My answer: I really do not feel something is missing. For an ordinary person meditation is useless anyway because no one can attain Enlightenment through it in this last Dharma age. More than this, meditation can even be a distraction from the Primal Vow. If Amida wanted us to practice meditation and considered meditation to be helpful to us, then He would have included it in His Primal Vow, which He didn't. As Honen said, Amida chose only His Name from the myriad practices. Why? Because this Name is supreme and all-powerful, and will take us quickly to freedom from birth and death.
Sunday, July 17, 2016
I don't miss meditation since I met the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha
My answer: I really do not feel something is missing. For an ordinary person meditation is useless anyway because no one can attain Enlightenment through it in this last Dharma age. More than this, meditation can even be a distraction from the Primal Vow. If Amida wanted us to practice meditation and considered meditation to be helpful to us, then He would have included it in His Primal Vow, which He didn't. As Honen said, Amida chose only His Name from the myriad practices. Why? Because this Name is supreme and all-powerful, and will take us quickly to freedom from birth and death.
Friday, April 10, 2015
Nembutsu does not work because of us
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Our path is simple
Then, when we die, we actually go to the
Friday, July 25, 2014
Don't play smart in samsara
Don’t play smart with words and ideas that are beyond your level of understanding. Until you attain Buddhahood in the Pure Land, don’t speak too much about non-duality, oneness, „samsara is nirvana”, or other things not strictly related with faith (shinjin). Here and now you should just entrust in Amida and postpone the solving of such difficult matters for when you are born in the Pure Land. You’ll have enough time to dwell in ultimate Dharmakaya once you attain Buddhahood there, but here and now, while still living in your samsaric body, please be sure you are established in faith.
Friday, June 27, 2014
Do not rely on your 'spiritual evolution'
Your spiritual evolution is an illusion. What you think you obtained now, you can lose in the next moment. The ego cannot evolve; all he really does is to constantly adapt himself to various coarse or refined attachments. From material pleasures to spiritual satisfaction and false Nirvanas, the possibilities of deceit are endless to those who rely on personal power.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
My kind of inter-faith dialogue
Friday, June 20, 2014
We cannot mix Nembutsu with Zazen
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
No zazen here for this ignorant man
Saturday, December 28, 2013
It is difficult...
-Shakyamuni Buddha in the Larger Sutra on Amida Buddha –
“It is difficult to meet true teachers
And difficult for them to instruct.
It is difficult to hear the teaching well,
And more difficult still to accept it.”
Shinran Shonin
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Concentrate exclusively on Amida Buddha
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Letter to a non-Jodo Shinshu friend about modern heresies and respect for all Buddhist schools
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
The Pure Land in the teaching of Jodo Shinshu
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Honen Shonin on Amida Buddha
Honen Shonin (1133-1212) |
Friday, April 8, 2011
Don’t misunderstand the idea that “all beings will eventually become Buddhas”
To think that all beings will eventually become Buddhas is a dangerous trap for ordinary, unenlightened people who thus might strengthen the reliance on their false ego. It is another delusory thought of those who “copy and paste” the words of Enlightened Beings without discrimination.
“But the Buddha said this”, someone can argue....
Yes, He said it, but the meaning is that He as a Buddha will never stop until all beings will also become Buddhas. It is not that ordinary people will become Buddhas by their own power at some time in the future, but that the Buddhas will do everything in their transcendental powers to make this aspiration come true. That sentence is the wish and aspiration of the Buddhas, not what people will actually do without their help.
Only if we give up trust in our self power (the power of our unenlightened ego) and entrust ourselves to Amida Buddha’s Power (Other Power) will we become Buddhas. Otherwise, no one can escape birth and death, with the exception of a few special beings who are already very close to perfect Enlightenment but who have struggled for this since timeless past.
Monday, August 2, 2010
The effect is simmilar to the cause – difference between the Path of self power and the Pure Land Path
“Amida's mind is full of true compassion
And His light completely encloses the whole universe.
Making it possible for those attached to forms
to attain birth in His land with ease."
(Master Shan-tao, Ojoraisan)
The effect is similar to the cause, so when the cause and origin of your
practice is your unenlightened personality, the effect is delusion. Similarly,
when the cause and origin of your practice is Amida Buddha, the effect is
always Enlightenment and Buddhahood. This should be very well
understood.
When one relies on his own power, various obstructions appear. These are: 1. internal obstructions caused by his own mental states, attachments, illusions and blind passions; and 2. external obstructions caused by Maras[1] and various spirits who try to hinder the practitioner from attaining the ultimate goal.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Jodo Shinshu – the only effective path in this last Dharma age
Buddhism has spread widely outside Asia
in the last fifty years and this is indeed very fortunate. But in this
spreading and in the image that Buddhism has in the West a very important
element is missing or is not so well understood. Too many voices are heard in
Western Buddhism that support some already established preconceptions like:
“Buddhism is a path of Liberation by oneself” and “Buddha is only a teacher or
the finger pointing to the moon”, etc. The established image of a Buddhist is a
forever calm and smiling monk or practitioner, following a path of self-liberation
and improvement. This for many is Buddhism, but for Shinran, this is exactly
what Buddhism is no more. His life story and teaching shows another aspect of
Buddhism which he considers it to be the real goal of Buddhism: the true Pure
Land Teaching or Jodo Shinshu in which Amida Buddha is not the finger pointing
to the moon, but a Savior - in fact, the best Savior of all the three worlds,
with Shakyamuni being His messenger, guiding sentient beings to entrust to
Amida. What a dramatic difference in the vision of what the Dharma truly is
between Master Shinran and all other schools of self-power Buddhism!
Monday, November 24, 2008
Entering the Jodo Shinshu path
Entering the Jodo Shinshu path is like becoming a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and recognizing: “Hello, my name is Josho and I am an alcoholic”.
Jodo Shinshu doesn’t state something like: “My name is Josho and I can become a Buddha”, but “my name is Josho and I am full of blind passions, incapable of healing myself”.
While in other Buddhist schools, an important matter is the recognition of the possibility that every being can become a Buddha like Shakyamuni in this life, the Jodo Shinshu path begins with the sense of failure. When you are 100% convinced that you cannot attain Buddhahood in this life, then you are ready for the Jodo Shinshu path. As long as you still harbor in your mind the smallest thought of personal merit or “maybe I can”[1] kind of things, you cannot see and enter the Dharma gate of birth in Amida Buddha’s Pure Land.
Amida Buddha’s Pure Land is like a country where everybody can emigrate without the least requirement: no visas, no special capacities, nor any other qualities. As Shinran said:
“This is the way of easy practice to be followed by those of inferior capacity; it is the teaching that makes no distinction between the good and the evil.”
Thus, the Jodo Shinshu sangha is like an “idiot’s club” or alcoholics anonymous, in comparison with the nice and good Buddhists, who believe they are always calm and ready to become Enlightened.
If you hope to find here some interesting quotes about detachment or how capable people are for goodness, virtues and any kind of spiritual realizations, then this is not the place for you. But if you recognize yourself more and more in the group of spiritual alcoholics or those that are incapable of any important practice which leads to perfection here and now, in the middle of sufferings and miseries of any kind, then this teaching will be of much help, and I greet you with a warm “welcome to the club!”
I repeat, Jodo Shinshu starts with the sense of failure….
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Complete peace of mind
QUESTION:
You said:
"In B (Jodo Shinshu), as soon as one attains absolute faith, one dwells in complete peace of mind. "
By "complete peace of mind", do you mean "assurance", that is the peace one feels because he knows he is assured of birth in Amida's Pure Land? This is how I understand what you said by "peace of mind". I don't think it means that one is no longer subject of suffering because one who received shinjin is still an ordinary person full of attachments during this life."
ANSWER (Inagaki Sensei):
Difference between Jodo Shu and Jodo Shinshu
I myself asked Inagaki Sensei about this matter and here is his answer. I hope everybody will find it useful:
"Jodoshu (A) and Jodoshinshu (B)
by Zuio Hisao Inagaki
Feb. 27, 2008
◇ Though both A and B are based on the Primal Vow, A emphasizes recitation of the Name, whereas B stresses mental state of entrusting to Amida. It may be noted that those who say the Nembutsu do not necessarily place absolute faith in Amida but that those who have absolute faith in Amida unfailingly recite the Nembutsu.
◇ A tends to encourage voiced Nembutsu, whereas B accepts both voiced and soft Nembutsu. B speaks of 'natural' Nembutsu. A 'encourages' the followers to make great efforts to say the Nembutsu.
◇ The number of the Nembutsu recitations is often emphasized in A, but in B the number of the Nembutsu is not important. In B, even one Nembutsu is enough to receive Amida's merit, so long as absolute faith is securely established in one's mind.
◇ In A, even if one recites many Nembutsu all through life, one may not be able to attain peace of mind at the time of death. In B, as soon as one attains absolute faith, one dwells in complete peace of mind.
◇ It follows then that followers of A make great efforts to recite the Nembutsu until death when they expect to meet Amida's coming to welcome them to the Pure Land. Followers of B do not expect this, because they are peaceful and happy in Amida's embracing Light.
related article - Peace and happiness of shinjin (faith)