No working is true working

Taking it easy

Always one to be in favour of the less work the better, the Japanese expression mu-gi o motto gi to su has long piqued my interest. Its English translation is "no working is true working" and given below is the actual definition drawn from the Pure Land Buddhist tradition to explain the apparent paradox:-

Working [gi]:-

The original term gi has several connotations: reason, meaning, justification, principle, etc. Shinran uses gi to denote two opposing realities: (1) the mental, emotional and volitional working of unenlightened persons (self-power) to fathom Amida’s Primal Vow which surpasses conceptual understanding; and (2) the boundless activity of Amida’s Primal Vow (Other Power) which fills the person of blind passions with true wisdom and compassion, translated as “true working.” Thus, the paradoxical phrase, mu-gi o motte gi to su, is rendered “no working is true working” (lit., “no working is working”), implying that where the activities of the ego are no more, the true working of Amida’s compassion manifests itself.

No working is true working

Whatever one thinks of this, I would add that there is within the Pure Land tradition a deep commitment to what could be called self cultivation. Therefore, "no working" , as I see it, is while resting in complete trust to Reality-as-is, we can still pursue a path of becoming a "self" of knowledge, of total interest in the world around us. This not to gain anything, to attain anything, not even to have any particular direction, but simply because love of our world and of all that is and has been a part of our world is of interest; and the "no working" of the Reality-as-is, of what Pure Landers identify as the Vow Mind of infinite Compassion, Wisdom and Potentiality, will in Faith (Shinjin) integrate all things and provide its very own "direction". 

Self Cultivation

An instance of this is this very Blog, which via a Company known as Blookup has morphed into my becoming a producer of books, albeit of one copy of each only! Seeking to see my Blog in print I sought on the Internet for means to do so. Blookup have done the job and this led to the brainwave of turning a Blog into that which could be a unique book on a subject of interest to me - this by downloading the text of poems or whatever and adding images, then having them printed. 

I now have my very own illustrated Dhammapada, a Theravada Buddhist text. My own pictures, drawn from Google Images, have turned this into a cross Buddhist text, an "ecumenical" text, with beautiful illustrations of Chinese (Chan/Zen) Landscapes, Japanese Woodprints and other such things that took my fancy. Also, a 400 page book of the Lyrics of Bob Dylan containing over 80 of his greatest songs/lyrics. I now have a little library, of "Four Quartets" by T. S. Eliot, a "Book of Poems" (all my favorites) , also a "Book of Zen". 

Cover and pages of the Bob Dylan Blook

Another is one devoted purely to Pure Land Buddhism.This work contains much of what has guided me well over the past twenty years of so, containing a Glossary of Pure Land Terms drawn from the Collected Works of Shinran which is, for me, a superb presentation of Amida and all things West! 

Just to add, I am not on commission with Blookup, but I must say that Angelique provides a very fine after sales service.

Angelique (?)

Related Quotes:-

And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

(St Mark 4:26-29, KJV)

 "I have tried to learn in my writing a monastic lesson I could probably have not learned otherwise: to let go of my idea of myself, to take myself with more than one grain of salt......In religious terms, this is simply a matter of accepting life, and everything in life as a gift, and clinging to none of it, as far as you are able. You give some of it to others, if you can. Yet one should be able to share things with others without bothering too much about how they like it, either, or how they accept it. Assume they will accept it, if they need it. And if they don't need it, why should they accept it? That is their business. Let me accept what is mine and give them all their share, and go my way. All life tends to grow like this, in mystery inscaped with paradox and contradiction, yet centered in its very heart, on the divine mercy.

(Thomas Merton)

Amida Looking Back

At 2:30 - no sounds except sometimes a bullfrog. Some mornings, he says Om - some days he is silent.....The first sounds of the waking birds - "the virgin point" of the dawn, a moment of awe and inexpressible innocence, when the Father in silence opens their eyes and they speak to Him, wondering if it is time to "be"? And He tells them "Yes". Then they one by one wake and begin to sing. First the catbirds and cardinals and some others I do not recognise. Later, song sparrows, wrens.....last of all doves, crows.....With my hair almost on end and the eyes of the soul wide open I am present, without knowing it at all, in this unspeakable Paradise, and I behold this secret, this wide open secret which is there for everyone, free, and no one pays any attention.....Oh paradise of simplicity, self-awareness - and self-forgetfulness - liberty, peace.....

(Thomas Merton again, an extract from his Journals)