極楽浄土

ごくらく じょうど
gokuraku joudo

What with KN^4 posts and 1級 Grammar, we've been giving you an awful lot of useful Japanese lately, and I imagine that all of you wish we'd get back to our old, extremely impractical ways.

So in that spirit, if you find a way to use today's 四字 in a casual conversation, you have my undying respect.

Definition:
阿弥陀仏が住んでいるとされる仏教思想における理想世界。
Translation:
1. Paradise, specifically the pure land inhabited by Amitabha, also known as Sukhavati.

According to the Mayahana school, Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, was once a bodhisattva called Dharmakara, with aspirations for creating a new Buddha realm out of his Buddha merit. He's credited with 48-vows which defined the realm, and laid out conditions for getting into said realm.

Though that might sound intense, Amitabha's school of thought (known as Pure Land Buddhism) was actually a reaction to what he felt was the difficulty of attaining Nirvana through the traditional methods of meditation... so instead, all you had to do to get into the Pure Land was to call Amitabha's name, like ten times or so during your life (18th vow) or to summon Amitabha and his disciples to your death bed.

This meant that ANYONE, including impoverished, or prostitutes, or any social outcast who had previously been denied the chance to receive spiritual services could appeal to Amitabha and have a chance of entering paradise. It began in India, traveled through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and then ran the circuit from China, to Vietnam, to Korea, to medieval Japan, where it became extremely popular for the reasons mentioned above.

(Of course, the 48 vows also stipulate that devotion to Amitabha is the ONLY way into the paradise, which DT Suzuki might say was the EXACT kind of deification that the Buddha warned about when he said "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.")

In any case, it's known as 浄土教 in Japanese, and I feel fairly confident in saying that the only time you'll ever be able to use it is when you're talking about this school of Buddhism.

例文：平安時代の貴族は死後、極楽浄土に生まれ変われることを願って阿弥陀仏を信じた。
The aristocrats and nobles of Heian Era Japan believed that after death, praying to Amitabha would allow them to be reborn unto Sukhavati.


I spent a long time looking over the site where I found this last picture, and am 98% sure that there's nothing dirty going on here...

表現 Break: 衣ばかりで和尚はできぬ

ころも　ばかり　で　おしょう　は　できぬ
koromo bakari de oshou ha dekinu

Get ready for a link festival!

Today's expression is an old one; you can tell by the way they turn できない into できぬ, an archaic form of negation which only survives today in these kinds of expressions (we covered this when we talked about how Japanese people treat cuckoos).

I found this one when I took another look at the site where I got the picture for 十人十色.　

日本のことわざ In English is a great page, and I've added it to the links bar on the left. While its English translations aren't always perfect, the accompanying artwork is engaging, colorful, laugh-out-loud bizarre, and sometimes downright scary. Check the picture for "Well-clothed and fed is well mannered." WTF?

Other than "Ten people, ten colors," you can see their versions of some of our posts, like 猿も木から落ちる、which has a great picture or 七転八起 or 悪事千里 from WAY back when The Daily Yoji was still on it's second post.

Now on to today's expression:

Definition:
うわべだけ綺麗に着飾っても実力が伴ってなければだめの意。
Translations:
Literal - A robe alone does not a buddhist priest make (A hood does not make a monk).
1. The clothes don't make the man.
2. Appearances can be deceiving.
3. A monkey with rings on his fingers is not necessarily a king (Bulgarian proverb, according to my crazy friend Emo).
4. Sticking feathers up your butt don't make you a chicken.

I purposely left off "Don't judge a book by its cover," because this one seems to be designed more to warn the naive about those who affect an appearance without having the substance or to admonish those types directly.

"Book by its cover" always sounded like it had a more positive connotation to me, where the interior had a chance of being more valuable than the exterior led one to believe. This is not the case here.


例文：男となったら、「衣ばかりで和尚はできぬ」と覚えておいた方がいい。ほしいものを手に入れるために、好きなフリする男だって多いし。
When it comes to men, you should remember that appearances can be deceiving. There are lots of men out there who will act like they like you until they get what they want.

表現Break: 馬の耳に念仏

うま の みみ　に　ねんぶつ
uma no mimi ni nenbutsu

More stuff that goes in ears! I saw this one on a bangumi trivia quiz last night, and it was one of the questions that they gave to the NOT-so-smart Talento who were hanging around in last place, so if they oughta know it, we should too.

Definition:
いくら言っても全く聞く耳を持たない、効果がないこと
Translations:
1. Like talking to a wall
2. In one ear and out the other

It translates literally as: a buddhist prayer in a horse's ear, so unless you're talking about this horse, you can see how the phrase gains it's meaning of speaking/giving commands to an unreceptive audience.

You can use this phrase in any situation where the person or people you're talking to are not listening or understanding, and if you're a school teacher, I'd reccommend saying it ABOUT your students, rather than to your students as younger Japanese people won't necessarily know the expression you're referencing.

例文：毎日生徒たちに「授業中に喋るな！」と言っているけど、何か、馬の耳に念仏だ。
Everyday we tell the kids not to chat during class, but man, it's like talking to a wall.

Today's picture comes from The White Horse Temple in Luoyang, China: the first buddhist temple on Chinese soil, known as the cradle of Chinese Buddhism. It's so named because, according to legend, a white horse bore the first Buddhist scriptures to China from India. So maybe horses aren't as un-receptive to Buddhism as the Japanese suppose.

四苦八苦

しくはっく
shiku hakku

切磋琢磨するために、I'm back in action, and bringing you a brand new Buddhist Yo-ji-juku-go that's ALL about the pain.

Your Kanji today are easy enough in the translation (four-suffering-eight-suffering), but they come with a slightly involved theology lesson, so let's jump in:

Do you know the four noble truths of Buddhism? The first one is this: LIFE = SUFFERING. I'll let you look up the rest on your own (Clay, work on memorizing the Ten Commandments first). Suffering, in early buddhism, is divided into, that's right, eight categories, half being physical and half being mental.

Physical:

• 生:　The pain of birth
• 老：　The pain of ageing
• 病：　The pain of sickness
• 死：　The pain of death

Mental:

• 愛別離苦：　The pain of separation from loved ones
• 怨憎会苦:　The pain of contact with hated ones
• 求不得苦：　The frustration of unsatisfied desires
• 五蘊盛苦: Suffering of the illnesses of Five Skandhas (form, sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness)

So, 四苦八苦 encompasses all of these 8 sufferings.
Definition:
大変な苦しみ。あらゆる苦しみ。
Translations:
1. In a world of hurt
2. In a state of physical and mental anguish
3. Being "hard put to it" (from rikai-chan, not to be confused with "having it put to you, hard")

例文(featuring 2級 grammar)：


ある日、彼女から電話があった。運転中だったけど、少し喋ってもいいと思い、電話をとった。彼女は挨拶も言わずに、「分かれよう」と言った！ショックのあまり、前を走っているパトカーにぶつかった。骨六本を折ってしまった。２ヶ月前から、入院していた上に、私の保険会社は払ってくれないそうだ！そして今日、私の元彼女とその新しい彼氏がお見舞いに来てくれた。実はその彼氏は私の弟だった！四苦八苦したよ！
So, one day, while I'm driving, I get this call from my girlfriend, right? And as soon as I pick up, without even saying "Hello," she goes: "I'm breaking up with you!" I was so surprised, I rear-ended the police car in front of me, and broke six bones. I've been in the hospital for two months, and it looks like my insurance isn't gonna cover it! On top of that, today my ex came to visit, and she brought her new boyfriend: my little brother! CURSE YOU, EIGHT SUFFERINGS (AS SET FORTH BY THE GAUTAMA BUDDHA)!!!!

hehehehehehehe.....