Tuesday, August 20, 2024
On the teaching of akunin-shoki, that evil person is the object of the salvation offered by Amida Buddha
Monday, August 19, 2024
Faith in Amida Buddha is the peace of knowing your destination
Click here to watch more videos in the DHARMA TALK playlist. There are more than 170 videos there until now, so you'll certainly find one that is useful to you.
Monday, August 5, 2024
The treasure of faith in Amida Buddha (fragment from a Dharma discussion on the occasion of refuge ceremony for a Russian member)
Thursday, August 1, 2024
The Nembutsu of Faith and Gratitude in Jodo Shinshu Buddhism (video teaching by Daigan Sensei of Amidaji Sangha in Uruguay)
Saturday, April 6, 2024
Amida Buddha's devotee respond in gratitude to His benevolence by helping others entrust to Him (video teaching and discussion)
This video is very useful if you have the patience to watch it until the end. It is part of the series of the 71 topics of examination for those who want to be ordained in Amidaji branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. The main speaker is my student Rev Kosho Arana from Colombia. He already received monk (priest) ordination in our school, in September this year.
The links mentioned in the video are posted in its description on my youtube channe.
Namo Amida Bu
Friday, April 5, 2024
Don't play smart or virtuous in samsara
Also, never play the virtuous practitioner in samsara. Don't overestimate your pitiful merits and virtues. You can do nothing with your so-called "wisdom and merits". Everything is impermanent and insubstantial, including your dream-like existence and the things you think you realized.
There is only one reality - that of Amida Buddha and His Call: "entrust yourself to me, say my Name and wish to be born in my land". Do that exclusively and don't play smart or virtuous in samsara.
Namo Amida Bu
Sunday, January 14, 2024
The relation between hearing the Name, faith and saying the Name of Amida Buddha
Monday, January 8, 2024
We do not rely on personal vows but on Amida's Primal Vow
I will state it clearly and I ask all of you to please listen deeply:
We do not need to make a personal vow to be born in the Pure Land because birth in the Pure Land does NOT depend on our personal power, but on Amida's Power.
This is extremely important - you can be born in the Pure Land by the Power of Amida Buddha, and NOT by your self power! The vows you make have ZERO importance. What matters is that you give up any idea of self power and entrust completely to Amida Buddha.
In His Primal Vow (18th Vow) Amida mentioned three conditions to be born in His Pure Land : "say my Name, entrust to me and wish to be born in my land". He did not mention that you must make any vows or transfer any merits! To wish to be born is not the same as a vow which can easily make one think that he goes to the Pure Land through his own act of will. So, if we do the above three simple things in the Primal Vow, we become karmically connected to Amida's Power and we are assured of birth in the Pure Land.
Our Jodo Shinshu is the school of the Primal Vow, of total and exclusive reliance on Amida Buddha. Nothing inside our unenlightened minds can bring us closer to the Pure Land. Only Amida's Power and His Primal Vow (His Main Promise) are reliable. We will reach His Pure Land because He vowed that He will bring us there if we entrust to Him and say His Name in faith, and NOT because we make any personal vows or we transfer our pitiful "merits" to birth there.
The promises and vows made by unreliable and unenlightened minds mean nothing, while the Promise and Vow of Amida is everything.
Namo Amida Bu
The Pure Land is in harmony with all beings
The Pure Land is right before us and never out of harmony with us.
Do not ponder whether Amida will take you in or not;
The question is whether or not you wholeheartedly turnabout at heart.”[1]
The Pure Land is extremely easy to reach. This is the meaning of the words “right before us”. We’ll go there in an instant at the moment of our death if we have entrusted ourselves to Amida Buddha during this life. It is the easiest country to emigrate – no visas, no special requirements, just say Amida’s Name in faith and wish to be born there, and you will, at the end of your physical body. Being easy to enter, the Pure Land is in harmony with all beings as anybody can go there without discrimination between virtuous and non-virtuous. Harmony mean accessibility, that is, nothing that can be found within our ignorant mind constitutes an obstacle for birth there.
Thus, you should not doubt Amida Buddha’s capacity to save you, but ask yourself if you really have faith in Him. To turnabout at heart means to leave behind any reliance on your self-power and abandon yourself totally to Amida’s Power. As He is the One who manifested His Pure Land, you can only go there through Him. An unenlightened mind cannot create within oneself the cause to birth into the enlightened realm of the Pure Land.
[1] Master Shan-tao as quoted by
Shinran in his Kygyoshinsho, The Collected
Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha,
Kyoto, 1997, p.238
Sunday, December 3, 2023
There is no need to develop special feelings of gratitude towards Amida Buddha in order to be saved (video teaching)
Click here to watch more videos in the DHARMA TALK playlist. There are more than 170 videos there until now, so you'll certainly find one that is useful to you.
Monday, November 13, 2023
To what kind of people is Jodo Shinshu Buddhism intended for? (video discussion)
Here is a new video in the series of the 71 topics of examination for those who want to be ordained in Amidaji branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. The main speaker is my student Rev Kosho Arana from Colombia. He already received monk (priest) ordination in our school, in September this year.
The links mentioned in the video are posted in its description on my youtube channe.
Namo Amida Bu
Thursday, August 31, 2023
The difference between personal power (jiriki) and the Power of Amida Buddha (Tariki) - video teaching
Here is a new video in the series of the 71 topics of examination for those who want to be ordained in Amidaji branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. The main speaker is my student Kosho Arana from Colombia. His presentation is based on my book AMIDA DHARMA - the essential doctrine of Amidaji temple
Kosho Arana is scheduled to receive monk (priest) ordination soon, together with Daigan from Uruguay. He already finished all the examinations with me but we continue this public presentation so that people find how we do things at Amidaji, and what a candidate for ordination needs to know.
May all beings create indestructible connections with Amida Buddha, entrust to Him, say His Name and wish to be born in His Pure Land.
Namo Amida Bu
Monday, July 31, 2023
The Primal Vow of Amida Buddha is inconceivable
Sunday, June 25, 2023
Don't be hungry for feelings and special experiences
Namo Amida Bu
Thursday, September 29, 2022
The meaning of mindfulness in Jodo Shinshu Buddhism
Question: What did Shinran mean by "mindfulness is Nembutsu"?
mindfulness is Nembutsu;
Nembutsu is Namo Amida Butsu”.
Sunday, September 18, 2022
Dont try to fix your mind while entrusting yourself to Amida Buddha (video teaching)
Click here to watch more videos in the DHARMA TALK playlist. There are more than 130 videos there until now, so you'll certainly find one that is useful to you.
Saturday, September 17, 2022
1. Faith in Amida Buddha is not a feeling 2. On the joy of faith (video teaching)
Click here to watch more videos in the DHARMA TALK playlist. There are more than 130 videos there until now, so you'll certainly find one that is useful to you.
Wednesday, September 7, 2022
Those who have faith in Amida Buddha automatically help others even without knowing it
I wrote these words today to a Dharma friend who was sad that he is not able to teach or help those who live far from him. I hope you guys will also find it useful:
Being an example of faith is teaching without words. If you are established in faith others will be helped just by being in your presence because they make a karmic connection with a future Buddha. It is the same with the people you met and you could not help. Even those you didn’t meet but you think of them, will receive your help after you become a Buddha in the Pure Land. This is because you create a karmic connection with them by keeping them in your mind.
If you have faith (shinjin) you automatically help visible and invisible beings even without teaching them directly. Invisible beings are helped just by knowing your thoughts of devotion towards Amida and by hearing you saying His Name. Also human beings are helped just by hearing your Nembutsu or by just looking at you. As a person of faith you are imbued with the infinite merits of Amida Buddha. Although you are a grave sinner you shine in the light of Amida and this helps others without their knowing. You have a limited unenlightened mind and you cannot deeply understand what I am saying here but it is true nevertheless.
I explained more on this topic in the following video:
Sunday, July 24, 2022
Shinjin (faith in Amida Buddha) is knowing, not feeling
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
The Pure Land is in harmony with all sentient beings
The Pure Land is right before us and never out of harmony with us.
Do not ponder whether Amida will take you in or not;
The question is whether or not you wholeheartedly turnabout at heart.”[1]
Commentary:
The Pure Land is extremely easy to reach. This is the meaning of the words “right before us”. We’ll go there in an instant at the moment of our death if we have entrusted ourselves to Amida Buddha during this life. It is the easiest country to emigrate – no visas, no special requirements, just say Amida’s Name in faith and wish to be born there, and you will, at the end of your physical body. Being easy to enter, the Pure Land is in harmony with all beings as anybody can go there without discrimination between virtuous and non-virtuous. Harmony mean accessibility, that is, nothing that can be found within our ignorant mind constitutes an obstacle for birth there.
Thus, you should not doubt Amida’s capacity to save you, but ask yourself if you really have faith in Him. To turnabout at heart means to leave behind any reliance on your self-power and abandon yourself totally to Amida’s Power. As He is the One who manifested His Pure Land, you can only go there through Him. An unenlightened mind cannot create within oneself the cause to birth into the enlightened realm of the Pure Land.
[1] Master Shan-tao as quoted by Shinran in his Kygyoshinsho, The Collected Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997, p.238