Listen to the teaching of the vow

Make hearing the Dharma — how the vow arose and was fulfilled — the ground of practice, as Shin Buddhism does.

Pourquoi ça marche

The Larger Sutra’s fulfilment passage speaks of beings who, “having heard his Name, rejoice in faith.” Shinran glosses that word in the Chapter on Shinjin: “hear” means that beings, “having heard how the Buddha’s Vow arose – its origin and fulfillment – are altogether free of doubt. This is to hear.” In this reading, entrusting is not manufactured by willpower but awakened by hearing. Rev. Marvin Harada of the Buddhist Churches of America describes Shin Buddhism as “a path of listening to the teachings in one’s everyday life,” in which anyone can recite the Name and listen to the Dharma.

Comment faire

1. Find a Dharma talk, a temple service, or a study class in the Shin or Jōdo-shū tradition, in person or recorded.
2. Listen for the story itself — Dharmākara’s vows and their fulfilment — rather than for techniques.
3. Notice the doubts that come up, and let them be part of what you bring back to listen again.
4. Read a short passage of Shinran or the Tannishō slowly, and return to the same passage on another day.
5. Talk about what you heard with a minister or fellow listeners; in Shin communities the teaching is shared.

Données probantes

The fulfilment passage is section 22 of the Larger Sutra in the Inagaki translation; Shinran’s gloss on “hear” is in the Chapter on Shinjin; the description of Shin Buddhism as a path of listening is from a Buddhist Churches of America overview by Rev. Marvin Harada. The support is textual and community-based. (anecdotal)

Not studied. Shin communities have their own terms and customs for listening to the teaching, which a local temple can explain better than a general page.

Sources

• Inagaki, H. (trans.), in collaboration with Stewart, H. The Three Pure Land Sutras: The Larger Sutra on Amitāyus, The Sutra on Contemplation of Amitāyus, The Smaller Sutra on Amitāyus. Revised second edition. BDK English Tripiṭaka Series. Berkeley/Moraga: BDK America, 2003 (first edition 1995).
• Shinran. The True Teaching, Practice, and Realization of the Pure Land Way (Kyōgyōshinshō), Chapter on Shinjin, in The Collected Works of Shinran. Kyoto: Jōdo Shinshū Hongwanji-ha, 1997.
• Harada, M. (Center for Buddhist Education, BCA). The Buddhist Churches of America (BCA): Jodo Shinshu Churches or Temples in America. Buddhist Churches of America, Southern District Ministers’ Association.
• A Record in Lament of Divergences (Tannishō), in The Collected Works of Shinran. Kyoto: Jōdo Shinshū Hongwanji-ha, 1997. Shinranworks online edition.

Erreur fréquente

Listening as if to collect information, then trying to produce faith from it — in Shinran’s gloss, hearing is complete when doubt falls away, which is something that happens in the hearing, not something added afterwards.