TREETARANTULA

From ages past, each of us has been born and reborn countless times in a myriad of life forms. Trapped in the cycle of birth and death, we have never known true happiness, which comes only from salvation through Amida's Vow. When salvation finally comes, we understand with joy how great a thing it is to be born human, since otherwise we should never have been able to achieve this lasting happiness. We see that truly, human life is infinitely “heavier than the heaviness of all things.”Indeed, the ultimate purpose of life has reference not just to this lifetime but to the eternal span of all our lifetimes, past, present, and future. These myriad lives, encompassing untold aeons, have all been for the sake of fulfilling a single purpose: to be delivered into absolute happiness through Amida's Vow. This overarching purpose can be realized only during human life, which is what makes this lifetime infinitely precious. The joy that pervades Shinran's writings stems from his awareness that the purpose of all his lifetimes from ages past has been gloriously fulfilled.Such joy is permanent. All other pleasures fade.