Don't listen to Masters who teach that your power has any contribution to birth in the Pure Land (video teaching)

- last updated July 24, 2024 -                                                                                                                                                           The video presented bellow (and other similar videos where we criticize the self-power approach of some Chinese Pure Land groups) enraged a few practitioners who accused Amidaji of superiority complex. This is very funny when all we do is to point not to us, but to the Power of Amida Buddha which is the only Power that makes birth in the Pure Land possible. Those who admit they are spiritual idiots without any personal merits are called arrogant by those who think they go to the Pure Land by their so-called “virtues”.[1] I really wonder how do such people read the Primal Vow, where Amida Buddha mentioned FAITH IN HIM, not in one’s own spiritual capacities! Arrogance and superiority complex is NOT to be found in Amidaji or in other Jodo Shinshu communities who speak about simple faith and that Amida does everything related with our birth in the Pure Land, but in the various groups who claim that there is some kind of power in their deluded selves which can help Amida to bring them into His own Pure Land. That is a striking example of spiritual arrogance and lack of genuine faith and understanding of the Power Amida possess.  Indeed, anyone should honestly ask oneself who the f… does he think he is if he imagines that there is ANYTHING of value in his deluded samsaric personality that can make him become a Buddha in the Pure Land of Amida! It’s a pity that many heard the story of the meeting between Master Bodhidharma (who was not even a Pure Land Master but really understood the meaning of “merits”) and the Emperor Wu, but do not understand the meaning of the Master’s golden words – “None, not one merit!”. I explained them in my article, False (mundane) merits vs True (supramundane) merits, so that followers of Amidaji never fall prey to spiritual arrogance. 

Zero faith in one’s own power or personal merits, and total faith in the Power of Amida Buddha will naturally make one humble, while teaching and promoting the idea that a samsaric deluded person can have true merits will inevitably lead to subtle spiritual arrogance. This is the very reason that the border land is sometimes called the Realm of Indolence and Pride (Keman)[2]. Unfortunately, very few pay attention to the meaning of this title and the words of Amida Buddha himself in His Primal Vow, “entrust yourself to me and say my Name perhaps even ten times”. Saying of the Name is linked with faith in Amida, and NOT in our capacity to say it many times with a focused mind, or in our personal merits, etc.

I know Jodo Shinshu is still not so well known in the Buddhist world and the paradigm of “zero self-power/total Other Power” is hard to understand by many followers of various other schools with more public success in the West, but that does not mean we do not have the right to criticize the very much spread propaganda of reliance on “personal power”. Buddhist history is filled with monks of various schools contradicting each other in treatises and discussions, so we should, after all, simply agree to disagree on this and other topics. Our single goal is to awake as many beings as possible to the Infinite Power and Compassion of Amida Buddha who created a Path where even the village idiot, the evil and those with a distracted mind are assured of birth in the Pure Land. 

We wish that ordinary people filled with blind passions no longer think that Buddhism is only for the nice, “virtuous” and smiling spiritual elites who are always focused and “pure”, but answer imemdiately to Amida's Compassionate Call that does not discriminate anyone.

Shinran Shonin said, 

"Know that the Primal Vow of Amida makes no distinction between people young and old, good and evil; only shinjin (faith) is essential. For it is the Vow to save the person whose karmic evil is deep and grave and whose blind passions abound." [3] 

"The power of the Vow is without limit;
Thus, even our karmic evil, deep and heavy, is not oppressive.
The Buddha's wisdom is without bounds;
Thus, even those of distracted minds and self-indulgence are not abandoned".[4]

Honen Shonin also said, 

"The heinous will be saved and the venal embraced by Amida Buddha; the bad will be saved and the good embraced; those who will live far will be saved and those who live near embraced; those who live long after Buddha Shakyamuni's entrance into Parinirvana will be saved and those who lived shortly after, embraced. The profundity and extensiveness of the great compassionate Primal Vow are beyond verbal description. Believe in it in the depth of your heart and validate the truth within yourself." [5]

Useful links related with this video,

Elements of genuine faith: 4) The twofold profound conviction (nishu jinshin)
The Name of Amida Buddha is the Great Practice
Elements of genuine faith: 7) To say the Name of Amida Buddha
The meaning of “no working is true working” in relation with our birth in the Pure Land
The difference between those born in the Pure Land in the embryonic form and those born by transformation – commentary on sections 43, 44 and 45 of the Larger Sutra False (mundane) merits vs True (supramundane) merits
Faith in Amida Buddha is not the creation of our mind
Again on the idea that faith in Amida comes from Amida - very simple explanations
Shinran – a manifestation of Amida Buddha and Avalokitesvara We do not rely on personal vows but on Amida's Primal Vow

Namo Amida Bu 

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[1] One guy which I recently banned from Amidaji Facebook page even mentioned as an “argument” that some Chinese Pure Land groups have more followers than us! Master Rennyo took pity on people like him when he said that the strength of our school rests not in numbers or in show of power and large gatherings, but in only one person receiving faith. We should all remember that - faith in Amida's Power, not in the so-called "virtutes" of samsaric beings!
[2]  It is thus called because those born there are too proud to believe in the Buddha’s Primal Vow whole-heartedly, and due to the lack of faith they are not so dilligent as to advance to the True Land of Recompense. cf with Tannisho – Notes Lamenting Differences, Ryukoku Translation Series, Ryukoku University, Kyoto, 1962, p. 41, fn 1. 
[3] Shinran Shonin, Tannisho,  chapter I, The Collected Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997, p.661
[4] Shinran Shonin, Hymns of the Dharma Ages (Shozomatsu Wasan), The Collected Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997, p.408

[5] Honen Shonin, An Outline of the Doctrine for Birth in the Pure Land  - The Promise of Amida Buddha - Honen's Path to Bliss; English translation of the Genko edition of the works of Honen Shonin - Collected Teachings of Kurodani Shonin: The Japanese Anthology (Wago Toroku), translated by Joji Atone and Yoko Hayashi, Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2011, p.110-111