The Healing Light of Awakening
Rev. Blayne Higa
Turning on the news or doomscrolling through social media, we are inundated with numerous stories of war, political violence, and acts of hate. It often feels like there is even more darkness creeping into our world these days. As we quickly approach the darkest season of the year, we naturally yearn for light and hope to illuminate our way in the darkness.
On Bodhi Day we celebrate the awakening of Shakyamuni Buddha, and we rejoice in the promise of universal liberation. It is said after spending the long dark of night under the leaves of the Bodhi Tree, Siddhartha Gautama would realize enlightenment when the morning star appeared in the eastern sky. Dispelling his spiritual darkness he would become the Buddha, the Awakened One declaring, “At this moment all beings and I awaken together.”
The promise of awakening from the darkness of our greed, anger, and ignorance is the hope that the Buddha offers to us unconditionally. In Shin Buddhism, we understand this promise of spiritual transformation as the Vow of Amida Buddha embodied in the nembutsu. In the Tannishō, Shinran Shōnin shares “But with a foolish being full of blind passions, in this fleeting world—this burning house—all matters without exception are empty and false, totally without truth and sincerity. The nembutsu alone is true and real.” Namo Amida Butsu is the fulfilled promise of Amida that lights our way in the darkness of this world of suffering—this “burning house.”
In The Fire Sermon, Shakyamuni Buddha famously teaches how everything is “…burning with the fire of passion, the fire of hatred, the fire of delusion. I declare that it is burning with the fire of birth, decay, death, grief, lamentation, pain, sorrow, and despair.” However, through the insight gained from his awakening, the Buddha offers us a way to quench these fires through the cooling light of wisdom which illuminates our spiritual darkness.
The Buddha’s Enlightenment was truly a journey within himself in which he discovered the potential for awakening that everyone possesses. In realizing our inner darkness, we are able to encounter the light of wisdom unfolding as compassion continually within our lives. This is why no experience is ever wasted. There is always an opportunity for learning and growth in all that we encounter throughout our lives.
The late Rev. Kenryu Tsuji shares a profound understanding of how Enlightenment is a process of continual growth in the following passage from his book The Heart of the Buddha Dharma,
It is a common belief that Enlightenment occurs suddenly and that it is the single great religious experience in life, but Enlightenment is a growing experience that never stops. Each day we experience the joys and sadness of life, and with each living experience we come to a deeper understanding of the totality of life—its beauty and ugliness, success and failures, victories and defeats, birth and death. Every activity of life has absolute meaning, for every motion, however significant, is the Enlightenment experience.
The world of Awakening is always present, especially in our darkest moments. We can mend our brokenness and heal our world through the practice of the Buddha’s Teaching. Each of us is the light of the living nembutsu in this darkened world carrying the “great torch” of Namo Amida Butsu in the “long night of ignorance” as Shinran teaches. Amida’s healing light shines brightly into our heart of darkness transforming our lives and our world. The Buddha’s Enlightenment is truly the ultimate promise of our own. Namo Amida Butsu.
