Two Truths
Shinran Shonin writes:
When we say “Namu-amida-butsu,”
The countless Buddhas throughout the ten quarters,
Surrounding us a hundredfold, a thousandfold,
Rejoice in and protect us. (Jōdo Wasan #110)
I’d like to begin this Dharma message by sharing a recent question asked via the website of the New York Buddhist Church.
Question: One person who considered himself a Buddhist told me that Japanese Jodo Shinshu Buddhists are solipsists because they do not believe that other people in our world have consciousnesses, sensations, feelings, emotions, thoughts.
Because according to the Conventional truth, other people have feelings, consciousness, thoughts and emotions.
But according to the Ultimate truth, other people have no feelings, consciousnesses, thoughts and emotions. Is Ultimate Truth Denying Conventional Truth? I want to ask:
Do the Japan[ese] Jodo Shinshu school recognize that all people in our world, all the people we see, all the people with whom we talk have thoughts, think, have memories, consciousnesses, feel sensations, feel feelings and feel emotions?
“Solipsist” is a philosophical term for someone who holds that there is no reality outside the mind. There actually is an early Mind-Only philosophy in early Buddhism. I just wish to point that out before continuing.
Anyway, this question is interesting for me because many of the profound teachings of our religion – Awakening, Non-Duality, ultimate Oneness – often do seem disconnected from our ordinary reality. How do we bridge the gap? We need to appreciate that there are two truths -- not only one -- for our better understanding.
This was my answer, see if it makes sense to you:
Answer: Thanks for your question regarding whether ultimate truth denies the existence conventional reality in Jodo Shinshu and whether the people with whom we talk have thoughts, think, have memories, feel sensation, feel feelings and feel emotions. I really have to smile at the second part.
Anyway, Jodo Shinshu is an authentic Mahayana understanding of Buddhism which is precisely and primarily directed towards ordinary people, living conventional lives, within the world which we see and perceive. The founder of Jodo Shinshu, Shinran Shonin (1173-1263 CE), understood and taught that Awakening Itself (Amida Buddha) calls and embraces all sentient beings without exception, exactly as they are. There is no issue of Ultimate Awakening or Reality denying the existence of anything in the conventional realm - it is all a matter of view or attitude.
Buddha taught that phenomena arise and fall. They are without substance. This is known as Impermanence. Buddha also taught that phenomena arise and fall because of causes and conditions (Dependent Origination). Buddha made another fundamental observation: Interconnectedness. Awakening Itself or Enlightenment is permanent and unconditioned. And yet phenomena and Enlightenment are interconnected. Only a Buddha (or truly Awakened One) can truly realize this in an absolute sense. So, where does that leave the rest of us? Well, Shinran says it is precisely in cultivating our ordinary lives that we get glimpses of the Ultimate, which embraces us just as we are, no matter what.
The relationship between conventional truth and ultimate truth has been understood in different ways in the various Buddhist schools or denominations across the centuries. The literature is truly vast and not a little confusing. However, very basically, Jōdo Shinshū is a Mahāyana School and follows the tradition of the Great Sage Nāgārjuna. Shinran identifies Nāgārjuna as the first of the Seven Masters in our Jōdo Shinshū lineage from Shakyamuni Buddha to the present. We frequently chant Jūnirai which was written by Nāgārjuna (or Ryuju).
Nāgārjuna, considered to be the greatest Buddhist teacher after Shakyamuni himself, taught a “middle way” between conventional and ultimate reality: “the Dharma taught by the buddhas is precisely based on the two truths: a truth of mundane conventions and a truth of the ultimate.” He said this in his treatise, Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Root Verses of the Middle Way).
We may not grasp precisely how all this works. But, when we don’t appreciate that there are two truths and how they are connected, we get all tied up in mental knots of our own making. In conventional reality we perceive ourselves, other beings, objects, time, space, etc. We need these things to get along with our lives. That is conventional reality.
But there is another reality. There are also the Ultimate teachings, Enlightenment Itself. When a loved one dies, we feel that they are gone forever, we suffer, and we fear our own death. However, knowing the Ultimate Truth that life is impermanent and that death is is part of a Greater Life makes the conventional reality easier to accept and gives it meaning. In the world of Ultimate Truth, we are always connected to one another. One who passes away is really not far away at all.
The way Shin Buddhists understand the Two Truths is in Nembutsu – The Name of the Buddha – Namo-Amida-Butsu. Namo (“I take refuge”) is Conventional Truth. Amida Butsu (“Light and Life”) is Ultimate Truth. But only when the two are joined together is it the Name-of-the-Buddha. One might almost say “My conventional reality takes refuge in Ultimate Reality.” This is the teaching Shinran passed down to us.
Let us be grateful for it and always say the Name!
(Gassho) Truly, we can say with Shinran:
When we say “Namu-amida-butsu,”
The countless Buddhas throughout the ten quarters,
Surrounding us a hundredfold, a thousandfold,
Rejoice in and protect us. (Jōdo Wasan #110)
Namoamidabutsu.
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