Evil, karmic evil [aku, akugo]
Buddhism teaches that human beings possess blind passions, but that
through practice they can become rid of those passions. When they
are completely free of passions, they attain Buddhahood. Shinran,
however, takes the position of a person incapable of ridding
himself of passions, and the blind passions one cannot rid oneself
of he terms "evil." These passions form the core of one's very
existence as a human being; one has possessed them from the
beginningless past and will continue to have them for however long
one lives. Shinran uses a number of interrelated terms to refer to
evil: aku (bad, evil), tsumi (also zai-, evil, transgression),
zaiaku, zaigo (evil karma), akugo (evil karma). Although they
differ in perspective and emphasis, these terms all express the
nature of the self that one becomes aware of within the light of
the Buddha's wisdom.
The basic meaning of evil may be seen in the following words of
Shinran recorded in A Record in Lament of Divergences 3:
It is impossible for us, filled as we are with blind passions, to
free ourselves from birth-and-death through any practice whatever.
Sorrowing at this, Amida made the Vow, the essential intent of
which is the attainment of Buddhahood by the evil person.
A person is "evil" because he or she is filled with blind passions;
this is also clear from Shinran's statement, "A foolish being is by
nature possessed of blind passions, so you must recognize yourself
as a being of evil" (Lamp for the Latter Ages 6). It should be
noted that while the term "evil" has moral and ethical implications
in Shin Buddhism, its chief significance is religious. The
essential meaning of the term evil is a person's inability to
perform any religious practice whatever - any act to bring him or
herself to the attainment of Buddhahood - because of the deeply
harbored blind passions that motivate all his acts. In other words,
whatever moral or ethical "good" persons may do, and however pure
and spiritually disciplined they may make themselves, every thought
that they have, word that they utter, and deed that they do can
result only in sending them to hell, and not one can bring them
closer to enlightenment. Nevertheless, the essential intent of the
Primal Vow is "the attainment of Buddhahood by the evil
person."
In order to understand Shinran's concept of the evil person as the
one in accord with the Vow, it is necessary to consider Shinran's
use of "good and evil."
Know that the Primal Vow of Amida makes no distinction between
people young and old, good and evil.
(A Record in Lament of Divergences 1)
By acting on the impulses of such blind passions as anger or greed,
one may inflict harm and suffering on others; this is part of the
Shin concept of "evil." But, as stated here, human judgments of
good and evil hold no meaning from the standpoint of the Primal
Vow. However evil one may be, one will be saved, and however
virtuous one may be, or diligent in religious practice, such good
is of no aid or significance whatever. In the realm of the Primal
Vow, there is only the Buddha and evil beings. "Good" people in the
ordinary sense - people who believe their actions to be good and
who strive to make them so - cannot enter there, for they believe
instead in their own judgments, will, and capacity to do
good:
People who rely on doing good through their self-power fail to
entrust themselves wholeheartedly to Other Power and therefore are
not in accord with Amida's Vow. (ibid., 3)
Because of their calculation, such persons cannot entrust
themselves to the Primal Vow. They stand within the realm of
intellect and morality - the realm of ordinary human life - and
cannot encounter that which transcends such life. "But," Shinran
continues,
When they overturn the mind of self-power and entrust themselves to
Other Power, they will attain birth in the true and real fulfilled
land. (ibid.)
In abandoning attachment to their own good and "becoming their
foolish self" (Lamp for the Latter Ages 6), persons come to
encounter the Vow. That is, abandoning the thought that one is
good, and even the belief in the ultimate significance of human
good, one realizes one's evil and becomes evil in Shinran's sense;
it is precisely such an evil person who is liberated by the
Vow.
The self-realization implied in the concept of evil is strongly
expressed in the characterization of evil as karmic (akugo, zaigo).
Karma signifies the history of the human existence of a single
person flowing in a line of cause and effect from past to present
and present to future. Karmic evil, frequently used together with
ignorance (mumyo akugo) and blind passions (bonno akugo), implies
the infiniteness of one's evil, stretching back into the
beginningless past and harboring unknowable evil in the depths of
the existence of the self. Because of eons of repetition and habit,
this evil thoroughly pervades one's life; hence, to become aware of
the deep roots of existence of one's self is at the same time to
become aware of its basic nature as evil, being pervaded by blind
passions.
Karma further implies that one's evil is of one's own commission.
Thus there is a basic difference between Shinran's concept of evil
and the idea of original sin in Christianity, in which one shares
with all humankind the sin committed by the first man. Moreover,
Amida's great compassion is absolute; there is no place at all for
the judgment of sins. Hence, neither is there any redemption of
sins; persons are grasped by great compassion just as they are,
possessed of evil. Their sins are worked out not by Amida Buddha,
but by the law of karma. In a sense, persons must deal with their
own evil through the karma at work in their lives and redeem it
themselves. Amida has no part in this. Evil thus describes persons
who have been taken into Other Power just as they are, living out
the consequences of their acts.
Nevertheless, when persons have been grasped by Other Power,
"without their calculating in any way, all their past, present, and
future karmic evil is transformed into good." This is not to say
that their karmic evil is deprived of its own inherent action. It
at once follows the law of karma and is transformed by Other Power.
Evil, then, must not be understood merely as a label for the human
condition; it refers specifically to persons who entrust themselves
to Other Power and live in its working. This entrusting is at the
same time a realization of one's self as evil that cannot be
attained through the self-reflection carried on by human intellect;
it only occurs within the realm of the Primal Vow (the Buddha's
mind), which transcends the dimensions of intellect and
consciousness and therefore transcends morality and social life.
Through the light shed for them by the Buddha's wisdom, persons
become aware of the evil at the roots of their lives, and while
they are grieved by it and repent, they are also filled with
gratitude for Amida's compassion.
In referring to evil, Shinran uses both aku (waroshi) and zai
(tsumi). Tsumi refers to human defilement in contrast to the purity
of the Buddha. It is, therefore, fundamentally a religious concept.
Aku (evil) is originally an ethical and moral concept used in
relation to good and confined in its meaning to the realm of human
relationships. Shinran uses this term in the religious sense
outlined above, however, and this usage expresses the close
relationship between religion and morality. Precisely by
transcending morality, the realm of the Primal Vow lends support to
morality from a more profound level, and morality itself performs a
function of leading us, through self-reflection, toward the world
of the Vow.
