“Rennyo Sh Onin was one of the greatest teachers of the Shin school of Buddhism; in fact it was he who laid the firm foundation for for the modern religions institution known as the Jodo-Shin Shu, the True Sect of the Pure Land. His letters numbering about eighty-five are preserved and the title ‘Gobunsho,’ that is , ‘honorable letters,’ is given to them. Here is one of Rennyo’s letters:

‘To be established in shin faith means to understand the eighteenth vow, means to understand the frame of mind the “Namu-amida-butsu” sets up in you.

“Therefore, when you attain a state of singlemindedness as you utter the “namu”with absolute trust in Amida: you perceive the signifiance of Amida’s vow which is directed towards awakening a faith frame in you. For herein we realize what is meant by Amida Nyorsi’s ‘turning towards’; us ignorant beings. This is pointed out in the Larger Sutra of Eternal Life where we read: ‘Amida provides all beings with all the merits. …”

“The translation of such documents as Rennyo’s letters is full of difficulties as they are so laden with technical terms which defy in many cases replacement by and other language. But a word about ‘Namu-amida-butsu.’

“’Namu-amida-butsu’ is the Japanese reading of the original Sanskrit meaning ‘Adoration of the Buddha of Infinite Light.’” ~D. T. Suzuki

Buddha of Infinite Light

There is only one true God and that is the God of infinite Light, the God of infinite Love, and the God of infinite creation. This is the God of Spirit. The god of the Old Testament: the angry, jealous, vengeful god is the false god that Gnostic call the Demiurge. That god is not of Light but darkness. A deeper kind of darkness than simply being in a room with the lights out. He is dark and the creator of matter, although the world of matter is also part of the realm of the true God of Spirit and Light because the realm of matter was created by altering spirit into matter. If you think of Buddha as God, then as the God of Infinite Light, he would be the true god. Of course, no human is actually a god. Jesus, Moses, and Buddha, were all prophets, and, in the case of Jesus for sure, a messiah. But that is not the same as being God.

State of Singlemindedness

Many people may have a state of singlemindedness, but Rennyo is talking about a specific kind of singlemindedness. He is talking about those who put the Will of God and the desire to develop their spiritual attributes above all else. Such people are rare in this very materialistic age, but that is starting to change. Now that we have the Sun of Righteousness shining down on us, the number of such people is growing.

Rennyo’s Letters

Suzuki says that Renyo’s letters are difficult to translate properly because of his use of technical terms which defy translation from the original Sanscrit. I find that interesting as Rennyo is given credit for bringing Buddhism to Japan, so it seems odd that he wrote in Sanscrit. In any case, I think the translators have done well to translate ‘Namu-amida-butsu’ as ‘Adoration of the Buddha of Infinite Light.’ Adoration of the God of Light is what real spiritual development is all about. And we must turn to the Spiritual Sun, the Sun of Righteousness, to best follow the Will of God and develop our dormant spiritual natures.

“What we have to consider is how by training, one may develop those organs of perception, lying dormant in the Soul. Those who do not feel themselves especially impelled toward doing something for their own development may easily say that man stands under the guidance of spiritual powers, that such guidance should therefore not be interfered with, and that the moment, deemed by those powers to be the right ones for revealing another world to the Soul, should be awaited in patience. Indeed, persons who are of this opinion are inclined to consider it a kind of presumption, or unjustifiable desire for anyone to interfere with the wisdom of such spiritual guidance.

“Those who think in this way will only change their opinion if some other mode of presenting the case makes a sufficiently strong impression upon them. If they were to say to themselves, ‘This wise guidance has endowed me with certain faculties, and it has done so, not that I should let them lie idle, but rather that I should use them. Indeed, the very wisdom of such guidance lies in the fact of its having placed in me the rudiments of those organs necessary for a higher state of consciousness.’” ~Rudolf Steiner

Train to Develop

If you want to develop your muscles, you can’t just sit on the sofa and watch fitness videos, you have to actually exercise. If you want to learn to speak Chinese, you can’t just wait for the language to simply arrive in your head. You have to study, you have to actively work at learning. The same is true for our spiritual Self. It does not simply develop spontaneously, and sitting around waiting for that to happen simply means that it never will.

Those Who do not Feel Impelled

A common fantasy today is that we need to do nothing to awaken and develop our spiritual faculties. They say that the spirit and soul will develop when the time is right for it to happen. Or they say that there is no reason to develop our spiritual Self while in the physical world and we should wait until the afterlife to do that. As Steiner indicates, neither of those attitudes is accurate and neither of them is wise. In this world, we don’t develop skills just by wishing for them. We don’t learn to swim on the day we fall off a ship. We need to know how to swim before that happens. We don’t know how to fight a war the day we join the military or get drafted. That is why every military in the world trains its soldiers and sailors before sending them off to fight. That is even more true today with the sophisticated weapons and equipment the soldiers have to deal with. The spiritual faculties are no different. We must work at developing them.

Techniques of Development

What Steiner isn’t saying is how to awaken and develop those faculties. Unfortunately, many who do want to develop their spiritual Self have fallen for the misguided belief that meditation is all that is needed. While forms of meditation have been taught in spiritual schools throughout the ages, it is only the first step on a long path. Also, the type of meditation that has become popular these days moves one away from spiritual growth rather than toward it. That is because these forms of meditation are designed to lower our brain frequencies to the frequencies of bugs and frogs when what we need is to raise our frequencies to those of Angels and Light Beings. The best way to do that is through spiritual forms of sun gazing as practiced in Cosolargy. That is not all of it, of course. We also need to develop love and humility. But the spiritual sun gazing is the most important part of it.

Organs Necessary for Higher Consciousness

Steiner says that making the effort to develop our spiritual faculties will, if done correctly, give us“the rudiments of those organs necessary for a higher state of consciousness.” What do higher states of consciousness have to do with developing our spiritual Self? Everything! As mentioned earlier, higher-level beings such as Angels operate at higher frequencies. That also means that they are at higher states of consciousness. So the development of our spiritual faculties also helps us rise to higher states of consciousness. That can help us in this world as well as the next.