Election and non-duality

Amazing or not, here we come

Musing, and seeking clarification as I amble along, as I see it the closest that Christianity gets to the Pure Land view of grace is in the teachings of Calvin. He seemed to see the pure utter amazing nature of grace, freely given, not earned in any way. Unfortunately, in the Christian world of duality, we have those elected and those not. Thus we are left with the question:- why are some not elected? The mind, seeking to find an answer, stumbles into the labyrinth of Biblical hermeneutics, looking for clues. Happily, in the Pure Land, where all are elected, we can find rest, merely musing upon why some realise the pure nature of grace while others are still on their journey. 

Faith does not arise

From within oneself

The entrusting heart is itself

Given by the Other Power (Rennyo)

I now approach all this from the Buddhist side, via the insights of zen, of non-discrimination, of touching down in what could be called "faith" prior to any diversification. Judgements are then tinged with mercy, acceptance, with no grasping at a self seeking only to justify itself. 

Whatever, I only write to clarify for myself. In past disputes concerning the nature of faith (shinjin) in the Pure Land, some sought to differentiate. Calculating and probing they distinguished various degrees of faith, various depths, whether some were truly "saving".

Honen

 Honen, an early Pure Lander, was made aware of this and said:- “My shinjin has been given by Amida; so has that of Shinran. Therefore they are one and the same."

Alas, some will continue to assert a degree of choice. Having done so, they will inevitably judge those who have, in their eyes, made no such choice. Self power as opposed to Other Power. Duality. But here in the Pure Land.......

O Saichi, will you tell us of Other Power?

Yes, but there is neither self power nor Other Power

What is, is the graceful acceptance only. 

Anyway, enough for now. having in all probability confused others, I go on my way. Contented.

Related Quote:- 

"The eye with which I see God is the same with which God sees me. My eye and God's eye is one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love. 

(Meister Eckhart, Christian mystic)

From the Glossary of Pure Land Terms, The Collected Works of Shinran:-

Shinjin

One’s entrusting to Amida’s Primal Vow, which is at the same time the negation of one’s calculative thinking, brought about by Amida’s working.It denotes the central religious experience of Shin Buddhism, and literally means man’s “true, real, and sincere heart and mind” (makoto no kokoro), which is given by Amida Buddha. This heart-mind has basically two aspects: a non-dichotomous identity wherein the heart and mind of Amida and the heart and mind of the practicer are one, and a dichotomous relationship wherein the two are mutually exclusive and in dynamic interaction. Used as an adjective, shin (which is different from the term Shin Buddhism) has the meaning of “true, real, and sincere.” As a verb, it means “to entrust oneself to the Buddha,” an act which is made possible by the working of the true, real, and sincere heart and mind of Amida Buddha. These two meanings are always inseparable. Thus, while shinjin is experienced by human beings, its source, contents, and consummation are to be found not in one but in Buddha.There are two points to be noted concerning the oneness that shinjin signifies. First, it is not a simple identity. According to Shinran, the mind of Amida Buddha is true, real, and sincere, while the minds of foolish beings are empty and transitory. Since “empty means not real and not sincere, transitory means not true” (Notes on ‘Essentials of Faith Alone’), shinjin is a oneness of that which is true and real with its exact opposite: They are one and yet two, they are two and yet one. To express the structure of this oneness philosophically, the mind of the foolish being and the mind of Amida are identical and, at the same time, they stand in an opposition of mutual exclusion and negation, of truth and reality versus emptiness and transience. In religious terms, the oneness of shinjin expresses the working of great compassion (Buddha’s wisdom) taking persons of evil (foolish being possessed of blind passions) into itself, never to abandon them.The second point concerning the oneness of shinjin is that it lies at the heart of Shinran’s Buddhism, for it signifies the attainment of Buddhahood. Shinran’s teaching, then, is not one of salvation through “faith,” for shinjin is not a means to salvation but salvation itself. Its centrality can be seen in Shinran’s emphasis on Other Power, which “means to be free of any form of calculation” (Lamp for the Latter Ages). When one is free of self-power (the self-centered working of one’s intellect and will to achieve enlightenment), this freedom of one’s own heart and mind from self-power is itself Other Power. In other words, Other Power is the Buddha’s power that has become one’s own as shinjin. It is the power of the heart and mind of the person in whom self-power falls away and disappears as oneness with the Buddha’s mind is realised.

In the realisation of shinjin one becomes a foolish being (bombu) for the first time in that one awakens to one’s own true nature, but simultaneously one attains Buddhahood that will be fully realised through the working of jinen honi (i.e. a term for the ultimate reality of Buddhism, expressing suchness, or things-as-they-are, free from the bondage of birth-and-death)  This complex structure of shinjin is expressed in a number of important concepts. For example, since the oneness in shinjin means that persons of shinjin have attained the Buddha’s mind, which is itself Buddhahood that is to be fully realised at the moment karmic bonds are severed at the end of life, Shinran states that they are the equal of Tathagatas. “Equal” does not mean identical, but points also to remaining differences. A Tathagata is completely free of blind passions, but persons of shinjin are not. Nevertheless, the structure of shinjin is such that while they are human beings they are also Tathagata (Buddha), for they live by the Buddha’s mind (Other Power).