I added a subtitle to this video, because Eiken Sensei doesn't speak English very well and I wanted to be sure that everybody understand his statement. You can both watch the video and also read the transcript.
Here is the transcript:
"Josho Adrian: "Thank you for your paper. You talked about shinjin, about having or not having shinjin. I have a different question. Some people in our school are teaching that Amida is a symbol, a metaphor, a myth or a fictional character. Is that true, and if it is not true, can these people who say that Amida is a myth, a symbol or a fictional character have the same shinjin like Shinran? This is my question.
__________________________________________________________-
This is the statement of Eiken Kobai Sensei, one of the most important Jodo Shinshu teachers of our times. It is a statement that I support and share from all my heart and spread it here in my country, in my dojo and in every temple or dojo I will open in the future.
After Kobai Sensei made that clear statement at the 15th European Shinshu Conference, almost everybody was astonished and some, the chairman too, tried to reduce the impact of his statement, by saying that “there is room also for different interpretations, etc”, but into my opinion, there is NO room for any other interpretations. In our school should be room and space only for the teaching we can find in the words of the sutras and the commentaries of Master Shinran and Rennyo. And in these sacred writings Amida is described as a real Buddha, manifesting a Form and a Name in order to save ordinary sentient beings. We have the explanations of the The Three Buddha bodies in the Trikaya doctrine and other explanations of our Masters and I think that we should not deviate from these explanations and invent our own teachings.
Who are we to modify the Dharma left to us by our Masters? Do we think we are like them? The Dharma is a medicine given by Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Masters and is given to sick people like us to take it exactly as it was prescribed. How can a sick person, an unenlightened person, be better than a doctor or an Enlightened One, and modify the medicine?
Are all these modern deluded teachers who support such false views as Amida being a fictional character, already Enlightened? Are they Buddhas, Bodhisattvas or the same with Shinran and Rennyo?
On what authority can they modify the sacred teaching, the medicine given to us by the Buddha, the Masters? My opinion is that we should be more concentrated on learning the sacred words of our teaching, humbly letting ourselves to be guided by them and stop changing them to accommodate with our changing minds.
Those who say that Amida is a symbol, a myth, a metaphor or a fictional character don’t have the experience of salvation and are not teaching the true Jodo Shinshu teaching, but their own ideas and opinions. How can one rely and entrust to a symbol or a fictional character and achieve something by it? Only to the real and living Amida Buddha (in his transcendental or sambhogakaya form) can we entrust and be sure of our birth in the Pure Land.
I urge again my fellow practitioners and nembutsu friends to entrust only in the words of the sutras and commentaries of our Masters, Shinran and Rennyo and not in the bubble talk of people who lack shinjin and are more interested in spreading their own ideas than the actual teaching.
Those people are false teachers and may their false opinions never enter my country, but disappear like dust in the wind.
Namo Amida Butsu
__________________________________________
More against the false understanding of Amida Buddha as a fictional character or only a symbol, you can read here. Please read carefully all the explanations.
related article:
Those who deny the existence of Amida, don't have shinjin
Here is the transcript:
"Josho Adrian: "Thank you for your paper. You talked about shinjin, about having or not having shinjin. I have a different question. Some people in our school are teaching that Amida is a symbol, a metaphor, a myth or a fictional character. Is that true, and if it is not true, can these people who say that Amida is a myth, a symbol or a fictional character have the same shinjin like Shinran? This is my question.
Kobai Sensei: Somebody say Amida is a symbol and myth
Josho Adrian: A myth … a myth or a fictional character… fictional character like in a movie … fictional character, like it was only a story, only a fictional story
Kobai Sensei: Fictional
Josho Adrian: Fictional, and not a true, a real Buddha.
Kobai Sensei: I think …. that person opinion, I think they or he don’t have shinjin. I think by having shinjin we understand Amida and the Jodo(Pure Land
Josho Adrian: As a Real Buddha, not a fictional character, not a symbol, but a real Buddha.
Kobai Sensei: I think
Rev Sato – chairman: Difficulties…
His question you know and his answer is those who say Amida is a fictional, myth, only a story, those people don’t have shinjin.
Rev Sato: That is his answer
Kobai Sensei: They don’t have the experience of salvation.
Rev Sato – chairman: They don’t have any experience of salvation
__________________________________________________________-
This is the statement of Eiken Kobai Sensei, one of the most important Jodo Shinshu teachers of our times. It is a statement that I support and share from all my heart and spread it here in my country, in my dojo and in every temple or dojo I will open in the future.
After Kobai Sensei made that clear statement at the 15th European Shinshu Conference, almost everybody was astonished and some, the chairman too, tried to reduce the impact of his statement, by saying that “there is room also for different interpretations, etc”, but into my opinion, there is NO room for any other interpretations. In our school should be room and space only for the teaching we can find in the words of the sutras and the commentaries of Master Shinran and Rennyo. And in these sacred writings Amida is described as a real Buddha, manifesting a Form and a Name in order to save ordinary sentient beings. We have the explanations of the The Three Buddha bodies in the Trikaya doctrine and other explanations of our Masters and I think that we should not deviate from these explanations and invent our own teachings.
Who are we to modify the Dharma left to us by our Masters? Do we think we are like them? The Dharma is a medicine given by Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Masters and is given to sick people like us to take it exactly as it was prescribed. How can a sick person, an unenlightened person, be better than a doctor or an Enlightened One, and modify the medicine?
Are all these modern deluded teachers who support such false views as Amida being a fictional character, already Enlightened? Are they Buddhas, Bodhisattvas or the same with Shinran and Rennyo?
On what authority can they modify the sacred teaching, the medicine given to us by the Buddha, the Masters? My opinion is that we should be more concentrated on learning the sacred words of our teaching, humbly letting ourselves to be guided by them and stop changing them to accommodate with our changing minds.
Those who say that Amida is a symbol, a myth, a metaphor or a fictional character don’t have the experience of salvation and are not teaching the true Jodo Shinshu teaching, but their own ideas and opinions. How can one rely and entrust to a symbol or a fictional character and achieve something by it? Only to the real and living Amida Buddha (in his transcendental or sambhogakaya form) can we entrust and be sure of our birth in the Pure Land.
I urge again my fellow practitioners and nembutsu friends to entrust only in the words of the sutras and commentaries of our Masters, Shinran and Rennyo and not in the bubble talk of people who lack shinjin and are more interested in spreading their own ideas than the actual teaching.
Those people are false teachers and may their false opinions never enter my country, but disappear like dust in the wind.
Namo Amida Butsu
__________________________________________
More against the false understanding of Amida Buddha as a fictional character or only a symbol, you can read here. Please read carefully all the explanations.
related article:
Those who deny the existence of Amida, don't have shinjin
