I am a priest of Amidaji branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism without any affiliation with Hongwanji

I heard there are some frustrated snowflakes out there who spread fake news about me that I was kicked out of Hongwanji for criticizing scholars who were spreading wrong views about Amida Buddha and His Pure Land or for speaking against LGBTQ as an organization on the basis of Buddhist moral teaching, etc. They enthusiastically shared among themselves a note sent on December 14, 2021 by International Department of Temple Affairs Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha and signed by a guy called Ishida Masumi titled “to whom it may concern”, in which they say that the reason of my revocation is: “establishment and operation of Amidaji International Temple as an institute independent of Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha.” In that short note it is said “Effective revocation date: October 8, 2021”. 

However, I declared my and Amidaji International Temple’s independence from Hongwanji on September 4, 2020 through this article On Amidaji branch of Jodo Shinshu and its relation with Nishi Hongwanji and in an official letter sent to Hongwanji International Center, IABC and other Japanese leaders on September 5, 2020. 

On Amidaji branch of Jodo Shinshu and its relation with Nishi Hongwanji

Amidaji is now an independent branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. However, we did not appear from nowhere and we did not invent Jodo Shinshu. We received this teaching due to the efforts of many generations of followers and teachers who worked for its preservation and transmission. This is why I say in the Constitution (chapter I) that we do have a traditional connection to Nishi Hongwanji which means that “we inherit the essentials of Jodo Shinshu teaching as transmitted through the Nishi Hongwanji branch”. 

Information on priest ordination in Jodo Shinshu (Nishi Hongwanji branch) and my opinion on this matter

Last update - September 2020. 

This is an old article. However, I will keep it here as I wrote it in May 2018 for those who are looking for such information and for the sake of historical record. Amidaji is now an independent branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism with its own system of priest ordination. Click here if you are interested to know more about it. 

Many people ask me about priest ordination in Jodo Shinshu, so I thought to post this article to help them get some information, and also to express some of my own views on this matter.

As far as I know, in Jodo Shinshu school (Nishi Hongwanji branch) a tokudo (priest ordination) candidate must have two recommendation letters from other Jodo Shinshu priests with a higher rank, but sometimes, even one recommendation is enough from one’s local priest to make one join a tokudo session for foreigners, as the other recommendation will be easier to get if one has earned the trust of a priest with a good connection in the system. These tokudo sessions for foreigners are usually organized from time to time (not at fixed intervals) by Hongwanji International Center, which deals with all matters related with ordination for non-japanese candidates. Their website is this, http://international.hongwanji.or.jp You can also access the official page of  Hongwanji here, http://www.hongwanji.or.jp/english

The candidate must spend 15 days in some kind of retreat at a facility near the main temple (Nishi Hongwanji), in Kyoto. There he (or she) is examined and attends various courses on doctrine and ritual, after which he receives a tonsure and the actual ordination from the Go Monshu sama - the Patriarch and leader of Nishi Hongwanji branch.

Nobody is beyond criticism - an example of Rennyo criticizing a Hongwanji family member

Rennyo Shonin, the eight Monshu (Patriarch)
of Hongwanji 

"Rennyo's criticism of divergent views and beliefs reached into the interior of Hongwanji.  In particular, in a letter dated the ninth month of 1473 (Bunmei 5), he severely admonishes the laziness of 'a certain young person' who was holding himself out as a member of the 'first family of the Hongwanji in Kyoto'. The content of the letter indicates that this person was likely one of Rennyo's sons who had been assigned to a temple in Kaga. The young man would always declare to others,

'I understand about the settled mind (anjin). I recite the nembutsu often. Also, I have never performed anything like the miscelaneous practices, nor worshipped other Buddhas or Bodhisattvas. I am, in particular, a member of the first family of Kyoto. Everyday I eat whatever I want to eat and if then feel like sleeping, I can lie back and sleep whenever and for as long as I like. No one can ever complain. I am not especially concerned about the Buddha-Dharma. Besides, I can learn about it through listening to what others say about any temple matter. As for the benevolence of the Master Shinran, I only think about it from time to time.'

(Other Letters, in SSS, P. 157)

A Standard of Shinshu Faith (complete free online edition)

update - click for the audio version on my youtube channel (work in progress)

A Standard of Shinshu Faith by Dr Ryosetsu Fujiwara was first published in 1963 by the Buddhist Churches of America and it contains a digest of the Anjin Rondai - Topics for Discussions on Faith, which is the doctrinal standard of the Nishi Hongwanji branch of Jodo Shinshu school. As the author himself said in the first part of the book:

"For the better understanding of Shinshu and for the prevention of unorthodox faith, the Nishi Hongwanji selected a certain number of special topics for discussion of Doctrine and of Faith. The latter, including 30 topics, is called 'Anjin Rondai' or 'Topics for Discussion on Faith.' The original is not so easy to understand because of its classical terminology and expressions. So the writer has tried to sum up the main points of these topics and rearranged them with the hope that it would become a helpful guide for those voluntarily working for the spreading of Shinshu in the West".

As this book is now out of print, I thought that it is very important to  make it available online to readers, especially in our difficult times when so many divergences from the Jodo Shinshu teachings prevail in the international sangha.

Official position of Hongwanji on the matter of "after death" birth in The Pure Land

Note: I wrote this article when I was still a member of Hongwanji and still believed that the Hongwanji system can be reformed

 

In many articles on this website, in my books or on my Facebook pages I presented to you many explanations and passages from the sacred texts in which it is clearly stated that the Pure Land of Amida Buddha is to be attained after death and that it is not to be found “here and now”, or in “one’s mind”, as some nowadays deluded scholars and priests in the international Jodo Shinshu sangha claim.

In this short post I intend to show to you that our Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha (Nishi Hongwanji) religious organisation does NOT officially sustain the aberrant views of those scholars and priests. The following two passages are from an official document of our school, Jodo Shinshu Kyosho (The Essential of Jodo Shinshu) and from a statement made by the former Monshu (Patriarch/Leader) of Hongwanji, His Eminence Koshin Ohtani, the 24^th successor of Shinran Shonin and also the one who ordained me. In the passages you can read by yourself that birth in the Pure Land is to be understood as taking place after death, in perfect agrement with the sacred texts of our tradition: