Self-power and Amida's Power

Click here to return to Selected passages from Honen Shonin with commentary

Honen Shonin said:

 “It is impossible to predict the length of our lives, and although we may live a long time, the past is in the end like a phantom dream.

Therefore, remember that together we will enter the same Buddha-land of Amida Buddha. Upon the lotus flower we will dispel memories of sadness in this defiled world of suffering, we will reminiscence about our past karmic connections, and we will vow to save and lead people to Enlightenment in the future. I shared the importance of this with you when we first met. 

Believe deeply in the Primal Vow[1] of Amida Buddha; do not doubt even for a moment that you will attain birth in the Pure Land; and believe that with ten recitations of Namo Amida Butsu you will definitely achieve birth in the Pure Land through the power of the Primal Vow, however much negative karma you may have. Please focus on reciting Nembutsu. 

Online refuge ceremony for a member of Amidaji (Shoshin from the Philippines) and the meaning of the Three Refuges in Jodo Shinshu Buddhism

 

You can find the refuge ceremony in my book Worshipping Amida Buddha - Liturgies and ceremonies of Amidaji temple.

Links related with the video:

The Three Refuges in Jodo Shinshu Buddhism 

Conditions to be accepted as a member of Amidaji

Nembutsu and daily life

 

last revised February 16th, 2023

Click here to return to 

Selected passages from Honen Shonin 

with commentary

“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. 

The uniqueness and universality of Nembutsu

 

Click here to return to 

Selected passages from Honen Shonin 

with commentary

Honen Shonin said: 

“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] 

Say Nembutsu as you are

Click here to return to 

Selected passages from Honen Shonin 

with commentary

Honen Shonin said, in reply to a question by Zenshobo: 

“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. 

The indiscriminative salvation offered by Amida Buddha is NOT an encouragement to commit or justify evil

Click here to return to 

Selected passages from Honen Shonin 

with commentary

Honen Shonin said: 

„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]