The Many Names of The Nianfo

The nianfo (念佛) is widely recited across many cultures and languages by people who follow the Pure Land Buddhist tradition. In Japanese it is called the nembutsu (念仏), and that is the name I most often use on this blog. In Korean it is the yeombul (염불), and in Vietnamese it is the niệm phật. Just as the name differs by language, the phrase itself has changed pronunciation as it is adopted in other cultures and languages, just like the sutras did.

Let’s look at examples.

The original form of the nianfo (as far as I can tell) comes from Sanskrit language in India. In Sanskrit, “nianfo” was buddhānusmṛti (buddhānussati in Pāli language). The venerable site Visible Mantra states that it was recited like so:¹

namo’mitābhāyabuddhāya

In the Siddham script, still used in some esoteric practices, this is written as:

𑖡𑖦𑖺𑖦𑖰𑖝𑖯𑖥𑖯𑖧𑖤𑖲𑖟𑖿𑖠𑖯𑖧

From here, Buddhism was gradually imported into China from India (a fascinating story in and of itself), and because Chinese language and Sanskrit are so different, this was no easy task. Nevertheless, the buddhānusmṛti was translated as nianfo (念佛) and written as:

南無阿彌陀佛

This was how the Chinese at the time approximated the sound of the Sanskrit phrase. In modern, Simplified Chinese characters this looks like:

南无阿弥陀佛

But how does one read these characteres? That’s a fun question to answer.

You see, Chinese has many dialects because of geography, regional differences, and migration of people. Thus, even though Chinese characters are written the same (with only modest regional differences), the way they are read and pronounced varies. Thanks to Wiktionary, I found a helpful list to illustrate:

Dialect or writing system	Pronunciation
Mandarin, Pinyin system	Nāmó Ēmítuófó or Námó Ēmítuófó
Mandarin, Zhuyin (Bopomofo) system	ㄋㄚㄇㄛˊ ㄜㄇㄧˊ ㄊㄨㄛˊ ㄈㄛˊ, or ㄋㄚˊ ㄇㄛˊ ㄜㄇㄧˊ ㄊㄨㄛˊ ㄈㄛˊ
Cantonese, Jyutping system	naam4 mo4 o1 mei4 to4 fat6 naam4 mo4 o1 nei4-1 to4 fat6 naa1 mo4 o1 mei4 to4 fat6, or naa1 mo4 o1 nei4-1 to4 fat6
Hakka, Sixian or Phak-fa-su system	Nà-mò Ô-mì-thò-fu̍t Nà-mò Ô-nî-thò-fu̍t Nà-mò Â-mì-thò-fu̍t
Eastern Min, BUC system	Nàng-mò̤-ŏ̤-mì-tò̤-hŭk
Puxian Min, Pouseng Ping’ing system	na2 mo2 or1 bi2 tor2 hoh7, or na2 mo2 or1 bi2 tor2 huoh7
Southern Min (a.k.a. Hokkien), Peh-oe-ji system	Lâm-bû O-bí-tô-hu̍t Lâm-bû-oo-mì-tôo-hu̍t

Of these dialects, I am only familiar with Mandarin and (to a much lesser extent) Hokkien, so I can only trust the others based on Wikipedia.

Anyhow, China was a powerful, dynamic culture at the time, and it had a profound influence on its smaller neighbors such as the Korean peninsula, Japan, and northern Vietnam (a.k.a. Dai Viet). Just as the neighbors of the Romans (including the Byzantines) absorbed Roman culture, the neighbors of China did the same even though the languages were very different.

Thus, the nembutsu in these languages became:

Language	How to Recite
Japanese	Kanji: 南無阿弥陀仏 Romaji: Namu Amida Butsu
Korean	Hanja: 南無阿彌陀佛 Hangul: 나무아미타불 Romanization: Namu Amita Bul
Vietnamese	Chữ Hán: 南無阿彌陀佛 Quốc ngữ: Nam mô A-di-đà Phật²

What about Tibetan Buddhism? I am really unfamiliar with that tradition, so I might be wrong here, but my understanding is that Tibetan veneration of Amida Buddha stems from a different tradition, so instead of the nianfo, they recite appropriate mantras instead. Beyond that, I don’t know.

Anyhow, this is a brief look at how a simple Sanskrit phrase has evolved into so many traditions and ways to express veneration to the Buddha of Infinite Light. Thanks for reading!

𑖡𑖦𑖺𑖦𑖰𑖝𑖯𑖥𑖯𑖧𑖤𑖲𑖟𑖿𑖠𑖯𑖧
南無阿彌陀佛
Namu Amida Butsu

P.S. Another post despite my intended rest. The time off really has helped, so it’s been well worth it, but now I am eager to write again. 😌

¹ As I’ve written before, writing Sanskrit in the more modern Devanagari script is kind of pointless since Sanskrit was never written in that until late in history, long after Buddhism in India was gone. Sanskrit does not have a native script either, so the Roman Alphabet is as god as any.

² Brushing off my college Vietnamese, this is pronounced as “Nam-moe Ah-zee-dah-fut”.

The Pure Land and the Lotus Sutra

Years ago, I used to write down sutra verses I’d find (in English) into my little sutra book, but after a while I often forget what I wrote down. Recently I found this really fascinating verse from the twenty-third chapter of the Lotus Sutra, which I had apparently written down:

The woman who hears and keeps this chapter of the Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva will not be a woman in her next life. The woman who hears this sutra and acts according to the teachings of it in the later five hundred years after my extinction, will be able to be reborn, after her life in this world, [as a man sitting] on the jeweled seat in the lotus flower blooming in the World of Happiness [the Pure Land] where Amitāyus Buddha lives surrounded by great Bodhisattvas. He [no more she] will not be troubled by greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, jealousy, or any other impurity. He will be able to obtain the supernatural powers of a Bodhisattva and the truth of birthlessness. When he obtains this truth, his eyes will be purified. With his purified eyes, he will be able to see seven billion and two hundred thousand million nayuta Buddhas or Tathāgatas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the river Ganges.
Transalation by Rev. Sencho Murano

There is a lot to unpack here.

In Indian culture, it was felt that birth as a women was disadvantageous. This was probably due to the realities of the time: patriarchal society, extreme risks of childbirth in a pre-modern society with medical technology, dowry customs, etc.¹ So, the idea was that rather than being reborn again as a woman in the next life, the sutra promises that such a woman could be reborn as a man by being reborn in the Pure Land of Amitāyus Buddha.

Amitāyus Buddha is one of the names of Amida Buddha. It is also used in the Immeasurable Life Sutra, where one of the vows of Amida Buddha is the following:

(35) If, when I attain Buddhahood, women in the immeasurable and inconceivable Buddha-lands of the ten quarters who, having heard my Name, rejoice in faith, awaken aspiration for Enlightenment and wish to renounce womanhood, should after death be reborn again as women, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment.
Translation by Rev. Hisao Inagaki

Here, we see essentially the same thing: if a woman is weary of the challenges of womanhood, she can choose to be reborn as a man in the Pure Land of Amida (Amitāyus) Buddha in accordance with his vow. Should his vow fail, the Pure Land would not be. Since it does exist, the vow is certain.

You can read this in two ways, I think:

This reaffirms a patriarchal attitude that woman are inferior, and therefore being a man is better on the Buddhist path, or
Buddhism was realistic about the challenges of woman in a patriarchal society of the time, and therefore offered something not found in other religious paths.

I think it is up to the reader to decide. To be honest, in light of other aspects of the Lotus Sutra, such as the Parable of the Dragon Princess, or Shakyamuni’s prophecy of Buddhahood to his nun disciples, I am inclined to think that the latter interpretation is what the authors of the Lotus Sutra intended. The Lotus Sutra reads as something (relatively) progressive for the time.

Separately, it’s interesting that the Pure Land of Amida Buddha is even referenced in the Lotus Sutra at all, and both sutras use the same name, Amitāyus, not the more common Amitābha. Typically, Buddhism tends to treat the Lotus Sutra and the Pure Land as separate traditions. They overlap because they are both Mahayana-Buddhist traditions, but often people focus on one or the other.

Further, the Pure Land of Amida Buddha is not prominent in the Lotus Sutra. Instead, the “pure land” of Shakyamuni Buddha in chapter sixteen is the big reveal. So, Amida Buddha’s Pure Land is more like a backup singer in the band, or a spinoff character.

But, having had some exposure to Tendai-Buddhist thought, and seeing overlapping texts like these, I feel it’s clear that they were meant to be one tradition, not two. From the Lotus Sutra perspective, the Pure Land path is part of the larger progression toward Buddhahood. From the Pure Land perspective, Buddhahood is all but assured if you are reborn there because of the radiance and magnetism of Amida Buddha. So, it feels like they are two sides of the same coin in a way. If you add the Zen perspective of the Pure Land, things get even more interesting.

How one approaches all this is up to you. If nothing else, the Lotus Sutra shows that there are many gates, and many ways to approach the Buddhist path, but they are like rivers all feeding into the same ocean.

Namu Shakamuni Butsu
Namu Amida Butsu

P.S. Despite my “break” in December, I decided not to wait on this one. 😅

¹ One could make the argument that even now in 21st century modern society, life as a woman is still not an easy one. But imagine life when you were expected to have many children, and the average childbirth had a 10% chance of killing you each time, so many women did not live past their 20s and 30s. Further, if your husband was a terrible person, you had little if any recourse.

IDIC, Redux

Imagine a star in the sky, any star. It is a great big ball of hydrogen gas (some helium too). Its own mass is so great that it compresses its core with tremendous heat and pressure until it ignites a nuclear fusion reaction.

Through nuclear fusion (not fission as we use), hydrogen molecules fuse into helium, releasing energy each time. If the star is heavy enough it will eventually also fuse helium into things like carbon and oxygen. If the star is exceptionally big, it will fuse even heavier elements.

Such stars, when they reach the end of their lives, billions of years later, explode in dramatic fashion scattering all their fused elements into space. In a few more billion years, this material coalesces into another star, some planets, etc.

DELENN: We are all born as molecules in the hearts of a billion stars molecules that do not understand politics or policies or differences.

Over a billion years we foolish molecules forget who we are and where we came from.

In desperate acts of ego we give ourselves names, fight over lines on maps and pretend that our light is better than everyone else’s.
Babylon 5, “And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder” (s5:ep16)

Thus when you look at your own hands, or the cup of coffee you are drinking it is literally, and scientifically speaking, made from material that was fused in a nuclear reaction by stars that were destroyed many billions of years ago. This generation of stars is all but gone (the Universe is quite old), but we are their legacy. From ancient chemical processes, a near-infinite number of things have arisen. As the Vulcans in Star Trek would say: infinite diversity in infinite combinations (IDIC).

And yet, it’s easy to forget this.

We take our bodies for granted, as well as the things around us. We also assume they are permanent. A coffee cup is a coffee cup. Always will be. This gives rise to thoughts of “me” and “my things”. Survival becomes our primary motive. We are homo sapiens after all.

Evolution teaches us that we must fight that which is different in order to secure land, food, and mates for ourselves. But we must reach a point where the nobility of intellect asserts itself and says no. We need not be afraid of those who are different. We can embrace that difference and learn from it.
G’Kar, Babylon 5, “The Ragged Edge” (s5:e12)

But none of this is permanent. As the Buddha taught, we do not own anything. We don’t even truly own ourselves:

Rahula, any form whatsoever that is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: every form is to be seen as it actually is with right discernment as: ‘This is not mine. This is not my self. This is not what I am.'”
Mahā Rāhulovāda Sutta (MN 62) of the Pali Canon, translation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Thus, that cup of coffee isn’t really your cup of coffee. Your body isn’t really yours either. At most, you are borrowing that body (a gift from your parents, the universe, etc). That cup is in your care, but it will fall apart or go in the bin someday. Your children are in your care; you do not own them.

In time, like the stars that once forged the elements in your body, such things will be long, long gone. Dust in grand scheme of time.

P.S. Original IDIC post.

Above Reproach

Recently, while cleaning out old notes from my mobile phone, I found this quote from the massive Buddhist text, the Avatamsaka Sutra (a.k.a. “The Flower Garland Sutra”) which I apparently saved in 2022 (!). I cannot remember where in the sutra this quote comes from, but I probably meant to post about it sooner than later. So… three years later I am finally posting this quote:

The peaceful nature of the buddhas cannot be known

By the covetous or the malevolent,

Or by those shrouded in the darkness of delusion,

Of those whose minds are defiled by hypocrisy and conceit.
Translation by J.C. Cleary

As we’ve seen with the Yogacara school of Buddhism, what we think and do helps “color” the world we also perceive, and thus becomes a feedback loop. Thus, someone who is prone to lying assumes others lie too. Someone who is aggressive or domineering fears others will dominate him, and so on. This is the world they perceive because their minds harbor such thoughts. In the Pali Canon is a sutra wherein the usurper king Ajātasattu visits the Buddha for some spiritual advice. Later, the Buddha laments that due to Ajātasattu’s prior patricide, his spiritual progress will be limited at best.

Thus, the Flower Garland Sutra says that evil men cannot “see” the Buddha because their minds are too clouded by greed, anger and arrogance. Of course, they can physically see a statue or image, but they may learn little or nothing from it. They may as well be living on another planet. It does not resonate with them, and so they miss out on learning the Dharma. They will fall into evil rebirths, and may not gain another opportunity for generations, centuries, possibly longer.

Conversely, one who lives a clean life, and avoids harboring greed, anger, and arrogance will see the Buddhas. I don’t necessarily mean in terms of visions and such,¹ but they will see the Buddha-Dharma everywhere (even in awful places and situations), and learn from it. From there, their perception will only continue to grow and mature, leading to greater wisdom.

This idea isn’t limited to the Flower Garland Sutra. The famous sixteenth chapter of the Lotus Sutra basically says the same thing: those who live upright see the Buddha and his Pure Land here and now.

So, take heart. If you strive to keep your “house in order”, and avoid harboring ill-will and such, you will not fail to see the Buddha someday.

Namu Shakamuni Butsu
Namu Amida Butsu
Namu Kanzeon Bosatsu

¹ True story: in my 20’s, when my oldest daughter was a baby, and I was first exploring Pure Land Buddhism, I once had a really vivid dream, where I was offering armfuls of incense sticks at the feet of a statue of Kannon Bodhisattva. It’s the one and only time I’ve had a “Buddhist dream”, but I suppose it can happen to anyone.

Confronting a Suffering World

More than any other year in recent history, it seems like 2025 is a year where we are suffering more than before. It is frustrating to watch all this unfold, frustrating to know that even when you try to help, it feels like it makes no difference, and frustrating to see no light at the end of the tunnel. I feel a combination of denial, passivity, frustration, anger, despair, and everything in between, over and over.

IVANOVA: Damn it, John, there’s always too many of them and not enough of us. What am I supposed to do?

SHERIDAN: Fight them without becoming them.
Babylon 5, “Dust to Dust”, s3:ep06

But I’ve also been thinking about this a lot, and I realized that the forces of History are always in motion, even if we don’t see them. It can take years, or in some cases decades to see the bigger picture.

Claude from *Fire Emblem: Three Houses* saying “…but even while you’re standing still, the world keeps on moving. I always find that oddly comforting.”

But also, the little things we are doing here and now still matter. What happens to others who are suffering affects us, even if we are not consciously aware of it.

G’KAR: If we deny the other, we deny ourselves and we will cease to exist.
Babylon 5, “Point of No Return”, s3:ep9

Even those whom we oppose are suffering, even if we do not comprehend it:

If both sides are dead, no one will care which side deserves the blame. It no longer matters who started it, G’Kar. It only matters who is suffering.
Babylon 5, “Dust to Dust”, s3:ep6

So, simply standing back and letting history unfold isn’t enough. On the other hand it is just not possible to save the whole world. Even if I gave away everything I have here and now, it would be a drop in the bucket.

Instead, each one of us needs to find one small thing that we can dedicate ourselves to, for the good of others. In a Pure Land Buddhist text, The Larger Sutra of Immeasurable Life, the Buddha Amitabha started as a king, then a bodhisattva, and through tireless efforts over eons transformed his realm into the Pure Land through countless good acts, accumulated merit, and so on. This process was glacial, but it came to fruition nonetheless.

In the same way, each one of us when we dedicate ourselves to a cause, however small, it feels glacial. Nothing changes. But change does happen. As with the forces of History, things do unfold, but our actions help shift the currents of the “river of History” ever so little.

But even so, not every one will see this and understand. In the immense Buddhist tome, the Avatamsaka Sutra (a.k.a. the “Flower Garland Sutra”), is a famous quote:

On seeing a bodhisattva
Perform various practices,
Some give rise to a good mind and others a mind of evil,
But the bodhisattva embraces them all.
Original translation from the Collected Works of Shinran, courtesy of the Jōdo Shinshū Hongwanji-ha

This is the Mahayana Buddhist in a nutshell.

Namu Shakamuni Butsu

Namu Amida Butsu

P.S. Thanks to a bug in my blogging app I posted two posts at the same time last week. Apologies for any confusion.

Also, I am still resting a little from burnout, so no blog schedule for now. I wanted to at least finish some mostly-complete drafts for now.

Divine Intervention, Or Lack Thereof

Scotty: Thank heaven!

Spock: Mr Scott, there was no deity involved. It was my cross-circuiting to B that recovered them.

McCoy: Then thank pitchforks and pointed ears.
Star Trek, “Obsession” (s2:ep13), stardate 3620.7

In the host of world religions, Buddhism occupies a strange place. In one sense, it is a world religion because it is followed by many different peoples, cultures, and languages throughout its 2,500 year history.

But unlike other world religions there is no central deity, no creator.

Hold on, you might be thinking, what about the Buddha?

The Buddha is the central figure of Buddhism. He is the teacher, but in the Buddhist tradition he was once a person, just like you and me, who through countless lifetimes as a bodhisattva fully accomplished the path and awakened to the Dharma: the principles of existence. He taught the Dharma to his disciples, and they became the first generation of the Sangha, the community.

Thus, these comprise the Three Treasures of Buddhism.

But why do people pray to the Buddha?

Because the Buddha and all other such figures in Buddhism are not passive. The Buddha taught the Dharma out of compassion and goodwill for all beings, and the countless Bodhisattvas such as Kannon guide any sentient beings who take up the Buddhist path. Amida Buddha provides a refuge for all beings who wish to be reborn there.

Kannon (観音) Bodhisattva in her more motherly form.

The underlying theme isn’t Enlightenment for Enlightenment’s sake. It is to help beings who suffer so that eventually they too may reach Buddhahood (a.k.a. Enlightenment).

One does not have to pray to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. The most important thing is to put the Buddhist teachings into practice as one can. But in times of unease, uncertainty or crisis it’s perfectly fine to pray to a Buddha or Bodhisattva that you revere. I do it from time to time myself when I am worried about my kids, on plane flights, before surgery, etc.

But also, in the end, I am responsible for my choices, my words, and my thoughts.

When you plant melon seeds you get melons, and when you plant beans you get beans. [Effect follows causes] like a shadow follows a physical shape, like an echo responds to a sound. Nothing is sown in vain. This is called “believing in the result”.
Ou-yi’s Mind Seal of the Buddhas, translation by J. C. Clearly

I alone bear the fruits of my choices, words and thoughts.

Namu Shakamuni Butsu

Namu Amida Butsu

Namu Kanzeon Bosatsu

The Dynamic Duo of Zen and Pure Land

A few months ago, I made this post about how the Obaku Zen sect interprets Amida Buddha and the Pure Land. To my surprise, I keep reflecting on this phrase from time to time, almost like a Zen koan:

This mind is the Pure Land,
this body is Amida Buddha

This idea of merging Zen and Pure Land ideas is somewhat rare in Japanese Buddhism, but it’s surprisingly common in Chinese-Buddhist thought. Originally, I thought it was limited to later Ming-Dynasty Buddhism (which Obaku descends from), but similar strands of thought exist much further back.

A famous Chinese monk named Yongming Yanshou (永明延壽. 904 – 976) once wrote a poem titled the “Four Alternatives” (sì liào jiǎn 四料揀):¹

Lacking both Chan and the Pure Land, it will be the iron beds and bronze pillars [of hell] for ten thousand kalpas [eons] and a thousand lives with no one to turn to.

Having Chan but lacking the Pure Land, nine out of ten will stray from the path; when the realm of the aggregates appears before them, they will instantly follow it.

Lacking Chan but having the Pure Land, ten thousand out of ten thousand who practice it will go [to rebirth]. Having seen Amitābha, why worry that one might not attain enlightenment?

Having both Chan and Pure Land, one is like a tiger with horns [i.e., doubly capable]. Such a person will be a teacher in the present life, and a buddha or patriarch in future lives.
translation by Charles B. Jones, “Chinese Pure Land Buddhism, Understanding a Tradition of Practice”, pg 210

Yongming is advocating a supportive model where both Zen practice and Pure Land practice work in concert. The Pure Land path is the “safer” path to follow, due to the vows of Amida Buddha, but if supported by Zen practice here and now, one is really making progress on the Buddhist path.

Further, a later writer named Yunqi Zhuhong² (雲棲袾宏, 1535 – 1615) explained that these things were not mutually exclusive (Chinese added by me):³

To contemplate the Buddha (nianfo 念佛) is to contemplate the mind (nian-xin 念心). Birth there (in the Pure Land) does not entail birth away from here. Mind, Buddha, and sentient beings are all of one substance; the middle stream (non-duality) does not abide on the two banks (this world and the Pure Land).

Similarly, Ouyi Zhixu (蕅益智旭, 1599 – 1655) in his excellent work “Mind Seal of Buddhas” makes a similar argument: Zen and Pure Land practice are the same thing, just operating at different levels. You’re not forced to chose one or the other in your practice.

But such ideas aren’t limited to medieval Chinese-Buddhist monks. You can find such sentiments in Pure Land sutras themselves! In the Immeasurable Life Sutra is this passage (emphasis added):

“In this world, you should extensively plant roots of virtue, be benevolent, give generously, abstain from breaking the precepts, be patient and diligent, teach people with sincerity and wisdom, do virtuous deeds, and practice good. If you strictly observe the precepts of abstinence with upright thought and mindfulness even for a day and a night, the merit acquired will surpass that of practicing good in the land of Amitāyus [a.k.a. the Pure Land] for a hundred years. The reason is that in that buddha land of effortless spontaneity all the inhabitants do good without committing even a hair’s breadth of evil. If in this world you do good for ten days and nights, the merit acquired will surpass that of practicing good in the buddha lands of other directions for a thousand years.
Translation by Rev. Hisao Inagaki

In this passage, the Buddha is clearly advocating both bending your efforts toward rebirth in the Pure Land, but also making the most of the time you have here to undergo traditional Buddhist practices too because even a modest effort here is a great benefit in the future (both for yourself and others).

As I often tell my kids: “go nuts”!⁴

What I mean is: recite the nembutsu, meditate, uphold the precepts, or some combination thereof. You have nowhere to go but up.

But what if you can’t decide or don’t have the time?

In my opinion, start with the nembutsu. Begin just as you are, and recite it just 10 times daily. From there, add the Five Precepts when you are ready, and once you have that foundation, and are ready to branch out, then look into Zen practices. This make take months or even years. Take your time, go slow, and don’t be afraid to explore.

When I talk about the flexibility of Tendai Buddhism in Japan as well, this is what I am alluding to: start with something simple and small at first (such as a devotional practice), and gradually building upon it as you gain confidence and see the positive transformation in your life. Buddhism is kind of a SLOW, gradual religion, but like a glacier, once it starts moving, it has a wonderful momentum all its own even if you can’t see it.

Namu Shakumuni Butsu
Namu Amida Butsu

P.S. Featured blog image is another famous “Dynamic Duo”: Batman and Robin from the 1960’s series.

P.P.S. Posting kind of off-schedule just because it is fun. 😊

¹ I found this on Wikipedia actually and I thought to myself “wow, this person quoted exactly the same way that I would do!”, then I realized that I had put this on Wikipedia a few years ago. 🤦🏼‍♂️

² Pronounced like “yoon-chee joo-hong”.

³ Again, I managed to pull a quote from Wikipedia that I had unwittingly added years ago and then promptly forgot.

⁴ My kids ask me if they can watch TV, play Switch or whatever, and my frequent answer is “go nuts” [go crazy, have fun].

Sacred Trees in Japan and Korea

Sometimes when you travel in Japan, especially outside of Tokyo, you may come across like this:

A large sacred tree at Kasuga shrine in Nara, Japan. Taken by me in July 2023.

This is a large tree that has been growing for centuries within the precincts of Kasuga Grand Shrine in Nara, Japan. The tree, as you can see, has a large rope tied around it with small paper streamers. If you ever saw the Studio Gibhli movie Totoro, you can see a big camphor tree with a similar rope around it.

Sometimes you also find rocks and other natural things with ropes around them too.

A “shimenawa” around an “iwakura” (sacred rock) at Meigetsuin, Buddhist temple in Kamakura, Japan, courtesy of Wikipedia.

This is a Shinto-religious custom using a special sacred, hempen rope called Shimenawa (注連縄). The little paper streamers called called Shidé (紙垂).

Shimenawa are sometimes used to section off a sacred space, but they’re also used to enshrine places thought to house a local kami, such as a tree or rock thought to be sacred. Sometimes you also see them hanging over home Shinto shrines (kamidana, 神棚). The idea is the same: the paper streamers help deliniate a sacred space (the inner sanctum of your home shrine in this case).

Interestingly, I discovered that a separate, but parallel tradition exists in Korea too. This blog shows that in Korean traditional culture, people would enshrine local guardian spirits by tying a rope (금줄, Geumjul) around them, and decorating with colored cloths (오색천, Osaekcheon) or white strips of paper. Such sacred trees (당산나무, Dangsan-namu) and sacred rocks (누석단, Nuseokdan), are collectively called Seonangdang. They are very similar in appearance to the ones in Japan, so it’s not hard to guess that there’s some common religious tradition between both cultures, though the Wikipedia article linked above also suggests a potential link to Mongol culture too.

Shinto as a religion exists only in Japan¹ but it’s not hard to imagine that Shinto tradition drew from something much older that was shared across the Korean peninsula and Japan. Further, since it’s known that in early Japanese history that many Korean families migrated to Japan (the Imperial court sought their skills and technology), it’s quite possible the tradition was imported from Korea to Japan. Further, as this early Yamato court actively allied with the Korean kingdom of Baekche, it’s possible the cultural exchange went in that direction too.

Anyhow, it’s a fascinating example of how the two (or more) cultures have shared religious traditions for millenia, but few would notice.

¹ Barring colonial efforts in the early 20th century to introduce it to other Asian countries, but these did not have a lasting impact culturally.

The Art of Dying

One thing that really annoys me as a long-time Buddhist is the tendency for self-help and spritual seminars to cost so much money. I saw this advertised locally in my area for weeks, and the starting price for a seat is $250 for a backrow seat, which to me is totally bonkers.

The Dharma, as taught by Shakyamuni Buddha was freely given, and required nothing.

Having said that, as a counter to pricey spiritual seminars, I wanted to promote a concept: the Art of Dying.

DYING?!

It is a simple concept: you are going to die. You cannot necessarily choose the hour or manner of your death. But it will occur inevitably occur.

You do not have to take my word for it. Here’s a Buddhist sutra (freely given I might add) from the words of the Buddha:

There is no bargaining with Mortality & his mighty horde.

Whoever lives thus ardently, relentlessly both day & night, has truly had an auspicious day:

So says the Peaceful Sage [Shakyamuni Buddha].
MN 131, translation by Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu

The Lotus Sutra, a later Buddhist text but in my opinion the capstone of the Buddhist canon, describes this using the famous Parable of the Burning House in the third chapter. You can find Dr Burton Watson’s translation here (again, for free!).

But, to summarize the Parable, the Buddha Shakyamuni asks us, the reader, to imagine a great, big mansion that’s old, rickey, and so on. Then, imagine the house is burning. Deep inside, some kids are playing in a room, unaware the house is on fire. The father, having just returned from a trip, sees his kids in danger and calls out to them to leave the house at once. The kids, engrossed in their games, fail to see their situation. Finally, the father offers them great rewards if they leave (specifically carts of goods), and the kids finally come out.

The father, Shakyamuni Buddha, has left the burning house and stands outside. He calls to those in danger, namely the “kids”, to see their peril and to come out too.

What about the burning house itself? That is the world we live in, with strife, conflict, disease, chaos, aging, and death.

The late Thich Nhat Hanh wrote about this too:

“Imagine two hens about to be slaughtered, but they do not know it. One hen says to the other, “The rice is much tastier than the corn. The corn is slightly off.” She is talking about relative joy. She does not realize that the real joy of this moment is the joy of not being slaughtered, the joy of being alive.”
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching

This gets to the heart of the Buddha’s teachings: do not squander the time you have on this Earth. It doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy life and your loved ones, but remember: Death will not wait for it to be convenient for you.

When you hear this, your instinct might be the “live, laugh, and love”, indulge in all the fun things in life before it’s too late. But that’s not what the Buddha intended. When you look back at the Parable of the Burning House, the father wasn’t asking the kids to play more, he was telling them to get out before it’s too late.

Further, in the Mahayana tradition, one can get themselves out of the burning house, but helping and guide others to get out of the burning house is even better. One can call such people bodhisattvas.

But you can’t help others (let alone yourself) until you :

Recognize the situation
Put down your own toys and find the way out before you can help others.

This is part of the progression of the Buddhist path: get your foundations in order, increasing confidence in the Dharma (which you can see in your own life), and turning outward to help other beings.

But starting at the beginning, how does one establish a foundation?

Everyone is different, but generally it starts with some simple things:

Taking the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha as one’s chosen refuge (you can do this by yourself or in a community). You can setup a small shrine too.
Taking up an ethical life, such as undertaking the Five Precepts
- If all five are too hard, start with one, and work your way up over the months and years.
Cultivate metta:
- Say to yourself (yes, you): May I be well, may I be free from harm.
- Now think of loved ones: may they be well, may they be free from harm.
- Now think of all living beings (even the awful ones): may they be well, may they be free from harm.
Setup a reasonable daily practice. Think of it like exercise or stretching: if you start too aggressively, you’ll injure yourself and set yourself back. So start small, and build up.
- What does a daily practice look like? Some examples here.
  - If all else fails, simply recite the nembutsu.
- A small meditation practice can be beneficial too, but intention matters.
- Study the sutras. Not self-help books, but the sutras. Commentaries on the sutras, such as those provided by Thich Nhat Hanh are quite good and easy to find in used and independent bookstores such as Powell’s City of Books.
- Find worthy teachers and communities, not slick, overpriced seminars or cults. Caveat emptor.
Give yourself permission to screw up, then reflect on it, and move on.
Repeat. Buddhism is a long-term practice. “Play the long game“, but also remember you are on the clock. Time is short.

So, that’s your free teaching for today. Thanks for attending this seminar. Want to support the blog? Pay it forward or something. This is “Buddhism on a Budget”, and I strongly feel this is how Buddhism should be.

Namu Shakyamuni Butsu
Namu Amida Butsu
Namu Kanzeon Bosatsu

P.S. apparently this also a band with this name. As fellow PNW residents, I salute them.

Navigating Chaotic Times

VIR: I believe there are currents in the universe. Eddies and tides that pull us one way or the other. Some we have to fight, some we have to embrace.
Babylon 5, “The Geometry of Shadows”, s2:ep3

I really liked this quote from the science-fiction classic Babylon 5 (which I’ve been re-watching lately)¹ because it speaks to the sense that many things happen outside our control. Instead, we’re constantly pulled along by other forces, and some of these can be beneficial, others can be harmful, and simply just pull us in unexpected directions. Some of these currents are very strong and difficult to resist, some are barely noticeable until we look back.

Further, we don’t always know where these currents will take us. So, there’s always danger in choosing one course or another.

DRAAL: What’s the third principle of sentient life? It is the capacity for self-sacrifice. The ability to override evolution and self-preservation…
Babylon 5, “A Voice in the Wilderness (part 1)”, s1:ep18

I think intuition is not enough to navigate this mess. One also needs a set of independent principles to help guide one, and that’s where things like the five precepts of Buddhism really come in handy. It’s not a list of “don’t do” things, it is a list of training rules to help strengthen the mind, and benefit others.

Also, clarity of mind.

Rather than giving in to self-doubt, stay cool, and take things one step at a time, navigate eddies and currents, but also don’t lose your goodwill towards others.

At least, that’s how I see it. 😏

Namu Shakamuni Butsu

¹ Speaking of Shadows…

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