THREE MINDS
Shan Tao established the idea of the Three Minds, or the threefold spirit of Pureland practice. These three are the sincere mind, the profound mind and the mind that transfers merit toward the birth of all beings into the Pure Land of Amitabha. Now we all have a general idea about the meaning of sincerity and profundity, but in Pureland these terms also have a more specific connotation. Sincerity means genuineness, of course, but here it really means complete faith in the saving power of the Buddha. Profundity means going deeply into things, but here it means especially realising one's own bombu nature. The saving power of the Buddha reaches even poor cases such as ourselves. Transference of merit, thus also acquires a particular meaning. In all Mahayana schools there are practices by which we transfer merit to those in need. This is a cultivation of personal generosity. However, in Pureland, it is not one's own merit that really matters. What counts is the merit that Buddha transfers to us. We merely pass it on. Thus, in Pureland there is a renunciation of personal spiritual achievement. It is not about my own goodness. Virtues are all very well, but we are not here to make something of ourselves. We are here to dissolve into the great merit of the Tathagata. Nor is this in any way exclusive. One Buddha is all Buddhas. There are infinite manifestations of Dharma Nature, so we are not making something of our group any more than of ourselves. We are turning to the Light that is always, unimpededly everywhere and wishing similar benefit to all sentient beings, and we are doing it together, supporting one another. Namo Amida Bu.
NEMBUTSU DHARMA
As the first words of the day,
listen closely, hear me say,
“Namo Amida Bu -
I’ll soon be dead and so will you.”
Skin, flesh and bone by turns
will rot away and feed the worms.
The spirit left will never die,
merely merge into the sky,
one day, perhaps, to come again
as, after drought, comes the rain.
Many times returning, coming,
just as rain on roofs is drumming,
just as last year’s fallen leaf
now feeds a good man or a thief
or a saintly dame or tart
as the hoof leads on the cart
for karma is unceasing pain
for all the dross that does remain
when blindly we poor mortals go
from foolish folly unto woe
and it’s no victory at all
to come again into this fall
unless and only by the vow
to be whatever, here and now,
the Buddhas do for us prescribe,
we and all our motley tribe,
not by posing, being good
will we escape the poisonous wood,
but by experiment with strewth,
facing life’s most dreadful truth:
all this and this will pass away
no matter what you do or say.
Matters not what’s glad or fond,
abandon hope and go beyond
everything that’s small or great,
made by man or gods or fate;
say now, before it is to late,
everything that comes to you
everything you ever do
just, “Namo Amida Bu!”