MURYOKO
'Infinite Light'
Journal of Shin Buddhism
Harold Stewart
Salvation
Rene Guenon drew a precise distinction between redemption, or salvation, as the goal of the religious perspectives, with posthumous birth in one of the heavens or paradises, a joyful though still finitely limited state; and Realization, or Enlightenment, the aim of the Metaphysical perspectives, which is total Liberation, here or hereafter, from all conditioned states into the Unconditioned, or Nirvana.
Since most people in this Last Age of the Dharma lack the requisite spiritual qualifications to reach Ultimate Realization directly during this lifetime, they should therefore seek posthumous birth in some state where conditions are more conducive to the attainment of Enlightenment. The most propitious of these, as Shakyamuni revealed to Queen Vaidehi, is Sukhavati, where the aspirant can hear the preaching of Amida and so successfully attain Nirvana. Some critics have therefore considered that by seeking Rebirth in Jodo as an intermediate stage before full Enlightenment, followers of the Pure Land schools are settling for a lesser attainment than those of the older sects who aspire to reach Nirvana directly in this life. But is it not better to gain a state of virtual Nirvana from which actual Nirvana is definitely assured than to fail to reach Liberation by self-efforts that overestimate one's spiritual powers and so fall again into one of the Six Destinies of Samsara? Besides, the free gift of Faith received through the Nembutsu is part of the boundless merit accumulated by Amida through five kalpas of ascesis, and who would be so presumptuous as to assert that the enlightenment that he achieves by his own efforts is superior to that already attained by the Buddha himself?
And so, when all other avenues of escape have been blocked by the failures and frustrations of existence, one feels a deep yearning for Deliverance from life's bondage and an unsatisfied longing to call the Nembutsu as a means of gaining the bliss of the Western Paradise. Yet only when these two last desires, however worthy and well-intentioned, have been renounced, can the threads of attachment that still bind us to life be severed and their final obstruction to Rebirth in Jodo removed.
It is only the sudden access of Faith bestowed by the Other Power of Amida through his Name that stops the pilgrim endlessly wandering in Samsara and endows him with the fearless confidence needed to make the existential leap over the void into the virtual Nirvana of the Transformed Pure Land beyond.