Good Hearts, Bad Hearts, It’s All the Same
The following is adapted from a Dharma Talk I presented at the Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple on Sunday, July 28, 2024. I offer it to Being Bombu readers in gratitude to the LAAHBT for allowing me the chance to share my message.
“For those who make their living drawing nets or fishing in the seas and rivers, and those who sustain their lives hunting beasts or taking fowl in the fields and mountains, and those who pass their lives conducting trade or cultivating fields and paddies, it is all the same. If the karmic cause so prompts us, we will commit any kind of act.”
The words above come from the 13th Chapter of The Tannisho. Yuien-bo, who compiled that great work, tells us that Master Shinran was, in this chapter, responding to the assertion that “people who are unafraid of committing evil because of the inconceivable working of the Primal Vow are in fact impudently presuming upon the Vow and therefore will not attain birth.” At the time – and even today – this was a popular misconception among the people. They would see others do things that they thought were evil and tell themselves that there was no way these ‘evildoers’ were going to the Pure Land. Shinran, of course, did not agree with this assertion and his response should be quite telling to us all. He told Yuien-bo that, “This is a statement of one who doubts the Primal Vow and fails to understand the influence of good and evil karma of past lives.” Basically, he was saying that only one who harbored personal doubts about the all-encompassing power of the Primal Vow and who did not understand karma – what we today call the “causes and conditions” – could come up with such an idea. In a world where casting judgment comes so naturally to us all as imperfect beings, this was and remains a very bold assertion. As Jodo Shinshu Buddhists, however, we trust in the Primal Vow and in the limitless compassion of Amida Buddha and we hold this to be true. At least, we try to hold it to be true to the best of our abilities.
So why did I choose these particular words for my blog post? Well, because with all the chaos in our nation today, I have lately been turning the mirror back on myself and sitting with my own reactions to it and to so many people around me. It is no secret that we are living in a very polarized, very emotional country today. All you have to do is turn on the television, pick up the newspaper, hop on social media, or even visit your favorite neighborhood café to get a feel for just how raw the emotions of our society are running. It is hard to escape the anger, the fear, the jealousy, and even the greed that has become too much a part of our national discourse. It is not even just politics anymore. Religion, art, culture . . . it seems that every aspect of life these days has a hot button and people just cannot keep their hands off it.
The worst part of it all is that it is so easy for us to get sucked into this frenzy. We read or hear something and the itch to simply and immediately respond overwhelms us. This is especially true when it is someone we know, care about, or even love who has said something that shocks, hurts, or saddens us. Our first thought is “how can they say that?” And that, of course, is immediately followed by the urge to give them a piece of our minds. Even if we manage to hold our tongues or sit on our fingers, we still walk away with the emotional reaction we had. The seeds of doubt have been planted in our minds and hearts. Doubt for those we believed should have known or done better. Maybe even dislike or worse – hatred – for those who could say or write something so upsetting. It happens to us all and, frankly, it is exhausting.
I admit that I am a very reactionary person when it comes to things I see, hear, and read. These days, with an election drawing near and violence happening all around us, I find that I am more sensitive than ever. And I find myself doubting people that I know and love – sometimes wondering if I ever really knew them at all. And that urge to strike back with my own words and voice is so strong. Like I said, it is exhausting. I would wager that you too feel this same weight of the world on your shoulders. It really is immense! Yet, as Jodo Shinshu Buddhists, we know that we have no choice but to live in this world, and that – like it or not – we are connected to all of “these people” that drive us nuts. We do not want to be angry towards others or to cut ties to people we know and love. We do not want to harden our hearts even to strangers we have never or even may never meet. It is so hard these days to keep an open mind, an open heart, and an open palm.
This is where I have been as of late, trying to find ways to remind myself that I am connected to all of these others, and that all of us are where we are in this moment because of infinite causes and conditions. That person on the other end of the exchange who is upsetting you could just as easily be you. In fact, at some point, it is every one of us as others react to the things that we say, do, and believe. This is the very law of karma in action. In that same chapter – 13 – of The Tannisho, Shinran is recorded as saying, “good thoughts arise in us through the prompting of good karma from the past, and evil comes to be thought and performed through the working of evil karma… Knowing that every evil act done- even as slight as a particle on the tip of a strand of rabbit's fur or sheep's wool- has its cause in past karma."
Of course, as we see in the opening passage, this is not limited to just “evil” or “good” acts or thoughts; it is applicable to each and every act and thought. In his teaching, Shinran didn’t even mention the extremes – good and evil. His illustration was of the very mundane! He spoke of “those who make their living drawing nets or fishing”, “those who sustain their lives hunting beasts or taking fowl” and even “those who pass their lives conducting trade” or farming. Shinran said, “it is all the same”. To him, it was all the product of past karma – of causes and conditions – over which people had little to no control. And he so powerfully warns us all, that “if the karmic cause so prompts us, we will commit any kind of act.”
That is a lot to take in. So you mean to tell me that this person who just posted this meme or statement on social media that I find so upsetting is the same as me – the person getting upset? Further, does this mean that the only thing – and granted it’s a big thing – that separates us or makes us different is the karmic causes that have led us each to where we are? Can it be, as Shinran says, that it – WE – are all the same? If so, then suddenly it is not so easy or satisfying to be so angry at that person voting for the candidate that I dislike or voicing their support for a policy that I believe is wrong. I am that person. It is only the karmic causes and conditions that have put on these differing or opposite sides. And I am exactly THAT person to many others who disagree with the things that I say, write, and support. This is the mirror that I said I was turning on myself earlier.
When we come to terms with this and we take this teaching to heart, something changes very profoundly. We suddenly have a very deep answer to the questions of how this other someone – and for that matter every one us – can say or do the things they and we do. It’s because of causes and conditions that neither they nor we may ever come to know. These causes and condition determine the environments into which we are born and grow. They determine the environments that shape our experiences, our outlooks, and our beliefs. It’s not important that we know what these causes and conditions even are – just that we are cognizant of the fact that each of us is individually subject to and the result of infinite karmic causes and that because of this, as Shinran said, “we will commit any kind of act”.
I have been meditating on this teaching a lot lately. Every time I want to fire back with a sharp retort or take a jab of my own, I remind myself that the other person and me – we’re the same. Though I may not have the limitless compassion of Amida Buddha or even a fraction of the dedication of Dharmakara, I suddenly find myself a bit more understanding, a bit more patient, and even a bit more willing to simply turn off the computer or the television or just take a breath before breathing fire. This is not to say that I will not take a stand when something someone says or does has the potential to cause harm to myself or others. And it certainly does not excuse any behaviors or action - THEIRS OR MINE. What it does, however, is bring me back from the brink of doing or saying something I might regret or that might cause that exhaustion that I usually feel after such an exchange. If this were a perfect world, we would all be so motivated to take that step back and be more understanding and more gentle. But this NOT a perfect world. It is one that is flawed and full of imperfect people like me and you. The best that we can do is try to afford this grace to ourselves and to others in the hopes that we are laying karmic causes and conditions that will one day make for a less contentious world for those to come.
In closing I want to turn to Chapter 13 of The Tannisho one last time. I want to bring us back to the teachings of Shinran Shonin and ask that you join me in trying to apply them to ourselves once and each other. The next time we are wondering how someone could say or do something that we find upsetting, and we start to put ourselves on that moral pedestal of believing that we would never say or do something like they did, let’s remember that the Master cautioned us that “a person may not wish to harm anyone and yet end up killing a hundred or a thousand people.” We should also do our best to remember that Shinran, in this same little chapter, also said that if we simply focus on whether hearts are good or evil, we fail to realize that it is the inconceivable working of the Primal Vow alone that saves – and that it saves us all without discrimination. I hope we can all reflect on this and together begin to sow the causes and conditions for a more loving tomorrow.
