atarimae. having a sense of entitlement; YT pp. 118-120: …whenever we are successful or feel fortunate, we have a tendency to think that it is “atarimae” – we deserve it – and gratitude is farthest from our minds…If our society proceeds to put its emphasis on individual rights and “atarimae” based on existing law, egoism will create all kinds of problems at home and in society… Let me tell you a story of a young man who grew up in an environment where everything was “atarimae” where everything was taken for granted. This young man came from Japan last August as a student. One day he said, “Sensei, as I listened to your sermon this morning I realized how old-fashioned you are in your way of thinking. We as human beings have the right to live and therefore it is only “atarimae” that we live. Also, we have the right to demand happiness and therefore to have happiness is “atarimae.” You also spoke about filial piety; that, too, is really old-fashioned. In the first place, parents, having given birth to their children, are responsible to rear them. This is “atarimae.” We despise such old-fashioned thoughts as filial piety, indebtedness, being unworthy of, and “okagesama.” In any case, Japanese moralities are old-fashioned. On the other hand,” this student stated with pride, “the Western concept based on individual rights is just great.”
As this young student had said, the concept of individual rights is based on the spirit of our American Independence and the French Revolution. It is a concept based on the spirit of freedom, which destroyed the old and established system. In Japan, too, during the Meiji Era, the Western influence was very strong and the feeling of “Atarimae” became prevalent. As a result, the Teaching of the Buddha simply came to be regarded as an old-fashioned religion and many of the famous Buddhist Temples became merely a place for tourists to visit. …Then, what must we do? We must follow the path of non-ego. To do so, we must become aware of the following point: that is, we are not living because we have the right to live but rather we are living because we are given this opportunity to live.
…To the question, “How are we given this opportunity to live?” There are four major causes for our existence. First, we are indebted to the very place where we live. Since we cannot produce the sun (its light, its warmth, its energy), the earth, water, air –all of these things which are absolutely necessary for our very existence – we are indebted to all of them. Second, we are indebted to our parents, for we would not be here if it were not for them. Third, we are indebted to our fellow sentient beings. Through the cooperation of many, peace is possible; development of culture becomes a reality; transportation, sanitation, education become possible, allowing us to live in peace. Fourth, we are indebted to the many Teachings. If we did not have these Teachings, we would be no different from animals. Because of these many wonderful Teachings, we have learned to live in peace and happiness. If we can come to truly appreciate and realize the infinite amount of our indebtedness, everything will be embraced in the light of gratitude.
… In our daily life, every morning and evening, we take refuge in Amida Buddha and live in gratitude. This is the Light of Amida Buddha’s Compassion; this is the highest universal gratitude that we can feel. This is the natural feeling of gratitude which arises unhindered from the bottom of our heart. Whenever we think of Amida Buddha we feel His Compassion in deepest gratitude.
bombu. foolish being; CWS vol. 2 p. 187: a person possessed of blind passions and ignorance. One of the Sanskrit equivalents of foolish being is bāla, which has various connotations: immature, silly, stupid, foolish, ignorant. This term, however, is not to be understood in the conventional sense of these words, for it points to a profound religious awakening in which even the so-called intelligent person, when illumined by Unhindered Light and brought to awareness by the wisdom of shinjin, comes to realize himself as a foolish being who is forever motivated by blindly self-centered desires, attached to the fascinations of this evanescent world, and unable to resolve the contradictions of human existence thoroughly. In fact, Shinran says that true wisdom is brought forth only from the heart and mind of the person who has awakened to Amida’s great compassion, and in the light of that compassion realizes himself to be a foolish being.
bonnō. blind passions; CWS vol. 2 p. 172: A comprehensive term descriptive of all the forces, conscious and unconscious, that propel unenlightened persons to think, feel, act, and speak – whether in happiness or in sorrow – in such a way as to cause uneasiness, frustration, torment, pain, and sorrow mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and even physically for themselves and others. While Buddhism makes a detailed and subtle analysis of blind passions, employing such terms as craving, anger, delusion, arrogance, doubt, and wrong views, fundamentally it is rooted in the fierce, stubborn clinging to the foolish and evil self that constitutes the basis of our existence. When we realize the full implications of this truth about ourselves, we see that the human condition is itself nothing but blind passions. Thus, just to live, or wanting to live, as an unenlightened being is to manifest blind passions at all times, regardless of what we may appear to be. One comes to know this, however, only through the illumination of great compassion. Hence, awakening to one’s own nature is called the wisdom of shinjin, and the person who realizes it has already been grasped by Amida’s Primal Vow;
gassho. TBT: the act of placing the palms together to worship or show reverence; one of many ways of bowing, showing reverence; MK pp. 18-19: joined-palms; Anjali in Sanskrit. The Gasshō is considered one of the most beautiful of gestures and is the Indian gesture of greeting, farewell, thanks, and reverence. In ancient India, there were twelve forms of the Gasshō. In Jōdo shinshu, the first of the twelve forms is used. It is called the kenjitsushin Gasshō (steadfast-being-gasshō) and is formed by simply pacing the palms together at chest level and at a 45 degree angle. It is the symbol of the multitude of different things being, at the same time, One. Among Buddhists the world over, this Gasshō is used to express hello, goodbye, and thank you. As a gesture of reverence for the Buddha, this Gasshō is performed with a deep bow from the waist called Raihai. In later centuries, this Gasshō was adopted by the Christians as the gesture of prayer supposedly introduced by St. Francis of Assisi when he saw the gesture in the Holy Land being used by people from the east.
gochisōsama. an expression of thanks to the host for his or her devotion in preparing that meal – his or her efforts, time, attention, patience, thoughtfulness, etc.; CY pp. 20-21: Go is an honorific prefix, and sama is an honorific suffix, so the root of the word gochisō-sama is chi-sō. Chi-sō is written with the kanji character chi, which is written with a character that can be taken to mean “rushing on horseback,” and the character sō can be taken to mean “to run on foot.” In other words, chi-sō is an expression of thanks to a host who has run around gathering materials to prepare a feast. That reminds me of my mother who always ran around preparing my favorite dishes every time I returned home from studying at Ryukoku University in Kyoto. Itadaki-masu is an expression of thanks for a prepared meal, and more precisely, to the lives sacrificed in order to create it. Gochisō-sama is an expression of thanks to the host for his or her devotion in preparing that meal – his or her efforts, time, attention, patience, thoughtfulness, etc. The “head” referred to in the term itadaki-masu is the highest part of the body, just as the “foot” in the term gochisō-sama is the lowest. Thus, itadaki-masu symbolically means to receive with the highest part of our self, while gochisō-sama symbolically means receiving the lowest part of the host’s body. Both are the highest expressions of thanks that we can give at meals.
itadakimasu. I humbly and reverently receive this (without any sense of entitlement) CY pp. 18-20: Shinran Shōnin selected Nagarjuna (Ryuju in Japanese), an Indian Buddhist scholar/monk who lived during the 2nd and 3rd century of the modern era, as the First Patriarch of our Jōdo-Shinshū teaching. He was a great scholar and prolific writer who wrote the Junirai, the Twelve Adorations, which are verses in praise of Amida Buddha. As you all know, this Junirai is frequently chanted in our BCA temple services. In the Junirai, Nagarjuna extols Amida Buddha’s virtues and closes each stanza with o-ga-chō-rai-mi-da-son.” This phrase means, “Thus I praise Amida Buddha by chō-rai.” The word chō-rai in this phrase is written with two kanji characters. The first, chō, means “top” of the head, and the rai character means to venerate or to worship. Thus, chō-rai is “worshipping Amida Buddha (in the most humble way by putting his feet) on my head.” The kanji character itadaki of itadaki-masu is the same character as the chō of chō-rai; the only difference is how the character is read. The term itadakimasu thus means “to receive by putting on my head.” Both chō-rai and itadaki-masu mean the same thing, but chō-rai emphasizes respecting others, while itadaki-masu emphasizes the respectful way in which we receive things. I believe we are allowed to live only through the sacrifices of other forms of life. These forms include living things such as fruits, vegetables and animals, as well as what we consider to be inanimate things, such as water and soil. But in spite of our great indebtedness to them, we tend to take the sacrifices of these animate and inanimate beings for granted. It seems to me that those who live on a spiritual level cannot refrain from receiving these sacrifices with deepest humility and gratitude, by raising them to the level of their head. And that is precisely what itadaki-masu means. We must never lose sight of the fact that itadaki-masu means giving thanks not only to the meals that we receive, but more importantly, to all the materials that were used to create those meals, to all those beings whose lives we took by force. How can we not revere those sacrifices? It is only because they have given up their life that we are able to sustain our own.
mottai-nai. the essence or quality of “the thing does not exist”; CY pp. 13-15: …Mottai-nai is written with the characters for “thing” and “essence” and a negating suffix. The literal and original meaning of mottai-nai is, therefore, “The essence or quality of the thing does not exist.” …If we ignore the characteristics of these individual things and use them merely for our advantage, it means that we are killing the “life” in them. …Unfortunately…we have forgotten to look at the quality of things in nature for what they are; that is, we no longer look at things with an attitude that the thing in itself is sufficient reason for its existence. Stated in other words, a river is no longer considered just the flow of water. Rather, it is looked at in terms of how many kilowatts of power it can generate if a dam is built to stop its flow. A hill is considered only for the minerals that can be dug out of it. If a knoll stands in the way of progress, it is just leveled off. Trees are looked at only for the lumber they can produce, grass only for how many heads of cattle it will support. Similarly, rather than considering a person as a person with his or her own characteristics, we evaluate him or her based on what kind and quantity of work he or she can do. This attitude of looking at something only in terms of its utility can be said to be true not only in the world of nature or things that have forms, but also in the formless world of the mind and heart. The difference between ecology and Buddha-dharma is that ecology is concerned with the mottai-nai world of form while Buddha-dharma is also concerned with the formless mottai-nai world of the mind and heart. …If a child doesn’t like the lunch his or her mother put her heart into making and throws it away, that is really mottai-nai. But even more, Buddha-dharma teaches us that it means that the child is throwing away his or her mother’s loving mind and heart that led to her making the lunch. These are instances of mottai-nai in our daily life. I am sure that you can identify with all of them, which means that we cannot help but live a mottai-nai life. …In his book, Ichinyo, Reverend Yoshitaka Tamai states that mottai-nai means, “How unworthy I am!” This may seem quite different from the original meaning, but in terms of what mottai-nai is pointing to, I believe it is an excellent equivalent, because mottai-nai refers to the astonishment we feel when we become aware of ourselves who are killing the essential quality of things. That is what gives rise to the thought, “What an unworthy person I am!” … Further, this awareness is subjective and can be considered only in relation to ourselves. If mottai-nai is translated, how unworthy you are!” that would only be a statement on a moral or ethical level, and have no sense of its Buddhist nature, and that too, would be mottai-nai. …But we should note one thing very carefully. And that is, the reality of our daily life is that although there are differences in how far each of us can live in ecological harmony with our environment, we cannot, in fact, exist except by doing mottai-nai things. … The Jōdo-Shinshū teaching is that we always have Amida Buddha to return to. I believe that is the significance of the Jōdo-Shinshū teaching for us living in this modern consumer-oriented society. If Amida Buddha did not exist, those who compare themselves with others and proclaim, “I do not do the mottai-nai things they do, and therefore I am a better Jōdo-Shinshū follower than they!” would arise. If such an attitude prevailed, then signs such as mentioned in Article 13 of the Tannisho (Notes Lamenting Differences) stating that those who do such and such undesirable things will be prohibited from attending temple, might be posted at the entrance of our temples. But we are allowed to live solely because of the sacrifices of other living things. This morning I had some meat and vegetables for breakfast. For me, there is no way to truly appreciate the lives I consumed other than to devote myself to becoming a Buddha; otherwise, my living this life sustained by their sacrificed lives would truly be mottai-nai.
okage-sama(de). MK p. 65: honorific-shadows-honorific; An expression meaning “I’m fine thank you” used when answering the greeting “How are you?” The literal meaning is “Thanks to the many causes and conditions known and unknown (kage-shadows), I have the privilege of coming to this moment. Thanks to the powers that be, I am, thank you, well.” It is an expression of the interconnectedness of things, especially the unknown influence on our lives. DC: in the shadows, behind the scenes; TBT p. 35: a response in expressing one’s gratitude for one’s well-being which is owed to the efforts of everything around one; CY p. 8: O-kage-sama is a term that expresses the hearts and minds of those who realize they are allowed to be what they are solely because of the efforts of others, both seen and unseen. In other words, o-kage-sama is a term of appreciation not only for the direct cause, that is, the person who succeeded, but also to the indirect causes that helped him or her. In Buddha-dharma, those indirect causes are called en (conditions).
Buddha-dharma stresses the importance of conditions (en) over causes. The term used to express this idea is innen/engi (causal conditions/conditional origination). That is the difference between the dharma of innen/engi and the “law of cause-effect” in science, which puts the emphasis on cause.
shinjin. CWS vol. 2 pp. 206-207: One’s entrusting to Amida’s Primal Vow, which is at the same time the negation of one’s calculative thinking, brought about by Amida’s working. It denotes the central religious experience of Shin Buddhism, and literally means man’s “true, real, and sincere heart and mind” (makoto no kokoro), which is given by Amida Buddha. This heart-mind has basically two aspects: a nondichotomous identity wherein the heart and mind of Amida and the heart and mind of the practicer are one, and a dichotomous relationship wherein the two are mutually exclusive and in dynamic interaction. Used as an adjective, shin (which is different from the term Shin Buddhism) has the meaning of “true, real, and sincere.” As a verb, it means “to entrust oneself to the Buddha,” an act which is made possible by the working of the true, real, and sincere heart and mind of Amida Buddha. These two meanings are always inseparable. Thus, while shinjin is experienced by human beings, its source, contents, and consummation are to be found not in one but in Buddha. There are two points to be noted concerning the oneness that shinjin signifies. First, it is not a simple identity. According to Shinran, the mind of Amida Buddha is true, real, and sincere, while the minds of foolish beings are empty and transitory. Since “empty means not real and not sincere, transitory means not true” (Notes on ‘Essentials of Faith Alone’), shinjin is a oneness of that which is true and real with its exact opposite: They are one and yet two, they are two and yet one. Two express the structure of this oneness philosophically, the mind of the foolish being and the mind of Amida are identical and, at the same time, they stand in an opposition of mutual exclusion and negation, of truth and reality versus emptiness and transience. In religious terms, the oneness of shinjin expresses the working of great compassion (Buddha’s wisdom) taking persons of evil (foolish being possessed of blind passions) into itself, never to abandon them. The second point concerning the oneness of shinjin is that it lies at the heart of Shinran’s Buddhism, for it signifies the attainment of Buddhahood. Shinran’s teaching, then, is not one of salvation through “faith,” for shinjin is not a means to salvation but salvation itself. Its centrality can be seen in Shinran’s emphasis on Other Power, which “means to be free of any form of calculation” (Lamp for the Latter Ages). When one is free of self-power (the self-centered working of one’s mind from self-power is itself Other Power. In other words, Other Power is the Buddha’s power that has become one’s own as shinjin. It is the power of the heart and mind of the person in whom self-power falls away and disappears as oneness with the Buddha’s mind is realized. In the realization of shinjin one becomes a foolish being (bombu) for the first time in that one awakens to one’s own true nature, but simultaneously one attains Buddhahood that will be fully realized through the working of jinen hōni. This complex structure of shinjin is expressed in a number of important concepts. For example, since the oneness in shinjin means that persons of shinjin have attained the Buddha’s mind, which is itself Buddhahood that is to be fully realized at the moment karmic bonds are severed at the end of life, Shinran states that they are the equal of Tathagatas. “Equal” does not mean identical, but points also to remaining differences. A Tathagata is completely free of blind passions, but persons of shinjin are not. Nevertheless, the structure of shinjin is such that while they are human beings they are also Tathagata (Buddha), for they live by the Buddha’s mind (Other Power).
Jōdo-shinshū. CWS vol. 2 p. 206: Shin Buddhism. Shinran uses the term Jōdo-shinshū to mean the true essence (shinshū) of the Pure Land (jōdo) teaching of his master, Hōnen. His successors, however, came to use it for the name of their school, with Shinran as the founder, thus distinguishing it from other Pure Land schools that also claimed to succeed Hōnen’s teaching.
Sources
CY: Reverend Chijun Yakumo. Thank You Namo Amida Butsu. KazukoYakumo,1995
DC: Reverend Don Castro. Seattle Betsuin Buddhist Temple, 2004
TBT: Tacoma Buddhist Temple. Everyday Japanese Buddhist Terms. Tacoma, WA: Buddhist Education Committee, revised edition September 1991
MK: Reverend Masao Kodani. COCKTAILS. Los Angeles: SenshinTemple Publications,1992
YT: Reverend Yoshitaka Tamai. Ichinyo. South San Francisco: Heian International Publishing Co., 1981
CWS: The Collected Works of Shinran, Volume II. Introductions, Glossaries, and Reading Aids translated by Dennis Hirota (Head Translator), Hisao Inagaki, Michio Tokunaga, and Ryushin Uryuzu. Kyoto, JAPAN: Jōdo Shinshū Hongwanji-ha, 1997.