Dear Dharma Friends,
Eighteen years ago, I went on a trip to Japan with a small group from Northampton, MA, organized by
the late Rev. Dr. Taitetsu Unno. While in Kyoto, we visited many Zen gardens. One of the most famous
is that of Ryoan-ji, a temple of the strict Rinzai branch of the Zen tradition. We arrived very early in the
morning to avoid the crowds. It had been raining very hard the previous day and night. It was late Fall
when the foliage colors were still evident. As we entered the vast temple grounds in the outlying
northeastern part of Kyoto, the effect was magical. The temple is set way back within a wooded park-
like area with a lake in the middle. Bustling Kyoto, just outside, seemed a million miles away in that
silence and natural beauty. Vapor from the evaporating rain water was rising everywhere in the
morning sun. After viewing the justly famous rock garden in the zendo proper, we walked around the
lake back to the front entrance.
On the wooded path around the lake, Dr. Unno suddenly came up behind me and pointed out a
persimmon tree nearby. He told me that Shinran’s understanding of Buddhism could be had by
reflecting on that persimmon tree and fruit. I asked him to explain because I had no idea at that time of
what a persimmon was. He said that a persimmon is a fruit which, when picked too early, is very bitter
and not edible for that reason. However, if allowed to ripen on the tree in the sun, the fruit becomes
very sweet and delicious to eat. This transformation does not occur through the persimmon’s own
efforts, but through the action of the sun deep within each fruit.
The bitter persimmon is me: maybe nice-enough but finite, short-sighted, impatient, calculating. No
matter how much I might use my own efforts to add sugar to disguise my bitter taste – it is still there.
However, the sun is the Great Vow of Amida Buddha: warm, shining, boundless, constant, uninhibited,
unconditional. The bitter is transformed into the sweet. The cause is the Buddha’s benevolence and the
transformation occurs deep within each of us, exactly as we are.
This is what Namo-Amida-Butsu means, if I understand Dr. Unno: Namo is ourselves, bitter persimmons
each one of us. Amida-Butsu is the sun, Unmeasured Life and Boundless Light. Brought together,
Namo-Amida-Butsu, each persimmon becomes sweet even while remaining a persimmon.
I am very grateful to have met a wonderful teacher like Taitetsu Unno, who many of you knew as well,
and to have an opportunity to pass along his illustration of Shinran’s understanding of the Buddha’s
Name, Namo-Amida-Butsu. I later discovered that persimmons are a traditional symbol of
transformation in general Buddhism, but I feel that Rev. Unno had a wonderful Jodo-Shinshu take on it.
May Namo-Amida-Butsu touch each of our persimmon-hearts and may we all become sweet and
delicious!
Gary Shobo Jaskula, New York Buddhist Church & Albany Buddhist Sangha