Showing posts with label articles from my collaborators. Show all posts
Showing posts with label articles from my collaborators. Show all posts

Thursday, December 28, 2023

Question and Answer - the True Teaching of Shakyamuni on Amida Buddha and His Pure Land

Rev Kosho Arana at Amidaji
 
 I recently received this question from a Facebook contact   Fatih Ozkan:

 I would like to ask some questions:

 Was Amitabha Buddha actually preached by Shakyamuni   Buddha  or was he later invented as an Upaya by the Mahayana   saints? Are Amitabha Buddha and The Pure Land literally real or   an archetype? Buddha-Dharma says that all dharmas   (phenomena) are sealed with three realities: pain, impermanence   and selflessness. How can Sukhavati be an eternal realm now?

 Sincerely, A-Mi-To-Fo 

*

  Hello Dear Ozkan, Namo Amida Bu

 Thank you for your questions. They are very important.

I will answer them as best I can.

The teachings about Amida Buddha (Amitabha Buddha) are an essential part of more than 290 Sutras in the Mahayana Canon, especially the Sukavativyuha or the Larger Sutra on the Buddha of Infinite Life which was preached by Shakyamuni Buddha.  This teaching has been praised by many Mahayana masters including but not limited to Bodhisattva Nagarjuna, Bodhisattva Vasubandhu, Bodhisattva Asanga, Master Tan Luan, Master Tao Ch’o, Master Shantao, Master Honen and Master Shinran. Shakyamuni Buddha Himself taught in many sutras the existence of innumerable Enlightened Realms outside Samsara, called Pure Lands which are created by different Buddhas according to their specific vows.

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Are we really free?

article by Michał Pasternak (Poland)

We wake up in the morning and say “Hello” to another day. After getting out of bed, we often think what we will do next. From Monday to Friday we think usually about our work, and at the weekend we think about the free time that we can spend with our relatives or friends.

When we are in the restaurant, we can choose what kind of food we will eat. In the supermarket we choose different goods. In the tourist office we can choose where we will travel during summer vacation. Turning on the computer we can choose what video game we will play. Going to the cinema we choose what movie we want to see. We think we are free because... we can choose. But are we truly free? Unfortunately... we are not. Our present existence is primarily focused on materialism. We forget about the impermanence that is the basis of reality. Even though we are confronted with impermanence: sickness, old age, death, loss, we push impermanence out of our minds. We want to be always young, beautiful and rich. We don't even want to think about the fact that everything is constantly changing. Changes. We want to think about something positive and do not worry about what will happen tomorrow. This is a really big mistake. 

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

On past and present reincarnations of Moriya

Prince Shotoku
article by Shingyo Yuri Demianov - Amidaji Russia

In the Dharmaraja Sutra (AN 5.133), addressing an assembly of monks, the Buddha says:

“Monk, a wheel-turning monarch provides just protection and security for his court, relying only on principle—honoring, respecting, and venerating principle, having principle as his flag, banner, and authority. He provides just protection and security...”

Throughout history there have been many great statesmen who faithfully followed this and other teachings of the Buddha. One of these men was the father of Japanese Buddhism - Prince Shotoku Taishi. Being a true ruler-sage, striving to exalt his country and his compatriots, distinguished by an extraordinary breadth of views, open to new ideas, following the traditional mores of the Confucian way of life, Shotoku was a real example of a Buddhist layman, combining the life of a skilled student and preacher of the Teachings of the Buddha with the affairs of the court and his country.
Master Shinran Shonin highly valued the prince and revered him as the incarnation of the Bodhisattva Kuse Kannon:

Thursday, September 9, 2021

Contemplation on the Twelve Names of Amida’s Light

 article by Shaku Hogen, lay member of Amidaji

 
Amida Buddha, your majestic light is the most exalted, no other Buddha’s light can match it.  It illumines all Buddha-lands in the ten directions, each beam grasping and never abandoning sentient beings of the Nembutsu.

 

Immeasurable rays of light emanate from each feature of your awesome Sambhogakaya form, illuminating all Buddha-lands.

Therefore, you are called mu ryo ko bu - Infinite Light Buddha

 

All beings without exception in the ten directions are touched by your light.  None is outside the reach of your calling all to entrust to you.  

Therefore, you are called mu hen ko bu - Boundless Light Buddha.

Friday, November 23, 2018

My Path to True Shin Buddhism by 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. 
His poems can be listened in audio format here.



My Path to True Shin Buddhism
By Gansen John Welch

I am writing this in the hope that others may be encouraged, inspired and motivated to listen to and read Amida Dharma, find a good teacher of True Shin Buddhism and “entrust your karmic destiny entirely, utterly and completely to Amida Buddha.” This too was my motivation for narrating Josho’s excellent books and writing verses inspired by Amida Dharma. 

Saturday, October 20, 2018

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:



Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Shinjin: knowing not experiencing


article by Paul Roberts, webmaster of TrueShinBuddhism yahoo group

Paul Roberts
David writes:  
“I get it:  there is some way that you guys really know/experience the reality of Amida's presence so it's not a belief, even a strongly held belief,  but a lived experience, a lived presence.  Do I have that right? And is it fair to ask how do you experience it?  Is it something you could even put into words?  Is it like when I was 13 and asked my mother how I would know if I were in love and she simply said, in a way that was clearly meant to close the discussion, Don't worry--you'll know?”

Paul’s answer:

“Hi David - 

Ultimately, I can only speak for myself, and about myself, and my experience - not Rick's or Dave's or Shinran's either.

So let me start with this:  You wrote, "I get it:  there is some way that you guys really know/experience the reality of Amida's presence so it's not a belief, even a strongly held belief,  but a lived experience, a lived presence.  Do I have that right?"

So my answer to this question is NO...you don't have it right, and you don't get it...which is totally understandable.  That's why Dharma dialogue is so important.

You see, David, in your mind, you're putting me into a box that you've got called "mysticism", in which having an "experience of the reality of Amida's presence" is what it's all about.

But that is NOT what it is all about for me - not at all.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Thoughts on the teaching of Doctrine within the Hongwanji-ha (Nishi Hongwanji) organisation in recent years

Rev Eiken Kobai
by Rev Eiken Kobai
  
The 750th Memorial Service for the Venerable Master Shinran has successfully concluded, and now there is the anticipation of, “A New Beginning” for our Nishi Hongwanji organization.

Unfortunately, there were also reports such as, “‘The voice of the Nembutsu is becoming fainter with the times and I wonder if the 800th Memorial Service will be held with the same fervor as this one?’ could be heard among those who participated.” The long decline in the Nishi Hongwanji organization is something that all have noticed.

I have now passed the age of seventy, and am in the same state of mind that Yuien was when he wrote the Tannisho (Notes Lamenting Differences): “In this transient world, my body has become like last year’s grass…” and like him, would like to express my thoughts on what is most important about our organization before it is too late.

To begin with my conclusion, I believe that at the very least, scholars of our Nishi Hongwanji organization must be those whose “shinjin is settled” (shinjin ketsujo).

Thursday, April 17, 2014

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.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Rennyo Shōnin on Sangha – what can we learn from him?



The following paper was presented by my Dharma friend Emyo Frits Bot from Holland at the 16th European Shinshu Conference (31st August - 2nd September 2012). It was one of the few good papers of the Conference, so I decided to share it with you here. Those of you who live in Holland and are interested in the Jodo Shinshu teaching or who wish to write to him, please do so at his e-mail address: emyo@jodoshinshu.nl

                                      Rennyo Shōnin on Sangha – what can we learn from him?
                                                                    by Emyo Frits Bot


 
Emyo Frits Bot
The theme of this conference is “The importance of Sangha”. That Sangha is an important aspect of Buddhism is evident from its place among the Three Treasures, next to Buddha and Dharma. What, however, is especially important about that Sangha, specifically in our Jōdo Shinshū tradition?

When considering this question, I believe we should turn to the masters of our tradition and find out what they have to say on this subject. For this paper, I choose to place special emphasis on the writings of Rennyo Shōnin, as he has been instrumental in making the Jōdo Shinshū community that originated around the teachings of Shinran Shōnin into what it is today.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The Meaning of "True Disciple of Buddha"

Rev Eiken Kobai (left) and me

by Eiken Kobai Sesei, Professor Emeritus, Soai University

Introduction

Shinran Shonin says in the Chapter on Shinjin in The True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way.

“In the phrase “true disciple of Buddha,” “true” contrasts with “false and provisional.” “Disciple” indicates a disciple of Sakyamuni and the other Buddhas. This expression refers to a believer who has realized the diamondlike heart and mind. Through this Shinjin and practice, he will without fail transcend and realize great nirvana; hence, he is called a true disciple of Buddha.”

Monday, June 20, 2011

Listen deeply - (Video Teaching by Paul Roberts)







(transcript made by Kepa Egiluz)

Hi, my name is Paul Roberts and I'm here to talk to you today about the only practice in True Shin Buddhism - True Shin Buddhism of Master Shinran and Master Rennyo.

This is an extremely confusing topic for many people [and] it was extremely confusing for me when I first felt myself drawn to Shin Buddhism. An It's confusion for a couple of reasons:
One reason is confusing is because many of us have come to Shin Buddhism from other Buddhist paths. And in any other Buddhist path you can think of, whether it's part of the Hinayana or the Mahayana or the Vajrayana, the Tibetan path, it's always about your [own] practice.

Practice involves discipline, it can involve study, it can involve keeping precepts, it can involve engaging in particular good works so-called "six paramitas"... And its all these things that Buddhists are told to do diligently, continually, over and over again, which supposedly will make you clear your mind stream and eventually become a Buddha if you continue to practice.

Now, one of the fundamental ideas in Shin Buddhism that Master Shinran says is that none of these paths work anymore for anybody. The Paths of Self-Power are closed to us. I have recorded that in another video. But instead, in Shin Buddhism, there's only one practice and that practice is listening deeply: deep hearing of the Dharma called "Mappo" [“of the Decline Age”] in the Japanese.

Now, [other reason] this ideas have also become very confusing because many of the people who are teaching Shin Buddhism today are actually not people of the same Shinjin as Master Shinran. Here are many of these people who are very famous in the Sangha, who don't even believe that Amida Buddha is a real Buddha or that the Pure Land is a real place. And because there are such variants with Master Shinran's teachings, nothing that they say in terms of their Dharma Talks can really be counted on to be true.

Anf finally, what's really important to understand then is that Amida Buddha, billions and billions of years ago, over sixty billion years ago, conceived of and came up with a Dharma path that was going to be just as useful to people of no particular ability, people who are ignorant, people who are illiterate, people who have Buddhist Attention Deficit Disorder and can't calm their minds, not to meditate or contemplate. And the Dharma path he came up with was for these people first; as Master Shinran says, "for the evil person first" and then for the good person; for the ignorant person first, and then for the wise person; for the person who can't do any self-powered Buddhist works first, and then for the persona who has a capacity.
Now, there are three components to listening deeply, and I'm going to explain them. I'm going to tell you what they are in a language simple enough that anybody can understand, whether you've been studying Buddhism for forty years or you're just now looking at Buddhism for the very first time.

The first part of listening deeply is listening with the head, listening with your intellect to understand a very simple basic teachings of True Shin Buddhism: the true teaching of the Pure Land Way. These teachings are understandable by anybody. Master Shinran tells in one of the stories how when he was a young man he went out with Master Honen, his teacher, and the first person they run to was an illiterate peasant who didn't know anything about anything. And Master Honen talked to him for a short period of time -maybe half an hour, maybe an hour, I'm not sure- but at the end of the time when they parted ways, Master Honen turned to Master Shinran -young Shinran, I should say- and he said: "that man's Birth is assured. That's how easy it is to transmit and to intellectually understand the essential content of True Shin Buddhism.

But, at the same time, Master Shinran says that coming to become a person of Shinjin is actually the most difficult of difficulties. And the reason that's so is because is not just a matter of listening with the head.

After we've listened with the head and understood the content intellectually, now we have to listen with the heart. We have to listen in our deep inmost being to decide, to find out whether or not this Dharma message is true. And thats's what most people are not willing to do, unfortunately.

But let me explain to you exactly what listening with the heart is all about. And to start I want to tell you a quick story you may have heard before about a man who went to see a Dharma teacher because he decided he was excited about becoming enlightened. He wanted to become a Buddha. So he sought out a Dharma teacher and he went to see him and he knocked on the door. The Dharma teacher opened the door, the man said "I want to be a Buddha, I want to become a Buddha, I want to become enlightened". And the teacher invited him: "come in", he said, "I'll make you some tea, we'll have tea together while talk". So the man comes in and sits down. The Dharma master puts the kittle on and then he begins to make the man some tea. All this time the man is talking, talking, talking, talking. He just never stops. He doesn't shut up for a minute. "I think this, I think that, I have this opinion, I have that opinion... yabi dabi dab dabi, yaba dabi dabi dabi". He goes on and on an on. He doesn't take a break even for a minute as he is giving the brain dump of everything he has in his head. So the master starts to pour some tea and he pours and he pours into the man's cup. The cup gets filled up and the master keeps pouring and pouring and pouring, and the filled cup is overflowing, and the tea is running all over the table and down into the man's lap. And the man stands up, "excuse, what are you doing?, what are you doing?" And the master looks at him and says: "Listen, you came to me asking to hear the teachings so you could become enlightened, and yet you are so full of your own ideas you just don't have any room in your head for what I have to say. It's like this tea cup: your cup is full, and therefore I can't pour you any of my tea".
So that's really the point here. In order to begin to listen to this Dharma, you have to be able to empty your cup. You have to be able to lay aside all your own ideas, your thoughts, everything you understand, everything you think you understand, everything you learned in college, everything you read from Carl Jung, from Joseph Campbell, or from watching Star Wars, or from studying Tibetan Buddhism, Zen Buddhism or any other kind of Buddhism, or any other kind of metaphysical literature, or listening to any other teachers... You've got to temporarily put it all aside. You must empty your cup in order to evaluate the Dharma propositions of the Masters.

You don't have to let go of your ideas permanently, but temporalily. While you're listening deeply you have to let go. Is Amida Buddha a real Buddha, as Shakyamuni says and Shinran says? Or is he just a mythic metaphor so many modern Shin Buddhist teachers say?
Unless you are willing to empty your cup, and lay aside you predispositions and thoughts, you'll never know.

But, if you empty your cup, and you ask the Buddha within, you will eventually hear a definitive answer. You may hear words... you may just get an intuitive sense... You will hear from the Buddha within that yes, Amida Buddha is a real Buddha, and, yes, the Pure Land is a real place. And, yes, there is no other path to Buddhahood for us in this day and age. All these are basic Dharma thoughts that we hear from our Dharma Masters over and over again.

Now, let me tell you this idea of listening deeply is actually exactly what the Buddha himself said to do. There is a famous story -it's actually a sutra called "the Kalama Sutra"- and it talks about a time when the Kalama people went to speak to Shakyamuni. And they said: "We are just really confused. We hear this from one teacher, we hear this from another teacher, we hear something else from you... We don't know who to believe. What should we do?"

And the Buddha, being absolutely the smartest guy in the room, the singular world *turner*, the truly enlightened one, he said to the Kalama people this. He said: "Listen, don't believe anything that anyone says, including me, just because we say it. You have the responsibility to listen to what we say and then to take it inside and to ponder it deeply. And only if you can sense that it's the right stuff, that it's the true teaching, should you take it to heart.
It's exactly what I'm talking about when I talk about listening deeply.

So there are three parts of listening deeply: The first is listening with the head, to understand the basic content of our Dharma message. The second is listening with the heart: empty your cup setting aside your pre-existing ideas so that you can understand and listen into your heart from the Buddha within whether these teachings are in fact true. And the third part of listening deeply is being willing to talk to somebody who can serve you as a true teacher, so you can ask every question that you have and answer every doubt that might be in your heart, because until you ask all your questions and answer all your doubts "you have not cleared the channels of faith". That's a phrase Master Rennyo used: "clearing the channels of faith". And you will not become a person of Shinjin.

As a close, I just going to read you these little passages from Master Rennyo's writings that talk about this in a very straightforward way. So, Master Rennyo says: "Meetings are occasions when, even if only once a month, just those who practice in the Nembutsu should at least gather in the meeting place and discuss their own faith and the faith of others. Recently, however, because matters of faith are never discussed in terms of right and wrong, the situation is deplorable beyond words. In conclusion, there must definitely be discussions of faith from now on amor those at the meetings. For this is how we are to attain Birth in the true and real land of Utmost Bliss".

An Master Rennyo also wrote this: "Even if you feel that you understand the significance of the Buddha Dharma -having listened through sliding doors or over a hedge- faith will be decisively settled only by your repeatedly and carefully asking others about its meanings. If you leave things to your own way of thinking, there will invariably be mistakes. It has been said recently said that there are many such instances these days. You should ask others, time after time, about what you have understood of faith, until Other-Power faith is decisively settled. If you listen but once, there will surely be mistakes".
So I'm saying to everybody who's listening to this video that listening deeply is the only practice in True Shin Buddhism. It is the singular practice for us. It is so critical that we actually listen deeply. It's critical if you're going to become a person of Shinjin in this life, a Buddha when this life is over.

First you understand the intellectual content of the Dharma message and then, once you've understood the intellectual content, you basically go inside and you ask the Buddha within to bear witness to whether or not this teaching is true. That's the only thing that matters if you're going to become a Buddha: "Is this teaching true?" "Can you entrust yourself entirely to this teaching?" If you can't answer to that question you're never going to be a person of Shinjin. And finally, don't be ashamed, don't be afraid, don't be proud; go find a good teacher of the Dharma, a person of Shinjin and ask every question you have. Ask once, ask twice, ask a hundred times until you get every answer you need to get, so that you could have no more doubts and that you can freely entrust yourself to Amida.

I wish you all the best. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me through this video. Now, I'll be glad to answer them, and I'll see you again soon with several videos that I'm putting together on the three pillars of True Shin Buddhism, the three fundamental ideas that define our simple universal Dharma message. 



Listen deeply - (Video Teaching by Paul Roberts)







(transcript made by Kepa Egiluz)

Hi, my name is Paul Roberts and I'm here to talk to you today about the only practice in True Shin Buddhism - True Shin Buddhism of Master Shinran and Master Rennyo.

This is an extremely confusing topic for many people [and] it was extremely confusing for me when I first felt myself drawn to Shin Buddhism. An It's confusion for a couple of reasons:
One reason is confusing is because many of us have come to Shin Buddhism from other Buddhist paths. And in any other Buddhist path you can think of, whether it's part of the Hinayana or the Mahayana or the Vajrayana, the Tibetan path, it's always about your [own] practice.

Practice involves discipline, it can involve study, it can involve keeping precepts, it can involve engaging in particular good works so-called "six paramitas"... And its all these things that Buddhists are told to do diligently, continually, over and over again, which supposedly will make you clear your mind stream and eventually become a Buddha if you continue to practice.

Now, one of the fundamental ideas in Shin Buddhism that Master Shinran says is that none of these paths work anymore for anybody. The Paths of Self-Power are closed to us. I have recorded that in another video. But instead, in Shin Buddhism, there's only one practice and that practice is listening deeply: deep hearing of the Dharma called "Mappo" [“of the Decline Age”] in the Japanese.

Now, [other reason] this ideas have also become very confusing because many of the people who are teaching Shin Buddhism today are actually not people of the same Shinjin as Master Shinran. Here are many of these people who are very famous in the Sangha, who don't even believe that Amida Buddha is a real Buddha or that the Pure Land is a real place. And because there are such variants with Master Shinran's teachings, nothing that they say in terms of their Dharma Talks can really be counted on to be true.

Anf finally, what's really important to understand then is that Amida Buddha, billions and billions of years ago, over sixty billion years ago, conceived of and came up with a Dharma path that was going to be just as useful to people of no particular ability, people who are ignorant, people who are illiterate, people who have Buddhist Attention Deficit Disorder and can't calm their minds, not to meditate or contemplate. And the Dharma path he came up with was for these people first; as Master Shinran says, "for the evil person first" and then for the good person; for the ignorant person first, and then for the wise person; for the person who can't do any self-powered Buddhist works first, and then for the persona who has a capacity.
Now, there are three components to listening deeply, and I'm going to explain them. I'm going to tell you what they are in a language simple enough that anybody can understand, whether you've been studying Buddhism for forty years or you're just now looking at Buddhism for the very first time.

The first part of listening deeply is listening with the head, listening with your intellect to understand a very simple basic teachings of True Shin Buddhism: the true teaching of the Pure Land Way. These teachings are understandable by anybody. Master Shinran tells in one of the stories how when he was a young man he went out with Master Honen, his teacher, and the first person they run to was an illiterate peasant who didn't know anything about anything. And Master Honen talked to him for a short period of time -maybe half an hour, maybe an hour, I'm not sure- but at the end of the time when they parted ways, Master Honen turned to Master Shinran -young Shinran, I should say- and he said: "that man's Birth is assured. That's how easy it is to transmit and to intellectually understand the essential content of True Shin Buddhism.

But, at the same time, Master Shinran says that coming to become a person of Shinjin is actually the most difficult of difficulties. And the reason that's so is because is not just a matter of listening with the head.

After we've listened with the head and understood the content intellectually, now we have to listen with the heart. We have to listen in our deep inmost being to decide, to find out whether or not this Dharma message is true. And thats's what most people are not willing to do, unfortunately.

But let me explain to you exactly what listening with the heart is all about. And to start I want to tell you a quick story you may have heard before about a man who went to see a Dharma teacher because he decided he was excited about becoming enlightened. He wanted to become a Buddha. So he sought out a Dharma teacher and he went to see him and he knocked on the door. The Dharma teacher opened the door, the man said "I want to be a Buddha, I want to become a Buddha, I want to become enlightened". And the teacher invited him: "come in", he said, "I'll make you some tea, we'll have tea together while talk". So the man comes in and sits down. The Dharma master puts the kittle on and then he begins to make the man some tea. All this time the man is talking, talking, talking, talking. He just never stops. He doesn't shut up for a minute. "I think this, I think that, I have this opinion, I have that opinion... yabi dabi dab dabi, yaba dabi dabi dabi". He goes on and on an on. He doesn't take a break even for a minute as he is giving the brain dump of everything he has in his head. So the master starts to pour some tea and he pours and he pours into the man's cup. The cup gets filled up and the master keeps pouring and pouring and pouring, and the filled cup is overflowing, and the tea is running all over the table and down into the man's lap. And the man stands up, "excuse, what are you doing?, what are you doing?" And the master looks at him and says: "Listen, you came to me asking to hear the teachings so you could become enlightened, and yet you are so full of your own ideas you just don't have any room in your head for what I have to say. It's like this tea cup: your cup is full, and therefore I can't pour you any of my tea".
So that's really the point here. In order to begin to listen to this Dharma, you have to be able to empty your cup. You have to be able to lay aside all your own ideas, your thoughts, everything you understand, everything you think you understand, everything you learned in college, everything you read from Carl Jung, from Joseph Campbell, or from watching Star Wars, or from studying Tibetan Buddhism, Zen Buddhism or any other kind of Buddhism, or any other kind of metaphysical literature, or listening to any other teachers... You've got to temporarily put it all aside. You must empty your cup in order to evaluate the Dharma propositions of the Masters.

You don't have to let go of your ideas permanently, but temporalily. While you're listening deeply you have to let go. Is Amida Buddha a real Buddha, as Shakyamuni says and Shinran says? Or is he just a mythic metaphor so many modern Shin Buddhist teachers say?
Unless you are willing to empty your cup, and lay aside you predispositions and thoughts, you'll never know.

But, if you empty your cup, and you ask the Buddha within, you will eventually hear a definitive answer. You may hear words... you may just get an intuitive sense... You will hear from the Buddha within that yes, Amida Buddha is a real Buddha, and, yes, the Pure Land is a real place. And, yes, there is no other path to Buddhahood for us in this day and age. All these are basic Dharma thoughts that we hear from our Dharma Masters over and over again.

Now, let me tell you this idea of listening deeply is actually exactly what the Buddha himself said to do. There is a famous story -it's actually a sutra called "the Kalama Sutra"- and it talks about a time when the Kalama people went to speak to Shakyamuni. And they said: "We are just really confused. We hear this from one teacher, we hear this from another teacher, we hear something else from you... We don't know who to believe. What should we do?"

And the Buddha, being absolutely the smartest guy in the room, the singular world *turner*, the truly enlightened one, he said to the Kalama people this. He said: "Listen, don't believe anything that anyone says, including me, just because we say it. You have the responsibility to listen to what we say and then to take it inside and to ponder it deeply. And only if you can sense that it's the right stuff, that it's the true teaching, should you take it to heart.
It's exactly what I'm talking about when I talk about listening deeply.

So there are three parts of listening deeply: The first is listening with the head, to understand the basic content of our Dharma message. The second is listening with the heart: empty your cup setting aside your pre-existing ideas so that you can understand and listen into your heart from the Buddha within whether these teachings are in fact true. And the third part of listening deeply is being willing to talk to somebody who can serve you as a true teacher, so you can ask every question that you have and answer every doubt that might be in your heart, because until you ask all your questions and answer all your doubts "you have not cleared the channels of faith". That's a phrase Master Rennyo used: "clearing the channels of faith". And you will not become a person of Shinjin.

As a close, I just going to read you these little passages from Master Rennyo's writings that talk about this in a very straightforward way. So, Master Rennyo says: "Meetings are occasions when, even if only once a month, just those who practice in the Nembutsu should at least gather in the meeting place and discuss their own faith and the faith of others. Recently, however, because matters of faith are never discussed in terms of right and wrong, the situation is deplorable beyond words. In conclusion, there must definitely be discussions of faith from now on amor those at the meetings. For this is how we are to attain Birth in the true and real land of Utmost Bliss".

An Master Rennyo also wrote this: "Even if you feel that you understand the significance of the Buddha Dharma -having listened through sliding doors or over a hedge- faith will be decisively settled only by your repeatedly and carefully asking others about its meanings. If you leave things to your own way of thinking, there will invariably be mistakes. It has been said recently said that there are many such instances these days. You should ask others, time after time, about what you have understood of faith, until Other-Power faith is decisively settled. If you listen but once, there will surely be mistakes".
So I'm saying to everybody who's listening to this video that listening deeply is the only practice in True Shin Buddhism. It is the singular practice for us. It is so critical that we actually listen deeply. It's critical if you're going to become a person of Shinjin in this life, a Buddha when this life is over.

First you understand the intellectual content of the Dharma message and then, once you've understood the intellectual content, you basically go inside and you ask the Buddha within to bear witness to whether or not this teaching is true. That's the only thing that matters if you're going to become a Buddha: "Is this teaching true?" "Can you entrust yourself entirely to this teaching?" If you can't answer to that question you're never going to be a person of Shinjin. And finally, don't be ashamed, don't be afraid, don't be proud; go find a good teacher of the Dharma, a person of Shinjin and ask every question you have. Ask once, ask twice, ask a hundred times until you get every answer you need to get, so that you could have no more doubts and that you can freely entrust yourself to Amida.

I wish you all the best. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me through this video. Now, I'll be glad to answer them, and I'll see you again soon with several videos that I'm putting together on the three pillars of True Shin Buddhism, the three fundamental ideas that define our simple universal Dharma message. 



Monday, June 13, 2011

Amida is a real Buddha (video teaching by Paul Roberts)

Here is a video teaching by my Dharma friend, Paul Roberts, on Amida Buddha and his Pure Land in accordance with the Larger Sutra on the Buddha of Infinite Life (Bussetsu Muryoju kyo). It is a useful guide on what Amida is and what is not, very much needed in these times when so many divergences from the Jodo Shinshu teaching appear. I praise Paul's initiative to start a series of Dharma talks on youtube and I highly reccomend him as a genuine teacher of the Dharma.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

The Smartest Guy in the Room



Dharma Friends -

Recently, we had a brief discussion about Buddhist cosmology - the Buddha's vision of the cosmos.

Here's something I just read about what scientists are discovering right now:

Data from the Kepler telescope leads them to believe that there are some two BILLION earth-like planets in our own Milky Way galaxy. That is, planets with the kinds of basic conditions that would support the presence of liquid water, and thus have the potential of supporting sentient life as we know it.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Thoughts upon awakening...


Dharma Friends,

This morning, as I woke up, this thought was bubbling up for me:

WHAT WE YEARN FOR IS THE PURE LAND.

Now I can't remember exactly (so maybe someone will refresh my memory), but I don't think those words are original with me. I'm pretty sure I read them, from either Master Shinran or Master Rennyo.

But it really doesn't matter where I read them. What matters is that those words are true - in my life, at least, and I know in the lives of others, too.

I'm no saint, for sure - and no one who knows me would ever confuse me with one. But the plain truth is that I really do yearn for the day when I will awaken in Amida's Pure Land, and seem Him face to face, and experience the final transformation into Buddhahood.

Dharma talks on my youtube channel