Thoughts On The Nembutsu
Recently, at times it would be good medicine, I’ve begun to sometimes chant the Nembutsu, a kind of mantra associated with Jodo Shu, a Japanese form of Pure Land Buddhism usually considered a form of devotional “folk Buddhism.” Sometimes I’ll chant it out loud, sometimes internally.
Why would I do that? What is the Nembutsu?
Pure Land
In the hoary days of early Indian Mahayana, mythology abounded. The goal of spiritual practice shifted from the early focus on liberation here and now towards the amassing of virtues towards becoming a Buddha, which was now conceived as an immortal, magical being who lived forever in spontaneous service to all living beings.
The Buddhist spiritual path became one of asceticism, fasting, chanting, virtue and self-sacrifice, with teachers claiming it could take untold numbers of lives of practice to attain the goal. A multitude of reform movements would spring up from time to time to pull Buddhism back down to earth- Zen, Mahamudra, Dzogchen, Kammathana, Vipassana, and others.
In China an early solution to the sense of demand and distance that some streams of Mahayana created came in the form of Pure Land Buddhism. In this form of Buddhism, which was one of many similar streams- the extreme yoga of Mahayana was replaced by a relieving reliance on grace.
