There is no need to develop special feelings of gratitude towards Amida Buddha in order to be saved (video teaching)

 

Click here to watch more videos in the DHARMA TALK playlist. There are more than 170 videos there until now, so you'll certainly find one that is useful to you. 

The Path of the 19th Vow and the explicit and implicit meaning of the Contemplation Sutra

Fragment from my Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra. It is a work in progress and under constant revision. Click here to read the other chapters.

Last revised June 6, 2024

According to Shinran Shonin, and as I mentioned previously, the Contemplation Sutra is explicitly guiding people to the 19^th Vow, while implicitly referring to the Primal Vow (18^th Vow)[1]:
 
“When I consider the Sutra of Contemplation on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life, taking into account the interpretation of the commentator [Shan-tao], I find there is an explicit meaning and an implicit, hidden, inner meaning.
 
‘Explicit” refers to presenting the meditative and non-meditative good acts and setting forth the three levels of practicers and the three minds. The two forms of good and the three types of meritorious acts, however, are not the true cause of birth in the fulfilled land (center of the Pure Land). Further, the three minds that beings awaken are all minds of self-benefit that are individually different and not the mind that is single, which arises from [Amida’s] benefiting of others. They are roots of good with which to aspire for the Pure Land that [Sakyamuni] Tathagata taught as a distinct provisional means. This is the import of the sutra; it is its “explicit” meaning.

The merits transferred by Amida Buddha are not ours to use for personal goals

Question by a Dharma friend: If Amida transfers His karmic merits to us, why can we not dedicate them to others?
 
My answer: The transference of merits from Amida Buddha does NOT mean these merits become our property. They still remain Amida’s merits but working from inside us. And these merits have only one goal - to lead us to His Pure Land. It is like being carried to a wonderful place by your best friend in his car. The car is not yours and will never become yours because you are carried in it by your friend. It’s the same with Amida’s transference of merit. Just like you cannot do what you want with the car of your friend who leads you to destination, you cannot do what you want with Amida’s merits.

 

Amidaji simple style of teaching Jodo Shinshu Buddhism

 

Click here to watch more videos in the DHARMA TALK playlist. There are more than 170 videos there until now, so you'll certainly find one that is useful to you. 

To what kind of people is Jodo Shinshu Buddhism intended for? (video discussion)

 

Here is a new video in the series of the 71 topics of examination for those who want to be ordained in Amidaji branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. The main speaker is my student Rev Kosho Arana from Colombia. He already received monk (priest) ordination in our school, in September this year.  

The links mentioned in the video are posted in its description on my youtube channe.

Namo Amida Bu 

Being ordained and training as a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist monk in Amidaji Temple - my experience, by Rev Kosho Arana (Colombia)

This article is related with the first monk (priest) ordination held

 in Amidaji branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism (click here to read)

download this article in pdf here

click here for the Spanish version of this article

I stumbled upon Reverend Josho Adrian Cirlea’s books on Jodo Shinshu Buddhism around 2018. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that my life was never the same after that. This is not because Josho Sensei is some kind of great guru or great spiritual master but simply because he expressed the Jodo Shinshu teaching with great simplicity and clarity and every page he writes on Jodo Shinshu doctrine is not based on his personal ideas but on the Sutras and the teachings of Shinran, Rennyo and the Jodo Shinshu Patriarcs.

 

Josho Sensei’s books contain the nectar of the sutras and shastras, because they are full to the brim with quotes from the words of Shakyamuni Buddha, Shinran Shonin, Honen Shonin and Rennyo Shonin, and the great Mahayana Patriarchs. There is no room for wrong views or half-truths in his writings. You can sense he is just an ordinary guy doing his best to explain to himself and others the wonderful treasure of the Buddha Dharma in general and Jodo Shinshu in particular, and that is priceless in our day and age in which there are thousands of self-proclaimed gurus, masters, “venerables” and mystics of all sorts who don’t blink twice at combining Buddhism with worldly ideologies, and samsaric religions just to make them more appealing to the masses. 

Josho Sensei simply could not care less about numbers or pleasing people. I could sense that from the first emails we exchanged. All his words and deeds as a Jodo Shinshu monk are just ways to say, “entrust yourself to the real and living Amida Buddha, say His Name with faith and gratitude and wish to be born in His Pure Land after death so that you scape the painful cycle of birth and death and attain Buddhahood, and then you yourself will eternally return to Samsara so save all beings in the 10 directions with perfect wisdom and compassion”. This clear, honest and uncompromising way to teach the Dharma is rarely found in Jodo Shinshu nowadays and I would say it is also scarce for Buddhism in general. “Feel good talks”, dangerous and misleading spiritual combinations, mundane entertainment and pop self-help teachings is what most temples thrive on nowadays. It’s fairly easy to find so-called Buddhist teachers and temples that never or rarely mention basic Buddhist teachings such as karma, samsara, Buddhahood, faith and morality. So, I am truly grateful to have found in this life an honest teacher who puts the Dharma above his own opinions and who tries to understand and explain the Dharma in simple terms for ordinary people living ordinary lives.

Three Jodo Shinshu Buddhist hymns recited in Amidaji style by Rev Josho and Rev Kosho (audio/video)

Here are three hymns recited in the powerful and energetic Amidaji style at Amidaji temple in Romania, during the Nembutsu retreat organized on the occasion of our first monk (priest) ordination (click here to read about it).

Each hymn is followed by the phonetical recitation and the English translation. All the hymns we use as well as various liturgical and worshipping explanations are explained in my book, Worshipping Amida Buddha - Liturgies and Ceremonies of Amidaji Temple, that you cand download for free or buy at this link. 

The Nembutsu liturgy

●●

doshi (the Leader): BU JO MI DA NYO RAI NIU DO JO

we respectfully call upon Amida Buddha to enter this place of practice[1]

doon (together): SAN GE RAKU[2]

as we joyfully scatter flowers of welcome