Vol. 2, Issue 3

FEATURED ESSAY - COMMENTARY ON DEAF AND DUMB’S NEMBUTSU
fool all along. Nothing less than the “deaf and mute’s Nembutsu” was given to
me by the Master through the questions he asked me.
First Lesson
Through the following questions, Master was provoking me to realize I kept
repeating the Nembutsu the same way a parrot repeats words: perfectly
pronounced and perfectly meaningless.
“There are people who are born unable to hear. How does Amida’s calling come to
them?”
I kept silent for a moment, when a second question came:
“There are people who are born unable to learn how to speak. How do they recite the
Nembutsu?”
Astonished, I heard the third question:
“There are people both unable to hear and unable to speak. How do they hear the calling,
and how are they saved by the Vow that states one should recite Amida´s name in order to
be saved?”
I had no answer. He turned me mute - I became speechless.
Second Lesson
Master perceived my small egocentric Nembutsu. Recite here; To be saved
beyond. But Master knew better: Salvation beyond; Confident Mind (Shinjin) here.
To show how childish my perspective was, Master took me to his private Cape
Canaveral, put me on board a rocket called Nembutsu VI, and launched it
propelled by six interrogation marks.
“You said that Tariki Nembutsu is the Nembutsu recited by Amida Buddha. Do you
mean that Infinite Light and Life emit the same phoneme used by us? Namo Amida
Butsu? Infinite Light and Life utter human language? If this is so, why did Infinite
Light and Life choose to call people all over the world, including Brazilians, in a mix
of a dead language and the sounds of an idiom spoken only by the inhabitants of a tiny
archipelago? And even more, you said that according to the Larger Sutra the Name is
praised by innumerable Buddhas in the worlds of the ten quarters. Do you mean that
in the Andromeda constellation and beyond, in all known and unknown galaxies, and
in uncountable invisible realms, all Buddhas repeat a Sanskrit word and a Japanese
transliteration? Do you really mean it? I thought anthropomorphic projections were a
specialty among some western theologians.”
Master offered a glimpse of the cosmic dimension to help a fool encapsulated in
the dwarfism of a mere cultural representation of the Nembutsu.
Third Lesson
Master’s next strategic step seemed to contradict the two preceding interventions.
He urged me to choose one of the forms of Nembutsu: the six-syllable-Nembutsu
or one of the longer forms. In reality he used this bait to attract me closer to a
hidden jewel. To prepare me for the shorter, he took me to the longer.
“Aside from the six syllables, which I already know, you mentioned a nine syllable
Nembutsu, Na Mo Fu Ka Shi Gui Kou Nyo Rai, and a ten syllable Nembutsu, Ki Myou
Jin Ji Pou Mu Gue Kou Nyo Rai. Sorry, but if reciting the Nembutsu with a thrusting
mind is the only necessary condition for my liberation from the Saha world at the end of
this life, it is your duty as a Shinshu minister to tell me in how many syllables I should
recite the Nembutsu.”
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