“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.

Yeshua said, Blessings on you when you are hated and persecuted, and no place will be found, wherever you are persecuted.

Yeshua said, Blessings on you who have been persecuted in your hearts. Only you truly know the father. Blessings on you who are hungry that the stomach of someone else in want may be filled.

“He said,Master, there are many around the drinking trough but nothing in the well. Yeshua said, There are many standing at the door but those who are alone will enter the wedding chamber. Yeshua said, The father’s kingdom is like a merchant who owned a supply of merchandise and found a pearl. The merchant was prudent. He sold his goods and bought the single pearl for himself.”

“They said to him, Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you. He said to them, You examine the face of heaven and earth but you have not come to know the one who is in your presence, and you do not know how to examine this moment. Yeshua said, Seek and you will find. In the past I did not tell you the things about which you asked me. Now I am willing to tell you, but you do not seek them.”

“The students said to him, Your brothers and your mother are standing outside. He said to them, Those here who do the will of my father are my brothers and my mother. They will enter my father’s kingdom. They showed Yeshua a gold coin and said to him, Caesar’s people demand taxes from us. He said to them, Give Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, give god the things that are god’s, and give me what is mine. “ ~The Gospel of Thomas

The Cornerstone

According to Thomas, Jesus (Yeshua) said that the stone the builder rejects will be the cornerstone. This is not about stones or building, it is allegory. The stone the builder rejects represents the spiritual type of people who are often rejects in an overly materialistic world. The cornerstone, being the most important part of the building, represents the one from many are are chosen by God to do His work here on earth. Of course, God is not going to choose only one person to do a job. He chooses several so that at least one will seek the true spiritual path and develop the necessary spiritual faculties to do the job. Tyhe know-it-all, who thinks he knows everything, but actually only knows material things, and even those only in a limited way, is not one who will be chosen. The one who iss chosen admits that he doesn’t know everything and seeks to learn more.

Hated and Persecuted

Jesus is not blessing all who are pursecuted, only those who are persecuted for being spiritual in a materialistic world and those who are unjustly persecuted when they have done no wrong. Jesus blesses such people because they are following the path of righteousness, regardless of what society things of such behavior.

You Who are Hungry

It is a simple fact that people who have little are often the ones most likely to share what they have with others. Greedy people rarely share unless they can see some way to profit from it, such as getting publicity. So jesus is not blessing them simply because they are hungry, but because they are hungry due to sharing what little they have. And hunger here can represent more then hunger for food. The person may need new clothes, new shoes, etc., but is nevertheless sharing what they have. That is a true person of God, and so blessed by God and Jesus.

The Single Pearl

The wise merchant who sells all he has to buy the single pearl is not buying a pearl in the physical sense. This is another allegory. The pearl of great price is the Truth and Wisdom found in Heaven, the Truth and Wisdom that we can gain only by developing our spiritual faculties. Like the Fountian of Youth, some seek this pearl as if it were a physical object, but it isn’t. It is purely spiritual.

My Brothers and Mother

This is one of the sayings of Jesus that are disliked by many. Some refuse to believe he said it. But Jesus is not dishonoring his blood relatives, he is saying that those who are our brothers and sisters in the spiritual quest for enlightenment are more important than those we are related to by blood, especially when those blood relatives choose not to develop their spiritual Self.

“In our study of the Mystic Life, its purification and illumination, we have been analyzing and considering a process of organic development, an evolution of personality. We may treat this either as a movement of consciousness toward higher levels, or as a remaking of consciousness consequent on the emergence and growth of a factor which is dormant in ordinary people, but destined to be supreme in the full-grown mystic type. We have seen the awakening of this factor—this spark of the soul—with its innate capacity for apprehending the absolute. We have seen it attack and conquer the old sense-fed and self-centered life of the normal self, and introduce it into a new universe, lit up by the Uncreated Light. These were the events which, taken together constitute the ‘First Mystic Life’; a complete round upon the spiral road which leads from Man to God.

“What we have been looking at, then, is a life process, the establishment of a certain harmony between the created self and the Reality whose invitation it has heard: and we have discussed this life process as if it contained no elements which were not referable to natural and spontaneous growth. … But side by side with this organic growth there always goes a specific kind of activity which is characteristic of the mystic: that his consciousness of the Infinite may be stabilized, enriched, and defined.” ~Evelyn Underhill

Mystic Life

The book from which the above quote is taken is all about the life of the mystics, so Underhill uses that name a lot, but we could just as easily say spiritual student or spiritual adept, so the Mystic life is also the Spiritual life, at least if you are talking about actual spiritual development and not the pretense of it that is so common today.

Purification and Illumination

Purification and illumination are what spiritual (or mystical) development is all about. Foolish people claim they are perfect just as they are and have no need for development. Mystery schools and spiritual schools have not existed for many centuries in many parts of the world for nothing. Just as the doctor, carpenter, or lawyer needs training and development, so does the spiritual adept. In this world, there is no free ride. You don’t climb out of the deep hole of matter by simply wishing for it, or pretending you have already gotten out.

Organic Development

What Ms. Underhill means when she says “organic development,” is the natural growth of the body and mind that happens to everyone, or at least everyone who doesn’t have some disease that prevents it. It is the development that largely happens on its own, with little conscious effort, as opposed to spiritual development which requires a conscious effort applied regularly and consistently. But as Underhill adds to this, the Mystic follows a different kind of organic process by seeking to awaken and develop his spiritual faculties and develop higher levels of consciousness. The highest level of consciousness is that found in the highest dimension that most call Heaven.

Levels of Consciousness

Underhill tells us that the mystic undergoes a process of either remaking their consciousness or developing higher levels of consciousness. There are those who have made both spiritual and scientific studies of this, and most agree that there are multiple levels of consciousness. Obviously, a potato doesn’t have the same level of consciousness as a fish, and generally, a human has a higher level of consciousness than that fish. But are their levels of consciousness beyond humans? Spiritual people and mystics believe so, and some of the more advanced have achieved very high levels, levels where they gain the Truth and Wisdom known as Gnosis, which cannot be gained by reading books.

Conquer the Self-Centered Life

Yes, spiritual development does require us to conquer the self-centered life. To put it another way, the Soul must be awakened and developed to the point where it can control the ego which is all about the world of matter. The ego does not need to be destroyed, as some claim, it needs to be controlled. We need ego to function in the material world, but we can’t let it dominate and prevent us from making spiritual progress.

The Spiral Road

The Spiral Road (or staircase) is the path of illumination that leads to Heaven. It is spiral because it is the nature of man that most of us don’t move forward on a straight and continuous path. We take a few steps forward, we fall back, we move forward again, etc. That is why the path is best depicted as a spiral. And it is, as Underhill says, a “life process,” the gradual establishment of harmony between our material and spiritual natures so that we can continue forward on that spiritual path and also continue to function in the world. And when we finally face physical death, the spirit and soul will continue on that spiral road until the highest level is reached.

“The Spirit of our Lord speaks thus in the Book of the Secrets of God, which St. John wrote down: to him that overcomes, He says, that is, to him who overcomes and conquers himself and all else, will I give to eat of the hidden manna, that is, an inward and hidded savour and celetial joy; and will give him a sparkling stone, and in the stone a new name is written which no person knows saving the one who receives it. This stone is called a pebble, for it is so small that it does not hurt when one treads on it. This stone is shining white and red like a flame of fire, and it is small and round, and smooth all over, and very light. ….

“Now to him who overcomes and transcends all things, this sparkling stone is given; and with it he receives light and truth and life. This stone is also like a fiery flame, for the fiery love of the eternal Word has filled the whole world with love and wills that all loving spirits be burned up in love.” ~John of Ruysbroeck

Book of the Secrets

The “Book of the Secrets of God”, better known today as “The Secret Book of John,” or “The Apocryphon of John) is a Gnostic book that talks about God being the One who rules all and the Pure Light, among other things. It is surprising that Ruysbroeck references it since he was not known to be particularly gnostic in his beliefs and teachings.

Overcomes and Conquers

What it means to overcome and conquer yourself is that you are able to control your animal instinct, and your ego, and put the development of spirit and soul above all else. That may seem like an impossible task in today’s materialistic, capitalistic world, but it can be done. It doesn’t mean that you can’t have a normal job but must live in a monastery. You can have a normal life, but with the idea always in front of your mind that the spirit comes first and the Laws of God come before those of Man. And spiritual development techniques only need to be practiced for five to fifteen minutes a day, so should be doable by all.

Hidden Manna

There are two kinds of Manna. There was the manna given to the starving Jews in the desert that was a physical bread to nourish their bodies. There is another manna that is spiritual and available to those who seek it in love and humility. That second manna is God’s Light that comes to us through the spiritual sun. That manna is the hidden manna that awakens and nourishes the spirit and soul. Nothing physical can do that.

Sparkling Stone

Ruysbroeck says the awakened person receives a sparkling stone that is shiny, white and red, and does not hurt. So he is saying in an indirect way that this stone is not something physical like the Sorcerer’s stone in the Harry Potter tales. I have left out a section of the quote from Ruysbroeck because I think it is misleading. Ruysbroeck goes on to say that the stone is actually Jesus Christ, who is the savior of all. Those who are spiritual students generally know better. The Sparkling Stone, also known as the Philosopher’s Stone, is our own inner Christ that is awakened with spiritual practice. That is what Jesus meant when he said we should follow him. He meant that we should awaken our own inner Christ, our own Sparkling Stone. It is only by doing so that we are able to reach up to the highest level of consciousness known as Heaven, and become one with the All.

“I have never failed to come to the aid of the poor and lowly. I have ever obeyed the laws of God and Man. Goodness has always been honored in my heart, and I have consistently read the sacred writings. Yet never have I found these things consistent with mortal wellbeing. Because my tongue did not turn around corners and twist back on itself, because the words I spoke came from my heart, undiluted with any malicious thought, because I chided the rich for their selfishness and inconsideration, their wasteful living and meaningless activities, they became my enemies. Because I called upon the powerful to live according to the laws they professed to uphold and the words declared to be sacred, I was seized and imprisoned. When I protested the injustice to the ears of the people, I was beaten with rods, I was branded as one who seeks to destroy the stability of the land. I, who tried to set an example of goodness, to lead a life dedicated to my God, to convert the wicked to righteousness, am myself declared wicked by the workers of evil. Why is this, O my God? Have I, to my sorrow and undoing, weighted the values of life wrongly?” ~The Kolbrin Bible (MAN:19:8)

To Aid the Poor and Lowly

To aid the poor is certainly a good thing, although not always done properly. When done with humility and a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood, it is a good thing. When done to show off how much better a person you are and to boost your ego, it isn’t.

Obeyed the Laws

It is usually a good thing to obey the law, but there are exceptions. Sometimes, the laws of Man conflict with the Laws of God. When that happens, the spiritual person must put the Laws of God before the laws of Man. Between those two are the laws of nature. We would also be wise to obey the laws of nature as much as possible, even when they conflict with Man’s law. We don’t need to worry about the laws of nature conflicting with the Laws of God, they never do.

Reading Sacred Writings

Like obeying the law, reading scripture is usually a good thing, but not always. If you read scripture with no comprehension of what it means, or your read it without even trying to understand it, then reading it is pointless. Perhaps even worse than reading sacred books without comprehension is reading them with a false comprehension, something which is unfortunately common today. Most of humanity has become so material oriented that we interpret everything in a material and literal way. When you do that with scripture, you almost always end up wit nonsense. The holy ones who wrote scripture knew that true spiritual teachings were dangerous in the hands of materialistic or evil people, so they generally wrote in allegory or other kinds of code. If you don’t have some understanding of the codes they used, you will get a false understanding.

Tongue did not Turn

I think this allegory is one that is easy to understand. When the author says his tongue “did not turn around corners’” he is simply saying that he did not lie, but always told the truth as he knew it. While this is definitely a good thing, there may be occasions when telling the truth is not the best thing to do. If telling the truth will hurt another person’s feelings, it may be best to tell a white lie or say nothing at all. If corrupt authorities ask you about the location of some innocent person they want to arrest, it is best to not answer, or tell a white lie. When the early Christian Martyrs were arrested, they were often tortured to get them to reveal the names and locations of other Christians. Most refused to do so, and that was as it should be.

Chided the Selfish

Here is where the person in the quote went wrong. Chiding the rich and powerful is rarely a good idea. If you are not in a position that prevents them from taking revenge, it is a bad idea. It is not that greed is acceptable, but trying to teach people something they are not ready to learn is pointless and likely to get you into trouble. Instead of chiding the rich and selfish, you could gently suggest to them that there is great joy in sharing, otherwise, it is generally best to keep those beliefs to yourself. Of course, it is always acceptable to speak in generalities and say things like “greed is not a good thing,” but don’t mention individuals or classes of people when doing so.

Likewise, chiding government officials for not doing their job can get one in trouble, depending on the type of government you are under.

Ego Trip

Most of all, when your idea of spiritual practice is to complain about the greedy, the corrupt, and those who oppose spiritual development, you are feeding your ego, not your spirit. That is why much of what this person did was not moving him forward in a spiritual way. The ego is not an enemy that needs to be destroyed, but it does need to be kept under control by an awakened Soul.

1 – I have replaced some of the old English in the quote with modern English for readability.