Is Amida Buddha a real person or a symbol/metaphor?

the altar of Amidaji temple

- fragment from a letter to a friend - 

Question: Is Amida a symbol or metaphor for Wisdom and Compassion? Some scholars nowadays support this idea.

Answer: Those scholars are wrong. Amida Buddha is NOT a symbol or metaphor for Wisdom and Compassion, but a real, existing Enlightened Person possessing Infinite Wisdom and Compassion. 

I always insist on the actual, literal existence of Amida Buddha and His Pure Land because without realizing and accepting this existence, faith of unenlightened people becomes abstract and false. There can be no real faith without a real object of faith – in our case, Amida Buddha.

If you can’t say it to yourself and others that the object of your faith is a real, living Buddha, then you don’t have faith. No matter how great scholar you are, if your knowledge and study has not simplified your faith, and if you can’t talk about faith in simple terms, then you don’t have faith.

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.

Members of Amidaji - Shaku Kishin (Germany)

  Click here to return to the spiritual biographies of Amidaji members

My Dharma name is Kishin („The one who returns to the source“) and I was born 1970 in Germany, close to the City of Düsseldorf. My spiritual path is not unusual for people, starting with this journey in young years. With a lot of enthusiasm I tried to discover the philosophical and religious systems of the world, tried this, tried that, and in the end, I  came to a dead point

where I could only admit to feel „very close to the Buddhism“. This was my status for many years because in Germany, „Buddhism“is nearly 100% associated with either Zen, Theravada or Tibetan schools – branches, demanding  from the lay followers not to live directly as a monk, but to come very close to such a way of life. And I can say, that I was sunken deeply in the samsara world, being a sinner on purpose and with joy. I was a common human being, a Bombu.

In 2012 I became member of the German Jodo Shinshu Sangha, in the lineage of Nishi Hongan-ji. I followed this path for several years, however, left the Sangha in the end, for private reasons and with a kind of disappointment about the „woke“ degeneration of Buddhism in Germany, mainly forced by the umbrella organization DBU (German Buddhistic Union). However, I left the Sangha without trouble and will keep some nice and friendly  memories -  it important for me, to state this at this point!

Then, after a being a while on my own, I discovered the Amidaji lineage and there, everything made „sense“. Everything was in accordance  with the old masters of our school, the Dharma was pure, the path was clear, there was no contradiction anymore. So I asked Josho Sensei to kindly let me be a part of the Amidaji Sangha, and he accepted my wish. I’m happy to be here now and to walk the path together with other orthodox Jodo Shinshu followers all over the world.

Namo Amida Butsu.

Nobody has monopoly over Jodo Shinshu Buddhism and priest ordinations

Update - click here to read about 

the first ordination done at Amidaji!

No organization or branch has monopoly over the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist teaching. There are already ten old branches of Jodo Shinshu since Shinran Shonin plus Amidaji which is the newest. There are probably other branches or groups (old and new) in Japan that I do not know about and also various organizations that they claim they represent Jodo Shinshu. I have no idea what they teach and how loyal they are to our Founder, Shinran Shonin and to the historical Buddha. When we at Amidaji say that we are orthodox Jodo Shinshu we do that by comparison with the nowadays decadent situation of the two Hongwanji branches (Nishi and Higashi) that allow the spreading of wrong views and the various priests and lay we know in Japan, USA, Europe, etc, but we can't pretend we are the only orthodox followers in the world! Even among the Hongwanji there are many orthodox followers although the leadership is very corrupt, indolent and not willing to oppose wrong views. 

Why I sometimes use harsh language against proponents of wrong views

Japanse temple guardian in fierce form

Some suggested that even if I speak the truth I should say it in a moderate way. However, in a world filled with so much ambiguity, relativity of values, secularism and various wrong views I think that strong voices are very much needed. There are many priests and religious organizations nowadays that nobody knows what they actually teach and stand for because their language is too polite and too pleasing with everybody. It is of course, not the case with myself as everybody knows in detail who I am and what I stand for. Being the founder of Amidaji I want some things to be extremely clear from the start so that there is no confusion among people who might intend to become members.

What I am against for is the grave karmic sin of slandering the Dharma. To say that a certain thing is good and virtuous when the Buddha Dharma says it is wrong and unvirtuous might not be a problem for many but for me, as a priest, is worse than killing all the beings in all the universes. To deny the Larger Sutra, the existence of Amida Buddha and His Pure Land, to deny the Buddhist morality, the teaching on rebirth and life after death which are the main elements denied by various fake Buddhists and modernists nowadays falls under this category. This is because if you kill one person you are merely destroying his body, but if you destroy the Dharma you are shutting the door to liberation for all sentient beings. It is like killing them and throwing them in the fire house of samsara again and again. This is the reason why slandering the Dharma makes one go to the deepest hell for many kalpas.

Useless attempts by snowflakes and fake "Buddhists" to shut my voice

My personal Facebook account was reported and I received a restriction for 24 hours and then another one for three days. During this time that can be extended I can't post or comment. I also can’t go live for 30 days, and can’t advertise for 30 days. This happens because I dared to say that homosexuality is sexual misconduct according to the Buddhist teaching, and that Amidaji refuses to ordain priests that promote sexual misconduct. Here are some of my words (in the two print screens) and the articles  that were reported (click on them to read): Can LGBTQ people be born in the Pure Land?  and The definition of sexual misconduct according to the Buddhist teachings where I mentioned passages from Master Genshin, our 6th Jodo Shinshu Patriachal Master and Shakyamuni Buddha. I suggest people to carefully read those articles and if they are indeed honest seekers of truth they will realize that they are not at all hateful. The Dharma does not tell us what we want to hear, but what we must hear while in the same time accepting us as we are.  This is something that people who come to Buddhism to seek justification and to use it for their own worldly ideologies don't understand.

Perhaps those fake “Buddhists” and snowflakes who reported me don’t yet realize they can’t stop me from writing and posting as I can make many accounts and pages and continue to write in many forms and on various platforms, including on Facebook. I can share my texts with people in the chat, by email, website/s, etc. Somewhere, somehow, here or in another place you will hear about me and my statements against LGBTQ propaganda and against using the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist temples for justifying and institutionalizing homosexuality and other types of sexual misconduct.

It’s obvious that nobody can stop one who is really determined and convinced of the righteousness of his cause, especially when they constantly prove to me that my posts and articles really matter as they would not be so desperate to report me or complain about me if I was a nobody whose words have no impact. I know this may be too smart for them to realize but when they want to suppress my voice they actually help me grow and make even more people wanting to know what I have to say. The number of readers who have contacted me in the last years has grown and keeps growing so I am asking them: please continue with your stupidity, dear snowflakes. I am very grateful for your publicity. Please make more print screens from my twitter, Facebook, website, etc, and share them on as many places as possible. You are helping the Dharma truth spread! Your bitter tears and rage will draw more normal and ordinary people (who accept themselves as sinful and in need of salvation) to Amidaji and Amida Dharma while keeping all the sexual freaks, perverts and proponents of wrong views away.

Namo Amida Bu