Auschwitz and "Tannisho" - Listening to Shinran's Words, Takahiro Ueda, a Buddhist Monk, Around the World - Poland (7)
After returning from Auschwitz to my hotel room in Krakow, I was absentmindedly thinking about things in my room.
I can't think straight.
Auschwitz was too intense an experience...
I didn't feel like doing anything for a while.
No, perhaps it is more correct to say that nothing could be done.
However, there was something that suddenly crossed my mind that seemed to have emptied out.
"If you have a good karma, you should behave in any way you choose.
Yes.
Formerly the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem,Yad Vashem.It was the words of "Tannisho," which I also introduced in the article "The Tannisho.
These words were spoken by Shinran Shonin during his lifetime, some 700 years before the tragedy of Auschwitz.
Shinran Shonin's words seem to predict the future.
The depth of Shinran Shonin's gaze, as he gazed into the world and into the essence of human nature, once again amazed me.
And if so, let's still read "Tannisho" carefully again.
Fortunately, I have my kindle as my companion for this trip.
One of the books in the collection was a copy of "Tannisho.
"If you have a good karma, you should behave in any way you choose.
This is also something of a coincidence.
Let me introduce the main part of Article 13 of "Tannisho," which contains these words, with my own translation.
Once again, I would like to confirm that "Tannisho" is a book written by a disciple of Shinran Shonin.
Therefore, the text is written in the first person of Yui Yen.
And the text I am about to introduce will also unfold as Yui En's narrative and his master Shinran's exchange with him in response.
Now, let us taste the world of "Tannisho" together.
The good mind arises because of karma, or the cause and environment that resides within us.
In the same way, it is the evil innuendo that makes us want to do evil.
Shinran Shonin, my late teacher, once said, "I am a great believer in the importance of the life of a person who has been given the opportunity to learn.
It is impossible that no sin as small as the hair of a rabbit, or the dust at the end of a sheep's hair, is not due to predestination."
Also, at one time before his death, Shinran Shonin asked me, "Do you believe what I say?
So I said, "Yes, I believe.
Shinran Shonin then asked again, "Then there are no two ways about it.
I modestly vowed to answer that question.
Then Shinran Shonin said, "I am not a person who is a member of a religious group.
Then I will say to you. Kill a thousand people, and you will surely attain Buddhahood."
No...even if you say so, my capacity here is not enough to kill even one person."
'Then why did you swear to believe what I said?
Now you know.
If you can do whatever is on your mind, if you are asked to kill a thousand people for the sake of Buddhahood, you can do it.
You didn't kill people because you didn't have the edge to kill them.
I did not kill you because you have a good heart.
And conversely, it happens to people that they kill a hundred or a thousand people even when they don't want to."
These are the main narrative parts of the 13 articles of the "Tannisho.
In this context, the phrase, "If you are a good person, you should behave in any way you choose," is spoken later in the text.
Shinran Shonin told his disciple Yui En, "If you kill a thousand people, you will be saved. Do it.
To this Yui En replies, "I don't have the capacity for such a thing. I am not capable of killing people.
Then, Shinran Shonin knocks on his door.
Why do you break your oath of never saying two words?"
So, this is what Shinran Shonin meant.
I believe in you," he pledged.
Yui En stated it at that time with his own thoughts.
And he actually believed in Shinran. He said, "I will surely accomplish what you say."
However, he could not obey Shinran's command, "Kill people. If you do so, you will be able to attain Buddhahood.
Where was Yui Yen's thought that just a moment ago she had vowed, "I will believe in you. I will make it happen." Where did Yui En's thoughts go?
Yui En's thoughts, which he vowed to do after being reminded twice by Shinran.
Was it that light?
No, definitely not.
But it flew away from me so easily.
This was Shinran's point.
We never know when or where our thoughts will be blown away.
Yui En only did not kill because he did not happen to have a connection to kill people.
If he had that connection, he could have done it regardless of how Yui En felt about it.
No matter how Yui En may have felt about the murder, the power of fate, the power of circumstance, blows such things away with ease.
As long as there is a connection, people will do it.
It doesn't have to be a crime of such magnitude as murder, but even the most trivial of everyday sins.
They lie to people, neglect to do what they are supposed to do, and swear.
Such small, commonplace sins are likened by Shinran in this story to the myriad of dust that can be found on the tips of the hairs of rabbits and sheep.
What an exquisite analogy!
A common sin that is difficult to see.
Even then, Shinran is saying that there is nothing that cannot be caused by the power of fate.
So much so that Shinran raises questions about the power of the human will.
And Shinran stares at the overwhelming power of fate, or circumstance.
That is also where I felt through Auschwitz.
Anyone could do it if only they had the right connections.
Even the Nazis were elected by the people.
The German air at the time brought an edge that made people do so.
And once you cross a certain point, there is no turning back.
Everything escalates.
The result was the Holocaust.
Through Auschwitz, I learned the words of "Tannisho".
Shinran Shonin was also a person who lived through hellish times with those who suffered.
I wonder how many human beings he has seen in his life.
I am sure that there was a world unfolding there that I could not have imagined.
I realized keenly that, after all, the words of great thinkers are timeless.
That is why they are still read with great care over time.
be unbroken
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