Causes & Conditions & Connections

Posted on by gyokyo

Quick post – in my Dharma Message for this Sunday, I talked about “causes & conditions,” and in doing so, I referenced a slide from a presentation by Duncan Ryuken Williams. I used it partly so that people could see the kanji for “go-en” and liked Professor Williams’s translation, “Mysterious Karmic Conditions.” But I wasn’t looking at the slide when I was doing the talk, and when I was inserting the slide from the presentation into the video, I realized it actually says “Mysterious Karmic Connections”! Oops! I wonder if anyone noticed?

go-en

They aren’t really that different, and yet the two terms, “conditions” and “connections,” could be seen as having different nuances. The term “conditions” is deeply connected to the discourse of cause and effect – as I discussed during the Dharma Talk, conditions are a more peripheral type of cause. Normally we may think of cause and effect as a one-to-one equation, but there are actually many supporting conditions that bring about the resultant effect.

One place that the discourse of causality can be seen is in the Four Noble Truths, which first explains that “life is suffering.” Next, the cause of that suffering is revealed: desire, or sometimes ignorance & desire. Then the cure is shown – by removing the cause, one removes the result, so if one can get rid of ignorance & desire, then suffering can be removed. This equation is a classic example of cause & effect in Buddhism.

But this isn’t the only way to understand conditions, and maybe Duncan Williams’s use of the term “connections” points to another powerful way they are understood in Buddhism. This is an acknowledgment of the vast inconceivability of the conditions that make up my being here in this present moment. It’s not only the conditions that exist in the present (or previous?) moment, but the conditions that led to them, and on and on. And I am connected to all of them. In fact, I only exist in this present moment in relationship to all of those conditions. Some forms of Mahayana Buddhism, such as the Madhyamika School, find the essential purport of this truth to be the Emptiness of all things. This is Wisdom, the last of the Six Perfections. There is a whole class of Sutra literature devoted to this approach to Buddhism.

But Jodo Shinshu seems instead to focus on the significance those various connections have for my life. Realizing that I only exist because of others, whether because of their efforts or even just their existence. I am only a child because of my parents – even though my parents passed away almost 20 years ago I am still a son. And I am also a nephew, a cousin, a grandson and I am only those things because of my aunts and uncle, my cousins, my grandparents. I am only a Buddhist minister because of so many others – not only my teachers but also the people who I want to keep talking to about the things I discussed in a Dharma Talk. Current temple members, but also people I never even met in person, who may have passed away before I was born. Maybe all of that energy is part of the Compassion energy of the Buddha, the dynamic activity of the Vow whose ultimate goal is for me to attain awakening.

Hey, this was supposed to be a quick post! I should keep going, but also need to get this posted so that I can go to bed! Here is the original Dharma Message:

Buddha Images – Maitreya Buddha

Posted on by gyokyo

maitreya 1st image

Continuing with the Buddha images theme, this is another image that I expected to be huge but was surprised when I saw it in person. One of the ways that I really got into Buddhism was through art, whether in my discovery of one of my father’s books on Japanese art, a set of postcards I discovered at the end of a semester abroad in Japan during college, or art books I would find in used bookstores. I forget where I picked up the catalog book The Great Eastern Temple but I remember being struck by the image of Maitreya Buddha – it looked so huge and imposing. Imagine my surprise when I went to Nara and saw the image in person – it’s only a little over 3 feet tall! Of course, if I had carefully read the description I would have seen that it was only 39 cm, but the metric thing probably didn’t help.

maitreya 1st image detail

I found the Japanese book at a used bookstore called “Book Off” – picked it up for 105 yen – that’s basically $1!

matreya book cover

I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was related to the English book that I had – they both appear to be related to exhibits, the Japanese one in 1980 at the Nara National Museum (which I believe is where I saw the image, though many years later), the American one in 1986 at the Art Institute of Chicago. They feature many of the same images, and yet the presentation varies slightly.

maitreya both books

For instance, the Japanese book also has a picture of the Maitreya image from an alternate angle:

maitreya alternate angle

I was fortunate too that both books came with documentation of the exhibits.

maitreya pamphlets

I might also point out the interesting identification of the image with Maitreya Buddha as opposed to Maitreya Bodhisattva. Usually Maitreya is considered a bodhisattva who will eventually attain Buddhahood in our world, but he is sometimes referred to as Buddha. This may be partly due to the understanding of Maitreya as having achieved the highest Bodhisattva stage, with the next stage being supreme enlightenment and perfect Buddhahood. A high level Bodhisattva such as this is basically a Buddha. Also, Maitreya is living his last life now in the Tushita Heaven, so when that life ends he will become the next Buddha of our Saha world. In a letter to a follower, Shinran Shonin mentions this:

…The Larger Sutra speaks of “[the stage] next [to enlightenment], like Maitreya.” Since Maitreya is already close to Buddhohood, it is the custom in various schools to speak of him as Maitreya Buddha. (Collected Works of Shinran, 528)

Shinran goes on to say that the person of Shinjin, the Entrusting Mind, is “like Maitreya.” One of the implications of this is that the person of shinjin, at the end of their life, will be born in the Pure Land of Amida and instantly attain Buddhahood, much like Maitreya at the end of his life in the Tushita Heaven.

Even though Jodo Shinshu stresses exclusive reliance on Amida Buddha, it is still interesting and enriching to study and enjoy other forms of Buddhism – there may be connections that we haven’t expected or foreseen. There may even be no connection, but it is also important to respectfully engage traditions other than one’s own. And actually, art may be one of the best ways to do this!

 

books and writing

Posted on by gyokyo

Dug up some books while trying to get things in order – here’s one:

Buddhahood Embodied: Sources of Controversy in India and Tibet, by John J. Makransky – this is a great book, I loved it during my first year at Institute of Buddhist Studies. It focuses on some of the “Buddha Body” theories of later Indian Mahayana Buddhism. The part I want to focus on now is the final chapter that looks at how the Four Noble Truths of the Nikaya Buddhist schools (such as Theravada) need to be reinterpreted in a Mahayana framework.

Part of why I am excited is that I am feeling an urge to really start writing. I have had issues with writing since high school if not earlier. It’s not that I can’t write, but I usually have a difficult time with it. I have a lot of ideas, many of which I have explored in study classes at temple, but haven’t really sat down and tried to write about them. That’s also a part of what this blog is about.