Dharma meetings before the Conference:
August 19th
I met with my Dharma friend Frank Kusmierz. I offered some
books in the memory of late Myoshin Friedrich Fenzl, and we had a wonderful
evening with discussions and cofee.
August 20
 |
| Frank and me |
I met with my good friend from Holland, Frits Bot, who
donated many good books for the library of Amidaji temple. These include, Rennyo-sama, His Life Through Pictorial
Illustrations, Life of Eshinni by
Yoshiko Ohtani, two books by Eiken Kobai Sensei, some biographies of Shinran
and Honen, and a few good studies on the history of Jodo Shinshu.
18th European Shin
Buddhist Conference in Antwerp
The
following is not a detailed and objective report of the 18th European Shin
Buddhist Conference, but only some significant events for myself and my mission.
Day 1 (August 23rd)
 |
| me and Frits Bot |
The first part
of the Conference was opened by the organizers, and by Sasaki Sensei of IABC
and Zenmon-sama Kosho Ohtani - previous Monshu (Patriarch of Hongwanji). He said many things
in his opening address, but my attention was caught by his insistence on the
importance of daily devotions and Dharma readings for Nembutsu followers.
 |
| arrival at the Conference site with my knapsack filled with books |
During the
first break I gave him and his wife, Urakata-sama, each one copy of my
new book, The True Teaching on Amida Buddha and His Pure Land. As you well know, this book is the most important
attempt on my part to counteract the modern divergences from the Jodo Shinshu
teaching. You can call it my personal Tannisho,
if you like. The time we
talked was very limited as many others waited in line to greet them, but I
could manage to say something about the intention of my book to counteract some
of the nowadays wrong views that are prevalent in the international sangha, and
also to inform him a little about Amidaji temple.
 |
| I gave a copy of my new book on modern divergences to Zenmon-sama and his wife |
Eikei Kobai
Sensei had a very good presentation (About the True Nembutsu in Jodo Shinshu), with many quotes from the sacred
texts, on the difference between nembutsu before shinjin (faith) and nembutsu
after receiving shinjin, that is, the nembutsu of gratitude for Amida Buddha's
salvation. I also helped to clarify some aspects related with the same topic
when questions were asked by a listener. We both enjoyed each others company
during the Conference, and I was happy to find that the late Ryosetsu Fujiwara, author
of A Standard of Shinshu Faith, was
his teacher of Jodo Shinshu when he was a student at Ryukoku University.
 |
| Zenmnon-sama, his wife and me |
Shushin Ioana Marinescu, member of Amidaji temple and art historian gave a presentation
on the importance of images ( For A Better Understanding of Images in Jodo Shinshu - click here to download it) and she specifically
talked about some paintings made after the Parable
of the Two Rivers and the White Path, by Master Shantao. Her intention is to
continue her study of Jodo Shinshu images and paintings which can be useful for
Dharma instruction of members and visitors.
I met with
Arkady Fayngor from Russia
with whom I had a wonderful Dharma talk on the Nirvana sutra and its
explanations of the True Self and the false self, and how some nowadays
Buddhists (and even Jodo Shinshu Buddhists) wrongly apply the concept of
emptiness on the Buddhas and the Pure
Land
Day 2 (August 24th)
The most
important event of this day was the Information
stands European Sanghas where all sangha groups in Europe
were given a desk where they could expose the various materials they use for
promoting their Dharma activities, and any information they thought might be
useful.
 |
| Kobai Sensei |
I myself
placed a photo album with explanations of Amidaji project, and some free copies
of my book, The True Teaching on Amida Buddha and His Pure Land. Again, I talked with two people who are in
the attendance of Zenmon-sama about the need to counteract some wrong views of
our time, like "the Pure Land is in one's mind", or Amida described
as a metaphor, symbol or fictional character, etc. I told them that I did just
that in my book and both clearly agreed that those are indeed, wrong views.
Many people came to the desk where I presented Amidaji
temple and looked on the photos from the album and my laptop, while listening
to my explanations about the building plan and what I did until
now. Some also
expressed the wish to come and visit the temple sooner or later.
At the end of the day, we listened to a group of three
students of Ryukoku University who chanted some beautful hymns in the Hongwanji
style.
Day 3 (August 25th)
 |
| Kobai Sensei and me |
It was a short day with tree papers. I had a comment on the
first paper by Marc Nottellman (Our
Personal Calling within the Shin Buddhist Community or the question: What I am
doing?) about the need to have a
good Jodo Shinshu literature for children, and I suggested that Hongwanji
should start an English translation project just like they did with other
translation series. Perhaps they already have some good Japanese mangas or
books about Shakyamuni's life from the Jodo Shinshu perspective, or life of
Rennyo, etc, which might be useful for non- japanese chidren, too.
 |
| Detlev Kemph from California and me |
The second paper was presented by a japanese woman, who
accompanied Kobai Sensei. Her English and her presentation was very poor and hard
to understand, but among the words she said, I could hear clearly: "Namo Amida Butsu - I have no doubt
about the existence of Amida Buddha". After she finished the
minutes allocated to her, I bowed toward her and I said that those were the
most important words I heard during that day at the Conference.
 |
| me and Arkady |
Then, I was very much dissapointed (not the first
time) by Thomas Moser Sensei who, during the cofee break which followed
that Japanese woman's presentation, he asked me, "so, do you still believe
that Amida is a real person?". I said, "yes, but He is a real
Enlightened person", with an emphasis on the word, ENLIGHTENED. So, Amida is not any person in the worldly sense, but an Enlightened Person. Then, after a few exchanges on the
reality of Amida I asked him directly, something like, "Sensei, please
tell me, what do you really believe? You are a Jodo Shinshu priest, so in what things
do you actually believe if you do not rely on the Jodo Shinshu texts? If you do
not have faith in how Shakyamuni described Amida Buddha in the Larger Sutra, then in what do you
actually believe?" He said he will think about it and finished the
discussion...
Anyway, he is a person I respect and love, and so we both
agreed that we remain friends no matter how much we differ in our understanding
of the Dharma. I find this to be extremely important.
The last paper of the day was presented
by Enrique Galvan-Alvarez - What
Do I Mean When I Say Namu Amida Butsu? I made a comment after he finished
his presentation, about the relation between Nembutsu and faith, showing that
in the Primal Vow, Amida Buddha did not ask us to say His Name a milion times,
but only "up to ten times", which can mean any number between one to
more than a milion. The author of the paper mentioned Honen's example of
reciting Nembutsu many times and so I also gave a quote from Honen in which the
Master pointed out that the number of Nembutsu repetitions is not important:
 |
| me and Rev Kiyonobu Kuwahara of BCA |
Answer: This, too, is
a mistaken notion. Reciting one million nembutsu one hundred times will assure
birth in the Pure Land; so will ten repetitions; so will even a single
utterance of nembutsu."
Thus, although Honen himself recited Nembutsu many times he
was not attached to the number of recitations. If faith in Amida is present,
one can enjoy the Nembutsu whenever he likes.
After the short Conference day was over, we did a guided
tour of the city of Antwerp. Even in that tour, and at the dinner after it, I
had the chance of talking about Dharma matters with some participants.
Day 4 (August 26th)
 |
| presenting my paper |
The day started with me leading the chant at Jikoji temple.
I also presented the article, Some General Notions of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism (click here to read it), which is
an abstract of the teachings I give at Amidaji temple and in my sangha. As you
well know, it contains a lot of refferences to Amida as being a real Buddha and
His Pure Land a real place where we should aspire to be born after death. All
the orthodox elements of our Jodo Shinshu school were found there, in my paper,
and were presented to Zenmon sama and many Jodo Shinshu followers from Europe
and USA. I mention that Zenmon-sama and his wife attended in silence all
the paper presentations of the Conference.
 |
| in front of me, listening my presentation, there were Zenmon-sama Kosho Ohtani and Governor general (Socho) of Hongwanji, Chiko Iwagami |
I also had other interesting discussions with American
friends on the topic of what is true or not in relation with Amida Dharma and
gave away other copies of my new book, including to the Governor General (Socho) of Hongwanji.
This is all for now. I cannot explain in detail all the
things I did and talked during the 4 days of the Conferences. I just assure you
that I did something useful, although I must appologize before you and Amida
Buddha for not being able to do more.
Namo Amida Butsu
- the trip to Viena and Antwerp were made possible by the kind help of IABC and Dharma friends -
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