Theos-Talk Archives (December 2006 Message tt00576)

Dear Friends,
 
This is about the "Primal Vow" in Pure Land or Shin Buddhism,  and on its exclusion clause.  
 
One of the two primary scriptures of  Shin Buddhism is called the “Larger  Sukhavati-vyuha”.   Author Taitetsu Unno  writes: 
 
“It describes the career of a bodhisatva, a potential Buddha-to-be, by the name of Dharmakara, who makes forty-eight vows before another Buddha (...).” (1)
 
According to Unno, the most important among these pledges  is the Eigthtenth Vow, better known as the Primal Vow.  It is a vow of sacrifice for all beings. 
 
It   says:
 
“If, when I attain Buddhahood,  the sentient beings of the ten quarters, with sincere mind, entrusting themselves, aspiring to be born in my land, and saying my Name perhaps even ten times, should not be born  there, may I not attain the supreme enlightenment.  Excluded are those who commit the five grave offenses and those who slander the dharma.” (2) 
 
Some students could say the last sentence in this vow  is judgemental.  Yet, it is not.  From a theosophical viewpoint, such an  ‘exclusion clause’ does not actually provoke the exclusion of anyone at the occult level.  It only acknowledges and accepts the fact of an exclusion  which has taken place already, and of free will.  
 
Those who slander the teachers, or harm the Teachings,  decide to exclude themselves from a certain  magnetic field.  It occurs  at the inner and subtle  level.  It is an action at  the occult, or non-visible  dimensions of life.  Therefore the  exclusion clause is not a motor-cause in itself for  exclusion or separation,  and  much less a punishment. It is a consequence.  It is but a decision not to pretend  that a broken vessel is still intact.  And, of course, it is done in abstrat, at the level of philosophical principles.  Accepting unpleasant facts  is useful because if one does  know that something is broken, then one can fix it ; whereas if one pretends it is still intact,  one lives in denial and self-delusion.  
 
In a smaller scale, it has also to do with our everyday lives.   By each one of their small daily actions, students help  ( or hinder ) their own gradual inclusion in the higher and inner levels of the so-called "three  refuges",  which are:   
 
1) The Dharma  (or the Law and Teachings); 
2) The  Buddha (or the  teachers)  and, 
3) The Sangha  (or the community of students). 
 
There are a few useful lessons we can take from that concept  of self-inclusion / self-exclusion.   One of them is that we are responsible for our future destiny.  We can observe our daily actions and see whether they are excluding us from,  or including  us within the wider spirit of the Teaching, in the atmosphere of  the teachers  and in the subtle community of earnest students.  
 
We can see,  then,  up to what extent our daily actions tend to help our access to the higher  realms of  reality  where our true selves  live after all.   Thus   we can discover better means to enhance our learning process.  
 
Best regards,   Carlos.  
 
NOTES:
 
(1) “Shin Buddhism”, Taitetsu Unno, Doubleday/Random House,  New York, 2002, 266 pp., see p. 03.  
 
(2) “Shin Buddhism”, Taitetsu Unno, Doubleday/Random House, see p. 50.   
 


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