Master Shinran's Lament on His Evil
Question:
Write the hymn from Master Shinran in which he laments that his evil will never stop until death. Give the source too.
A:
My evil nature knows no end.
My mind is like a venomous snake or scorpion.
The good acts I perform are tainted with poison,
and so they are called false and empty practices.
----You Were Born For a Reason page 131
To paraphrase: “My evil shows no sign of stopping even now that I have been saved by Amida Buddha. I am filled with a mind that is terrifying and venomous like a snake or scorpion. Since my every good act is done with this mind, it is taught that the good I do is poisoned.”
evil nature: Our true vicious nature, which consists of passions such as desire, anger, jealousy and envy.
false and empty practices: false and deceitful good
It should be noted that it is not a human being but a buddha who evaluates our good acts as “false and empty practices tainted with poison”.
(from the doctrine book 2-26 )
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