‘I’m There and I’m Back, I’m There and I’m Back’

I am very fond of the poems by the Myokonin Saichi Asahara. Myokonin are Shin Buddhist devotees who exemplify a deep understanding of the Nembutsu. Most of the Myokonin are lay people and some were very uneducated, yet they came to have deep spiritual understanding of the Dharma and of the Nembutsu. Saichi is perhaps one of the most famous.  

In one of the hundreds and hundreds of poems by Saichi, there is the following poem:

I am a happy man, indeed!

I visit the Pure Land as often as I like;

I’m there and I’m back,

I’m there and I’m back,

I’m there and I’m back,

Namu-amida-butsu! Namu-amida-butsu!

Many people think of the Pure Land only as their destination when they die, but Saichi has a deeper understanding of the Pure Land. For him, it is a spiritual world, the world of truth, the world of the Dharma, the world of Namuamidabutsu.  

Saichi doesn’t have to die to go to the Pure Land. He senses and feels the Pure Land in this world, in this life, as is evident in this poem.  

However, Saichi doesn’t make an arrogant statement like he is a Buddha in the Pure Land. On the contrary, he also senses deeply the opposite of the Pure Land in this world, which is our world of samsara, the world of ignorance, the world of the ego, the world of our greed and anger.  

Saichi senses deeply, maybe even acutely, both worlds, as he lives his everyday life. Sometimes, he senses the profound reality of the Pure Land. He might see the Pure Land in a flower or in the world of nature around him. He might sense it in the Hondo of the temple as he chants the sutra. He might even sense it as he bows in gassho before his meal.  

At the same time, he also senses deeply, this world of samsara, the world in which his own greed, anger and ignorance arise in his daily life.  

He sees it in the conflicts that he sees in the world around him. He sees it in the faces of people suffering. He sees it in his own face. But yet, despite this world of samsara that we all live and are bound to, he senses a spiritual world that transcends this world of samsara, this world of the ego.  He senses the world of oneness, the world of great wisdom and great compassion, the world of Buddha, all around him, and within him as well.  

What joy it brings him in his daily life to sense both worlds. If he only sensed the world of samsara, he might become despondent and even bitter. Why did I have to be born into this world of suffering and anguish?  

But he is not despondent nor is he sunk in despair because his heart and mind has been opened up to a spiritual world beyond his ego self, which he expresses as the Pure Land. The light of the Pure Land illuminates his heart and mind, showing him both this world of samsara, the world of darkness and suffering, and the bright and vibrant world of the Pure Land.  

I gain so much insight and teaching from Saichi’s poems that manifest his deep spirituality.  

We too can experience the deep reality of both worlds, our world of samsara, that we face in our daily struggles of life and the world of truth, the Pure Land, the world of wisdom and compassion that illuminates our life and gives us a true sense of joy.  

We must continue to listen to the Dharma and receive the Nembutsu in our hearts and minds, and someday we too can say, “I’m there and I’m back. I’m there and I’m back.”