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设为首页Response to Thomas P.Kasulis review of Letters of Shinran
·期刊原文
Response to Thomas P.Kasulis' review of Letters of Shinran
By Yoshifumi, Ueda
Philosophy East and West
Vol.46 No.3 (October 1981)
pp.507-511
Copyright by University of Hawaii Press
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p.507
We greatly appreciate the review of Lettevs of Shinran. A Translation of Shinran's Mattooshoo, the first volume of the Shin Buddhism Translation Series, by Professor Thomas P. Kasulis (Philosophy East and West, 21, no. 2, [April, 1981]). Professor Kasulis' remarks have been very helpful, and a number of his suggestions have already been adopted in later volumes of the Shin Buddhism Translation Series. We should like, however, to clarify several of the points raised concerning our use of the romanization--rather than a translation--of the term shinjin
I. THE REASON FOR NOT USING "FAITH"
Professor Kasulis has rightly noted that we have avoided using "faith" as a translation for shinjin because "the term 'faith' is not only misleading as an equivalent, but also ambiguous as an English term itself." Of these two reasons, however, the ambiguity of the word is secondary. Terms with profound religious or philosophical meaning tend to be rich in implication and thus potentially ambiguous; even though "faith" may be particularly troublesome, as Tillich has noted, ambiguity is not a problem confined to it alone. If "faith" did indeed communicate the essential meaning of shinjin, then despite its ambiguity it would remain a useful term in translation, superior to simple romanization, which conveys no meaning at all.
It might be argued, for example, that "faith" expresses certain aspects of shinjin--such as entrusting or being free of doubt--and that use of the term would help place Shinran's teaching in the context of Buddhist tradition, or more broadly, among the religious traditions of man. We have felt, however, that using "faith" to translate shinjin would create a serious obstacle in transmitting the essence of Shinran's thought, which is our primary goal. Only rarely will a misleading translation of a single term make the entire work of a religious thinker--from its foundations through all its ramifications-impossible to grasp. But this is the case with shinjin. It is not merely one among a number of key terms crucial for understanding Shinran's thought; to understand it truly is to grasp his Buddhist teaching.
The fundamental difference between shinjin and faith is that while the concept of faith stands on the duality of God (creator) and man (created), shinjin is the oneness of Buddha and man, or man's becoming a buddha. In Shin Buddhist doctrine, this oneness is expressed as ki-hoo ittai--the "oneness of ki (the object of the Primal Vow's salvation, that is, the foolish being of karmic evil and blind passion) and hoo (dharma, that is, Amida Buddha)" in the Name of Amida, Namu-amida-butsu-and as butsu-bon ittai
p.508
man, butsu-hon ittai indicates the point of realizing shinjin, when Buddha's mind and the mind of the sentient being hecorne one, and ki-hoo ittai characterizes the condition of having realized shinjin, which is none other than the nembutsu. Shinran writes in his Koosoo Wasan
Mugekoo no riyaku yori Through the benefit bestowed by unhindered light
itoku koodai no shin o ete One realizes the vast shinjin of trans-cendent virtues:
kanarazu bonnoo no koori toke Unfailingly the ice of blind passion melts
sunawachi bodai no mizu to naru. And immediately becomes the water of enlightenment.
Zaishoo kudoku no tai to naru; The oneness of obstructing evils and virtues has come about;
koori to mizu no gotoku nite
koori ooki ni mizu ooshi
sawari ooki ni toku ooshi.
It is like the relation of ice and water:
Much ice means there is much water,
Many hindrances mean many virtues.
(T83, 661c; Shinshuu Shoogyoo Zensho II, 505-506)
The first verse states that for a person to realize shinjin is for the ice of his blind passions (the mind of the foolish being) to become the water of enlightenment (the mind of Buddha); this is butsu-bon ittai. The second verse expresses ki-hoo ittai as the oneness of obstructions to enlightenment (the practitioner possessed of blind passions) and the Buddha's virtues (great compassion, which has karmic evil as its substance).
There are two points to be noted concerning the oneness that shinjin signifies. First, it is not a simple identity. According to Shinran, the mind of Amida Buddha is true, real, and sincere, while the minds of foolish beings are empty and tansitory. Since "empty means not real and not sincere, transitory means not true,"' ki-hoo ittai indicates a oneness of that which is true and real with its exact opposite. Thus, to borrow the words of D. T. Suzuki, "The oneness of hoo and ki does not interfere with their duality; they are one and yet two, they are two and yet one."' To express the structure of this oneness philosophically, ki and hoo are identical, and, at the same time, they stand in an opposition of mutual exclusion and negation--of truth and reality versus emptiness and transience. Conversely, Buddha and sentient being come to stand in a relationship of mutual negation and contradiction because they are one. Expressed in religious terms, the oneness of shinjin is great compassion (Buddha's wisdom) taking the person of evil (foolish being possessed of blind passions) into itself, never to abandon him. The illiterate myookoonin
Watashi no kokoro ga My heart and mind
anata no kokoro is your heart and mind,
anata no kokoro ga your heart and mind
watashi no kokoro is my heart and mind.
watashi ga anata ni It's not
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naru no ja nai ga that I become you---
anata ga watashi ni it's this heart and mind
naru kokoro in which you
become me.
The second point concerning the oneness of shinjin is that it lies at the heart of Shinran's Buddhism, for it signifies the attainment of Buddhahood. Shinran's teaching, then, is not one of salvation through "faith," for shinjin is not a means to salvation but salvation itself. Its centrality can be seen in Shinran's emphasis on Other Power, which "means to be free of any form of calculation" (Letters of` Shinran, p. 39). When one is free of self-power (the self-centered working of one's intellect and will to achieve salvation), this freedom of one's own heart and mind from self-power is itself Other Power. In other words, Other Power is the Buddha's power that has become one's own. It is the power of the heart and mind of the person in whom self-power falls away and disappears as oneness with the Buddha's mind is realized. To live by this power is jinen hooni
In the realization of shinjin a person becomes a foolish being (bombu
The moment one has realized shinjin, one becomes such a human being; hence, to have realized slzinjin is "the immediate attainment of birth in the Pure Land" (for Shinran, "birth" has the same significance as attaining Buddhahood). It is further called entering the stage of nonretrogression. When, in the process of listening to the teaching or seeking salvation, a person first arrives at oneness with Buddha, he is said to have reached the stage of nonretrogression, for he will never again revert from this oneness to his former state. In Mahaayaana Buddhism generally, nonretrogression is attained with the first arising of murochi (wisdom free of blind passions) and the "seeing" of .suchness beyond the subject-object dichotomy. the duality of self and other,
p.510
and even the duality of sattva and Buddha. For Shinran, it is attained with the realization of shinjin. The complex oneness of shinjin reflects the same structure that is the essential characteristic of all Mahaayaana Buddhist thought: in Shinran, it is expressed as Other Power turning itself over to man for this attainment of birth in the Pure Land and his return to this world to save sentient beings; in Mahaayaana Buddhism generally, it is the bodhisattva's aspiration to bring all beings to the other shore of nirvaa.na before crossing over himself. Shinjin, which is man's heart and mind, is also the Buddha's heart and mind. This is not a dualism between the mind of man and that of Buddha, but a matter of their being "one and yet two, two and yet one."
The problem of "faith" is not simply that it does not possess this sense of oneness, but also that it is burdened with a wide variety of preconceptions. In that the romanization of shinjin possesses no meaning as an English word: it cannot be said to differ from "faith" in failing to convey the meaning of oneness. But it is far preferable to "faith" in its freedom from preconceptions. If we were to attempt to transmit the content of Shinran's religious experience using the term "faith," we would be forced to take on the formidable task of eliminating, bit by bit, the preconceptions that block true understanding. It is to avoid erecting these obstructions to begin with that we have chosen to romanize rather than translate shinjin.
II. PROBLEMS IN THE USE OF "SHINJIN"
Professor Kasulis raises two specific questions concerning aspects of our use of the romanization of shinjin. It will be convenient to consider them in the reverse order.
First, "The glossary follows the standard Shinshuu interpretation that shinjin is equivalent to makoto no kokoro .... But to say that shinjin literally means makoto no kokoro is stretching the point." Makoto is, however, a common reading for the shin of shinjin, and in the Kyoogyooshinshoo Shinran clearly gives the character shin (makoto
It is important to recognize, then, that although the term makoto no kokoro is used in Shintoo as well, Shinran's understanding differs fundamentally. As explained earlier, Shinran's makoto no kokoro has a complex and contradictory structure, while that of Shintoo is simple--it is attained by sweeping away all falsity from the human heart. The concept and rituals of purification are thus basic to Shintoo. In Shinran, however, there is no concept of purification. However defiled a person's heart may be, when it is grasped by the working of Amida's Vow, oneness with the Buddha's mind is actualized,
p.511
and without nullifying or eradicating his defilements he attains nirvaa.na; this is the meaning of the statement, "There is no karmic evil that can obstruct the working of the Primal Vow" (Tannishoo).
Second, Kasulis points out problems of inconsistency in the use of "shinjin" "[Shinjin] is used in the English translation even where the original merely has the first character, shin. Is shinjin really the equivalent of shin? If it is, what about the verbal form, shinzuru? Should that not also be the verbal form of shinjin?"
Concerning the first question, in phrases such as shin no ichinen (the one moment of shinjin) and shin to gyoo
Concerning the second question: the character shin functions as a noun (equivalent of shinjin), an adjective (makoto no, as in the interpretation of shinjin as makoto no kokoro), and further as a verb (makaseru, shinzuru). Makaseru means "to entrust oneself," and we have translated the Sinified form shinzu thus with fair consistency when we have taken it to be the verbal form of shinjin or shin. It would be ideal if the various grammatical forms of shin could be handled uniformly, instead of merely the noun shinjin. But since shin itself would be easily confused with Shin Buddhism, and since verb forms do not lend themselves to romanization, we have relied on contexts to convey the full sense of "entrusting" (shinzu) and have noted in the glossary that the shin of shinjin always has two inseparable meanings: makoto no (true, real, and sincere) and makasetn (to have entrusted oneself, to have realized or --~ss with the Buddha's mind).
NOTES
1. Notes on 'Essentials of Faith Alone'.. A Translation of Shinrunjs Yuishinshoo-mon'i (Kyoto: Hongwanji International Center, 1979), p. 29.
2. "What is Shin Buddhism?" The Eastern Buddhist 5, no. 2 (October, 1972): 5.
A信心 h凡夫
B機法一體 I無漏智
C佛凡一體 j真
D高僧和讚 k信樂
E妙好人 I信 一念
F淺原才市 m信 行
G自然法爾
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