Illumined by the Limitless: Shinran Morning Puja

 

Everywhere the Buddha casts light

Immeasurable, boundless

Unhindered, unequalled

Light-lord of all brilliance                                                                         

Pure light, joyful light

the light of wisdom […]

The multitudes of beings

All receive this radiance.                                                                           (Shoshinge v3-4, CWS 1.69)

 

Were it not for the wisdom of shinjin,

How could we attain nirvana?

It is a great torch

in the long night of ignorance;

Do not sorrow

that your eyes of wisdom are dark.

It is a ship

on the vast ocean of birth-and-death;

Do not grieve

that your obstructions of karmic evil are heavy.                     (Hymns of the Dharma Ages v.35-6, CWS 1.407)                                                                                                                                            

The great compassionate Vow

of unhindered light

fills the ten quarters

Our rivers of blind passions,

on entering the ocean 

become one in taste

with that sea of wisdom.                                                                                       (CWS 1.371 re-ordered)

 

Refuges and Precepts with Shin Positive Precepts

 

Those who follow the Path of Sages

All take the mind of self-power as essential;

On entering the inconceivable working of Other Power,

We truly realize

that no working is true working.                                                                                     (CWS 1.55)

 

Although I too

am within Amida’s grasp

passions obstruct my eyes

and I cannot see the light.

Nevertheless, great compassion is untiring

and illumines me always.                                                                         (Shoshinge v27 CWS 1.71)

 

 

Put together by Maitrisiddhi.  Italics = Maitrisiddhi’s changes to original text, which is taken from the Collected Works of Shinran, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto,1997