Clocks as portable thangkas of the Wheel of Samsara - Часы как переносные тханки Колеса Сансары (EN/RU)

Clocks are gentle companions who helps us remember impermanence. They are like miniature copies of the thangkas of the Wheel of Samsara with the top of the dial symbolizing the higher states of existence (humans, asuras and gods) and the lower part of the dial, reminding us of the lower realms (hungry spirits, animals and hell beings).

As the hands of the clock move constantly from hour 12 (the highest heaven of the gods) to 6 (the most terrible hell), life in samsara is never certain. Whatever we think we gain we'll lose in the next moment. Everything is momentary and our unenlightened minds are not reliable. This is why there is NO time for the so-called spiritual evolution. All we have is this fragile moment, this short break before death and another uncertain rebirth. In this moment we either accept Amida Buddha’s helping hand or refuse it and waste our human life so hard to obtain.

Understanding the two types of impermanence, of your body and your so-called "spiritual realizations", don't lose your time in vain, and entrust to Amida. Only by being born in His Pure Land after death you can safely get out of samsara and be able to benefit all sentient beings.

My experience with Padmsambhava as a devotee of Amida Buddha

Many years after I became a priest, Jinshin, one of my members in Bucharest, asked me about Padmasambhava. My answer was that all Buddhas, including Padmasambhava, praise Amida’s Name as  He promised they’ll do in His 17^th Vow[1]. This is a very important doctrine of Jodo Shinshu that by praising Amida’s Name they actually praise His method of salvation which is to say His Name in faith. Also, by saying Amida’s Name in faith and worshipping Amida alone we automatically worship and venerate all Buddhas. This I taught Jinshin that day to which I added that by worshipping and venerating Amida Buddha and saying His Name we automatically worship Padmasambhava. Although the Enlightened One called Padmasambhava promoted a different Dharma Gate on this earth (the esoteric teachings of Vajrayana), He too, supports us, people who entrust to Amida, so if we wish to show respect to Him, we should simply say Namo Amida Bu in faith.

What to do with evil thoughts that arise in our ignorant minds?

Question by a Dharma friend:

“When you are at home or walking around the village or somewhere and you see and feel evil impulses in your mind, do you feel regret or disliking that they arose?”

My answer:

“When I see evil impulses in my mind I am aware of their occurrence and I let them come and go by themselves. I change the focus from them to something else that I am doing at the moment, be it Nembutsu or watching a movie, working, etc, and by simply leaving them alone. I don't give them attention because that would make them grow even more, and I cannot solve them by feeling regret or by disliking them.

It is useless to dislike thoughts and feelings. If I focus on them with dislike or regret then I empower them, so I do not do that. After I instantly realize their appearance, I simply leave them alone. I do not take them seriously. Thoughts and feelings are like clouds that appear on the empty sky. They do not deserve my attention because they are not real, so I do not want to give them a reality they don't actually have.

Thoughts and feelings appear and disappear naturally IF we allow them to disappear. But if we start judging them, feeling regret about them and dislike them, then we help them become greater and greater. This is how obsession grows. Obsessions are simple thoughts and feelings that were given too much attention and were taken too serious.

My way is to not take the evil thoughts and feelings too serious, but leave them, let them come and go, not focusing on them. Shinran Shonin made a wonderfully true statement when he said that "the Nembutsu alone is true and real" while everything else is a delusion. If the Nembutsu alone is true and real why take seriously all the residual thoughts and garbage that normally appears in my ignorant mind?

Namo Amida Bu

Send your demons to the Pure Land

Oni no Nembutsu - a demon converted to Nembutsu  

Recently I had an interesting dream that I would like to share with you.

I dreamed that I caught something like a spirit or demon who is bound to fulfill desires. When I told him that now he has to fulfill one of my wishes he replied, “yes, but a wish can turn against you”. That made me think that I should not wish something for myself but for a dear one. Then he appeared in his demon form with a hideous face but sooner he changed into a beautiful woman. I realized that he is a shapeshifter but I was not afraid of him and he was also not feeling uncomfortable with me. He was waiting for me to tell him my wish… When I was about to tell him that I wish my mother to live for many years a thought occurred to me that if I want this I should better pray to Amida Buddha and not ask a demon to prolong her life. 

What to do if followers of other religions say that they pray for us

A friend recently wrote to me and said that he feels insulted by the fact that some of his Christian or Muslim co-workers often tell him that they are praying for him to abandon his Buddhist Path and turn to their god. This was my answer:

Try to not become upset, but have compassion for them like a grown up towards ignorant children or like a sober person towards a drunken fellow who doesn't know what he's saying.

Shakyamuni Buddha said in the Sutra on the Questions of Maudgalyayana (as quoted by Shinran in his Kyogyoshinsho, chapter II) that those who "follow the ninety-five wrong paths" are blind and deaf. He said: " I call such people 'those without eyes' and 'those without ears'."

Thoughts after a religious service with my Nembutsu friends

I recite in the middle of my personal chaos and everybody in the Amidado (Amida Hall), recites in the middle of his/her personal chaos. We do not transform this chaos into order or purity, we don’t think at all to purity or negativity, we just recite and the sacred sounds of sutras and Nembutsu come from Amida, carrying us, embracing us, accepting us.  

In Jodo Shinshu we leave everything to Amida Buddha, our bad karma and our good karma. We do not rely on our good karma to attain Buddhahood in the Pure Land and our bad karma does not count, only Amida is important. Recitation reminds us of this, when no matter how we feel, we continue to recite.

Also, our everyday life is sometimes good or bad, we chose what we like and reject what we don’t like, but in the Amidado we don’t do this. We follow only the Path, not our own likes and dislikes, not our own opinions, but the Dharma.

Chanting in the middle of our chaotically mental states reminds us that exactly in the middle of our everyday life with its ups and downs, we follow the Nembutsu Path. We have to keep going in the middle of our own chaos, we have to walk the white path in the middle of the river of fire and water.

Shakyamuni urges us to go to the Pure Land, and Amida is calling us. The path is here, in the middle of our misery, ignorance, blind passions and personal difficulties. It is the path Amida has built for us. While we recite the Name and feel our minds are disturbed by personal thoughts or other problems, we just let them be as they are, and we continue to say....... NA MO A MI DA BU, NA MO A MI DA BU, NA MOA MI DA BU.......

 

The best way to solve your problems

The best way to solve your inner problems is not to analyze, trying to find solutions or applying this or that strategy, but to let them go, abandon them, don't focus on them, ignore them and think to them as dream-like and nonexistent. When you try to solve them you actually empower them. However, when you let go of them, they will, sooner or later, dissolve naturally, depending on how successful you are in letting go.

The biggest problem of the unenlightened mind is wrong focus. To think that problems exist and then trying to solve them is the most stupid thing to do. This is samsara - the struggle for your feelings, ideas, and false sense of self. People take their feelings and states of mind too serious when they should change their focus from their imaginary inner and outer world to the true reality beyond concepts and illusions, to Amida Buddha and His Pure Land. When saying the Nembutsu you abandon the idea of trying to fix your samsaric mind. Inner or outer samsara can't be fixed, it can only be abandoned by changing the focus to what is true and real - Amida and His Name.

Although it is said within the dream of samsaric existence, the Name of Amida is the only element which does not belong to the dream, but to the world of awakening. It's like hearing sounds from the real world while you are still sleeping. Rather than focusing on the events of the dream, you should cling to the sound of awakening - NA MO A MI DA BU, NA MO A MI DA BU.... and wish to be born into the true Reality of the Pure Land.