A question on spirits

Question: "If I see or feel the presence of negative spirits around me, how do I send them away? And what if they refuse to leave?"

Answer: Why send them away? Just leave them alone. Let them stay and listen to your Nembutsu, let them hear your thoughts and words of faith. One day, they will become bored with a guy like you who minds his own business and constantly says Nembutsu, or even better, they might be influenced by your devotion and entrust to Amida themselves. In Jodo Shinshu we do not exorcize, nor fight with spirits, rather we convert them by our example. The urge of Shinran, "receive yourself faith and help others receive faith" applies to them, too.

It is good to be friendly towards the spirit world. Realize that spirits, ghosts and various types of nonhuman beings inhabit the same space with us. Your land is their land, too. Some are in the same place for hundreds or thousands of years, so they have the same right as you to be here. Who are you to tell them to go away? Let them be and focus on living a life of gratitude with as little damage as possible to other beings, and focus on Nembutsu.

All beings suffer, no matter they are humans or non-humans. Some spirits may like you, feel neutral towards you or may be inclined to hate you due to karma from the past. No problem! Let them hate you, while you just focus on Nembutsu. How much can somebody hate another person if that one does not respond to the hate and minds his own business?

Offer incense to Amida Buddha in the name of all beings, including the spirits of the place you live, and make aspirations for them - may they be healthy in body and mind, always receive whatever is necessary and beneficial for them. May all their obstacles be removed and may they create indestructible connections with Amida Buddha, entrust to Him, say His Name (Namo Amida Bu) and wish to be born in His Pure Land[1]. Also pray to Amida to help them, although He already tries His best to help. However, if you pray for them, they will feel your good intentions.

If you think this way, if you say Nembutsu and have devotion and faith, the invisible beings who happen to live there or just pass through will know your thoughts and might be inspired to entrust to Amida and say Nembutsu themselves, and if not, they will finally leave you alone as they see that you are no threat to them. In fact, they cannot harm you even if they try, because if you have faith (shinjin) you automatically benefit from the protection of Amida and all Buddhas.

So again, no matter what you see, hear, or feel around you, just focus on Nembutsu and mind your own business.

 

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[1] You can also use the specific ceremony to help the hungry ghosts and bardo beings fom my book Worshipping Amida Buddha – Liturgies and Ceremonies of Amidaji Temple.

The concrete platform of Amidado (Hall of Amida) of Amidaji temple

the concrete platform for the Amidado
(Hall of Amidado) 

Finally, I was able to start working at the new Hondo of Amidaji which will be called Amidado (Hall of Amida).

Due to my lack of building knowledge, I falsely assumed that 80% of Amidado will be around 1000 euro. However, I was terribly wrong as I already spent 821 Euros only for the concrete platform, plus other various small related expenses!

The construction materials (71 sacks of cement, 5 cars with gravel, construction mesh, etc) were  2500 Romanian lei and the paid worker 1400 Romanian lei. Total amount spent: 3900 Romanian lei which is equivalent to 821 Euros. 

Sobre las "Cenizas Blancas"

Traducido del inglés por:

Juan Sebastián Hincapié Arana

Las "Cenizas Blancas" es una meditación sobre la impermanencia y la muerte y cuando la leo, la vinculo a las palabras finales de Shakyamuni antes entrar en el Parinirvana: "Todas las cosas son transitorias,  conscientemente esfuércense".

En esta carta todo se reduce a la conciencia: ser o no ser consciente de tu propia muerte, de tu propia impermanencia.

Creo que las personas generalmente no son conscientes del hecho de que su vida está siempre yendo a la inevitabilidad de la muerte. Cuando una persona no toma conciencia desde lo profundo de su corazón de la impermanencia de la vida y la naturaleza cambiante de todo lo que lo rodea, esta persona no es  aún capaz de hacer uso de la religión para encontrar un verdadero significado en su vida. Le prestará toda su atención al mundo exterior y buscará su satisfacción allí.

The qualities of Bodhisattvas in the audience – commentary on section 2 of the Larger Sutra

Buddha Maitreya

last revised October 7, 2019

fragment from my commentary on the Larger Sutra 

- this is a work in progress and under constant revision -  

Many members of our school do not fully understand the term Bodhisattva in Mahayana. Also, when we read the 22^nd Vow of Amida presented in section7 of this sutra, and which is generally accepted to mean that we return to this world as fully Enlightened Persons or Buddhas to save all beings, some of us are puzzled that in the respective vow there is no mentioning of the word "Buddha", but only "Bodhisattva". However, there is no contradiction between the two. The reason is that, in Mahayana, the term “Bodhisattva” does not only refer to a highly evolved person who is extremely close to Enlightenment (on one of the ten bodhisattva stages/bhumis[1]), but also to a Buddha who manifests as Bodhisattva or Bodhisattvas who already attained Enlightenment. There is clear evidence for this in many Mahayana sutras, esoteric tantras and also in the writings of various Buddhist masters[2]. So, according to Mahayana Buddhism, there are two types of bodhisattvas:

The 48 vows of Amida Buddha – commentary on section 7 of the Larger Sutra

the cover of the first edition of
 my book on the 48 Vows

- this is the revised explanation of the 48th Vows of Amida Buddha which will be used in my commentary on the Larger Sutra (click here to go the whole commentary) -

At the moment Dharmakara became Amida Buddha, His 48 vows and His Pure Land became real and effective methods for the salvation of sentient beings. For a better understanding, I arranged them in four categories. The highlighted numbers represent a vow that has been revised. Click on it to read the revised explanations. 

1. Vows about Amida Buddha and His Pure Land

(vows 12, 13, 31, 32)

2. Vows related to the salvation of all sentient beings

     (vows 11, 17, 18,  19, 20, 22, 33, 35)

 3.   Vows explaining the characteristics, the capacities and activities of beings who attained Enlightenment in the Pure Land after being born there. These beings are sometimes called humans and devas in my land, shravakas in my land or bodhisattvas in my land.

(vows 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15,16,21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 38, 39, 40, 46)

4. Vows related to bodhisattvas in other lands (not yet born in the Pure Land 

(vows 34, 36, 37, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48)

When explaining these vows I will sometime mention the passages in the sutra that, according to Shinran, prove they were brought to fulfillment after Dharmakara attained Buddhahood and became Amida Buddha.

Vows related with bodhisattvas in other lands (not yet born in the Pure Land)

Revised on October 1st, 2019 for 

my commentary on the Larger Sutra

The following vows refer mainly to highly advanced bodhisattvas in aspiration from various worlds who entrust to Amida Buddha and say His Name in faith, wishing to be born in His Land.  They are already on one of the ten bodhisattva stages (bhumis) and very close to Enlightenment, but still not enlightened. Because they entrust to Amida and are in accord with His Primal Vow - in their case, hearing the Name of Amida means to hear and entrust, to hear with faith and to say Amida’s Name in faith, they will too be born in His Pure Land by transformation (“true fulfilled land/”center” of the Pure Land) where they will attain perfect Enlightenment[1]. The difference between them and us is that they are already very advanced on the Buddhist path and very close to Enlightenment while we are the lowest of the low in terms of spiritual evolution and the similarity is that we both entrust to Amida and dwell in the stage of non-retrogression for entering the Pure Land and attainment of Enlightenment there. However, because their spiritual capacities are already extremely high in comparison with ours and their senses very much purified, when they entrust to Amida and say His Name in faith they automatically receive more benefits than us, ordinary people. These benefits are explained in this category of vows.

Vows explaining the characteristics, the capacities and activities of beings who attained Enlightenment in the Pure Land after being born there

Revised on September 27th, 2019 for my commentary on the Larger Sutra. 

 As I previously explained, beings born in the Pure Land are sometimes called “humans and devas (gods) in my land “, which doesn’t mean that in the Pure Land there are the six unenlightened realms of existence, namely the hells, hungry spirits, animals, humans, demigods (asuras) and gods. Shakyamuni himself explained in section 17 of this sutra that when the expression “humans and devas” in the Pure Land appears in this sacred discourse it is only in relation with the states of existence prior to their birth in the Pure Land: