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.

---

[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.......

 

The three vows of salvation

Click here if you want to read a detailed explanation of the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha

Generally speaking, Buddhist practices taught by Shakyamuni Buddha can be classified into two groups:

 1.      meditative practices

2.      non-meditative practices

Meditative practices include various types of meditation and visualization that we can find in all schools of Buddhism from Theravada to Mahayana and Esoteric Vajrayana[1].

Non-meditative practices include chanting sutras, observing precepts, abstaining from evil or doing various good acts, etc. These non-meditative practices are said to generate merit or positive karmic energy that help the practitioner attain higher rebirths or spiritual states. They can also be transferred or directed by the practitioner toward various goals, including his future Enlightenment.

Worldly benefits and otherworldly benefits of Nembutsu

Question:  According to what I have read in some teaching of the Chinese Pure Land school, they say that it is incorrect to say that Nembutsu does not bring benefits to this life, like for example, longevity and other physical and worldly benefits which is in contradiction to Shinran’s thought.  I for my part contemplate the ten benefits which have nothing to do with my longevity or other worldly benefits that I know I do not have and I'm not very interested in them either.  Why do these schools wish for more benefits as if going to the Land of Amida is not enough?

My answer: If one does not have aspiration for birth in the Pure Land then he does not meet the requirements of the Primal Vow: “entrust yourself to me, say my Name and wish to be born in my land”. It is very clear that according to the Primal Vow we must say the Nembutsu with faith in Amida Buddha and aspiration for birth in His Land. Amida did not say that we should say the Nembutsu while wishing to get worldly benefits and long life. However, due to a combination of personal karma and Amida’s help we might indeed receive more benefits than the usual ten, including long life, although this is not why Amida manifested His Name and instructed us to say it as an expression of faith. Honen Shonin said: