Official position of Hongwanji on the matter of "after death" birth in The Pure Land

Note: I wrote this article when I was still a member of Hongwanji and still believed that the Hongwanji system can be reformed

 

In many articles on this website, in my books or on my Facebook pages I presented to you many explanations and passages from the sacred texts in which it is clearly stated that the Pure Land of Amida Buddha is to be attained after death and that it is not to be found “here and now”, or in “one’s mind”, as some nowadays deluded scholars and priests in the international Jodo Shinshu sangha claim.

In this short post I intend to show to you that our Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha (Nishi Hongwanji) religious organisation does NOT officially sustain the aberrant views of those scholars and priests. The following two passages are from an official document of our school, Jodo Shinshu Kyosho (The Essential of Jodo Shinshu) and from a statement made by the former Monshu (Patriarch/Leader) of Hongwanji, His Eminence Koshin Ohtani, the 24^th successor of Shinran Shonin and also the one who ordained me. In the passages you can read by yourself that birth in the Pure Land is to be understood as taking place after death, in perfect agrement with the sacred texts of our tradition:

His Eminence Zenmon sama, Koshin Ohtani

“Attain­ing the “entrust­ing heart”—awakening to the com­pas­sion of Amida Tatha­gata through the work­ing of the Pri­mal Vow—we shall walk the path of life recit­ing Amida’s Name (Nem­butsu).  At the end of life, we will be born in the Pure Land and attain Bud­dha­hood, return­ing at once to this delu­sional world to guide peo­ple to awakening.”

Jodo Shinshu Kyosho (The Essential of Jodo Shinshu), as posted on the official website of Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha in the section teaching. 

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“Upon realizing shinjin, we enter the life of nembutsu – the life of saying the Name of Amida Buddha – and without any contrivance or self-will, we are brought naturally to attainment of supreme Buddhahood in the Pure Land when life ends.”

His Eminence Koshin Ohtani Opening Address in America no shukyo o tazunete/Shin Buddhism Meets American Religions, at the symposium “Shin Buddhism and Christianity: Textual and Contextual Translation”, held at Harvard Divinity School in April 1984

Given the proof of the above Kyosho document wouldn't be honest and fare that those who promote false teachings related with birth in the Pure Land, just leave Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha branch and found their own school? Why are they still wearing the kesa of Hongwanji while they actually go against its teachings and official documents? Certainly, the time has come for Hongwanji to clean its house of false teachers.... 

Related article:

A Collection of Passages on the True Meaning of Birth in the Pure Land