You can find the refuge ceremony in my book Worshipping Amida Buddha - Liturgies and ceremonies of Amidaji temple.
Links related with the video:
Monday, June 27, 2022
Friday, June 24, 2022
Nembutsu and daily life
last revised February 16th, 2023
“If we only put our
trust in Amida’s Primal Vow, there is no doubt whatever about our future
destiny, but what are we to do with the present world?’
‘Well, the thing to do is to make the Nembutsu practice the chief thing in life, and to lay aside everything that you think may interfere with it. If you cannot stay in one spot and do it, then do it when you are walking. If you cannot do it as a priest, then do it as a layman. If you cannot do it alone, then do it in the company of others. If you cannot do it and at the same time provide yourself with food and clothing, then accept the help of others and go on doing it. Or if you cannot get others to help you, then look after yourself but keep on doing it. Your wife and children and domestics are for this very purpose, of helping you to practice it, and if they prove an obstacle, you ought not to have any. Friends and property are good, if they too prove helpful, but if they prove a hindrance they should be given up. In short, there is nothing that may not help us to Ojo, so long as it helps us to go on the even tenor of our way through life undisturbed.’”[1]
Commentary:
The goal of Buddhism is not to attain happiness here and now which is actually impossible as samsara itself is the karmic effect of our own blind passions and ignorance. However, this doesn’t mean that we should neglect our basic needs. Amida devotees also eat, drink, seek shelter, comfort and good company, they get married, have children, property, etc. There is no problem with this. What Honen Shonin advised us is to use all the aspects of our life as support for the Nembutsu Path. The Primal Vow of Amida does not require asceticism, but only the Nembutsu of faith, so try to arrange your personal life in such a way that you be able to walk the Path of Nembutsu.
Thursday, June 23, 2022
The uniqueness and universality of Nembutsu
“When we say that the
Jodo (Pure Land) is superior to all other sects, and that the Nembutsu is
superior to all other religious disciplines, we mean that it provides salvation
for all classes of sentient beings. Of course, meditation upon the Absolute,
heart longing for perfect knowledge (Bodhi), the reading and reciting of the
Mahayana Sutras, the mystic practices of the Shingon, the meditation of the
Tendai, and so on, all belong to the Dharma of the Buddhas, reveal their
superiority, and tell us how to cross over the sea of birth and death. And yet
on the other hand, they are quite beyond the capacity of people living in these
later degenerate times. After the ten thousand years of these latter evil days
have passed, the average length of human life is to be shortened to ten years,
and many will degenerate so that they will be guilty of the ten evil deeds and
the five deadly sins, and yet the whole of them old and young, male and female,
all without exception, are included within the scope of that Primal Vow, and
are given the assurance that they will be cared for and never forsaken, if they
will but repeat the Nembutsu ten times, or even once. This is why we insist
that the Nembutsu quite outrivals all other sects and disciplines.”[1]
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Say Nembutsu as you are
“Those who think that
it is only the Nembutsu of the pious and learned which can eventuate in Ojo (birth
in the Pure Land), and that there is no Ojo for the ignorant and unlettered and
those who go in sinning every day, even if they should say the Nembutsu, have
not yet grasped the fact that the Primal Vow includes both the good and the
bad.
It is impossible in
this life to change man’s nature, which he has inherited through the working of
his karma from a pre-existent state, just in the same way as it is impossible
for a woman in this life to be changed into a man, no matter how much she might
desire it. Those who call upon the sacred Name should do it with the nature
they now have, the wise man as a wise man, the fool as a fool, the pious as
pious, the irreligious as irreligious, and thus all equally may attain Ojo.
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
The indiscriminative salvation offered by Amida Buddha is NOT an encouragement to commit or justify evil
„There are those who say that the effort to avoid sin and improve oneself is making light of Amida’s Vow [...] But do not for a moment be misled by such misconceptions. Is there any place in any of the sutras where Amida encourages men to sin? Certainly not. Such things come from those who make no effort to get away from their own evil deeds, and who go on in their former sinful life. By such utterly unreasonable and false sayings, they would mislead ignorant men and women, urging them forward in the committing of sin and stirring up their evil passions within them. Now such persons are nothing less than a company of devil, and you ought to think of them as enemies to your reaching birth into the Pure Land of Bliss”.[1]
Sunday, June 19, 2022
Focus on Amida’s Name, not on your monkey mind
Answer (by Honen Shonin): ‘The only thing to do is to repeat the Nembutsu.’”[1]
This is something that I often say in my books, articles and discussions with my Dharma friends. We cannot fix our samsaric minds. We cannot eliminate evil thoughts. We cannot stop thinking. All we can to do is change the focus from whatever appears in our mind to Amida, through the saying of His Name. Just as you don’t take a monkey serious, don’t take your mind serious. We are not saved because of any quality that can be found in our minds and we are not obstructed to be born in the Pure Land by our blind passions and evil thoughts. Our salvation comes from outside of our samsaric mind, so we do not need to bother about it anymore.
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