Entrust yourself to Other Power and let go of self-power

Stop trying to make yourself worthy of the vow, and let the nembutsu arise from entrusting (shinjin) rather than effort.

Pourquoi ça marche

The Collected Works of Shinran glossary traces the term Other Power (tariki) to Tanluan, as Amida’s vow bringing beings to birth through Dharmākara’s practices rather than their own study and discipline. Self-power (jiriki) is the effort to make oneself worthy “guided by your own calculation.” In the Tannishō, Shinran says the vow “makes no distinction between people young and old, good and evil; only shinjin is essential,” and that people who rely on their own good “fail to entrust themselves wholeheartedly to Other Power.” The glossary describes shinjin as entrusting to the Primal Vow that is at the same time the negation of one’s calculative thinking, brought about by Amida — so in Shin terms it is received rather than produced.

Comment faire

1. Notice the thought “I have to become good enough first” when it comes up around practice.
2. Recall, in the tradition’s terms, that the vow was made precisely for beings who cannot perfect themselves.
3. Say the nembutsu without trying to add sincerity, merit or a special feeling to it.
4. When you catch yourself calculating whether you are doing it right, let that calculation be seen as self-power — and return to the Name.
5. Talk with a Shin minister or a fellow practitioner about what entrusting means to them; the tradition treats this as something heard and shared, not worked out alone.

Données probantes

The definitions of Other Power, self-power and shinjin are in the Collected Works of Shinran glossary, which quotes Shinran’s letters; the quoted lines are chapters 1 and 3 of the Tannishō. Hōnen’s Senchakushū quotes Tanluan naming “holding on to self power alone and not taking hold of Other Power” as one of the difficulties of the Way of Difficult Practice. Jones’s study of Chinese Pure Land has a chapter on self-power and other-power in the Chinese tradition. The support is textual and practitioner-based. (anecdotal)

Not studied. The self-power/Other-Power distinction is drawn most sharply in Shinran; Jōdo-shū and Chinese Pure Land teachers weigh effort and Other Power differently, and “letting go of effort” is not the same as giving up ordinary responsibility, which Shinran did not teach.

Sources

• A Record in Lament of Divergences (Tannishō), in The Collected Works of Shinran. Kyoto: Jōdo Shinshū Hongwanji-ha, 1997. Shinranworks online edition.
• Glossary of Shin Buddhist terms (entries “Other Power,” “Self-power,” “Shinjin,” “Primal Vow,” “Buddha’s benevolence”), The Collected Works of Shinran. Kyoto: Jōdo Shinshū Hongwanji-ha, 1997.
• Hōnen (Genkū). Senchaku Hongan Nembutsu Shū: A Collection of Passages on the Nembutsu Chosen in the Original Vow, trans. Morris J. Augustine and Kondō Tesshō. BDK English Tripiṭaka Series. Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 1997.
• Jones, C. B. (2019). Self-power and other-power in Chinese Pure Land Buddhism. In Chinese Pure Land Buddhism: Understanding a Tradition of Practice (pp. 61–84). University of Hawai‘i Press.

Erreur fréquente

Turning entrusting into a new effort — trying hard to have enough faith — which the glossary would call self-power again; in Shin terms shinjin is given, and the practitioner’s part is to stop calculating.