Stick with Amida Buddha

Thoughts come and go.
They are like clouds.
Stick with Amida, 
not with the
wandering
thoughts.

 Question from a reader: Josho – I need your help regarding the issue   of shinjin (or lack of). I know that I do not have settled shinjin, as   much as I would like to have it. I follow the Amida Dharma for a   while but then I fall off the rails and think that perhaps another path   is or more suited to me. So…I try to follow another path just to   arrive  at the place where I realize (again) that I cannot “succeed” in   any type of spiritual progress by my own efforts and that I need   Amida. So…. I return to Amida.
 Intellectually I believe in the existence of Amida and His Pure Land,   and I do want to go there, but there is obviously some kind of   emotional or other block which is preventing me from having settled   shinjin and from really experiencing Amida as a living presence in   my life. What is your advice? Can you help?

  My answer: When the thought of leaving for another path occurs       again in your mind, just do not follow it. Take the definitive   decision to stick with Amida Buddha no matter what thoughts   appear in your mind.

Thoughts come and go. This is what they do. They are like clouds. However, they have no power unless we empower them. If you simply let them come and go without focusing on them, they will disappear, but if you pay attention to them, they become bigger and bigger and will eventually make you take bad decisions.

The concrete platform for the Stupa of All Buddhas

I have just finished the concrete platform for the Stupa of All Buddhas. Before I poured the cement, I made a ceremony in which I chanted the Nembutsu liturgy and invited Amida and all Buddhas to bless and consecrate the land. Then I placed small statues and images of Amida Buddha, Green Tara, White Tara, Namgyalma, rolls with Nembutsu, Namgyalma mantra, the four Dharmakaya relic mantras, as well as many others (a complete list with all sacred things I place in the stupa will be available when it’s ready). Now, from time to time I recite the Nembutsu, make offerings and circumambulate the place while visualizing the stupa as already being there.

Two pilgrimages for two friends

Click here to read all articles in the category of Nembutsu pilgrimages

A few days ago, I was sitting in front of the statues of Amida and various Buddhas that I keep in my room to remind me of the 17^th Vow[1] and the protection they offer to people of shinjin (faith)[2], when I was overwhelmed with a strong sense of devotion and energy. Looking at each of their holly faces I said in a strong voice - I am the dog of Amida, I am the dog of the Buddhas.
 
A dog is loyal (in my case to Amida and all Buddhas), a dog fiercely protects what he loves (the Dharma and Sangha), a dog can walk many miles and resist cold and heat without complaining if he is given a task by his master. A dog is, I think, a good symbol for my pilgrimages on foot.
 
This time I had two pilgrimages: one to a friend and another to a dog’s grave.

Be careful how and to whom you speak about Amida Buddha

Click here for the Spanish version

In reference to saying anything about Amida Buddha to other human beings, Master Rennyo said:
 
„In particular, act with extreme caution, as this is a time when people determinedly strain their ears to hear anything that can be distorted and spread in slander.”[1]
 
Whatever we say about the Nembutsu teaching, it can always be misinterpreted if we say it to those who are not karmically mature and not opened to it. Master Rennyo called those who are not karmically mature and not open, to be people without stored good from the past. Thus he instructed:
 
„In teaching others, one must determine the presence or absence of good from the past.”[2]
 
The "stored good from the past" represents our good karma from past lives and this life which manifests itself as an opening or receptive state of mind towards the message of the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha. A lot of people hear the teaching about the Primal Vow or Amida’s Name but few are opened to it. This openness is very important in our tradition and is the manifestation of good stored from the past[3].
 
Master Rennyo said:

The transmission and importance of the Smaller Amida Sutra (Amidakyo)

This is a fragment from my 

Commentary on the Smaller Amida Sutra (Amidakyo) 

- work in progress and under constant revision - 

 “Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was staying in the Jeta Grove monastery of Anāthapiṇḍada’s Garden at Śrāvastī, together with a large assembly of twelve hundred and fifty monks who were all great arhats well known to the people. Among them were great disciples such as the elders Śāriputra, Mahāmaudgalyāyana, Mahākāśyapa, Mahākātyāyana, Mahākauṣṭhila, Revata, Śuddhipanthaka, Nanda, Ānanda, Rāhula, Gavāṃpati, Piṇḍola-Bhāradvāja, Kālodayin, Mahākapphiṇa, Vakkula, and Aniruddha. He was also accompanied
by many Bodhisattva Mahāsattvas, such as Dharma Prince Manjuśrī, Bodhisattva Ajita, Bodhisattva Sweet-smelling Elephant, and Bodhisattva Constant Endeavor, and by innumerable devas, including Śakra, lord of the gods, and many others.”[1]

Although in front of Shakyamuni there were many monks, enlightened Bodhisattvas and gods, He addressed to Shariputra, which means that he was the one to whom the Buddha directly transmitted this sutra.

The audience accepted the Smaller Amida Sutra in faith – commentary on section 14

This is a fragment from my 

Commentary on the Smaller Amida Sutra (Amidakyo) 

- work in progress and under constant revision - 

“When the Buddha had delivered this sutra, Śāriputra and all the monks, together with beings of the whole world, including devas, humans, and asuras, rejoiced at what they had heard and reverently accepted it. Having worshiped Him, they departed.”[1]