MURYOKO
'Infinite Light'
Journal of Shin Buddhism
Harold Stewart
Action and Contemplation
The pilgrimage from the circumference of action to the centre of contemplation, is neither exclusively an inner nor an outer journey, but both at once. In all the Pure Land schools the central state of being and consciousness is symbolized by the Transformed Pure Land of Amida Buddha, established by the fulfilment of his Forty-eight Vows during five kalpas of ascetic practice. Its equivalent in the monotheistic religions of Semitic origin would be the return to the Edenic State or the Earthly Paradise that Dante situated on the summit of Mount Purgatory. Both the Christian and the Buddhist Traditions represent this state figuratively as a place: a walled garden, or hortus conclusus, in the midst of which a holy well or spring dispenses the waters of immortality. Its circumvallation not only marks it off as a temenos, or sacred enclosure, but also serves to exclude evil influences.
Once the aspirant has reached this central point of contemplation in the midst of the restless action and reaction of his present plane of existence, it is possible for him to ascend from the human to the supra-human planes, to the higher levels of being and consciousness that are figured as the heavenly realms. He does this by climbing up the vertical Axis Mundi, which passes through the hub of the Wheel of Samsara, around which all the worlds or planes of universal existence revolve. In Buddhism, as in so many other Traditions as to be well-nigh universal, this central axis is symbolized by a sacred tree, the Bodhi Tree under which the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, attained Enlightenment.
But before this transcendent Way can be taken, the pilgrim's egoistic selfwill must die, even while he is still alive, for only then can the Bodaishin, or aspiration to Buddhahood, which Shinran interpreted as the Heart of Pure Faith, spontaneously awaken. At once the initiate into these Lesser Mysteries is granted a prevision of Amida with his attendant Bodhisattvas arriving through inner space to welcome him to the Western Paradise. This is the Transformed Pure Land, or virtual Nirvana, represented in mythological imagery, because the True Pure Land, or actual Nirvana, is formless and can in no way be imagined or conceived. It can be reached only after hearing Amida expound the Dharma under the highly propitious conditions prevailing in his Transformed Pure Land, which thus constitutes initiation into the Greater Mysteries. But henceforth the Wayfarer can no longer retrogress to inferior levels of existence and his ultimate attainment of actual Nirvana, even though posthumous, is assured. Finally, having reached the threshold of Buddhahood, the aspirant who has now become a Bodhisattva is moved by the Great Compassion and elects not to enter Nirvana but to descend the central axis again and return to the peripheral worlds of Samsara, so as to use the Great Wisdom that he has gained for the benefit of all sentient beings.