Featured Articles
Shinjin Now : Commentary by Rick Stambul
This comment reviews one aspect of a recent article by Rev. Jundo Gregory Gibbs (of the Oregon Buddhist Temple), entitled Existentializing and Radicalizing Shinran’s Vision by Repositioning it at the Center of Mahayana Tradition, as it appears in a wonderful book of essays, entitled Engaged Pure Land Buddhism, edited by Kenneth K. Tanaka and Eisho Nasu (1998 WisdomOcean Publications). Although this title is a bit off-putting to me, it hides a treasure of thought-provoking comments.
Rev. Gibbs has written many articles in the past twelve years about Shinjin that are informative and, to use his words, a “radical departure” from the view sometimes presented to us by the “Conservative Shinshu-gaku (the sectarian study of Jodo Shinshu as a separate field from Buddhist studies) ... namely ... the mistaken notion that Shinjin is rare.”
He writes that “Although it is best to treat Shinjin as an untranslated technical term, I have used the phrase ‘the encompassing heart and mind of true entrusting’ to convey what Shinjin is.” Some writers (and translators) use the word faith as synonymous with, and instead of, Shinjin. Others have criticized the use of faith in this way. From this writer’s viewpoint only, I have had much difficulty with the English word faith as substituting for the word Shinjin. For me, the word faith includes too much religious baggage (particularly from the Judeo-Christian tradition) to accurately convey what Shinran Shonin was talking about when he “recognized … Shinjin … as … the foundation of a new center of identity within ... the Pure Land tradition.”
Rev. Gibbs discusses the tension between the words faith and Shinjin in his monograph Understanding Shinran and the Burden of Traditional Dogmatics as it appeared in The Eastern Buddhist (New Series, Vol. XXX, No. 2, 1997). He says:
I find the argument of Ueda Yoshifumi and Dennis Hirota persuasive in rejecting such an approach. Their essential point is that shinjin cannot merely be faith because ‘shinjin refers fundamentally to the true and real mind of Amida, not an attitude of the mind of man.’
My insistence that this momentary recognition of the Nembutsu as Amida Buddha’s enacting of his promises is Shinjin will strike some conservative Jodo Shinshu Buddhists as arrogant. But if the experience of Shinjin is something too exalted to be identified with this quite accessible experience, the whole idea of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism being a path for common people is invalidated. [Emphasis added]
He adds, “The difficulty of its appearing vain to claim to have experienced Shinjin is resolved by remaining cognizant of the momentary nature of such experiences.”
As we all search for our own center, our own connection to what is true and real in this world, Rev. Gibbs emphasizes a new view of Shinjin, namely, that it is available to every one of us now, and it is available to all of us regard-less of any special knowledge or formal learning. He discusses the experience as a moment in time, however brief, in which something happens to those who have glimpsed the connection between themselves and Amida Buddha, who, to some writers, resides inside us all.
In a 1997 article entitled Shinjin as a Transfor- mation in Identity, Rev. Gibbs comments:
“Shinran Shonin clearly established Shinjin, the encompassing heart and mind of true reliance, as the cause of birth in Amida’s Pure Land. Shinjin and Nembutsu are taught by Shinran to be absolutely inseparable ...” and “... Shinran’s impact on Buddhist thought comes in large part from his articulation of Shinjin as the centerpiece of religiosity in Pure Land Buddhism.”
Where can any of us find our own experience of Shinjin? What will it feel like? Will we know it when we see it, or experience it? What if we’ve never encountered such a moment? Nothing can replace the Dharma or a good teacher. And although I found Rev. Gibbs’ article a difficult read (I worked my way through it many times before being able to appreciate the beauty of its teaching), I recommend it to us all as it seeks to illuminate an important aspect of Pure Land Buddhism that may spark a moment of clarity in this world of confusion.
© 2009 West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple Online
