Mark and Taitetsu Unno speak with Tricycle’s Jeff Wilson about the subtle wisdom at the heart of Pure Land Buddhist practice.
Taitetsu Unno,
professor emeritus of religious studies at Smith College, is one of the
major figures in post–World War II American Jodo Shinshu Buddhism.
Besides his numerous scholarly publications on Buddhism, his books River of Fire, River of Water: An Introduction to the Pure Land Tradition of Shin Buddhism (Doubleday, 1998) and Shin Buddhism: Bits of Rubble Turn into Gold (Doubleday, 2002) have helped many people to discover the riches of this major Buddhist tradition. His son, Mark Unno, is also a professor of Buddhism (at the University of Oregon); he is the author of Shingon Refractions: Myoe and the Mantra of Light (Wisdom Publications, 2004), about Japanese Vajrayana Buddhism, and the editor of Buddhism and Psychotherapy Across Cultures: Essays on Theories and Practices (Wisdom Publications, 2006).

Mark Unno (left) and his father, Taitetsu Unno, are both Buddhst scholars and Shin priests
The Unnos are both ordained priests in the Jodo Shinshu (Shin)
tradition of Pure Land Buddhism and lead an annual Shin retreat in
mid-July at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, in Barre,
Massachusetts. This interview was conducted between sessions at the
2008 retreat. As we sat in the lounge outside the center’s dharma hall,
our conversation turned to the nembutsu, Shin Buddhism’s central
practice. The nembutsu is a short chant—Namu Amida Butsu—that means “I
entrust myself to the Buddha of Infinite Light and Life.” The
attributes of light and life are understood as standing for great
wisdom and compassion, which are embodied in Amida Butsu (Sanskrit,
Amitabha Buddha). In the traditional sutras ascribed to the historical
Buddha, Amida is described as existing in a Pure Land, a realm of bliss
that is very close to nirvana, or complete liberation.
Devotion to Amida was present in the early phases of the Mahayana
movement in the first century BCE and spread throughout most of
Buddhist Asia, but it was in China and especially in Japan that it
began to take on elements of a distinctive school. Today, the nembutsu
is a common practice in virtually all forms of East Asian Buddhism, but
as the Unnos pointed out, it has a particular interpretation in Shin
Buddhism. For Shin followers, Amida Buddha is a manifestation of true
reality, of emptiness or suchness, and the nembutsu manifests Amida
Buddha. The nembutsu was recommended by Shinran (1173–1262), the
founder of Jodo Shinshu, because it can be performed by anyone,
anywhere, anytime. The ease of Shin practice, combined with its
determined lay orientation and spirit of humility and deep
self-introspection, has helped make Jodo Shinshu the most widely
practiced form of Buddhism in Japan. Brought to Hawaii and North
America by Japanese immigrants in the nineteenth century, it is the
oldest organized form of Western Buddhism and continues to nurture tens
of thousands in the United States and Canada today.
Can you tell us about chanting the nembutsu, Shin Buddhism’s central practice?
Taitetsu Unno: Chanting “Namu Amida Butsu,” which
translates as “I entrust myself to the Buddha of Infinite Light and
Life,” is not a form of petitionary prayer or mantra. It is a means of
communication between a relative being or consciousness and the Buddha
deep within. When I chant, there is the expression of Namu Amida Butsu
not only from this side, but also from the side of the Buddha.
Mark Unno: From
the Shin standpoint, the nembutsu arises not from the being who is
living in this karmic world but from the highest truth, or the
Dharmakaya, which in Shin Buddhism manifests as Amida Buddha. Yet it’s
not as if the two entities are separate. One could say that the
nembutsu arises from Buddha-nature, even though initially one senses or
invokes it from the side of the karmic human being, the person who is
burdened with suffering due to blind passions and attachments. So
Shinran said that the act of saying “Namu Amida Butsu”—which is an
expression of what we call shinjin, or true entrusting—is actually the
expression of Buddha-nature. It arises from our deepest, truest nature,
which is ultimately none other than the awakening of infinite light,
Amida Buddha herself. I say, “herself,” because Shinran refers to Amida
as the Compassionate Mother, even though Amida originated in India as a
male buddha.