The best way to solve your problems

The best way to solve your inner problems is not to analyze, trying to find solutions or applying this or that strategy, but to let them go, abandon them, don't focus on them, ignore them and think to them as dream-like and nonexistent. When you try to solve them you actually empower them. However, when you let go of them, they will, sooner or later, dissolve naturally, depending on how successful you are in letting go.

The biggest problem of the unenlightened mind is wrong focus. To think that problems exist and then trying to solve them is the most stupid thing to do. This is samsara - the struggle for your feelings, ideas, and false sense of self. People take their feelings and states of mind too serious when they should change their focus from their imaginary inner and outer world to the true reality beyond concepts and illusions, to Amida Buddha and His Pure Land. When saying the Nembutsu you abandon the idea of trying to fix your samsaric mind. Inner or outer samsara can't be fixed, it can only be abandoned by changing the focus to what is true and real - Amida and His Name.

Although it is said within the dream of samsaric existence, the Name of Amida is the only element which does not belong to the dream, but to the world of awakening. It's like hearing sounds from the real world while you are still sleeping. Rather than focusing on the events of the dream, you should cling to the sound of awakening - NA MO A MI DA BU, NA MO A MI DA BU.... and wish to be born into the true Reality of the Pure Land.

Members of Amidaji - Shaku Hōryū Stephen (USA)

  Click here to return to the spiritual biographies of Amidaji members

Hello, my Dharma name is Hōryū (Dharma Dragon) and I received Kieshiki from Rev. Jōshō on 26 June 2021. 

 

Due to my upbringing, I have always been interested in understanding the metaphysics of this world. Starting off as most westerners do, I began with the Abrahamic religions. However, I started to ask questions which are not answerable unless one takes the perspectives of the early Gnostics.

 

That line of questioning eventually took me down the Left Hand Path, which I spent almost two decades seriously pursuing. Eventually through the course of my experiences, I began to question what the purpose of my workings actually were.

Plans for the continuation of the construction work at Amidaji temple (please help if you can)

Amidado Hall (left) and the Library (right)

CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT THE NEW UPGRADES AT THE TEMPLE 

update: video added at the bottom of the article

 As you may remember, last year I built the roof (click  here to read), the walls (click here to read) and   added the inside insulation (click here to read) to Amidado (Hall of Amida).  I also added the doors and windows (click here to read) to the same building in Amidaji complex.

This year I had very few funds so I haven’t been able to do anything until now, but I hope that with your help I will resume the work at the temple. Here is what I need to do next:

          1) Add thermal insulation on the outside walls of Amidado (Hall of Amida). This is my main priority because otherwise the walls will be damaged from rain and snow. Basically, I need to make it look the same as the other two wooden houses in Amidaji complex (the library and accommodation place – see the photos). The estimative cost for the thermal insulation is around 600-700 euro

-        2) Build a gate for the temple courtyard. Presently if anybody visits Amidaji with a car or by foot I open a section of fence so that he can enter the yard. The estimative cost is around 500 euro

Amidado (left), library (far left) and accommodation place (right)

3) Add better doors and windows to the library and accommodation place – the same type of door and window I added to the Amidado last year. That type of door and window is expansive but is a better insulation for the cold season and keeps the warm inside. The estimative cost for the two doors and windows is around 600 – 800 euro

A   4) Add a stove on wood in the Amidado so that I can make religious services during the cold season. The estimative cost for installing a stove in Amidado is around 400 euro

-        5) Add a stove on wood in the library so that people can also study during winter. The estimative cost for installing a stove in the library is around 300 euro.

I also have many other things to do like paying some taxes for the buildings and land which are also urgent, repair and extend the fence (perhaps even making a better fence), a better bathroom, repair the living house near Amidado courtyard, etc

The list is long and I struggle every year to do something and advance a little. However, the situation is very difficult and my funds are limited.

If anybody wishes to help me, he or she can donate by using this PayPal box: 

 

 

Other methods of donation (Bank transfer, Revolut, etc) can be found here (click here).

The names of donors and/or people in whose name they donate will be mentioned in the dedication list of my books and video teachings (new videos in the playlist at the bottom, have a dedication list). 

 

Here you can see a video with the same plan as described above. Sorry for  the poor quality. I recorded it with my bad phone:

  

Inside Amidado Hall

 

Four misconceptions concerning Nembutsu, impermanence and karma

The four misconceptions concerning the Nembutsu, presented by Master Seikaku in the Essentials of Faith Alone, refer to the wrong understanding of impermanence, bad karma, good karma, and the matter of once calling and many callings of the Name of Amida Buddha.

If we wish to understand a certain object we look to its qualities, to the elements that make it up. What are the elements and fundamental qualities of life? A body and mind which are subject to an inexorable cycle of birth, growing, maturity, decay and death.

Decay and death …. Especially these two must attract our attention in the same way we analyze a certain object: some qualities distinguish themselves from others and lead to the definition of the object.

How do I see myself as a Buddhist?

You don’t need to do anything in order to attain Buddhahood in the Pure Land of Amida. In Jodo Shinshu, Buddhahood is not to be gained or deserved. Unlike other paths outside or inside Buddhism, here the final liberation from birth and death is not to be acquired by you. 

You don’t go by yourself to Nirvana, but Amida Buddha takes you by the hand, like a child, and brings you there. He is the One who makes you see the ultimate nature of all things, who melts the many layers of illusions that cover your innate Buddha nature.

Once born through the gate of faith in the Pure Land of Amida or His sphere of influence, all these transformations occur instantly and naturally. Your journey in this life as a prisoner in samsara is over once you receive faith, and your journey as a Buddha begins when you are born in the Pure Land of Amida[1] at the moment of death.

Faith (shinjin) and the saying of the Name (which is the expression of faith) means that you simply let Amida Buddha bring you to Buddhahood. You trust that He can do this for you and that you can’t do it by yourself.

There is no other path like this one. No matter how much you study all the religions of the world and even all other Buddhist methods, you will never find such a teaching that truly requires nothing from you. 

This teaching of Shakyamuni about Amida Buddha’s salvation is the best expression of the infinite Love and Compassion a Buddha can have for sentient beings. It is the medicine to be applied when all other medicines (methods) have proven ineffective. 

Once I was asked:

“How do you see yourself as a Buddhist?”

I answered:

I am loved and accepted.

I feel as though I am surrounded by warm and huge gentle hands.

I am secure. Nothing can harm me spiritually, not even my own blind passions and evil karma.

I see the smiling face of Amida Buddha everywhere.

I know Amida never judges me, nor abandons me.

I know that the essence of the entire universe is great love and great Compassion.

I know I walk in the Light although I am impure.

No matter how I live or die my destination is certain. All problems have been solved for me.

This is how I see myself as a Buddhist.

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[1] In the moment one receives faith, he immediately enters the stage of non-retrogression or assured of Nirvana and is born in the Pure Land of Amida at the end of his life.