Boehme and Myokonin
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Comparison of Boehme and Myokonin
Because of the stunning similarity I found between Boehme and Myokonin, I compared the words of Boehme and that of few Myokonin to see if I can capture the common ground. Myokonin, by the way, is a group of people founding Japan in Shin sect of Buddhism, known for their astute sense of spirituality. In contrast, Jacob Boehme is with Christian background.
Since Myokonin is a kind of people usually found among those who are not well educated and poor, their expressions are more direct - not lingering on logic and lengthy explanation. Their words are often like utterances of Zen monks, and their actions more direct (e.g., in helping others, or to enjoy occasion as it is). Boehme’s background was very humble (a shoemaker) just like many Myokonin who engaged their business in basic occupations such as wood-curving, fish trading, farming, etc. with keen interest in spirituality.
Myokonin seems to conduct their life as if to sense the Amidha’s (God’s) presence continuously. Or, it is as if there is a dialogue with Amidha carried out endlessly. The same might have been the case for Boehme although this point was not verified. In the following section, Boehme’s words (block letters) and that of Myokonin (Italic letters) are compared. There are various Myokonin included here, e.g., Saichi, Genza, et. al. My comments are in the parenthesis ((…)).
After going through this, I sense that these people discovered the state of bliss in the Love of God, the Way of Dharma, or the compassion of Amidha and lived their lives accordingly (as if nothing else mattered). Not only that, Myokonin shares explicitly their feeling of repentance that comes like an up tide every now and then. What is wonderful, however, is that they immediately turn such sense into the blissful experience of Amidha. They even point that they want to keep their sin – suffering mind - so that they can appreciate the marvelous work (compassion) of Amidha. I see this points the main difference from the notion of ‘extinction’ (nirvana) Theravada Buddhism (and others perhaps) seem to aim at.
Hope, this file would contribute something for the benefit of the reader.
- Kio Suzaki (August 2003)
"Except ye be converted, and become as little Children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven."
There was a thief to bring his horse to eat beans growing in Genza’s field. Noticing this, Genza called him, “The beans in that area is too dry. Let the horse eat the beans in the other side of the field.” (Genza is a Myokonin, p.189, Yanagi)
(( “Child-like” state of Mykonin was witnessed in such occasion in many instances. It appears as if there was no division between them and others. Or, this may be ‘understood’ as the Amidha’s compassion expressed through Genza. Genza’s life was without complaint but filled with the appreciation of compassion of Amidha.))
True Christians are the very Temples of the Holy Ghost, Who dwelleth in them; that is, the Holy Ghost dwelleth in the Will, and the Creatures dwelleth in the Body.
Saichi has finished his funeral,
And live in this world with Amidha Buddha
Saichi is Amidha,
Amidha is Saichi
(by Saichi p.218 Myokonin)
[T]hou standest in a daily dying from the Creatures, and in a daily ascending into Heaven in thy Will; which Will is also the Will of thy Heavenly Father.
No need to wait to die,
Now is the moment.
(Saichi)
[T]hou shalt have continual Cause to hate thySELF in the Creature, and to seek the Eternal Rest which is in Christ
Sin after sin, we create the world of suffering,
To say regretful is but a lie
Yes, yes,
What is mine is but all sin,
Good and bad, they are all sin.
(Saichi, p129, Myokonin)
((Pointing to the direction of non-dualistic/absolute world.))
"In Me ye may have Rest, but in the World ye shall have Anxiety; In Me ye may have Peace, but in the World ye shall have Tribulation."
I am happy
Day and night, Namuamudabutsu,
Meeting Amidha,
“Hey, Saichi, it is so,
you are in Namuamidabutsu.”
(Saichi, p146 Myokonin)
If thou dost once every Hour throw thyself by Faith beyond all Creatures, beyond and above all sensual Perception and Apprehension, yea, above Discourse and Reasoning into the abyssal Mercy of God, into the Sufferings of our Lord, and into the Fellowship of His Interceding, and yieldeth thySELF fully and absolutely thereinto; then thou shalt receive Power from above to rule over Death and the Devil, and so subdue Hell and the World under thee: And then thou mayest subsist in all Temptations, and be the brighter for them.
Dharma needs suffering to be happy. This is Namuamidabutsu of no suffering.
Such is a wrong view you may say,
Yes, you hear that way,
that is the reason it is of no use to say anything.
You play with intellect. That is why you do not get it.
You will not get it because you listen the other power with your own power.
(Saichi)
Sweetness whereof no Tongue can express
Compassion wells up in my mind, Namuamidabutsu.
(Saichi)
There is no other Way for thee that I know, but to present the Body whereof thou complainest (which is the Beast to be sacrificed) "a living Sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God" ((surrender))
Dharma is to live each day as each day. It is to have a day with happiness, merriness, and freshness while being purified.
So, do no think that you go to heaven after death. Just receive whatever you receive each day and move on. Even when you have suffering, this is the way you can move on to be with that suffering.
(Saichi)
It would not take that as any Harm done to it, but would rather rejoice that it is become worthy to be like unto the Image of our Lord Jesus Christ, being transformed from that of the World: And it would be most willing to bear that Cross after our Lord; merely that our Lord might bestow upon it the Influence of His sweet and precious Love.
Why do you not get angry?
No, no, I am that bad a person to be kicked by others. If they kick me, that will reduce the debt I accumulated from my previous life (karma).
((Dosyu P.257 Yanagi))
Be that unto it, even as unto our Lord Christ, when He was reproached, reviled and crucified by the World; and when the Anger of God so fiercely assaulted Him for our Sake. Now what did He do under this most terrible Assault both from without and from within? Why, He commended his Soul into the Hands of his Father, and so departed from the Anguish of this World into the Eternal Joy. Do thou likewise; and His Death shall become thy Life. ((Christ was a Myokonin – so to speak!))
I have finished my funeral,
Namuamidabutsu
(Saichi)
It would penetrate into itself; it would sink into the great Love of God; it would be sustained and refreshed by the most sweet name JESUS; and it would see and find within itself a new World springing forth as through the Anger of God, into the Love and Joy Eternal. And then should a Man wrap his Soul in this, even in the great Love of God, and clothe himself
Repentance, repentance, day and night
Repentance, repentance,
Thank you, thank you, day and night,
Thank you, thank you,
Namuamidabutsu, Namuamidabutsu.
(Saichi, p155, Myokonin)
Whether the Body be in Hell or on Earth, all is alike to him; for whether it be there or here, his Mind is still in the greatest Love of God; which is no less than to say, that he is in Heaven.
Although wind and air are two,
It is one air and one wind.
Although I and Amidha are two,
There is one compassion (of Nembutsu).
And so shalt thou be able to stand under every Temptation, and to hold out to the End by the Means hereof in the Course of Life above the World, and above Sense. In this Course thou wilt hate thyself; and thou wilt also love thyself; I say love thyself, and that even more than ever thou didst yet.
How regretful, regretful,
Where is that regretful?
It is here, Saichi,
Regretful, regretful,
Regretful is regretful, regretful,, regretful
(Saichi p97)
And this thou dost, that so thou mayest wholly destroy that which thou callest
thine; as when thou sayest I or MYSELF do this, or do that. All which
is wrong, and a downright Mistake in thee; for nothing canst thou properly call
thine but the Evil SELF, neither canst thou do any Thing of
thyself that is to be accounted of. This SELF therefore thou must
labor wholly to destroy IN THEE, that so thou mayest become a Ground wholly
Divine. There is, there can be no SELFishness in Love; they are
opposite to each other. Love, that is, Divine Love (of which only we are now
discoursing) hates all Egoity, hates all that which we call I, or IHOOD; hates
all such Restrictions and Confinements, yea even all that springs from a
contracted Spirit, or this evil SELF-hood, because it is a hateful and
deadly Thing.
O Amidha Buddha, my body is yours,
And my mind is taken by you,
Namuamidabutsu
(Saichi p187, Myokonin)
If Love dwelt not in Trouble, It could have Nothing to love; but when Its Substance which It loves, namely, the poor Soul, is in Trouble and Pain, Love hath thence Cause to love this, Its own Substance, and to deliver it from its Pain; that so the Soul,itself, may by the indwelling Love be again Beloved. Neither could any one know what Love is, if there were no Hatred; or what Friendship is, if there were no Foe to contend with. Or in one Word, for Love to be known It must have Something which It might Love, and where Its Virtue and Power may be manifested, by working out Deliverance to the Beloved from all Pain and Trouble. ((Finite and Infinite))
Many times, I hurt my heart,
Now, my mind is taken by Namuamidabutsu.
(Saichi, p133)
The Virtue of Love is NOTHING and ALL, or that Nothing visible out of which All Things proceed; Its Power is through All Things; Its Height is as high as God; Its Greatness is as great as God. Its Virtue is the Principle of all Principles;
Nothing is Saichi,
Saichi is Nothing.
How wonderful,
Namuamidabutsu.
Meet in the pure land.
(Saichi, p210, Myokonin)
God is Love, and Love is God. Love being the highest Principle, is the Virtue of all Virtues; from whence they all flow forth. Love being the greatest Majesty, is the Power of all Powers, from whence they severally operate; and It is the Holy Magical Root, or Ghostly Power from whence all the Wonders of God have been wrought by the Hands of his elect Servants, in all their Generations successively. Whosoever finds It, finds Nothing and All Things.
With compassion, Amidha is like a parent for me.
Becoming one with my mind,
Good and bad is taken care by you.
(Saichi p197)
in that I said, Its Virtue is Nothing, or that NOTHING which is the BEGINNING of All Things, thou must understand It thus; when thou art gone forth wholly from the Creature, and from that which is visible, and art become Nothing to all that is Nature and Creature, then thou art in that Eternal One, which is God Himself.
Saichi has nothing, but happiness,
Nothing else,
Good and bad are all taken away,
And nothing is left.
Having nothing is the easiest,
I am happy,
Namuamidabutsu.
(Saichi p102)
Thou shalt then see also in all the Works of God, how Love hath poured Itself into all Things, and penetrateth all Things, and is the most inward and most outward Ground in all Things - inwardly in the Virtue and Power of every Thing, and outwardly in the Figure and Form thereof. ((Buddha nature))
Rotten grass on the ground,
Hold the seed in itself
So that there is another life
To be born
(Seisaku Asada)
This Partition is the Creaturely Will in thee; and this can be broken by nothing but by the Grace of SELF-DENIAL, which is the Entrance into the True Following of Christ, and totally removed by Nothing but a perfect Conformity with the Divine Will.
My mind is taken away on its own,
by the compassion of
Amidha Buddha.
(Saichi, p105)
There is Nothing more required of thee at first, than not to resist this Grace, Which is manifested in thee; and Nothing in the whole Process of thy Work, but to be obedient and passive to the Light of God shining through the Darkness of thy Creaturely Being, which reaching no higher than the Light of Nature, comprehendeth It not.
How did I get my mind settled? It is by seeing who I am. I received the help, which enabled me to see what is going on in my mind, by realizing how much value I should put on myself. From that, I realized that I do not have any worth. I did not want to go to hell but want to go to heaven, so I thought. But no matter how hard I think, I cannot go to the heaven.
(Saichi)
that which is below being made subservient to that which is above; and that which is without to that which is within. Thus there will be no Danger of interfering; but all will go right, and every Thing abide in its proper Sphere.
My tide of repentance
Your tide is that of happiness
These are one in Namuamidabutsu
You and I make this Namuamidabutsu
(Saichi)
Cease but from thine own Activity, steadfastly fixing thine Eye upon one Point, and with a strong Purpose relying upon the promised Grace of God in Christ, to bring thee out of thy Darkness into His Marvelous Light. For this End gather in all thy Thoughts, and by Faith press into the Center, laying hold upon the Word of God, which is infallible, and which hath called thee. Be thou then obedient to this Call; and be silent before the Lord, sitting alone with Him in thy inmost and most hidden Cell, thy Mind being centrally united in itself, and attending His Will in the Patience of Hope.
Fountain
At the bottom of my mind
Is a fountain
that is without shape nor color.
So far as I do not disturb it,
The spring water keeps welling up.
(Enomoto)
thou must consider that there are in thy Soul two Wills, an inferiour Will, which is for driving thee to Things without and below; and a superiour Will,
Amidha Buddha is a mirror to reflect my sin,
How embarrassing, how embarrassing,
It shows them very well.
(Saichi)
if I can but enter into the Will of my LORD, and abide therein, I am safe, and may both attain to the Light of God in the Spirit of my Soul, and see with the Eye of God, that is, the Eye of Eternity in the Eternal Ground of my Will; and may also at the same Time enjoy the Light of this World nevertheless; not degrading but adorning the Light of Nature; and beholding as with the Eye of Eternity Things Eternal, so with the Eye of Nature Things Natural, and both contemplating therein the Wonders of God, and sustaining also thereby the Life of my outward Vehicle or Body.
I am not saved because I listen,
I just receive the fact of already being saved.
(Saichi)
God is a Spirit; dwell in the Spirit, work in the Spirit, pray in the Spirit, and do every Thing in the Spirit; for remember thou also art a Spirit, and thereby created in the Image of God.
To appreciate the world, Namuamidabutsu
This world is the world of the Buddha, Namuamidabutsu.
(Saichi)
let it enter by naked Faith into the Light of the Majesty; and so receive by pure Love the Light of God, and attract the Divine Power into itself,
Well
When I dig into
The Well in my mind,
Little by little,
Then,
From the bottom of it,
Came the Amidha Buddha
(Enomoto)
Where is the Hardship in this? Thou hast Nothing to care for, Nothing to desire in this Life, Nothing to imagine or attract. Thou needest only cast thy Care upon God, who careth for thee, and leave Him to dispose of thee according to His Good Will and Pleasure, even as if thou hadst no Will at all in thee.
Hey, Saichi, are you happy or are you grateful?
When I am happy, I am happy.
When there is nothing, it is nothing.
Saichi, what do you do when there is nothing to do?
I don’t do anything.
But saying Namuamidabutsu
And be with it.
Today or tomorrow, It is the same.
((Saichi: In my words, try not to try…))
Here is the Virtue and Power of the Love of God displayed. Here is the Height and Depth; here is the Breadth and Length thereof manifested, as ever the Capacity of thy Soul can contain. By this thou shalt come into that Ground out of which all Things are originated, and in which they subsist;
Where Man dwelleth not, there It hath Its Seat in Man.
((Here, as in the case of Myokonin, Boehme points that he cannot escape from Love. This is perhaps the ultimate realization one can have.))
It is the resigned Ground of a Soul, to which NoThing cleaveth.
There where the Soul hath slain its OWN Will, and willeth no more any Thing as from itSELF, but only as God willeth, and as His Spirit moveth upon the Soul, shall this appear. Where the Love of SELF is banished, there dwelleth the Love of God.
My mind is wicked,
My body the same,
From my head is a horn growing,
This is who I am
(Next moment, this turns into…)
My mind is the treasure of the world,
It is the mind that turns into Namuamidabutsu.
(Saichi, p187)
If thou goest about to comprehend It, then It will fly away from thee; but if thou dost surrender thyself wholly up to It, then It will abide with thee, and become the Life of thy Life, and be natural to thee.
Thank you,
I live without knowing and remembering,
This is the pure land of as it isness.
(Saichi p189)
Upon this entire Surrender and Yielding up of thy Will, the Love of God IN THEE becometh the Life of thy Nature;…thou art dead indeed as to thySELF, but art alive unto God.
If I am good in some way, I may wonder,
But since I am totally bad and sinful, I am happy because of that.
(Saichi p100, Yanagi)
--
How wonderful it is that Amidha takes care of my life, Namuamidabutsu
Waiting to die, now is the time to die,
This is the pleasure, Namuamidabutsu.
(Saichi p78, Myokonin)
Never couldst thou with all thy seeking, have apprehended It; but It hath apprehended thee. Much less couldst thou have comprehended It. But now It hath comprehended thee; and so the Treasure of Treasures is found.
Happy, happy,
Happy, happy,
Happy, happy,
Happy, happy,
Happy, Namuamidabutsu
Happy, Namuamidabutsu
Thank you, Namuamidabutsu
Thank you, Namuamidabutsu
(Saichi)
The Soul here saith, " I have Nothing, for I am utterly empty and stripped of every Thing; I can do Nothing, for I have no Manner of Power, but am as Water poured out; I am Nothing, for all that I am is no more than an Image of Being, and only God is to me I AM;
While I live,
I finished my funeral
So, I only wait for You.
(Saichi, p78)
No verily. Men seek and find not, because they seek It not in the naked Ground where It lieth; but in SomeThing or Other where It never will be, neither can be.
To say that it is hell
Is because the mind is drifting,
If the mind is one,
simply receive as it is.
(Saichi)
They seek It in their OWN Will, and they find It not. They seek It in their Self-Desire, and they meet not with It. They look for It in an Image, or in an Opinion, or in an Affection, or a natural Devotion and Fervour, and they lose the Substance by thus hunting after a Shadow.
The ocean is full of water,
To keep it, there is the bottom of ocean.
I am full of sin.
To receive me is Amidha Buddha.
This is my bliss,
Namuamidabutsu, Namuamidabutsu.
(Saichi)
The Love may offer Itself; but It cannot abide where the Self-Desire attracteth or imagineth. That Will which attracteth Nothing, and to which Nothing adhereth, is the only Will capable of receiving It, for It dwelleth only in Nothing as I said, and therefore they find It not.
((The same good ol’ Paradox as found in Zen koan, Meditation. Since Myokonin do not dwell on concept, there is virtually no equivalent words found corresponding to these points of Boehme))
And when this Enkindling is made in thee, then the Love doth so exceedingly rejoice in thy Fire, as thou wouldst not for all the World be out of It; yea, wouldst rather suffer thyself to be killed, than to enter into thy Something again.
Committing sin after sin,
in this world
To say feeling embarrassed about it is just a lie.
Yes, that is true, that is true. I am full of sin.
Good and bad, it is all sin.
(Saichi)
Its Flame hence also will be so very great, that It will never leave thee, though It should even cost thee thy temporal Life; but It would go with thee in Its sweet loving Fire into Death;
The dharma world is different from the world of wishing this and that. No matter what the suffering is, it does not affect anything. Out of that suffering, happiness/bliss is realized.
((Burning the self is not an easy task for everyone to undertake…Yet, there is no choice – at least for these people.))
Where the Way is hardest, there go thou; and what the World casteth away, that take thou up. What the World doth, that do thou not; but in all Things walk thou contrary to the World. So thou comest the nearest Way to that which thou art seeking.
While working with young workers.
“You guys take it easy to work, OK? As for me, I do not have much time left to live, so I will work the best I can.”
(Genza)
It is brighter than the Sun; It is sweeter than any Thing that is called sweet
“Hey, it is time to eat rice” “Yes, Yes, there is nothing like rice.”
“Hey, it is time to eat rice cake.” “Yes. Yes, there is nothing like rice cake.”
(Genza)
Genza came back fully wet in the rain,
“You got wet very well, don’t you?”
“Yes, thank you. It is nice that my nose is pointing downward.”
Wherever you die, that place is the pure land (heaven).
(Hana)
Saichi is referred to more than other Myokonin here because of the amount of his words available for me. It was told that Saichi wrote these words on the wooden piece as he made wooden sandals in his job. Later, he rewrote these words into his notebook which amounted to 60+ volumes. He lived in Shimane prefecture and died in 1932 at the age of 83.
Namuamidabutsu is a prayer just like Amen. It may be translated as: I throw myself in the compassion of Amidha Buddha.
Myokonin became known to the world mainly because of Daisetsz Suzuki’s books. For more information on Myokonin and Jacob Boehme, please refer to other files posted at my home page.
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