Amida Buddha does not require from us to become martyrs (video teaching)

 This is one of my recent video teachings recorded during a zoom meeting with some of the members of Amidaji. You can see the whole playlist DHARMA TALKS at this link (click here).

 

Unlike other religions, the Buddha Dharma and Amida Buddha himself do not asks us to be martyrs. This must be well understood as a very important difference from Christianity or Islam. Amida Buddha does NOT suffer like the monotheistic god from the need for attention. He does not threat us to punish our children and grandchildren until the fourth generation if we do not obey him like the so-called god of the monotheists (see the 1st commandment). Our Amida Buddha is a mature, enlightened Person without any trace of jealousy and ego. I've always noticed there is an obsession with blood and drama in monotheistic religions. Too much telenovela for a god with a psychopathic personality disorder.

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. 

Too easy to be true for those too proud

 

Shinran Shonin said:

"Realization of true and real shinjin (faith in Amida)

Is rare in the defiled world of the last Dharma-age;

The witness of Buddhas countless as the sands of the Ganges

Reveals how difficult it is to attain ". [1]

Because people tend to dismiss the path of birth in the Pure Land through simple faith in Amida as being too easy to be true, all Buddhas give testimony to it, thus attesting to its effectiveness and utmost importance.

It’s like all Buddhas are saying in one voice: "don't disparage this Path of Nembutsu! We are also praising Amida's Name, so you should do the same!". Why do I say that all Buddhas praise Amida's Name? Because Amida himself promised in His 17th Vow: "all Buddhas will praise my Name".
Why not saying a Name that all Buddhas praise and why not follow a Path so simple that al Buddhas recommend?

Amida Buddha offers us the easiest Path out of samsara but many will miss it due to their illusory dreams of spiritual greatness.

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[1] Shinran Shonin, Hymns of the Dharma Ages (Shozomatsu Wasan)

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'."

False or unsettled shinjin

 

A friend asked me what is false or unsettled shinjin? Then he gave me a quote from Kyogyoshinsho:

“1. One’s faith is not sincere; at one time it exists and at another it does not;

2. One’s faith is not single-hearted, because it is not firm;

3. One’s faith is not constant, because it is mingled with other thoughts.”

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.......