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. 

The Path of the 19th Vow and the explicit and implicit meaning of the Contemplation Sutra

Fragment from my Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra. It is a work in progress and under constant revision. Click here to read the other chapters.

Last revised June 6, 2024

According to Shinran Shonin, and as I mentioned previously, the Contemplation Sutra is explicitly guiding people to the 19^th Vow, while implicitly referring to the Primal Vow (18^th Vow)[1]:
 
“When I consider the Sutra of Contemplation on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life, taking into account the interpretation of the commentator [Shan-tao], I find there is an explicit meaning and an implicit, hidden, inner meaning.
 
‘Explicit” refers to presenting the meditative and non-meditative good acts and setting forth the three levels of practicers and the three minds. The two forms of good and the three types of meritorious acts, however, are not the true cause of birth in the fulfilled land (center of the Pure Land). Further, the three minds that beings awaken are all minds of self-benefit that are individually different and not the mind that is single, which arises from [Amida’s] benefiting of others. They are roots of good with which to aspire for the Pure Land that [Sakyamuni] Tathagata taught as a distinct provisional means. This is the import of the sutra; it is its “explicit” meaning.

The merits transferred by Amida Buddha are not ours to use for personal goals

Question by a Dharma friend: If Amida transfers His karmic merits to us, why can we not dedicate them to others?
 
My answer: The transference of merits from Amida Buddha does NOT mean these merits become our property. They still remain Amida’s merits but working from inside us. And these merits have only one goal - to lead us to His Pure Land. It is like being carried to a wonderful place by your best friend in his car. The car is not yours and will never become yours because you are carried in it by your friend. It’s the same with Amida’s transference of merit. Just like you cannot do what you want with the car of your friend who leads you to destination, you cannot do what you want with Amida’s merits.

 

Amidaji simple style of teaching Jodo Shinshu Buddhism

 

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. 

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 

Being ordained and training as a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist monk in Amidaji Temple - my experience, by Rev Kosho Arana (Colombia)

This article is related with the first monk (priest) ordination held

 in Amidaji branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism (click here to read)

download this article in pdf here

click here for the Spanish version of this article

I stumbled upon Reverend Josho Adrian Cirlea’s books on Jodo Shinshu Buddhism around 2018. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that my life was never the same after that. This is not because Josho Sensei is some kind of great guru or great spiritual master but simply because he expressed the Jodo Shinshu teaching with great simplicity and clarity and every page he writes on Jodo Shinshu doctrine is not based on his personal ideas but on the Sutras and the teachings of Shinran, Rennyo and the Jodo Shinshu Patriarcs.

 

Josho Sensei’s books contain the nectar of the sutras and shastras, because they are full to the brim with quotes from the words of Shakyamuni Buddha, Shinran Shonin, Honen Shonin and Rennyo Shonin, and the great Mahayana Patriarchs. There is no room for wrong views or half-truths in his writings. You can sense he is just an ordinary guy doing his best to explain to himself and others the wonderful treasure of the Buddha Dharma in general and Jodo Shinshu in particular, and that is priceless in our day and age in which there are thousands of self-proclaimed gurus, masters, “venerables” and mystics of all sorts who don’t blink twice at combining Buddhism with worldly ideologies, and samsaric religions just to make them more appealing to the masses. 

Josho Sensei simply could not care less about numbers or pleasing people. I could sense that from the first emails we exchanged. All his words and deeds as a Jodo Shinshu monk are just ways to say, “entrust yourself to the real and living Amida Buddha, say His Name with faith and gratitude and wish to be born in His Pure Land after death so that you scape the painful cycle of birth and death and attain Buddhahood, and then you yourself will eternally return to Samsara so save all beings in the 10 directions with perfect wisdom and compassion”. This clear, honest and uncompromising way to teach the Dharma is rarely found in Jodo Shinshu nowadays and I would say it is also scarce for Buddhism in general. “Feel good talks”, dangerous and misleading spiritual combinations, mundane entertainment and pop self-help teachings is what most temples thrive on nowadays. It’s fairly easy to find so-called Buddhist teachers and temples that never or rarely mention basic Buddhist teachings such as karma, samsara, Buddhahood, faith and morality. So, I am truly grateful to have found in this life an honest teacher who puts the Dharma above his own opinions and who tries to understand and explain the Dharma in simple terms for ordinary people living ordinary lives.

Three Jodo Shinshu Buddhist hymns recited in Amidaji style by Rev Josho and Rev Kosho (audio/video)

Here are three hymns recited in the powerful and energetic Amidaji style at Amidaji temple in Romania, during the Nembutsu retreat organized on the occasion of our first monk (priest) ordination (click here to read about it).

Each hymn is followed by the phonetical recitation and the English translation. All the hymns we use as well as various liturgical and worshipping explanations are explained in my book, Worshipping Amida Buddha - Liturgies and Ceremonies of Amidaji Temple, that you cand download for free or buy at this link. 

The Nembutsu liturgy

●●

doshi (the Leader): BU JO MI DA NYO RAI NIU DO JO

we respectfully call upon Amida Buddha to enter this place of practice[1]

doon (together): SAN GE RAKU[2]

as we joyfully scatter flowers of welcome

The first monk ordination in Amidaji branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism (Rev Kosho Arana from Columbia)

Click here to read 

the Romanian version of this article

NEW! Click here to read about Rev Kosho's experience at Amidaji during his ordination!

On the evening of September 21^st 2023, I ordained our brother Kosho Arana from Colombia as a Buddhist monk (priest).  This is a historical day for Amidaji branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism.

As you may know, Amidaji follows the wise and compassionate instructions of the late 23rd Monshu of Nishi Hongwanji temple, Shōnyo Shōnin (Kosho Ohtani)[1], who encouraged non-Japanese Nembutsu followers to organize themselves independently from Japan, and who agreed with the first non-Japanese ordinations done in Europe by Rev Harry Pieper (Shaku Shōgon Hōshi)[2] and Rev Jean Earacle (Shaku Jôan)[3]. In the same spirit initiated by Shōnyo Shōnin of sincere aspiration to spread the authentic Jodo Shinshu Buddhist teachings in a non-Japanese environment, Amidaji affirms the right to have its own ordination platform. Thus, a candidate for monkhood (priesthood) can receive his or her ordination from any of the monks or nuns affiliated with Amidaji after a serious examination and going through the ceremony of ordination that we can held at any of our temples or dojos.

Things I did and improved at Amidaji in 2022 and 2023 - your help is very much needed and appreciated

the new kitchen of Amidaji
in the former accomodation place

 My last post (December, 2021) in the category Amidaji temple - work

 plan and progress was related with the stove that I installed in the

 Amidado (Hall of Amida), so now I am going to tell you what I did since that time. The following information are already present on various social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc

 In 2022, I arranged a new kitchen in the former accommodation place and transformed the former little Hondo (Dharma Hall) into a library and accommodation place. There I installed a cooking stove on gas and many useful things. 

in Amidaji kitchen with a guest from Taiwan

In the new accommodation place I also added a good stove made of tiles which is very useful during winter. This stove is even better than that from Amidado Hall which can warm the place for the duration of a service, while the heat in the library and accommodation place lasts for many hours. 

Electricity was also added to both the new kitchen and library.

In 2023 I printed and framed ten images of various Buddhas and Enlightened Bodhisattvas, like Avalokitesvara, Mahasthamaprapta, White Tara, Green Tara, Mahakala, etc, some of them wearing Amida on the crown of their head, as well as images of Shinran Shonin, Rennyo Shonin, the seven Patriarchs (Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, T’an Luan, Tao’ch’o, Shantao, Genshin, Honen), Shotoku Taishi, and I placed them inside the Amidado Hall.

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 

The Primal Vow of Amida Buddha is inconceivable

 "Tathagata's Primal Vow surpasses conceptual understanding; it is a design of the wisdom of Buddhas. It is not the design of foolish beings. No one can fathom the wisdom of Buddhas, which surpasses conceptual understanding."[1]
 
"Further, with regard to Other Power, since it is inconceivable Buddha-wisdom, the attainment of supreme Enlightenment by foolish beings possessed of blind passions comes about through the working shared only by Buddhas; it is not in any way the design of the practicer. Thus, no working is true working. 'Working' that is negated refers to the calculation of the person of self-power. Concerning Other Power, then, no working is true working."[2]