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Title: Tariki: Embracing Despair, Discovering Peace by Hiroyuki Itsuki, Joseph Robert, Joseph Roberts ISBN: 4-06-209981-0 Publisher: Kodansha International Pub. Date: March, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.56 (9 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Joys of Pessimism
Comment: One reviewer advised that this book was best for the despondent and not for those who still had fight left in them. Sometimes I wonder if those who fight check in with reality from time to time. The human condition doesn't give one much cause for celebration much less defense. True, our basal nature -- our Buddha-nature -- is good, but our normal existence lived in utter indifference to that nature is befogged and driven by lust, anger, and ignorance. Any attempt at bootstrapping our way to heaven just reveals the extent to which our ego believes it can transcend itself by the exercise of even more ego.
TARIKI is not a pessimistic book if you are not an optimist. It is a stark often bleak appraisal of the aspects of our human being we would rather not acknowledge and obdurately deny. By starting from that most basic of Buddhist insights that living entails suffering, Itsuki moves on to a deep gratitude for the genuine moments of grace in our lives which come from the winds of a wisdom and compassion that embrace us and yet which are never other than us.
While TARIKI may be of value to the despondent, it is of even greater value to those of us who need a grounding in the facts of life in order to make our efforts on behalf of others sane, reasoned, and devoid of expectation. I recommend this book highly to those who have few illusions about life and death.
Rating: 5
Summary: Bleak...yet powerful narrative
Comment: First of all, it should be noted that this work is NOT a 'beginner's book' on Shin Buddhism. While there are parts which address the 'mechanics' of this school of Mahayana Buddhism, the real fact is that Itsuki's work is more directed to those who have already accepted the Nembutsu-faith as their own, or to those who wish to see the impact which that faith can have on those who are sometimes in the deepest and darkest places in their lives. As such, "Tariki" succeeds magnificently and powerfully.
Often very bleak and dark in places, "Tariki: Embracing Despair; Discovering Peace" is a sobering examination of how faith in Amida Buddha as held by those of the Shin faith can be both an anchor and a comfort to those in grave infirmity, grief, or facing death. Since much of the tenets of Shin deal with "resolving the question of the afterlife", it is natural that the book dwell in such heavy territory for much of its material. And while Itsuki does concentrate on such darker issues, it's important to note that...as would be appropriate for Buddhism in general...ultimately one comes to a realization that the duality between the 'dark' thoughts and the 'light' ones is really false. In this, Itsuki creates a very interesting and thought-provoking 'map' of the harsher aspects of life and how this harshness can be resolved through faith in the "other power" of Amida Buddha to unfold these experiences as ones of personal power and meaningful depth.
Again, this is no "starter" book for those wishing to learn more about Shin Buddhism; for those seeking that sort of information, I would suggest either Rev. Taitetsu Unno's "River of Fire, River of Water" or Dr. Ken Tanaka's "Ocean". But after absorbing the teachings set down in one or both of those, returning to Itsuki's book for a sober look at how those teachings affect and ground the lives of Shin Buddhists is a must.
Rating: 2
Summary: Sad to the Bone
Comment: Life is torture, all of us die (hard to argue with that one) Hell is inevitable; it's here on earth right now, death is the end, suicide is a comfort. We are very insignificant beings essentially powerless to effect any real change and the best we can hope for is to embrace despair. And then there are the really depressing parts of this book.
However, like Blanche Dubois it's wonderful to depend (or at least be surprised) by the kindness of strangers.
Life is a Siberian concentration camp, but a fellow inmate may give you a flower and bring tears to your eyes in the realization that compassion exists amidst the damned.
Well, this is a fun book to give to anyone who annoys you by telling you to cheer up .
One might keep it by the door in case any Jehova's Witnesses knock, especially if they've been having a good day. It would also make an interesting Valentine's Day gift for your beloved, just in case she's nagging you into a wedding and you'd like to offer the alternative of a double suicide.
Itsuki writes about pain, sometimes eloquently, as in his narrative of The Dalai Lama , sometimes verging on obscenity as in the story of the mother whose terminally ill child is gasping for breath and Mom observes that "The gasps seemed like labor pains. . .the mother cheered her daughter on in death . . .Hurray!"
It's weird but Isuki's advice at times sounds like a self-help book turned upside down yet equally hoaky. Instead of telling us to smile and look on the bright side because it'll make us feel good, he tells us to weep and look on the dark side because it'll make us feel good.
This ain't profound but it sure sounds elevated as soon as he brings in Amida Buddha.
An entity which, from what I can gather exists in the archetypal Platonic realm (unlike Siddhartha, the Buddha, a human who actually lived) yet whose Presence is far more Real to his followers than a mere flesh and blood being.
Amida is the Buddha of Ultimate Compassion, and-- though there is no hope, really-- intoning his mantra 'Namu Amida Butsu' puts us in touch with compassion, frees us from the futile desire to escape our doom and best of all----
--Well I'm not sure. According to Itsuku, Zen was for the aristocracy who had time to enage in 'self-salvation' unlike the peasants who had to rely on 'Other Power' (Amida) and followed The Pure Land Sect.
(Actually I doubt it was that simple, having met a Korean Zen master who began each day by prostating himself 106 times and invoking Amida's help. It seems a human need to ask for divine compassion. Likewise I suspect that even the bravest of Stoics would have snuck a prayer to Zeus now and then.)
It seems the peasants believed they would be reborn into a paradise, a "Pure Land" unlike those intellectual Zen types who sought for Enlightenment a la Siddhartha while they still had breath to fight.
But Itsuki rejects this interpretation of The Pure Land. There will be no paradise or re-birth, you'll just be a kinder person and take refuge in Amida's light while you spend time in your own hell of a Siberian prison, etc.
I'm not sure as to how this reinterpreatation of The Pure Land sect came about. Judging by Itsuki, it does appear to be normative today. Perhaps the original was considered too primitive and literal ( by intellectuals, of course) or perhaps it cheered the peasants up too much, thus blinding them to the truth that Suffering is All, etc.
Well, it's an interesting book, though I believe the point was better articulated in C.S. Lewis' masterpiece "A Grief Observed"
not because Lewis was a Christian, but precisely because he had -- unlike Itsuki--a happy childhood. Consequently he was fairly optimistic, sure of his religion, and in late in middle age found true love-- only to have his wife die horribly of bone cancer--whereupon his world and his faith came tumbling down.
Lewis's attempt to cope with having egg on his face after a lifetime of naivete, and his brutally honest soul searching strikes one as far more poignant than this gloom and doom autobiography.
Oh, and BTW, 'Sad To The Bone' really is the title of a section in Itsuki's book.
In the final analysis, while Itsuki's philosophy embraces pathos and sympathy for our fellow sufferers endorsing a lofty charity towards all, given his metaphysical premises arguably loftier concepts would be rendered meaningless.
There is absolutely no room for heroism, triumph or, in the classical Western sense, tragedy.
Have a nice day.
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Title: Naturalness: A Classic of Shin Buddhism by Kenryo Kanamatsu, Tetsuo, Rev. Unno ISBN: 0941532291 Publisher: World Wisdom Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: River of Fire, River of Water by Taitetsu Unno ISBN: 0385485115 Publisher: Image Books Pub. Date: 13 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: Shin Buddhism : Bits of Rubble Turn into Gold by Taitetsu Unno ISBN: 0385504691 Publisher: Image Books Pub. Date: 17 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: A Raft from the Other Shore : Honen and the Way of Pure Land Buddhism by Sho-on Hattori ISBN: 4883633292 Publisher: Jodo Shu Press Pub. Date: April, 2001 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Buddha of Infinite Light : The Teachings of Shin Buddhism, the Japanese Way of Wisdom and Compassion by Daisetz T. Suzuki ISBN: 1570624569 Publisher: Shambhala Pub. Date: 12 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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