Words for everyday life

fragment from my book 

Worshipping Amida Buddha - Liturgies 

and Ceremonies of Amidaji Temple 

These are the words that I say every morning after waking up and during the night when going to bed. It is how I begin and end my day.  They are not poetic, but simple and direct. My mental capacities being very limited I especially composed these simple sayings so that I can easily remember them. I also say them during the day when I am too busy to do anything else:

Amida Buddha, I take refuge in you and say your Name in faith. 

Namo Amida Bu, Namo Amida Bu, Namo Amida Bu.

May all beings join me in taking refuge in you and saying your Name in faith.

Namo Amida Bu, Namo Amida Bu, Namo Amida Bu. 

Amida Buddha, I wish to be born in your Land of Peace and Bliss.

Namo Amida Bu, Namo Amida Bu, Namo Amida Bu.

May all beings join me and wish to be born in your Land of Peace and Bliss.

Namo Amida Bu, Namo Amida Bu, Namo Amida Bu.  

Amida Buddha, thank you for saving us as we are. 

Namo Amida Bu, Namo Amida Bu, Namo Amida Bu 

These words are in accord with the three recquirements of the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha: „entrust to me, say my Name and wish to be born in my land”. By aspiring that all beings join me in taking refuge in Amida, saying His Name in faith and wishing to be born in His Pure Land I invite them to be in accord with the Primal Vow. Its good to say these words as you never know who else, beside Amida Buddha, is hearing you.

Words before and after meals

in the kitchen of Amidaji temple

I was asked to offer instructions on what to say before and after meals. This is the formula I use daily, and I advise you to do the same alone or with your family:

Before the meals:

Amida Buddha, I (we) receive this food with gratitude. May it help me (us) on your Path for the benefit of all beings.
Namo Amida Bu

After the meal:
Amida Buddha, may all beings who contributed to this meal and those in whose name was offered be healthy in body and mind, always receive what is beneficial to them, have food, drink, clothes, and shelter, make indestructible connections with you, entrust to you, say your Name (Namo Amida Bu) and wish to be born in your Pure Land.
Namo Amida Bu

A question on spirits

Question: "If I see or feel the presence of negative spirits around me, how do I send them away? And what if they refuse to leave?"

Answer: Why send them away? Just leave them alone. Let them stay and listen to your Nembutsu, let them hear your thoughts and words of faith. One day, they will become bored with a guy like you who minds his own business and constantly says Nembutsu, or even better, they might be influenced by your devotion and entrust to Amida themselves. In Jodo Shinshu we do not exorcize, nor fight with spirits, rather we convert them by our example. The urge of Shinran, "receive yourself faith and help others receive faith" applies to them, too.

It is good to be friendly towards the spirit world. Realize that spirits, ghosts and various types of nonhuman beings inhabit the same space with us. Your land is their land, too. Some are in the same place for hundreds or thousands of years, so they have the same right as you to be here. Who are you to tell them to go away? Let them be and focus on living a life of gratitude with as little damage as possible to other beings, and focus on Nembutsu.

All beings suffer, no matter they are humans or non-humans. Some spirits may like you, feel neutral towards you or may be inclined to hate you due to karma from the past. No problem! Let them hate you, while you just focus on Nembutsu. How much can somebody hate another person if that one does not respond to the hate and minds his own business?

Offer incense to Amida Buddha in the name of all beings, including the spirits of the place you live, and make aspirations for them - may they be healthy in body and mind, always receive whatever is necessary and beneficial for them. May all their obstacles be removed and may they create indestructible connections with Amida Buddha, entrust to Him, say His Name (Namo Amida Bu) and wish to be born in His Pure Land[1]. Also pray to Amida to help them, although He already tries His best to help. However, if you pray for them, they will feel your good intentions.

If you think this way, if you say Nembutsu and have devotion and faith, the invisible beings who happen to live there or just pass through will know your thoughts and might be inspired to entrust to Amida and say Nembutsu themselves, and if not, they will finally leave you alone as they see that you are no threat to them. In fact, they cannot harm you even if they try, because if you have faith (shinjin) you automatically benefit from the protection of Amida and all Buddhas.

So again, no matter what you see, hear, or feel around you, just focus on Nembutsu and mind your own business.

 

---

[1] You can also use the specific ceremony to help the hungry ghosts and bardo beings fom my book Worshipping Amida Buddha – Liturgies and Ceremonies of Amidaji Temple.

Pure Land poems by Gansen John Welch

Gansen John Welch

Gansen John Welch is a member of Amidaji temple and a close Dharma friend. He is also the narrator of my books. He already finished recording the audio version of The Four Profound Thoughts Which Turn the Mind Towards Amida Dharma (click here to listen) and The True Teaching on Amida Buddha and His Pure Land (click here to listen)

He is now working on the audio version of my newest book, The Meaning of Faith and Nembutsu in Jodo Shinshu Buddhism - click here to see the playlist. 

Here you can read about his spiritual journey - My Path to True Shin Buddhism

Here in this playlist you can listen to all his poems on Pure  Land Buddhism:

Verses of aspiration when making offerings

altar of Amidaji temple

- click here for the Portughese version - 

I offer this flower to Amida Buddha on behalf of all beings. By seeing its decaying beauty may we realize that our lives and so called "spiritual achievements" are transitory, and turn our minds and hearts to the Salvific Power of Amida Buddha.

I offer this burning candle to Amida Buddha on behalf of all beings. May we accept Amida's Light which permeates every corner of the Universe, and entrust to Him with unshakable faith.

I offer this incense to Amida Buddha on behalf of all beings. May we become imbued with the perfume of His Dharma, receive faith in Him and be born in His Pure Land after death.

I offer this cup of water to Amida Buddha on behalf of all beings. May our thirst be forever saturated in His Pure Land where we attain perfect Enlightenment.

I offer this cup of rice to Amida Buddha on behalf of all beings. May we receive faith in Him and guide others to faith. May the seeds of Amida Dharma multiply endlessly until the ocean of Samsaric existence becomes empty.

Namo Amida Butsu

*

These words came to my mind spontaneously when sitting in front of the altar of Amida Buddha and making offerings. They are NOT some kind of merit transference, but a simple wish and act of awareness. Every object in the temple is a reminder of Amida's Compassion for us, and the need to rely on Him single heartedly. As far as I know, the flowers, incense and candles signify impermanence, perfume of Dharma and Light of Amida,  respectively, in all Shinshu temples affiliated with Hongwanji. Of course, one can simply say the Nembutsu, without the need for any other verse,  hymns or ritual implements. Its up to everyone to enjoy his (her) personal relation with Amida Buddha as he (she) likes it.

PS: instead of water you can offer tea or any other non-alcoholic drinks

Tariki - A tanka sequence on Amida Buddha

                                                          by Richard St. Clair (Shaku Egen)

My mind
is like a lump of coal:
my heart is as black
and as cold
as arctic midnight.

All these lives
I have been aching
for release
from the wheel
of birth and death.

My prayer to Shinran and Rennyo

I renamed this category POEMS, PRAYERS, ASPIRATIONS. Here I will post all kinds of texts, old and new that fit into this description and might be of help to Jodo Shinshu followers. Please feel free to send me any poem, prayer or aspiration that you discover in the sacred texts, various modern works or even those composed by you. All that matter is that you be inspired by it in your own nembutsu path.
Bellow is my personal prayer to Shinran and Rennyo.

                                                     

Shinran and Rennyo,
My Compassionate parents,
please always stay on the crown of my head and bless me.
By the Power of Amida,
May I and my Dharma companions
be always in accord with your teachings
and receive the same shinjin like you.
May I always meet and be influenced
only by teachers and lay people
that are faithful to you and do not deviate from your words.

Settlement of Birth

by Tokujo Jason Ranek

Amida’s name contains all things:

His Trikaya nature,

My bombu nature.

My taking refuge in Him,

His vows and practice on my behalf.

His perfect enlightenment,

My birth in the Pure Land.

That Amida truly abides

As Trikaya Buddha

Is not to be wondered at.

What is truly more wonderful?

NamoAmidaButsu

Is the living Buddha on my lips!

Like waves make sense of water!

Like chimes intone the wind!

_______________________________________________________
other poems by Tokujo Jason Ranek you can read here and here

Dharmicness - poem by Jason Ranek

Here is another beautiful poem from Jason Ranek, my nembutsu friend from Norway. Those who enjoyed his Hymn of Amida Buddha's 18th Vow, will surely like this one, too.

“Dharmicness”

“Dharmicness” means not brought about in any way

by the practicer’s calculation…

-Shinran

For five long years I listened to the Dharma

But only heard the sound of my own mind working.

All that my mind was able to produce

Was just a false and manufactured shinjin.

Please, leave Amida to Amida’s business!

Entrust yourself and reverently step aside,

For a stance of doubt before the boundless Light

Is the most miserable of attitudes.

When hearing the Dharma is one’s only practice,

Life changes utterly, becoming a journey

Of self-reflection, humility and gratitude.

How grateful I am that the only wisdom to be found,

Throughout the ten directions of the universe,

Is to live as a child of Amida Buddha!

NamoAmidaButsu

Hymn of Amida Buddha’s 18th Vow

I am very happy to share with you this poem written by my nembutsu friend, Jason Ranek from Norway. It contains a beautiful and good explanation of the essentials of Jodo Shinshu teaching in a poetry style. I hope you'll like it and find it useful for your understanding, as I myself did.



Hymn of Amida Buddha’s 18th Vow
by Jason Ranek

1.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

Amida Buddha vowed
That whoever trusts in him

Lives in his infinite light
And, dying, becomes a buddha.


2.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

You cannot earn
A lotus seat in the Pure Land;

Birth is given by virtue
Of Amida’s 18th Vow.


3.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

Uncover your cup
To receive the Dharma rain,

Then faith, and the Nembutsu,
Will naturally arise.

4.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

The only practice
In which you need endeavor

Is to hear the teaching
Again, and again, and again.

5.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

All has been accomplished
By the Buddha –

His compassion universal,
His care generous to a fault.

6.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

A mind free of doubt
Is a mind at peace;

The Buddha gives it freely
To those who listen.


7.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

The Buddha’s light penetrates
The densest matter –

The human heart –
Letting no shadow be cast.


8.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

Even your blind passions,
Ignorance, and karmic evil

Are not obstacles
To enlightenment.


9.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

In the Nembutsu of pure faith,
Sentient beings and Buddha

Become one substance,
Like steam vanishing into air.



10.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

Though it seems that it is we
Who entrust ourselves,

It happens wholly by
The working of the Buddha.


11.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

When the mind breaks open
In one moment of joy,

Say ”Namu Amida Butsu”
In heartfelt thanks.


12.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

Think of it! In one thought
Of entrusting and joy,

All one’s suffering,
With certainty, is ended!



13.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

Death comes more swiftly
Than the mind moves;

Hear this teaching
And entrust with haste!


14.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

Do not worry at all
About attaining Shinjin;

Leave Amida
To Amida’s business.


15.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

There is no greater wisdom
Than to live as a child

Of Amida Buddha.
Namu Amida Butsu!



16.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

In this Dharma
There is nothing to be done

But hear, entrust,
And be saved.


17.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

The Nembutsu alone (1)
Leads only to the borderland.

Receive the heart of faith
Given by the Buddha!


18.

Listen well to the Dharma
Of Other Power

And entrust yourself
To Amida.

Once Shinjin is firmly settled,
Live and die in naturalness

Then be born
In the Land of Peace!


Namu Amida Butsu.

___________________________________________________________
(1) Nembutsu recited without absolute faith in the salvation power of the Primal Vow, also named self-power nembutsu (jiriki nembutsu). Some Pure Land followers think that through the recitation of the Name of Amida they accumulate personal merits and virtues that can be further transfered towards their birth in the Pure Land. Those who have such thoughts cannot entrust from their whole heart in the Power of Amida and because of their doubt they do not go directly to the Pure Land, but are born in the so called "Border Land" of the Pure Land. This land is also called "Land of indolence and pride". They dwell there until they overcome their doubts, and thus are finally able to be born in the true Pure Land - where they become immediately Buddhas.