Secret of Anjin 安心の極意

By Zuiken Saizo Inagaki in 1979 at the age of 95

Translated by Zuio Hisao Inagaki in 2015

Proof-read by Zuiko John Paraskevopoulos

Digital version

Part One

1. Dark is the night

          When I have lost my way

  Amida Tathagata leads me by the hand;

          How great the Vow-Power is!

2. When you die

          Where do you go?

                    Darkness awaits you.

  Absolutely dark, absolutely hopeless;

          Absolutely lonely, absolutely powerless.

  Such a time will come; it will come any minute.

          What will you do? What can you do?

3. No use thinking of attaining Shinjin;

          No use being proud of having attained it.

  The end of your life is painful;

          You will cease to breathe -

                    That’s why it will be painful.

  This pain is the result of your evil karma;

          There is no way to escape from

                    The law of cause and effect

                              Nothing you can do about it.

4. You commit evils like torrential rain, as Shinran says.

          What will be the result of evils?

                    The law of causality

                              Sends you to hell

                                        Willy-nilly.

5. Hell is the outcome of your karmic evils.

          Though there is no knowing where it is,

                    It certainly comes to be

                              Definitely!

 

6. Bombu is a mass of evil karma -

          Likened to a charcoal-ball,

                    Deep black to the core.

  Your karma is heavy –

          Likened to a lump of lead;

  You are doomed to sink

          In the ocean of birth-and-death!

7. Not knowing the depth and weight

          Of the karmic evil you have made,

  When Impermanence makes a surprise visit

          And sends you to a death-bed,

  You must leave behind everything

          And set out for the journey to Death!

8. When you hear a sermon,

          Hear it with an attentive ear

                    ‘I shall go to hell without fail’.

  Don’t hear the sermon

          With a careless ear.

9. How can this lump of lead,

          Doomed to hell, be saved

                    Without sinking deep into the abyss?

  There is no means of escape.

          What will you do? What can you do?

10. Amida Tathagata, my Parent,

          In the midst of pitch darkness,

                    When I have lost my way,

   Extending his hand of ‘saving and not forsaking’,

          Lends me his hands

                    To lead me There with ease.

11. I didn’t ask Amida,

          But at the start of my journey to the World of the Dead,

   Amida, in the night of pitch darkness,

          Takes my hand or carries me on his back,

                    Brings me to the Land of Purity with ease.

12. Your Parent – do you or do you not understand? –

          Is the One of Great Compassion with the Buddha’s Wisdom,

                    The One of the Buddha’s Wisdom with Great Compassion;

          To wit: the Power of the Primal Vow is your Parent.

13. Your Parent

          Deigns to watches over you,

                    Securely protects you

                              And waits for your coming.

14. Your birth in the Pure Land is attained

          By the Buddha’s Mind and Power -

                    Above all, the Power of the Primal Vow.

                   

15. No use expecting birth in the Pure Land

          By attaining Shinjin,

                    While forgetting the Primal Vow.

  No use hoping to be born there

          By reciting the Nembutsu

                    While forgetting the Name.

16. Birth in the Pure Land is

          No problem of yours

                    Because your Parent is awaiting you.

   What a bombu knows and thinks

          Is, after all,

                    Delusion!

17. Amida Tathagata is beyond our thought.

          If you want to hear his voice,

                    Here you are: Namo Amida Butsu.

          If you want to see his face,

                    Here you are: Namo Amida Butsu.

18. Do not want to know a deeper truth;

          Namo Amida Butsu

                    Is the deepest truth!

19. Namo Amida Butsu

          Shows the Power of the Primal Vow.

   We attain Birth

          By the Power of the Primal Vow.

   The Power of the Primal Vow

          Is the Royal Command;

                    The Royal Command becomes our Shinjin.

20. Our Parent is the Great Compassion

          Of the Buddha’s Wisdom;

                    It is the Buddha’s Wisdom

          Of the Great Compassion.

                    He is one with the Truth of Heaven and Earth.

21. “I don’t know who my Parent is.”

          “That’s too bad.”

   “I don’t know what is the Buddha’s Wisdom.”

          “That’s too bad.”

   “I don’t know what is bombu.”

          “That’s too bad.”

22. The Buddha Dharma is hard to meet and hear

          Even in a myriad of kalpas;

   A human body is hard to attain, too.

          Seek and hear it, even at the risk of your life.

23. Amida Nyorai, Shakyamuni Nyorai,

          The Seven Masters and Shinran Shonin –

                    Oh! Great persons!

24. When you come in touch with great persons such as these,

          Shinjin arises;

   Shinjin arises from personal contacts;

          Without Shinjin you wouldn’t know

                    How much you owe them.

25. Shinjin is the royal command of

          Namo Amida Butsu.

   The irresistible command of the Buddha

          Brings out your Shinjin.

26. Straightforward way

          To the Pure Land;

                    Is Namo Amida Butsu;

   Don’t lose time

          By pondering and dilly-dallying.

27. “Now I’ve got it.” Fine, but you cannot go there

          With mere understanding.

   “This is how I think.” Fine, but mere thinking

          Does not take you there.

   Understanding and discernment are self-power ways:

          Bypassing these and

                    Meeting your Parent of the Primal Vow Power

   Face-to-face

          Brings you Perfect Understanding

                    And Entry into his Mind.

28. If you do not understand

          That you are falling into Hell,

   Just, for a while, become a person

          Lying on your death-bed;

   Nothing you can do – you are

          Utterly powerless.

   There you see yourself

          Falling into Hell.

29. Nothing I can do, except evil acts;

          I only see the image of myself

                    Falling into Hell.

   Amida’s Primal Vow Power

          Keeps you from

                    Falling into Hell;

   Do you not hear

          Your Parent Amida’s voice saying

                    “Don’t worry.”

30. Have you seen a sick man

          On the verge of falling into Hell

   Shrieking and shaking his brothers’ hands?

          Too late, too late.

31. There is no me, apart from Nyorai;

          There is no Nyorai, apart from me,

   Herein lies

          The Primal Vow Power.

32. Death is a matter of great importance;

          Birth in the Pure Land

                    Is a matter of great importance.

   They cannot be resolved

          By your self-power.

                    Oh! The Parent Buddha,

          The Primal Vow Power

                    How reliable it is!

33. Since you were born,

          Death is inevitable.

   How horrible, how painful, how fearful!

          Leaving both birth and death

                    To the Buddha,

                              I enjoy the life’s journey.

34. I thought to live and lead my life cheerfully

          Was the end of the Buddha-Dharma.

   The way of leaving behind birth-and-death

          Was, in fact, what the Buddha-Dharma is for.

35. “Just as you are”;

          Do you understand the taste of this?

                    Or do you not?

   However many times you may have heard this,

          You are the same you;

                    You remain the same You.

36. Do not be deceived by the word ‘Shinjin’;

          The Primal Vow Power

                    Becomes your Shinjin;

          Namo Amida Butsu

                    Becomes your Shinjin.

37. How inconceivable

          The Buddha Dharma is!

   The Buddha’s Wisdom is inconceivable.

          Our Birth in the Pure Land is attained

                    By the Power of the Primal Vow.

38. When our Shinjin continues

          It comes out as the Nembutsu.

   The Nembutsu does not come out

          Through our effort, by our self-power.

   Its spontaneous appearance on our lips

          Is our Parent’s Call,

                    “I am waiting for your Birth!”

39. How grateful!

          When I think of Amida,

                    The Nembutsu comes to my mouth.

   Is it the Buddha’s or mine?

          Whatever belongs to the Dharma,

                    Belongs to me.

                              How wonderful!

40. While you adore Myokonins.

          Don’t try to be like them.

                    Under their skin,

                              Lie lumps of desire and anger.

41. The Buddha Dharma comes first;

          Secondly, filial duty;

                    Then kindness to others.

   Those three are fundamental

          To your securing of a long life.

42. No use praying to God;

          Your prayer will not be answered.

                    No answer is the answer.

   Why?

          Because your prayer

                    Lacks sincerity.

43. What is the true learning?

          To know that you are doomed to hell

                    Is the true learning.

44. Don’t bear grudge against this painful life.

          Make one more step

                    And seek to teach others Shinjin.

   What a worthwhile life this is!

45. A human life is hard to receive!

          Hard it is to hear the Buddha Dharma!

   Don’t you think it inconceivable

          For a bombu

                    To become a Buddha?

46. Miscellaneous self-power practices

          Are in vogue;

                    Only a few out of a million

                              Restrain themselves from them.

   The problem of Shinjin can only be resolved

          After you have stopped

                    Self-power engagements.

47. Belief in a god and true Buddhism –

          How do they differ?

                    Stupid! You don’t know?

   You do not deserve

          Sitting in the hall

                    To hear the Buddha Dharma!

48. Who is your teacher of the Dharma?

          Without a good teacher,

                    Shinjin won’t become yours!