuki wrote,

“As far as Amida is concerned, he is all love; there is no thought in him of punishing anybody. Such discriminative judgments do not exist within him. He is like the sun in this respect, shining on both the unjust and the just. A sinner comes to the Pure Land with all their sins, or rather, they leave them behind in the world where they belong. When they arrive in the Pure Land, they stand in their nakedness, free from sinful burdens. Karma does not pursue them into the Pure Land.”

When we attend to ourselves and others, we take the journey into all the places we have hidden our suffering and woundedness from view and bring it as an offering to the Buddhas. This tending to one another is not so much a needing someone to go with you or of you needing to go with someone, but it is the knowledge that someone is there, without judgment, waiting for you to return with open arms.

This acceptance leads us toward wholeness, healing, and awakening. As Gyomay Kubose Sensei has taught, acceptance is transcendence; it grants us freedom. This journey toward acceptance is our pilgrimage. I resonate with the words of Philip Chircop:

“On our pilgrimage toward wholeness, in a gentle act of hospitality, we are challenged and invited to name and welcome all the bruised and broken pieces of our marvelous and beautiful story. In the process, we gradually integrate all the different voices within us that compete for attention, learning to love from the unity of voices that we are.”

However, I want to add a word of caution. Many of us were raised, intentionally or unintentionally, to be caretakers. As caretakers, we must be vigilant because we often have a tendency to prioritize others’ feelings while neglecting our own. As Dr. Margaret Paul teaches, avoiding our feelings is a way of avoiding responsibility for them, as we attempt to fill the void of our self-abandonment.

Coming as we are is the first step on our pilgrimage toward wholeness; it is the invitation from Buddha and all Buddhas. By responding to the call of Namu Amida Butsu—come as we are—we begin to cultivate our attention and capacity for presence. Namu Amida Butsu is a call to be truly alive.

At times, I find myself on autopilot, forgetting that I am living a life. This is where regular meditation practice proves beneficial. Cultivating our intention and capacity to be present helps us avoid living merely on the surface of things. As essayist Maria Popova has written, to fully experience life’s journey, we must befriend our attention. Befriending our attention requires intention. However, simple attention is not sufficient. Much of our habitual attention often does not focus on what truly needs healing. Typically, our default attention is not intentional but rather habitual and unconscious, serving a narrative we tell ourselves.

In his book *Naikan*, Gregg Kretch writes: “How often is our attention wasted on judging, criticizing, and correcting others while we neglect to examine and learn from our own lives?” We often use our attention to justify or validate our own narratives. The type of attention we are discussing is intentional, self-reflective, honest, humble, and straightforward—yet not self-centered or self-absorbed. Kretch further states: “Our attention is our life. Shifting our attention opens us to reality and reveals what has always been there.” The process of shifting our habitual attention toward intention and presence is at the core of what we mean by attending and tending. A crucial aspect of this is developing the capacity to hold space within paradox.

Andrew McAlister explores this concept in one of his essays, discussing the coexistence of our woundedness, shame, and self-loathing alongside our essential goodness. Embracing ourselves as we are allows us to hold both of these experiences at the same time.
He writes,

“Something deep in us says we are not good, that we don’t deserve to be good. And yet, the more we practice attending to the depths of us, the more our already given goodness is lavished upon us.
As attention on the mantra (ours would be namu Amida butsu (added)) is deepened, clarified, and focused (thanks to a regular practice) the paradox that woundedness and essential goodness experienced together becomes, over time, resolved.”

This quote reminds me of these lines,

So stop torturing yourself
with all those made-up stories
of who you think you are
and are not, regardless of who
you are or are not, regardless
of what you have done
or have left undone
and enter the gate of boundless compassion.

Come as you are is an invitation for us to tend the garden of our hearts in the refuge of the dharma and the sangha and the boundless compassion of Amida Buddha.

I appreciate this from Jack Kornfield,

“You have in you the seeds of great compassion, the seeds of wisdom and care for others. Meditation then is not to make some special experience, but it is to learn how to tend the garden of the heart and to water the seeds of kindness and presence in your own heart.” 

Namu Amida Butsu.

Let us attend to each other
to our lives.
to all of life,
as it is, as you are
Right here
Right now.
I find such great joy in this.

I want to close with this poem from Saichi.

How fine!
The whole world and vastness of space is Buddha!
And I am in it–

“Namu-Amida-Butsu!”
“

Dharma Glimpses from Bright Dawn.

Posted on by Christopher in Bright Dawn Buddhism, Bright Dawn Lay Ministry, Bright Dawn Way Of Oneness, Buddhism, Buddhist practice, dharma glimpse, dharma talks, Uncategorized

Dharma Glimpses are short dharma teachings  from Bright Dawn Lay Ministers.

Here are some podcasts from Bright Dawn Way of Oneness podcast page.

Faust my Dharma Teacher.

Listening to the Dharma 

Buddhism and Gender Equality

Who are you?

And here are some more Dharma Glimpses in written format on our Bright Dawn Blog.

 

Naturalness

Bodhisattvas and Buddhas

Peaceful Heart

Invisible Cemetery

Boundless: The SLBF Newsletter

Posted on by Christopher in Buddhism, buddhist fellowship, Buddhist practice, nembutsu, salt lake buddhist, salt lake city buddhist fellowship, Shin Buddhism, The Pureland, Uncategorized

Read our latest newsletter by clicking on the Buddha.

Featuring:  An essay by Jennifer Munson on finding her way to the Salt Lake Buddhist Fellowship. Elesha Morris gives us a guided meditation for grounding and gratitude, Myoshin looks at writing haiku as Buddhist practice, plus Buddhist spoken word, and teachings from  Koyo Kubose.

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Our Chant and What it Means.

Posted on by Christopher in amida buddha, Buddhism, buddhist fellowship, Buddhist practice, dharma talks, NASBA, nembutsu, salt lake buddhist, salt lake city buddhist fellowship, Uncategorized
We chant a version of the nembutsu which means to keep remember the Buddha.  Here is the chant that we do  every Sunday as a part of our practice and a brief explanation of what it represent? Here it is.
Namu Amitabhaya
Buddhaya
Dharmaya
Shanghaya
Namu Amitabhaya
Buddhaya
Dharmaya
Shanghaya
Namu Namu Amitbhaya
Namu Namu Amitbhaya
The chant traditionally uses Namo which means Homage to, we use the less traditional “namu” which means “to bow” and can also be loosely translated as “to become.” as to become Amitabhaya Buddha who is a Trans-Historical Buddha of Boundless Compassion accepting everyone just as they are, a Buddha of absolute grace. The chant is an aspiration to become like Amitabha Buddha and to demonstrate boundless compassion for all beings. Namu Amida Butsu means I follow/return back to Amida Buddha it is also there to remind us that Amitabha Buddha is there to help us realize our Buddha-Nature and all the Buddhas sing for our awakening.
On a more practical level, we say Namu Amida Butsu, especially after become aware of doing something that reveals our foolishness, lack of compassion, our greed and anger. For me it means, each moment of awareness is a moment to begin again, that I always have a “blank slate” to begin again even right after doing something foolish.  This opens a boundless space of practice and self-compassion, until we come to realize the path of pure surrender.
 I like this straight forward take on reciting Namu Amida Butsu.   Shinran (1173–1263) taught that for most of us, the pursuit of enlightenment is a futile, ego-driven exercise, and that thanks to tariki, or “other power,” or the personification of “Buddha-Nature” within Amida Buddha, we come to understand that we are already enlightened. “We should chant the Nembutsu out of gratitude, because we realize that we are already home home and we’re grateful.
For those of a more traditional or formal perspective here is a link.

We are all Refugees.

Posted on by Christopher in Buddhism, buddhist fellowship, dharma talks, Refuge, salt lake buddhist, salt lake city buddhist fellowship, Uncategorized

Lately the world seems on fire, with mass shootings, mass migrations and terrorist attacks.  People are more polarized of late, cultural shifts, deep old wounds are festering and all of these are changing the landscape, the earth seems to be moving under their feet and many are taking refuge in nationalism, bigotry and fear.  The rawness and depth of this really hit home with me, especially when the little refugee boy washed up on the beaches of Turkey.  I have a boy about this age…the image haunted me for days.  What would make a father put his child at risk like that.  A picture of the city his family left was published with the caption, “this is why you put your children on a boat.”  The city the boy was from was destroyed; a city of skeletons, torn and broken homes, some burning, desolate and abandoned streets, the same streets that had heard laughter and music, the buzz and honk of rush hour, bird song and the heart beats of lover, now was a city of the dead, with only the sound of distant mortars, more a mausoleum of lost hopes, and dreams.  Looking at the picture I was reminded of the words of the Buddha, “The world is burning.”   And it is not just from war torn areas, there are refugees everywhere, there are spiritual refugees, spiritually homeless who have homes, spiritually friendless who have friends, those who know where they are at is not “right” that something is missing. It seems we are all looking for refuge, looking for a spiritual home.

Thinking of the small child dead on the beach, I wondered if that was my child, where could I find refuge from the pain, disappointment and impermanence of it all.  Refuge is a condition of being safe or sheltered from pursuit, danger, or trouble, it’s a coming home. But we don’t have to experience the horror that the family from Syrian experienced to ask for or seek refuge.  I have come to realize that as spiritual refugees many of us have wandered through self-help books, careers, relationships, materialism and addictions to find some home, some sort of refuge but only to be disappointed. The Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa explains that anyone who ‘goes for refuge’ must therefore be a ‘refugee’, so that as Buddhists we are ‘refugees from conditioned existence.”

As I have keep going on our journey I have found it, and it has always been waiting for me in the Buddha, the Dharma and the sangha, it was like coming home. I think this makes sense since we go to refuge saraṇa-gamana which in Pali could be translated as “coming home” we come home to the Buddha, the Dharma and the sangha.

It is my hope that faced with such suffering as the refugees from Syria, I could still find my refuge by taking refuge in the Buddha, in the fact of his Awakening: and the three jewels, placing trust that he actually awakened to the truth, that he did so by cultivating qualities that we too can cultivate. That through my understanding of impermanence and the compassion of the Buddha, that awakening can be my ultimate refuge.”

May it be so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IN SHIN ‘LISTENING IS BECOMING AWAKENED’ (TAITETSU UNNO)

Posted on by Christopher in amida buddha, nembutsu, Shin Buddhism, The Pureland

‘Even Dewdrops Fall’ – An Interview with Taitetsu Unno’, in:Tricycle, Summer 1995

Tricycle: Can you talk a little bit about how you understand surrender in Buddhist practice?

Taitetsu Unno: In the first place, surrender is a Western religious category. In Buddhism, surrender is at the core of giving up the ego-self; but we don’t use a special term for it, because the whole thrust of Buddhist life revolves around surrender, giving up the ego.

Here there is a cultural difference—I can use the example of the martial arts. In this country, martial arts are described as “self-defense.” In the martial arts in East Asia, the aim is to train oneself to such an extent that there is no “self” to defend. That’s very hard for people to understand. I find the same problem in American Buddhism. For example, recently I read an article in which an American Zen Buddhist described visiting Japan, and I realized that American Buddhism is “psychotherapeutic” Buddhism, whereas in Japan, Buddhism is “faith” Buddhism. The core of faith is surrender, the giving up of the small-minded ego-self.

Tricycle: But how can we learn to surrender the ego-self voluntarily?

Taitetsu Unno: In the Shin Buddhist tradition, as we listen to the teaching we are made to realize that we can never surrender ourselves. Resistance comes from the deepest center of our karmic selves. That’s why the Buddha Amida’s compassion says, “Tai, you don’t have to surrender.” When I hear that, when I understand that I can’t do it because it’s not my nature—that it’s like saying, “Fly to the sky”—then I realize that I don’t have to surrender, yet, naturally and spontaneously, the surrender takes place by virtue of true compassion. This is “other-power” working through “self-power.” But this requires a tremendous struggle. As long as I think I can do it myself, it’s not going to work.

Tricycle: But how can we learn to let go like that more often? I know I can get there in unusual circumstances, but not ordinarily.

Taitetsu Unno: In Shin, the Pure Land tradition, it comes down to listening to the teaching. There is no meditative practice as such. Listening is becoming awakened. I have my own views of things, and Buddhism presents its views. Gradually, my views are displaced by the views that enlightened Buddhist teachers have cultivated for 2,500 years.

Tricycle: Do you think that American Buddhists overemphasize meditation?

Taitetsu Unno: Yes and no. The temple of modern life requires moments of silent meditation, but that’s not the goal of Buddhism. We were in Japan for six months recently, and while there I was reading articles and essays written by Buddhist laypeople and monks. The very distinguished abbot of a huge Zen monastery wrote this little article that said, “In Zen, there are only three things. First, cleaning. Second, chanting. And third, devotion. That’s all.” Many Americans go to Zen hoping to get enlightened, but they don’t want to do the cleaning. It’s very demanding and rigorous. You get up at 3:00 A.M.—and you not only sweep the floor, but you have to mop it. On your knees, you know? And then you have to chant, for an hour in the morning and an hour at night. You can understand why a bright young American boy would say, “What am I wasting my time for? I want to get enlightened.” But enlightenment can be manifested only in the daily chores of cleaning and sweeping and polishing—and chanting and devotion.

Tricycle: And the teaching.

Taitetsu Unno: Oh yes. Some people like to meditate and physically they’re able to, but some people can’t because of health reasons or life situations such as family obligations, economic problems, and so on. That doesn’t make them less of a person or less of a Buddhist, you know?

Mind of Embracing All Things – Haya Alegarasu

Posted on by Christopher in Buddhism, buddhist fellowship, Buddhist practice, NASBA, nembutsu, salt lake city, salt lake city buddhist fellowship, Shin Buddhism

At our last gathering we read a few pieces from a great Shin writer and priest, Haya Akesarasu.  Most of his writings are currently out of print or not translated but there are a few in existence.  This essay gives a feeling of his style of writing, He

By Haya Akegarasu 

Reading an early passage of the Kegon Sutra, I came across a poem by the Ho-E Bodhisattva which made me want to cry out, “How wonderful!” Here it is:

Be free from subject and object,
Get away from dirtiness and cleanness,
Sometimes entangled and sometimes not,
I forget all relative knowledge:
My real wish is to enjoy all things with people.

This poem expresses so clearly what I am thinking about these days that I use it to explain my feelings to everyone I meet.

Subject or object, myself or someone else, individualism or socialism, egotism or altruism-forget about such relative knowledge be free from it! Right or wrong, good or bad, beauty or ugliness-don’t cling to that either. Forget about ignorance or enlightenment! Simply enjoy your life with people-this is the spirit of Gautama Buddha, isn’t it? I’m glad that Shinran Shonin said “When we enter into the inconceivable Other Power, realize that the Reason without Reason does not exist,” and again, “I cannot judge what right or wrong is, and I don’t know at all what is good and bad.” I hate to hear about the fights of isms or clashes between two different faiths. I don’t care about these things.

Somehow I just long for people. I hate to be separated from people by the quarrels of isms or dogma or faith, and what is more, I hate to be separated from people by profit or loss.

I don’t care whether I win or lose, lose or win. I just long for the life burning inside me. I just adore people, in whom there is life. I don’t care about isms, thoughts, or faiths. I just long for people. I throw everything else away. I simply want people.

It makes me miserable when close brothers are separated by anything. Why can’t they be their own naked selves? Why can’t longing people embrace each other?

I love myself more than my isms, thoughts, or faiths. And because I love myself so, I long for people. I am not asserting that my way is Love-ism or Compassionate-Thinking-ism! Somehow I just can’t keep myself in a little box of ism, thought or faith.

I must admit I am timid. Because I timid, I can’t endure my loneliness. I want to enjoy everything with people.

I go to the ocean of the great mind.

I go to the mind of the great power.

Once I hated people because they lived a lie; once I saw them as devils. Once I lamented because there was no one who cared about me. But now I long for them, even when they are devils and liars, even when they are evil. I don’t care, I can’t help it-I adore them! They breathe the same life that I do, even though they hate me, cheat me, make me suffer.

I am so filled with a thirst to adore people that there is no room in me for judging whether a person is good or bad, beautiful or ugly, right or wrong. This is not the result of something that I reasoned out, such as that I live by being loved or by loving. Regardless of any ism, thought, or faith, I cannot be separated from people because of that.

My spirit shines with the mind-of-embracing-people. Without reason or discussion, I just want to hug everyone! My missionary work is nothing but a confession of this mind.

Buddhism is a Religion by Dr. David Brazier

Posted on by Christopher in amida buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist practice, nembutsu, salt lake city buddhist fellowship, Shin Buddhism, Uncategorized

Here is a different take on Buddhism then the current “Mindfulness” Movement or “Scientific Buddhism” of late, which I have some affinity toward. At the same time I appreciate some of the points that Dr. Brazier makes. I think this shows the wide variety and richness of Buddhist experience and ideas.

Buddhism is a Religion

by Dr. David Brazier

uddhism is a religion. It has beliefs, rituals, altars, offerings, bells, candles, metaphysics, clergy, devotees, prayers, meditation, visions, visitations, celestial beings, other worlds, other lives, moral law, and salvation. All these are found in Zen Buddhism, in Theravada Buddhism, in Tibetan Buddhism, in Pureland Buddhism, in the other schools of Chinese and Vietnamese Buddhism, in fact, in all of Buddhism all over Asia. Buddhists probably burn more candles and incense than the Catholic Church. These are not degeneration or cultural accretions. The founder himself gave us robes, taught ritual and contrition, revealed other lives and worlds, and spoke with the gods. Secularised and rationalised variants of Buddhism exist, but it is these that are partial forms and cultural products of later derivation.

Sometimes it is said that Buddhism is scientific. This assertion would put Buddhism somehow within the frame of science, but Buddhism has much that would not fit into that frame. However, although we cannot really say that Buddhism is scientific, science is Buddhistic. Science is Buddhistic in that science is a way of knowing some things. Buddhism can accommodate everything that science perceives, but science can only perceive a fraction of what Buddhism encompasses, the fraction that appears within the frame that the restrictive rules of science impose. Distinct from science itself, there is also scientism, which is a modern philosophy. Scientism is not Buddhistic because it is the attempt to make the restrictive rules of science into the dogmas by which the whole of life should be governed. Scientism is a different religion and a rather narrow one and it would be a tragedy if Buddhism in the West were reduced to it.

The common ground of all schools of Buddhism is a religious act called taking refuge. We take refuge in the Three Treasures, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Buddha is the supreme source of teaching, love, compassion, and wisdom. Dharma indicates the fundamentals of life and being. Sangha is the church. Taking refuge in these three has salvific power. The spiritual pathway is a succession of deepenings of this act of refuge. Each of these is an awakening of faith. Each deepening of refuge is a lessening of ego. More faith, less ego. Thus Buddhism finds salvation beyond oneself. The devotee is encouraged to be ever mindful of the objects of refuge, to bow to them, make offerings, revere and worship them. Being mindful of their supreme qualities one becomes more aware of one’s own deficiency. Becoming more aware of the deficiency of self, one’s need to take refuge increases in intensity. Finally one lets go of self entirely, takes refuge wholeheartedly and enters nirvana. Thus, along the path, one is led to a deeper enquiry into one’s own being with all its limitation, fallibility, weakness, vulnerability and waywardness of passion. The more clearly one is aware of these deficiencies the more in need of refuge one realises oneself to be. One examines the deficiencies of worldly life, the limitations of reason and of the secular world.

Thus, Buddhism is a religion. Its foundation is faith. This faith is based in real, close-to-the-bone, experience. We find that the body is not reliable. The mind is not reliable. Thoughts are not reliable. Emotions are not reliable. Circumstances are not reliable. Social status is not reliable. The present moment is not reliable. Direct awareness of the present and of the sequence of things occurring demonstrates to us the unreliability of all that the worldly mind considers as self and that it pursues. Awareness alone would leave us frightened and helpless. Therefore we need mindfulness and the other factors of enlightenment that flow from it. We need mindfulness of the treasure that is available to us. Initially we may think it is our own treasure, but this is just the conceit of the self reasserting itself. The treasure is universal and unconditional, but each encounters it in a unique way. Buddha speaks to each of us in our own language. Thus everybody has some spiritual treasure to rely upon if they will just heed it.

There is one treasure and there are three treasures and five treasures and immeasurable treasures. The one treasure is the Buddha. Only in meeting the Buddha in some way is there a refuge. The three treasures are Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. The Buddha gave us the Dharma and the Sangha so that we can meet him. The Dharma is the mind of Buddha. The Sangha is a body of Buddha. The five refuges are the three treasures together with the Spiritual Buddhas and the Pure Abodes. These, too, the Buddha has revealed to us so that we can meet him. We may meet him as Shjakyamuni or as Amitabha, or as Quan Shi Yin or Tai Shih Chi or in the form of those to whom the Dharma has been transmitted, or in a direct encounter with the deeper reality. The immeasurable treasures are the myriad Buddhas in their myriad transformations. The Buddha is capable of infinite transformations so that we can meet him and thus find a true refuge.

Buddha is always trying to reach us. That he does not always succeed is because our hearts and minds are closed. They are closed by conceit. Conceit means that we take refuge in ourselves. Being full of ourselves, there is no room for Buddha to get in. We believe that “I” am a special case, that I will not reap the consequences that others reap, that I am justified, that I can control my life, my thoughts and my emotions. This belief in self invades even our spiritual life. We turn the teachings into a means to mastery of self by self or the means to achieve a narrow happiness for ourselves. This, however, is like trying to lift oneself off the ground. The effort to do so only sets us against ourselves and increases our inner conflict. We torture ourselves seeking a self-made salvation. Salvation does not come from self. Salvation comes from Buddha. Buddha does not require us to torture ourselves. Buddha loves us already. Buddha’s compassion is measureless. Buddha has fellow-feeling for us as he was once as we are now. He loves us as the weak and ordinary human beings that we are.

We are all Angulimala. We all wear a necklace of trophies for which we feel guilty, but we do not know how to stop. The necklace is our ego (bhava), and the guilt is our self-destructive tendency (vibhava). These two are ever as mirror images one of the other. Ever feeding them we go round and round in the circles of samsara. We are like one in a burning house fascinated by the flames. Meanwhile the myriad Buddhas try to entice us to leave the conflagration, but we are too entranced to heed them. Then we wonder how it is that we keep getting burned. In order to ease our pain we foolishly plunge deeper into the flames believing them to be our salvation. It is self that is burning.

To the extent that we take refuge we join the Buddha in his work. We become extensions of his saving grace. In ourselves we are nothing but he works through us and we trust him to do so. The aim of life is not mere ordinary happiness. It is the salvation of all sentient beings. It is participation in the higher evolution of life, ever striving toward universal, unconditional love. This is a religious vision.

The way out of the fire is, on the one hand, to admit our frail nature and, on the other, to bring to mind our treasure. Turn to the Buddha and make our life, weak as it is, into an offering. By prostrating ourselves and making offerings to many Buddhas we give up the conceit of self and rely upon their saving grace. We trust them to do their work and feel grateful. We pray to them to stay in the world until samsara ceases and turn the wheel of Dharma for us. Then we discover a life surrounded by their grace. We can feel gratitude that the Buddha is reaching out to us, that the Dharma has already been given to us, that there exists a great sangha of loving, compassionate, joyful and steady companions upon the path, that we receive every day immeasurable material, spiritual and ultimate benefits.

It is not by satisfying the ego’s belief in our own super-human nature and limitless self-entitlement that we find salvation. That way lies only frustration and a burdensome life of one crisis after another. Only when we see our poverty can we find the treasure, for the treasure does not lie inside oneself. Investigating the reality of our own case and holding the treasure before us work together. We cannot find the treasure without finding our poverty first, but we cannot face our poverty without having a treasure to rely upon. This is the impossible situation of samsara where the conceit of self allows no chink of light to enter. There is no way out of this prison by logic or effort or self-perfection. Only faith can open the door, faith that yields wisdom. Buddhism is a religion that opens the door. Buddha is a power that is not oneself. Be mindful of this refuge. One who acts with such a mind finds that bliss follows as a shadow that never fades.

Dr. David Brazier, Dharma name Dharmavidya, philosopher, author, authority on Buddhist psychology. president of the International Zen Therapy Institute, head of the Amida Order, published poet, is British, lives in France and spends most of his time travelling teaching Buddhism and Buddhist psychology in N & S America, Europe and Asia. His nine published books include: Zen Therapy; The Feeling Buddha; and Not Everything Is Impermanent.

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Buddhism is a Religion: a guest post by Dr. David Brazier, Dharmavidya