Shinran

“ The strong heart that is able to attain unto wisdom by self-help is beyond human knowledge and speech. How is it possible that men full of ignorance, fettered unto birth and death, should possess such a heart.
250. Though we were masters of the strong will of self-effort, even should we have seen face to face the Buddhas, myriad as the sands of Ganges—they who in this world were manifested the one after the other, yet were we drifted on the torrent of birth and death, in self-effort were no rescue for us. ”

“ Whoso attaineth not unto wisdom is eager to harm that man who, with single heart, accepted the exalted promise. There is no end to the infinity of the ocean of birth and death for those men who raven to destroy the doctrine that is mighty to save them if they would have it so. ”

“ Whoso doubteth of the wisdom of Him that hath Light beyond the imagining of man, and trusteth to the root of goodness and virtue—he shall not attain unto the Soul of Great Mercy, for he is born into the Outermost Places of Paradise, and slow and dull of heart is he. ”

“ The Buddha of the Infinite Light, together with the Bodhisattvas of Compassion and Wisdom, having taken the Ark of the Divine Promise, that is voyaging on the ocean of birth and death, have gathered and saved mankind therewith. ”

“ Whoso doubteth the wisdom of the Enlightened One—that wisdom beyond all human understanding—and reciteth the Holy Name, trusting in the merit of himself, shall not rise beyond the outermost bounds of the Pure Land that is the Temporal Paradise, for he hath not the grace of right thankfulness for His Compassion. ”

“ The noble mind that shall attain unto wisdom in the doctrine of the Pure Land is the mind that fain would become Buddha, and it is named: “The mind that shall save men who suffer.”
254. The mind that shall save men is that mind given by the high promise of the Blessed One. Whoso attaineth unto the faith He giveth shall be lord of the great Nirvana.
255. Whoso attaineth unto the mind that would fain become Buddha, having sought refuge in the gift of the Blessed One, hath no term in his own gift of welfare to mankind, having for ever laid down all self-righteousness. ”

“ Alas for me, Shinran, the ignorant exile who sinks into the deeps of the great ocean of human affections, who toils to climb the high mountains of worldly prosperity, and is neither glad to be with them who return no more to illusion, nor takes delight in approaching more nearly to true enlightenment. ”

“ In their outward seeming are all men diligent and truth speaking,
But in their souls are greed and eager and unjust deceitfulness,
And in their flesh do lying and cunning triumph.
329. Too strong for me is the evil of my heart. I cannot overcome it.
Therefore is my soul like unto the poison of serpents,
Even my righteous deeds, being mingled with this poison, must be named the deeds of deceitfulness. ”

“ As in the other great faiths, the ascent of the Mount of Vision reveals worlds undreamed, and proclaims what may seem to be new truths, but are only new aspects of the Eternal. Japanese Buddhists still base their belief on the utterances of the Buddhas, but they have enlarged their conception of the truths so taught, and they hold that the new flower and fruit spring from the roots that were planted in dim ages before the Gautama Buddha taught in India, and have since rushed hundred-armed to the sun. Such is the religious history of mankind, and Buddhism obeys its sequence. ”

“ Among those men that doubt the Holy Word, some are imprisoned in the shut bud of the Lotus. And they shall be despised as they that in illusion are born into the outermost Paradise or are held captive within the narrow walls of the womb. ”

“ Fifty-six thousand and seventy years shall pass before the Bodhisattva that is Maitreya shall attain unto the Perfected Wisdom. But whoso embraceth the true faith shall at this very time be lord of the great Enlightenment. ”

“ It is the Law that he who soweth shall reap what he soweth, therefore the man that is full of righteous deeds for the sake of self-merit shall enter into the prison of the sevenfold gems, for he doubteth the marvellous wisdom of Him that hath the Light. ”

“ Though the days of our present time are those that are called orthodox, we, in whom ignorance is fulfilled, have not within us the heart that is pure and true. How, then, can we of our own help attain unto the deeds that shall gain the wisdom that is made perfect. ”

“ How should women turn their hearts unto wisdom—they who are fast bound with the five fetters? No, not through the ages of myriads of Kalpas, until they seek refuge in the Divine Promise of Him who is mighty.
181. Having thrown open the Gate of Righteousness, our Lord hath instructed mankind in every sort of righteous deed. He hath set before us how the five right deeds differ from the confused deeds that are outside the Five, so that mankind may enter the way of the Sole Practice. ”

“ And if it be so—if it be true that in spite of racial distinctions, differences of thought and circumstance, the religious thought of East and West has so many and so great meeting-points, the hope of the world in things spiritual may lie in the recognition of that fact and in a future union now shadowed forth only in symbol and in a great hope. ”

“ By the Divine Promise of the final salvation hath our Lord instructed the men of the Single Vehicle to recite His Holy Name that is the Essence of all the merit revealed in the Lesser Sutra of the Buddha of Infinite Life. ”

“ Before the Almighty Power of the Divine teaching do all the fetters of evil deeds fall away. Therefore is the Divine Promise of our Father invoked as that Holy Thing which giveth unto us omnipotent strength. ”

“ Difficult is it for men to find a wise Teacher; so is it also for them to be instructed and to hear the Holy Law. More difficult still is it to receive the True Faith.
68. More difficult is it for men to receive the Divine Promise made unto men than to receive all other teachings. ”

“ The negative side of Buddhism, with its passionless calm and self-renunciation, is the only one that has been realised in the West, and the teachings of Mahayana which have borne fruit and flower, visible to all the world, of happiness, courtesy, kindliness in the spiritual attitude of a whole people, have never received the honour which was their due. ”

“ They cannot, however, be understood without some knowledge of the faith which passed so entirely into their life that in its growth it lost some of its own infant traits and took on others, rooted, no doubt, in the beginnings in India, but expanded and changed as the features of the child may be forgotten in the face of the man and yet perpetuate the unbroken succession of heredity. ”

“ His teachings to-day are spread far and wide in the land of his birth, and are an inspiration to millions within and without its shores. In him was the harmonised spirit of Buddhism at its highest. Those who can enter into the heart of Shinran Shōnin will have gained understanding of the heart of a mighty people which is said to be impossible of Western reading, and yet in its essentials is simple as the heart of a child. ”

“ And with great compassion for mankind in this evil world the Bodhisattva of Wisdom persuadeth them to believe upon the Holy Name, and sweetly welcometh the believer that he may lead him into the Land of Purity. ”