Thursday, July 9, 2020

La Realidad de la Naturaleza Búdica


“Todos los seres poseen la naturaleza Búdica
 aunque esta se encuentre cubierta
por sus pasiones ciegas”






La naturaleza de Buda tiene muchos nombres como Tathagatagarbha,  Budagarbha, Ser, Nirvana, Budeidad, Iluminación, Talidad/eseidad, Dharmakaya, etc., todo lo cual indica el hecho de que hay algo realmente REAL, no creado e incondicionado más allá de los diversos niveles de ilusión, pasiones ciegas y los vacíos fenómenos samsáricos.

En el Sutra del Tathagatagarbha, Shakyamuni realizó una exhibición milagrosa en aras de enseñar a los seres la doctrina de la naturaleza de Buda:

“Aparecieron en el cielo un sinnúmero de flores de loto de mil pétalos tan grandes como ruedas de carro, llenas de colores y fragancias que uno no podía comenzar a enumerar. En el centro de cada flor había una imagen conjurada de un Buda. Las flores se levantaron y cubrieron los cielos como un estandarte de ratna, cada flor emitiendo innumerables rayos. Todos los pétalos desplegaron simultáneamente su esplendor y luego, a través del Buda Siddhi (poder), todas se marchitaron en un instante. Dentro de las flores, todas las imágenes de Buda se sentaron con las piernas cruzadas en la posición de loto, y cada una emitió incontables cientos de miles de rayos. El adorno del lugar en ese momento era tan milagroso (adbhuta) que toda la asamblea se regocijó y bailó extasiada. De hecho, fue tan extraño y milagroso que todos comenzaron a preguntarse por qué todas las innumerables flores maravillosas fueron destruidas de repente. Mientras se marchitaban y se oscurecían, el olor que emitían era asqueroso y repugnante". [1]

Wednesday, July 8, 2020

The illusory nature of Samsara


Is very mistaken.
What is seen by mistake is unreal.
A Buddha does not have the unreal.”[1]

All Dharma gates speak about suffering and the end of suffering. In Jodo Shinshu we do the same, so what is the origin of suffering? Generally speaking, suffering comes from ignorance which means taking as real and permanent that which is unreal and impermanent, desiring unreal objects, identifying with an illusory sense of self and pursuing unreal and useless goals. All that we experience, individually and collectively, with our bodies and unenlightened minds is samsara. Depending on our karma these experiences are classified into the six realms of existence: hell dwellers,hungry ghosts (pretas), animals, humans, asuras (demigos) and gods (devas)[2].   

Simply stated, all beings are in a collective dream where they experience the joys and sorrows they themselves created with their own minds. Just like a beautiful dream or a nightmare is caused by the good or bad thoughts we had during the daytime, we also experience life in the above dreamlike samsaric states due to our own thinking, words and actions.

If you have a question, ask the Dharma


It is the way of Amidaji to always ask the Dharma in both the most important aspect of the afterlife as well as the details of our daily life.

Do you want to understand samsara? Contemplate the Dharma texts which describe the various sufferings of samsaric existence.

Do you want to escape samsara? Contemplate the teachings of Shakyamuni and the Masters of our lineage on the salvation offered by Amida Buddha and never forget the simple requirements from His Primal Vow, “entrust to me, say my Name and wish to be born in my land”.

Do you want to know about Amida and His Pure Land? Do not ask deluded scholars and priests who complicate their minds and others with difficult theories and who cannot accept the real existence of  Amida and the Pure Land. Better ask Shakyamuni and read the testimony of Ananda and all those present on Vulture Peak when the Larger Sutra was taught, who actually saw Amida and His Pure Land with their very eyes! 

La Naturaleza Ilusoria del Samsara


Está muy equivocado
Lo que se ve por error es irreal.
Un Buda no posee lo irreal". [1]

Todas las puertas del Dharma hablan sobre el sufrimiento y el fin del sufrimiento. En el Jodo Shinshu hacemos lo mismo, ¿cuál es el origen del sufrimiento? En términos generales, el sufrimiento proviene de la ignorancia, lo que significa tomar como real y permanente lo que es irreal e impermanente, desear objetos irreales, identificarse con un sentido ilusorio de uno mismo y perseguir objetivos irreales e inútiles. Todo lo que experimentamos, individual y colectivamente, con nuestros cuerpos y mentes no iluminadas es el samsara. Dependiendo de nuestro karma, estas experiencias se clasifican en los seis reinos de la existencia: moradores del infierno, fantasmas hambrientos (pretas), animales, humanos, asuras (Semidioses) y dioses (devas) [2].

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

La complejidad de la Reforma que necesitamos


El altar del Templo Amidaji

Definición de reforma: Por reforma quiero decir un retorno a las raíces de nuestra religión y un rechazo de las llamadas ideas modernistas o "progresistas" que niegan nuestras doctrinas básicas o las redefinen para que se ajusten a las ideologías mundanas y las mentes carentes de varios momentos históricos.

En primer lugar, debemos ponernos de pie y contrarrestar esas ideas horribles respaldadas por muchos eruditos ilusos hoy en día que presentan a Amida como un mito, símbolo, personaje de ficción, etc., o que niegan Su Tierra Pura como un lugar real para alcanzar después de la muerte, sino que esto se trata de algo en nuestras cabezas o que está "aquí y ahora". Este es el mayor de todos los males y debemos luchar contra él con todas nuestras fuerzas. Ya estoy haciendo esto en mi libro La verdadera enseñanza sobre el Buda Amida y su tierra pura, así como en los artículos que he escrito en la sección dedicada a este tema.

The complexity of the reform we need

the altar of Amidaji temple


Definition of reform: By reform I mean a return to the roots of our religion and a refusal of the so-called modernist or "progressive" ideas which deny our basic doctrines or redefine them to conform to the worldly ideologies and faithless minds of various times.

First and foremost we must stand up and counteract such horrible ideas supported by many deluded scholars nowadays which present Amida as a myth, symbol, fictional character, etc, or His Pure Land as not being a real enlightened place to be attained after death but something in our heads or"here and now". This is the greatest of all evils and we must fight against it with all our strength. I am already doing this in my book The True Teaching on Amida Buddha and His Pure Land as well as in the articles I wrote in the section dedicated to this topic.

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

The miracle of Jodo Shinshu

“Hokyo-bo said to Rennyo Shonin, ‘The Myogo (six character NA MO A MI DA BUTSU) you have painted has been destroyed by fire but it has become six Buddhas. How extraordinary!’ 
The Shonin remarked, ‘It is nothing extraordinary. Since the Buddha (that the Name represents) has become a Buddha, it is nothing extraordinary. What is extraordinary is that an evil bombu[1] becomes a Buddha through a single thought of entrusting to Amida[2]’.”[3]


If you hear that a Buddha or a saint performed miracles, you might become happy and want to see that miracle for yourself, but you will always feel it is quite natural for such superior beings to perform miracles.

However, to hear that you, an ordinary person with strong attachments and blind passions, some of them known only to yourself and kept hidden with shame in the depths of your heart where no one can see them.... you the reader of this book and internet addict who likes to read a lot about Buddhism, Nirvana, Buddha-nature, ultimate reality, and virtuous Masters of the past, but always finding yourself incapable to be like them….. imagine that you will become a Buddha!

You are sitting in front of your computer for many hours, surfing the internet, reading a lot of good teachings and wise Buddhist quotes, but never really being able to put them into practice for even 24 hours a day. From time to time, you practice a little bit of this, a little bit of that, some zazen[4], some vipassana[5], etc., and then you come back to internet or books to read about the spiritual realizations of others. You read all those pages and try to practice this or that, but in the end you return to your true reality – the everyday misery of living with your own ego and fighting with the ego of others.
You, who recognize yourself in my description, imagine that you will become a Buddha! And to become a Buddha at the end of your life, you need nothing else than to entrust yourself completely to Amida!

When I heard for the first time about the promise of Amida, that ordinary people will become Buddhas through simple faith in Him, I was struck with wonder and couldn’t believe my eyes and ears, as if I had seen or heard someone from another planet. Soon, after realizing this is true and not just a parable with esoteric and hidden meaning, I found myself saying: “What am I waiting for?” For the first time I felt that Buddhism was speaking to me, and not only to supermen. Since then, every time I recall to my mind the promise of Amida’s Primal Vow that everybody who entrusts in him and recite his Name will become Buddha, and realize that I myself will become a Buddha, I feel there is no greater miracle.

 




[1] A bombu is a being full of illusions and blind passions and who cannot attain Nirvana by his own power. 

[2] According to the Jodo Shinshu teaching of Shinran and Rennyo, a person who entrusts in Amida enters in the same moment in the stage of non-retrogression or the stage of being assured of Nirvana, and becomes a Buddha in the moment of death, when he is born in the Pure Land.

[3] Rennyo Shonin Goichidaiki Kikigaki (Thus I Have Heard from Rennyo Shonin)

[4] Zen Buddhist meditation.

[5] Meditation in Theravada Buddhism.





Dharma talks on my youtube channel