MURYOKO
'Infinite Light'
Journal of Shin Buddhism
Harold Stewart
Mindfulness
The Obaku Zen sect of Ingen, as already mentioned, attempts to combine the teaching and practice of Zen with that of Jodo by identifying the Pure Land with Enlightenment by Mind Only, the Buddha-nature innate in every being. It therefore employs the Nembutsu as an auxiliary means to zazen. This method of reciting the Nembutsu as an aid to concentration, whereby it is claimed that Enlightenment can be reached during this lifetime, is based on Perfect Mindfulness, the seventh step on the Noble Eightfold Path expounded by Shakyamuni. Since two thoughts cannot be held in consciousness at once but only in rapid alternation during successive moments, if the mind can be constantly fixed on the Name, no other distracting thought can invade consciousness. Thus it will remain in a state of one-pointed concentration, or Perfect Mindfulness; just as in the Zen art of archery one's whole attention is concentrated on the target and all else - bow, arrow, grip, stance, breathing, tension and release - is forgotten.
Painstakingly and with inexhaustible patience, the errant mind must be led back again and again to the Name every time its attention wanders. At first, the Nembutsu can more easily be called aloud, later in an undertone, at last silently, in mindful repetition. In this way, it is hoped, the human mind will be enabled to realize its oneness with Mind Only, or the Buddha-Mind, 'The invoker and the invoked becoming one in the invocation' as in Ippen's aphorism. My failure to practise the Obaku method serves to demonstrate the inadequacy of the Zen interpretation of the Nembutsu as an aid to concentration, at least for the ordinary bonbu like myself; but at the same time it confirms the orthodox Pure Land view that the Name, as Shinran said, is not a means to any end, it is the end itself, for Amida is his Name. For a focus of concentration, as Hakuin Zenji admitted, any other verbal formula will serve quite as well as the Nembutsu; but he failed to draw Shinran's conclusion that the Name ought not to be misused for this purpose.