MURYOKO
'Infinite Light'
Journal of Shin Buddhism
Harold Stewart
Problems of Doubt
The number of existential problems, of rational doubts and questions, is unlimited, and likewise indefinite in number are the possible answers to them - all ultimately inconclusive and unsatisfactory. Only on the total cessation of all such noisy mental and restless emotional activities can the one true answer be heard: the Voice of Silence.
To your dogmatic positivist, it is self-evident that the invocation of any divine name, no matter whose, cannot possibly result in the transformation of one's whole being, as its apologists claim. If it appears to do so, then that must really be caused by self-hypnosis through endless repetition of the formula, mere auto-suggestion a la Coue. Being a true believer in scientific method, he refuses to put the question to experimental proof or to recognize as valid the evidence of millions who have, because their adherence to any religion at once disqualifies them and debars their testimony. He prefers to ignore or dismiss whatever does not conform to those externally measurable standards which are all that his science can comprehend.
The inveterate doubter is self-excluded by his doubt from any direct experience of Faith, because his inculcated habit of disbelief is convinced in advance that personal investigation of such an invocatory method would certainly be futile. And perhaps his self-defensive prejudices prudently advise him not to try, for it is just possible that the Other Power transmitted through the Name might work independently and in defiance of his rational resistance to its spiritual influence. He is forewarned, therefore, that if he should call the Nembutsu, he runs the risk of losing his disillusioned complacency and consoling doubts and might even be in danger of Rebirth in the Western Paradise ! This poetic testament to the spiritual benefits of peace and joy received through the Name is offered as a living refutation of the grey arguments of those addicted to disbelief.
For only to one who has directly experienced the restoration of the 'impoverished reality' of the modern world to its full qualitative richness can the miraculous power of the Nembutsu be known. He is uniquely privileged to speak of these wonders who has himself encountered, even though in rare moments only, the flashes of insight into the meaningfulness of existence, the enrichment of emotion and imagination, the heightening of every sensory quality of living, which are denied to the solely rational viewpoint and inaccessible to unmetaphorical statement alone. If men would but heed them, these six syllables might yet rescue us from impending disaster; but few choose to hear and most prefer atomic perdition.