2. Nembutsu (nien-fo) and Shōmyō (ch'êng-ming)

Nembutsu or buddhānusmriti literally means 'to think of the Buddha', or 'to meditate on the Buddha', and is counted as one of the six subjects of meditation in the Mahāvyutpatti. The six are as follows: 1. Buddhānusmriti; 2. Dharma; 3. Samgha (Brotherhood); 4. Śīla (morality); 5. Tyāga (giving up); and 6. Devatā (gods). It is also one of the five subjects of mental discipline known as Wu ting hsin; that is, objects by thinking of which the mind is kept away from erroneous views. The five are: 1. Impurity of the body, the thought of which reacts against greed and lust; 2. Compassion, as against anger; 3. Causation, as against infatuation or folly; 4. The six elements, as against the notion of an ego-substance; and 5. Breathing exercise, as against mental perturbation. Though I am unable to find out exactly how it came to pass, the fourth subject (that is, the six elements: earth, water, fire, air, the void, and consciousness) is replaced by 'meditation on the Buddha' (nembutsu) in Chih-che's commentary on the Saddharmapundarīka. According to a work belonging to the T'ien-tai school of Chih-chê, this meditation is considered to counteract mental heaviness, evil thoughts, and physical calamities.

It is a very natural thing for the Buddhists to meditate on their teacher, whose great personality impressed them in some way more than did his teaching. When they were not feeling energetic in their search after the truth, or when their minds were disturbed by all kinds of worldly temptation, the best way to strengthen their moral courage was, no doubt, to think of their teacher. In the beginning the Nembutsu was a purely moral practice, but as the mysterious power of a name came to claim a stronger hold on the religious imagination of the Indian Buddhists, the thinking of the Buddha as a person endowed with great virtues ceased and gave way to the uttering of his name. As a philosopher says, Nec nomen Deo quaeras; Deus nomen est. Name is as good as substance; in some cases it works far more efficaciously than that for which it stands, for when we know the name, we can put a god into service. This has been so from the earliest days of every religious history all the world over. When Amitābha Buddha obtained his enlightenment he wished to have his name (nāmadheya) resound throughout the great chiliocosms, so that he might save any being that heard his name.¹

But the sūtra² makes no reference yet to the uttering of his name only. The phrases used are: daśabhiś cittot-pādaparivartaih,³ which forms the nineteenth vow of the Sanskrit text, meaning 'Ten times repeating the thought [of the Pure Land]'; prasannacittā mām anusmareyuh,¹ which is the eighteenth vow of the Sanskrit text, meaning 'Remembered me with pure thoughts'; or antaśa ekacittot-pādam api adhyāśayena prasādasahagatena cittam utpādayanti,² '[All beings] raise their thought, even for once only, raise their thought, with devotion and serenity.' Cittotpāda or anusmriti, 'thinking of [the Buddha]' is not the same as 'uttering the name'.

The Pratyutpanna-samādhi-sūtra which was translated into Chinese as early as the second century by Lokaraksha, in which mention is also made of Amitābha Buddha in the West, and which is consequently regarded as one of the authoritative sources of the Pure Land school, refers to the name of the Buddha, saying 'The Bodhisattva, who hearing the name of the Buddha Amitābha wishes to see him, may see him by constantly thinking of the region where he is.' The term used here is 'thinking' (nien in Chinese) and not 'uttering'. Whenever the Buddha becomes an object of meditation, no matter to what school the devotee may belong, Hlnayana or Mahāyanā, Zen or Shin, he has been thought of as a personality, not only physically, but as spiritually inspiring.

In the sūtra of the Meditation on the Buddha of Eternal Life, however, the devotees are taught to say 'Adoration to Buddha Amitābha'; for when they utter this Buddha-name they will be liberated from sins committed in their lives for fifty billions of kalpas. Again, if a dying man cannot think of the Buddha owing to intense pain, he is told just to utter the name of the Buddha of Eternal Life (Amitāyus). In the Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha, or sūtra of Amitayus, the author advises people to hold in mind (manasikara) the name of the blessed Amitayus the Tathāgatā, which will make them depart with a tranquil mind from this life, when the time comes.

In accordance with these instructions in the sūtras, Nāgārjuna writes in his Commentary on the Daśabhūmika (Chapter V, 'On Easy Practice') that if one wishes quickly to reach the stage of no-turning-back, he should hold the Buddha's name in mind full of reverent thought. There may be some difference, as far as words go, between 'holding in mind' and 'uttering' or 'invoking', but, practically, holding the Buddha's name in mind is to utter it with the lips, silently or audibly. The shifting of the centre of devotional attention from thinking to utterance, from remembrance to invocation, is a natural process.

Tao-ch'o¹ quotes a sūtra in his Book of Peace and Happiness,² which is one of the principal sources of the Pure Land doctrine. All the Buddhas save beings in four ways: 1. By oral teachings such as are recorded in the twelve divisions of Buddhist literature; 2. By their physical features of supernatural beauty; 3. By their wonderful powers and virtues and transformations; and 4. By their names, which, when uttered by beings, will remove obstacles and assure their rebirth in the presence of the Buddha.

To this Tao-ch'o adds: 'To my mind the present age belongs to the fourth five-hundred-years after the Buddha, and what we have to do now is to repent our sins, to cultivate virtues, and to utter the Buddha's name. Is it not said that even once thinking of Amitābha Buddha and uttering his name cleanses us from all our sins committed while transmigrating for eighty billion kalpas? If even one thought achieves this, how much more if one constantly thinks of the Buddha and repents one's [sinful deeds]!' All the Nembutsu followers who came after him have eagerly accepted his teaching, and nembutsu (nien-fo) 'thinking of the Buddha', has become identified with shōmyō (ch'êng-ming), 'uttering the name'.

In fact, uttering the name contains more and functions more effectively than thinking of the various excellent spiritual virtues and physical qualities with which the Buddha is endowed. The name represents all that can be predicated of the Buddha. The thinking of him means holding up his image in mind, and all kinds of hallucinations are apt to appear before the eye. In the case of the name, the mental operations tend more towards intellection, and a different psychology obtains here.

Here we can distinguish two ways in which the Buddha-name can be invoked; that is, when the name is announced, there are two attitudes on the part of the devotee towards the object of his adoration. In one case, the invocation takes place with the idea that nomen est numen, or as a sort of magical formula. The name itself is regarded as having some mysterious power to work wonders. For instance, we read in the Saddharmapundarīka, Chapter XXIV, where the worship of Avalokiteśvara is upheld:

'[Goblins and giants] would, by virtue of the name of Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva Avalokitesvara being pronounced, lose the faculty of sight in their designs.' Or, 'Be not afraid, invoke all of you with one voice the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva Avalokiteśvara, the giver of safety, then you shall be delivered from this danger by which you are threatened at the hands of robbers and enemies.'

In these cases the name of Avalokitesvara has undoubtedly a magical power not only over one's enemies, but also over impure passions, hatred, infatuation, etc. It further enables the devotee to get whatever happiness he desires. The gāthās in this chapter describe all the virtues issuing from him, and what the devotee has to do is just to think of him; that is, to utter his name. It was quite natural in the light here shed by the name of Avalokitesvara that scholars of Shin Buddhism had once a heated discussion regarding the wonderful saving power of Amitābha, asking whether it comes from his name or from his vows.

The other attitude which may be assumed by the devotee towards the invocation, or Nembutsu, is especially represented by T'ien-ju Wei-tsê, a Zen master of the Yuan dynasty of the fourteenth century. He states in his Some Questions Regarding the Pure Land Answered:

'The Nembutsu consists in intensely thinking of the thirty-two marks of excellence possessed by the Buddha, by holding them in mind in a state of concentration, when one will see the Buddha all the time whether his eyes are closed or open. This seeing the Buddha while still in this life may also take place when the Buddha is invoked by name, which is held fast in the mind. This way of coming into the presence of the Buddha by invoking him by name is better than the Nembutsu. When you practise this invocation, the mind must be kept under full control so that it will not wander about; let your thought dwell without interruption on the name of the Buddha, audibly repeat O-mi-to-fo¹ (or nembutsu). Each sound must be distinctly presented to the mind. Do not mind how many times the name is repeated, for the main thing is to have thought and will, mind and lips, all in perfect union.'

In the first case the name itself is regarded as having a wonderful power, especially over human affairs; it is a magic formula. When Amitābha wished to have his name resound all over the universe, did he want it to be a sort of talisman, or did he want it to be a moral force; that is, symbolic of something that is desirable in human life, so that whenever his name was heard his virtues and merits would be remembered, and would serve to incite the hearers to follow his example? Most likely the latter was in his mind. When the name is uttered, all that it stands for is awakened in the mind of the utterer; not only that, but finally his own mind will thereby open up its deepest resources and reveal its inmost truth which is no other than the reality of the name; that is, Amitābha himself.

In the second case, the name is pronounced not necessarily as indicative of things that are therein suggested, but in order to work out a certain psychological process thus set up. The name of the Buddha may now even be mechanically repeated without reference to the bearer of the name himself as an objective reality. This is what has actually taken place later in the history of the koan exercise. The following incident which took place in the mind of an old miser under the instruction of Hakuin, founder of the modern Japanese Rinzai School of Zen Buddhism, will supply us with a good illustration of what I mean by the psychological process induced by the recitation of the Buddha-name.

One of the numerous lay-disciples of Hakuin was worried over his old miserly father whose mind so bent on making money was not at all disposed towards Buddhism. He wanted Hakuin to suggest some method to turn his father's thought away from avarice. Hakuin suggested this proposal: Let the miserly old gentleman say the Nembutsu whenever he thinks of it, and have a penny paid for each recital. If he said the Nembutsu for one hundred times a day, he would have one hundred pennies for it.

The old man thought that it was the easiest way in the world to earn his pocket money. He came each day to Hakuin to be paid for his Nembutsu as he was perfectly regular in his account, so much for so many repetitions. He was enchanted with his earnings. But after a while he ceased to come to Hakuin for his daily payment. Hakuin sent for the son to learn what was the matter with the father. It was found that the father was now so engrossed in saying the Nembutsu that he forgot to make a record of it. This was what Hakuin was all the time expecting of him. He told the devoted son to leave his father alone for some time and see what would become of him now. The advice was followed, and in a week the father himself came up to Hakuin with beaming eyes, which told at once what a blissful spiritual experience he had gone through. There was no doubt that he had a kind of satori.

The mechanical repetition of the Nembutsu, that is, the rhythmic though monotonous utterance of the Buddha name, 'na-mu-a-mi-da-bu', 'na-mu-a-mi-da-bu'... over again and again, tens of thousands of times, creates a state of consciousness which tends to keep down all the ordinary functions of the mind. This state is very much akin perhaps to that of hypnotic trance, but fundamentally different from the latter in that what grows out of the Nembutsu consciousness is a most significant insight into the nature of Reality and has a most enduring and beneficial effect on the spiritual life of the devotee. In a hypnotic trance there is nothing of the sort, for it is a diseased state of mind bearing no fruit of a permanent value.

As regards the difference between the koan exercise and the Nembutsu, as was already repeatedly pointed out, in the one it consists in the absence of the intellectual element, and in the other in the presence of an inquiring spirit.

Footnotes

1 See the Sukhāvatīvyūha sūtra.

2 This is one of the three principal sūtras belonging to the Pure Land school. The three are: i. Sukhāvatīvyūha, which treats of the Land of Bliss inhabited by Amitābha Buddha, and of the forty-eight (forty-three in the Sanskrit text) vows of the same Amitābha; 2. sūtra of the Meditations on Buddha Amitāyus, in which Queen Vaidehī is instructed by Sākyamuni to practise sixteen forms of meditation regarding the Land of Bliss and its Lord; and 3. The sūtra of Amitābha, which is generally known as the Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha, as it also describes the Land of Bliss. Amitayus (Eternal Life) and Amitābha (Infinite Light) refer to one and the same Buddha.

3 Max Muller, p. 15,1. 4.

1 Max Culler, p. 14,1. 15.

2 Max Muller, p. 47, 11. 2, 3.

1 562-645, one of the foremost devotees of the Pure Land teaching.

2 An-lê-chi.

1 A-mi-da-butsu.