Good Ultimately Prevails

QUESTION: Before our pureland service yesterday, the Sheffield Amida School members listened to the third talk in the "Characteristics of the Amida School" series. There was reference to "five spiritual laws". 1. The universe is not answerable to my personal will. 2. Dependent origination. 3. Karma is inexorable. 4. Good ultimately prevails. 5. Longing springs eternal. Could you say a little more about these, particularly the fourth, "Good ultimately prevails?

DHARMAVIDYA: These maxims describe the broad framework of Buddhist thinking. Of course, some thinking might implicitly or explicitly challenge them, but they do quite well describe the tennor of much Buddhist thought. We start from the existential issue that we are in a universe that seems to go on quite independently of us and persist whether we do or not. Indeed, we seem to be a function of it. This realisation is an important first step. It punctures our sense of omnipotence. Everything in this universe arises in dependence upon causes and conditions, our own mental states not excepted. In this respect, Buddhism is not unlike modern science in its basic philosophy. This, however, is only a background philosophy since Buddhism is essentially a spiritual path. It has more to say than just this. Given that we are in an inexorable universe, how should we live what can we do? Buddhism suggests there are higher laws - spiritual laws - in addition to the ones that account for the mechanical aspects of the world. These are the laws of karma, of good prevailing and of our inextinguishable spiritual longing. These three define our spiritual life. We are beings who come into this life not as a blank sheet, but laden with karma. The Pureland understanding of this is that we are foolish beings. Yet, although we have all kinds of delusions and tendencies that bring pain and suffering into the lives of ourselves and others, there still is another way. There still is a path of light where good prevails. This is a second step, if you like. Initially, having recognized this, we think to follow this path by our own effort and so conquer the problem set by the world of Mara. Our despair has as its frame our recognition that we so seldom manage to follow this simple path of love.

The path of goodness - the Eightfold Path - is that upon which good ultimately prevails. It does not always proximately prevail, of course. Sometimes we have to persist through many difficulties. This is because there is always still a residue of old karma which has to be worked through. Old wheels continue to turn, but if one were to persist upon the path of goodness, eventually it prevails. When we fail to do so and then examine ourselves, what we find is some failure of faith. Faith rather than will-power is the vital ingredient. Where there is complete faith one does not really falter. Everything somehow works out. We all long for the good and this longing draws us back toward faith while our experience of short term setbacks in life tend to undermine faith. But this undermining only works when there is some chink in our faith in the first place. Pure faith is intrinsically stable. When pure faith is born in us we are very fortunate.

Sometimes pure faith exists within us but we do not realise that this is the case. The other day I was involved in a discussion with several other people and listening to them talk I suddenly realized that I have complete faith that when we are engaged in this activity of creating a Buddhist community, the eternal Pure Land is present in that activity. I have complete faith in that. even though I do not necessarily know what the next step is or what we will be doing in this respect next year, I have no doubt at all that in this activity of creating a Buddhist community together the eternal good is present. Not only is it present, it is indestructible. This certainty in no way reduces the fact that I see all of us who are involved in this task - and myself most acutely - as foolish beings. The good that always prevails does not reside in me nor in the next person. It is not a property of persons, it is a property of purposes. This is why Buddhist ethics is so much about intention.

When we sing Tan Butsu Ge, we are reciting the words of Dharmakara Bodhisattva when he was at an early stage of his bodhisattva career. On the one hand, his sincere aspiration is full of naive grandiosity. On the other hand, it completely expresses the eternal good that wells up in him as an unassuageable longing. Oh, if only I could make a perfect Pure Land, he seems to be saying, then everybody would find peace. That would be wonderful, wonderful. And in the activity that spring from such faith, the Pure Land is immediately present in all its fulness. I don't know how to explain it better than that.