This is something that I found in my book about Genshin, the famous Buddhist scholar-monk of the 12th century who wrote the Ōjōyōshū. This is actually a quote that Genshin attributed to Jikaku Daishi, also known as Ennin, an eminent Tendai Buddhist monk in the past:
(Both) the person who pays obeisance, as well as the person who is the object of obeisance, are innately empty and quiescent.
The self and others are not, in substance, two.
I vow that, along with sentient beings, I will experience and understand the way,
Arouse the supreme aspiration [enlightenment], and return to the reality-limit.
Genshin was quoting this in the context of veneration of Amitabha Buddha, which is interesting as later Pure Land writers never really talk about this, but it has a much more “zen” sound, or rather, it reflects a fundamental Mahayana viewpoint about the nature of all things. It’s a shame such things are not discussed more in every day Pure Land discourse.
P.S. Title inspired by everyone’s favorite 1988 movie.
Gleanings in Buddha-Fields 