(25)  Material greed and Spiritual greed

 Jodo Shinshu was established in the 13th century by Shinran Shônin, who was in those days a Buddhist reformer. He recognized the fact that although all humans posses a Buddha nature or capacity for salvation (which we call the potentiality for Enlightenment in the Buddhist tradition), in reality humankind is submerged in the life of ignorance, greed, fame, pride and desire. And thus in his personal life he renounced his priestly calling to declare himself "neither priest nor layman".

For although he spent many years as a celibate in a Buddhist monastery, he had witnessed hubris within the monastic life. Fellow monks clung to "holiness" or their ability to spend sleepless nights chanting sutras thousand of times or meditating, in the same manner that laymen hoarded gold. And he came to the simple conclusion that "spiritual greed" was as bad as "material greed". Thus, when he declared himself to be "neither a priest nor a layman", he was actually seeking a more idealistic belief.

Through his self-reflection, he came to realize the pursuit of self-power in religion, often had hypocritical consequences ---- for chanting the sutra a thousand times or spending sleepless nights and fasting, is too often a salve for the ego. He watched his fellow monks accruing "spiritual wealth" in the same manner that laymen sought gold. And he came to believe that such spiritual pride was hubris, just as the layman's belief that the accumulation of wealth or gold was something that could last them for eternity.

Shinran Shônin came to the realization that the piling up of imagined "spiritual treasures" was equivalent to the piling up of worldly goods. And he came to despair about the future of mankind. When he declared himself "neither priest nor layman" he sought to explain why man has to divest himself of self-power.

Worldly wealth and success are signs of self-power and our own pitiful ego. But equally as dangerous is the imagination that we can obtain spiritual power. "Man proposes and God disposes" was a reality that he understood. And he placed his faith in the Absolute Other-Power.

It was his understanding that when his futile self-power was smashed and demolished only then could he begin to enter the true spiritual path. His work no longer became his own doing for he then was guided by the Other Power beyond. Perhaps, some will term it "grace". We simply call it the gift of The Other Power, whom we know as Amida Buddha.