Namu Amida Butsu (南無阿彌陀佛) by Tsunashima Ryōsen (1873-1907)

My study in Cambridge with the myōgō/nembutsu hanging in the centre, at the top

As some readers of this blog will know, back in October 2023, I formally became a member of the Shinshū Ōtani-ha tradition of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism (you can read my piece about that here) and at my Kikyoshiki Service, conducted by my friend the Revd Miki Nakura, I received the Homyo (or Dharma name) of Shaku Monshin (釋聞信). “Shaku” (釋) refers to Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha, “mon” (聞) refers to “hearing”, and “shin” (信) refers to “faith.” Taken together, “Shaku Monshin” means something like, “faith arising from hearing the Dharma taught by Shakyamuni Buddha.” 

On that occasion (as you will see if you read my piece linked to above) I took great care to make it clear that I needed to do this, firstly, in order to remain true to my still developing, mystically inclined, liberal Unitarian Christian understanding of who Jesus (Christ) was and what he taught, and, secondly, to enable me more effectively and honestly to continue to carry out, with a clean heart and full belief, my role as a free-religious minister. Again, as regular readers of this blog will know, my basic model for this free-religious way of proceeding by holding together multiple religious belongings is the important Japanese Yuniterian (sic) and advocate of free-religion (自由宗教 jiyū shūkyō), Imaoka Shin’ichirō (今岡信一良) (1881-1988).

OK. Now, one of the basic practices within Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism is the “nembutsu”, saying the name “Namu Amida Butsu” 南無阿彌陀佛, which means something like, “I entrust myself to the Buddha of Infinite Light and Life.” In the picture at the head of this post, you can see the myōgō/nembutsu hanging at the very top of the vertical window frame in my office at the Cambridge Unitarian Church (to the right of the cross you can also see the top of the one was written for me by Miki Nakura). It’s important to know that in the Shinshū Ōtani-ha tradition of Jōdo Shinshū, following the example of Shinran (whose portrait you can see at the far left on my desk), saying the nembutsu is understood as the working of Amida’s other-benefitting power (他力 tariki) and not as a self-power practice (自力 jiriki) driven by our own ego. When the nembutsu is practiced rightly, it is not so much we who are saying the nembutsu, but the nembutsu (Amida Buddha) is saying, or calling to, us. If you want to know more about this kind of nembutsu practice just click on this link.  

Tsunashima Ryōsen (1873-1907)

The second thing I need to note here is that Imaoka Shin’ichirō-sensei was profoundly influenced by Tsunashima Ryōsen (1873-1907), especially the mystical experience recounted in his 1905 essay called, “My [Spiritual] Experiment of Seeing God”, which you can read at this link. Now, I mention this because the experience of spending a great deal of time with this last text in order to produce a reasonably accurate English translation of it has turned out to be for me a profound one. Tsunashima Ryōsen-sensei’s Buddhisto-Christian, mystical voice speaks very powerfully to me because, even as I am now clearly a kind of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist, I also remain a kind of Christian, albeit one of a Unitarian/free-religious kind (à la Imaoka Shin’ichirō-sensei). 

This experience has led me to start working quietly away on some translations of Tsunashima Ryōsen-sensei’s other religious and spiritual texts, and when they are in a decent enough state, I’m sure I’ll post some of them here. But, given my words above, I hope you can see why I think the piece I have been working on for the past couple of days should be published now. From my perspective, Tsunashima Ryōsen-sensei’s very short piece on the nembutsu, stands as affirmation that my own free-religious journey, involving a deep and abiding loyalty to Jesus (Christ), Amida Buddha, and (as you will see) Spinoza, Schleiermacher, Hōnen and Shinran, is an honourable one with a good lineage.

In the hope that it may help and inspire some of you who read this into the way of free-religion, here is my first-draft translation of Tsunashima Ryōsen-sensei’s piece. As always, if any native Japanese speakers and Jōdo Shinshū Buddhists read this and spot any mistakes (of which there are bound to be a few!), then please be in touch to offer corrections . . .

—o0o— 

Namu Amida Butsu [南無阿彌陀佛] by Tsunashima Ryōsen [綱島梁川] (1873-1907)
(The original Japanese text can be read here) 

Christ (基督) declared the heart of infinite trust (信賴無限のこゝろ), saying: “Not that I would do as my heart wills, but may it be done as Thy heart wills” (「わが心のまゝをなさんとするにあらず、みこころのまゝになしたまへ」). Spinoza (スピノーザ) saw the first principle of religion (宗教の第一義) to lie in obedientia（「從順」) [i.e. voluntary attunement to God-or-Nature (deus sive natura)]; or Schleiermacher (シュライヱルマヘル) spoke of it as “the feeling of absolute dependence”（「絶對的依賴の感情」). Hōnen (法然) and Shinran (親鸞), among the many holy ones (諸聖), particularly gave exalted voice to the phrase: “I take refuge and dedicate myself to the Tathāgata of unobstructed light in all ten directions”（「歸命盡十方無碍光如來」). Are not all of these unchanging right views which have directly expressed the very essence of religious faith (宗教的信仰の眞髓を道破したる不易の正見) ? The taste of religious experience (宗教的實驗の味ひ), when thoroughly examined, ultimately finds its fulfilment in Namu Amida Butsu (南無阿彌陀佛). From the eternal kalpa (久遠劫) until now, there has been the great lover of Heaven and Earth (天地の大愛者), who made the salvation of us all (吾等一切の濟度) his fundamental vow (本願), and who, without resting even for a moment, sorrows for us continually (哀々の念、束の間も休むことなき). We lift our gaze to him in reverence (打仰ぎて), and to him we pour out the utmost sincerity of absolute faith (これに絶對的信仰の至誠を瀝ぐ). Are these not the heartfelt cries (至情の要求) of us who are children of man, ever lost, ever drowned in the ocean of delusion and collapse (吾等迷倒海常沒の人の子), as recorded in the “Record of Hearing the Light” (『聞光錄』), and in the “Record of Reflecting the Light” (『囘光錄』)? Our own infinite emptiness (無限の空虚) can be filled only by one who is infinitely full (無限の充實者); our own inexhaustible sorrow (無窮の悲哀) can be lifted only by one who is inexhaustibly joyful (無窮の歡喜者). Truly, one who lives and moves in the right mindfulness of Namu Amida Butsu (眞に南無阿彌陀佛の正念に生き且つ動くもの) should be called a person of unhindered being (無碍人) in the stage of non-retrogression (不退轉位). And whether they be a Christian (クリスチァン) or a disciple of the Buddha (佛弟子), this does not matter (問はざる也). Let the voice of Namu Amida Butsu be: a source of infinite gratitude and religious joy (法悅); a source of infinite activity and courageous effort (健闘); the deepest underlying principle of all human life and action (一切の人生活動の最深原理). And yet, how long it has been that Namu Amida Butsu has merely been treated as a weak-hearted reliance on the afterlife (徒らに心細き後生だのみ), as nothing more than a tool for playing around with Buddhas (佛いぢりの一器具觀). Surely now is the autumn season (秋) in which we must uplift and make radiant its original true spirit (本來の眞精神), so as to illumine the hearts of this age (一代の人心を照すべき).