Prolepsis—being an equal of the Buddha—possible steps towards reconciling modernists and traditionalists

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Zhen Li
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Prolepsis—being an equal of the Buddha—possible steps towards reconciling modernists and traditionalists

Post by Zhen Li »

Hello, I hope you all are well.

I have been thinking a lot recently about ways to reconcile or see past differences between modernist and traditionalist approaches to the Pure Land.

To briefly characterise the positions of both, modernists, for instance, would hold that the passage quoted by Shinran in the Notes on Once-Calling and Many-Calling, that:
All sentient beings, as they hear the Name,realize even one thought-moment of shinjin and joy, which is directed to them from Amida’s sincere mind, and aspiring to be born in that land, they then attain birth and dwell in the stage of nonretrogression.
Is indicating that birth is attained in this life upon the realisation of Shinjin. This is particularly vehemently suggested by Suzuki, who was coming an esoteric Kanazawa sect of Shin that taught birth in this life.

Traditionalist approaches suggest that this is to misread such a passage, that "birth and dwell" go together and that this is not talking about birth in the Pure Land but rather birth onto the stage of non-retrogression. Maybe this is expressed more clearly in Shinran's notes on this passage below:
They then attain birth: then (soku) means immediately, without any time elapsing, without a day passing.

Soku also means to ascend to and become established in a certain rank.

Attain means to have attained what one shall attain.

When one realizes true and real shinjin, one is immediately grasped and held within the heart of the Buddha of unhindered light, never to be abandoned.

“To grasp” (sesshu) means to take in (setsu) and to receive and hold (shu). When we are grasped by Amida, immediately – without a moment or a day elapsing – we ascend to and become established in the stage of the truly settled; this is the meaning of attain birth.
That is to say, birth in the Pure Land is not at all implied by attaining Shinjin, but attaining birth into the rank of non-retrogression. Whether this is what Seikaku meant I am not sure, bit it seems that Shinran is trying to pull back from an interpretation that sees rebirth occuring in this life.

But there is a degree of prolepsis in Shinran's talking about this, so that in a certain sense we can talk about birth in this life. For instance:
In these words of the two honored ones we find stated the significance of they then attain birth; that is, to become established in the stage of the truly settled thus is itself to dwell in the stage of nonretrogression. When a person becomes established in this stage, he or she becomes one who will necessarily attain the supreme great nirvana; hence, it is taught that one realizes the equal of perfect enlightenment, or avaivartika, or avinivartaniya. It is also said one “immediately enters the stage of the definitely settled.”
Prolepsis is defined in the OED as:
2.a. The action or fact of representing or regarding (esp. as a rhetorical figure, originally in speech or writing) something in the future as already done or existing; anticipation; an instance of this. Also: use of or reference to a name, event, etc., in relation to too early a date; = prochronism n.
It seems that Shinran, and perhaps other Pure Land masters, is quite fond of using prolepsis. For instance, Maitreya Bodhisattva is called Maitreya Buddha because he is essentially determined to be a Buddha. Thus when we say someone who attains Shinjin is "the same as Maitreya in that they will attain the supreme nirvana," this is to say that someone attains Buddhahood and hence birth in the Pureland upon receiving Shinjin, and yet it is not so temporally—time is squashed in prolepsis, it is practically a certainty.

When talking in a non-literary way, for instance, in his letters, Shinran always talks about birth of others as something that occurs upon death. He also talks about his attainment of birth in the Pure Land as something foreboding in his old age, something that will come after he dies. If he was completely on the side of the idea of full birth in this life, then he would speak about himself as in the Pure Land already. While this can be done in a literary device, it cannot be done in everyday speech. We, and he at the time, afterall, are still ordinary bombus.

And yet, Shinran's passages giving synonyms for shinjin in the KGSS make it clear that shinjin itself is Buddha-nature and Dharmakāya. We touch the completion stage of the path, and yet we are still incomplete. So, there are multiple layers at which we can both talk about birth as having occured and not having occured, while not being inconsistent. In this sense, having attained shinjin, we can in a sense attain nirvāṇa without severing blind passions. We know this world is the sahā world and yet everything is a manifestation or display of awakening as in the Pure Land as manifested as compassionate means:
This Tathagata pervades the countless worlds; it fills the hearts and minds of the ocean of all beings. Thus, plants, trees, and land all attain Buddhahood.
But this is entirely on the side of Tathāgata and not at all on the side of ordinary beings. Thus if one with shinjin does any good, it is not at all their own doing but can be known entirely as the work of the Tathāgata. We are both Tathāgata in essential nature, while still being connected to the skandhas and defilements until death:
A Collection of Letters, 3 wrote:Further, concerning being equal to Tathagata: illuminated by the light of the Buddha, foolish beings possessed of blind passions attain shinjin and rejoice. Because they attain shinjin and rejoice, they abide in the stage of the truly settled. Shinjin is wisdom. This wisdom is the wisdom attained because we are grasped by the light of Other Power. The Buddha’s light is also wisdom. Thus we can say that the person of shinjin and the Tathagata are the same. “Same” means that, in shinjin, they are equals. The stage of joy signifies the stage in which people rejoice in shinjin. Since a person rejoices in shinjin, he or she is said to be the same as the Tathagata.

I have copied here what the Shonin has written in detail.
So, we can in a sense speak of this partially impure nirvāṇa wherein we are still stuck with a mind of blind passions which will act out of karmic habituation, and which is dualistic and thus cannot see its true nature and also cannot rejoice at it, and still it is connected to the fire which is Amida's mind as Dharmakāya. This is a fire which burns our mind, which is a log, such that when it is entirely burned up, upon death, we are entirely (read below, "completely") born.
Lamp for the Latter Ages, 21 wrote:When a person has entered completely into the Pure Land of happiness, he or she immediately realizes the supreme nirvana; he realizes the supreme enlightenment. Although the terms differ, they both mean to realize the enlightenment of the Buddha who is dharma-body. As the true cause for this realization, Bodhisattva Dharmakara gave us the Vow of Amida Buddha; this is known as directing virtue for the sake of our going forth in birth. This Vow of directing virtue is the Vow of birth through the nembutsu. To entrust oneself wholeheartedly to the Vow of birth through the nembutsu and be single-hearted is called wholehearted single practice. In terms of the Tathagata’s two forms of giving, true shinjin is to entrust oneself to the Vow of giving and be single-hearted; this shinjin arises from the working of the honored ones, Sakyamuni and Amida.
I don't know if anyone has suggested this idea of complete and incomplete birth, before. I think this may help in some way reconcile these two ways of thinking about and speaking about the Pure Land.

This consideration was prompted when I was asked about whether birth is in this life or in the next life. I found I couldn't provide an adequate answer but I know deep down that it could not be right to say either yes or no to either option. Is one born in this life or the next life? The answer to this can only be yes, one is born in this life and the next life. With a dualistic mind we say we only are on the rank of non-retrogression. From the ultimate perspective we are already Buddhas. We can't realise that with our foolish minds now, and must wait until death, but it is nonetheless already the case.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this matter.

Namo Amida Butsu
:anjali:
steveb1
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Re: Prolepsis—being an equal of the Buddha—possible steps towards reconciling modernists and traditionalists

Post by steveb1 »

The answer to this can only be yes, one is born in this life and the next life.

From my non-scholarly and admittedly narrow reading on the subject, I agree. There seem to be no contradictions, at least no insurmountable ones.

To borrow from the Christian paradigm: for Christians, salvation is both "here" and "more than here". Christians claim to be redeemed in this life, and at the same time gain their foothold in heaven. Likewise, the Gospel Jesus taught the present, here-and-now in-breaking of the Reign of God in this life, but also taught that the transcendental heaven is also real. The two do not cancel each other out. They are grace-fully complementary.

By analogy, In Jodo Shinshu/Shin Buddhism, the Buddha's gift of Shinjin enables us to enter the state of non-retrogression here-and-now, while at the same time it guarantees our foothold in the Pure Land (which entails the full realization of our Buddha Nature and we ourselves become Buddhas).

Simplistic though it might be, that's how I see it at the present time. Thanks to the OP for another thoughtful, intriguing post.
:)
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FiveSkandhas
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Re: Prolepsis—being an equal of the Buddha—possible steps towards reconciling modernists and traditionalists

Post by FiveSkandhas »

All of medieval Japanese Buddhism was hugely influenced by prolepsis. Its most radical manifestations arguably are found in the more extreme strains of Tendai "Original Enlightenment thought" (本覚思想). Here we see the almost total collapse of any sense of linear temporal progression from "ordinary mind" to "enlightened mind". In a similar vein, Shingon taught 即身成仏 or "Buddhahood in this very body," and Kukai famously stated: “with a single glance [at certain esoteric images] one becomes a Buddha.” The prolepsis of Heian era esoteric Buddhism stood in sharp contrast to the more "classical" Nara era assumption that Buddhahood was something only attainable in the incalculably distant future for almost everyone.

While Kamakura Buddhism in many ways represented a reaction against Heian-style Shingon and Tendai, it was also deeply shaped by it, and it is thus also steeped in prolepsis. Most of the Kamakura era sects were founded by people who spent their formative years as Tendai trainees, and they carried certain core assumptions of Heian era Buddhism forward with them, even as they rebelled against it. Thus prolepsis not only survived but decidedly thrived in the "new Buddhism."

As one example, Soto sect founder Dogen emphasized the "oneness of practice and realization" and wrote of the nature of time in a way that denied strict lineal progression. Other Zen teachers rhapsodized about the importance of "ordinary mind." Nichiren explicitly stated that enlightenment in this lifetime was possible through his favored practice of chanting the Daimoku.

In Kamakura-era Pure Land thought, too, prolepsis is more prominent than later scholars seemed to recognize. Honen Shonin is perhaps the most distant from it, but the same cannot be said for many of his successors, particularly in the Jodoshu's Seizan branch

Turning at last to Jodo Shinshu, there are all sorts of quotes in the Kyogyoshinsho that at the very least imply a deep unity between the present and the future. Zhen Li has quoted several above. The relationship between the believer and Amida Buddha must also be pondered in light of basic Mahayana shunyata, which Shinran Shonin embraced fully in my opinion.

Perhaps even more explicit prolepsis can be found in the anonymously authored Anjin Ketsujo Sho, which Master Rennyo called "A treasure trove" and which has long been treasured as a Jodo Shinshu classic. Consider the following quote:
"...It is to be noted, however, that Amida has already accomplished our Pure Land birth by fulfilling for each of us our vow and its attendant practices. As the requirement of the vow and practices has been fulfilled, thereby securing Pure Land birth for every living being throughout the ten directions, Amida has thus consummated the "Perfect Enlightenment of the Namuamidabutsu" in which those to be saved (ki) and Amida himself (ho) are one.

Therefore, there is no Pure Land birth of any ordinary living being apart from Amida's Perfect Enlightenment. Amida entered Perfect Enlightenment when the Pure Land birth of every living being was accomplished, and thereby Amida's Perfect Enlightenment and our Pure Land birth were achieved simultaneously.
It's hard to get more clear-cut than that...

Also worthy of consideration is Ippen Shonin, founder of the small and often overlooked Jishu pure land tradition. His thought is too subtle for me to delve into in this already-lengthy post, but suffice it to say he uses prolepsis in a very profound, conspicuous, and original way.
"One should cultivate contemplation in one’s foibles. The foibles are like fish, and contemplation is like fishing hooks. If there are no fish, then the fishing hooks have no use. The bigger the fish is, the better the result we will get. As long as the fishing hooks keep at it, all foibles will eventually be contained and controlled at will." -Zhiyi

"Just be kind." -Atisha
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Zhen Li
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Re: Prolepsis—being an equal of the Buddha—possible steps towards reconciling modernists and traditionalists

Post by Zhen Li »

Thank you for these interesting replies.

The suggestion that Kukai is also using prolepsis is interesting, and didn't occur to me as a possibility before.

I do think that to an extent prolepsis and original enlightenment are not necessarily the same, though that doesn't mean they are in contradiction. If something is said proleptically, I would think that it is not so now, but is practically so because it is determined to be true in the future. This does not quite collapse time or suggest original englightenment in the way Dogen or Kukai are saying, but some people have interpreted Shinran as doing that. Rather, it is more of a literary device.

We are not cut off from Buddha nature in Shinran's thinking, but the realisation of it in the sense described by Kukai is truly the result of practice on the path of the sages. So, it seems to me that the faith that proleptically, rather than literally, realises Buddha-nature, is happening at a cognitive level. This is why we can receive this diamond-like knowledge or belief, without necessarily having the transformation of cognition described in the Avatamsaka Sutra.

At the same time, since shinjin is the Tathāgata's mind, it is equal to realisation of Buddhahood in this very body—and yet it is also fundamentally different, blind passions are not cut off. So I suppose I would admit that these realisations are both the same and different. Another both "yes and no" situation.
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