Dharma talks - the new playlist on my youtube channel

Since 2020 I've had many online discussions on zoom and other platforms with students and readers from all over the world that prefer this kind of interaction. I also started regular meetings with some of my Sangha members where we discuss various topics and answer to questions together.  

As I think that some of the talks might be useful and because many readers said they wanted me to appear more often on Youtube, I've decided to create a new playlist - DHARMA TALKS where I will post fragments from my meetings as well as personal reflections. Please excuse my broken English as it's easier for me to write than to speak.

Here is the  link for the playlist:

 

Please subscribe to my channel and to this playlist so that you can see my new posts. Of course, I will remain available for students and readers who prefer email or Facebook communication.

On my Youtube channel you can find all my audio books, various teachings, recitations, as well as the poems and essays of Gansen John Welch Sensei from Australia.

Please also check the Youtube channels of my student Shaku Joshin  from USA

 

Amidaji members: Shaku Hogen (United Kingdom)

 Click here to return to the main page of Amidaji members

My Dharma name is Shaku Hogen and I live in Bristol, England.

Although I was brought up in the Salvation Army, to be honest, as a boy I had little interest in spiritual matters.  I was a believer in scientific materialist.  But in my late teens I saw a film about Carl Jung’s mystical experiences and heard a radio programme about the Buddha which opened a window in my mind.  My spiritual search began.  This was before the internet, so I read all I could find at the library, and haunted many bookshops for answers.  And although I had a career in engineering, my search became the most urgent concern of my life - “the great matter of life and death”.  Mixing and matching teachings from a wide range of spiritual traditions was enthralling as it gave me hints and glimpses of the goal, but it was also confusing, and I quickly realised I needed to find a solid tradition and a practice. 

Simple explanation of a difficult passage related with "mind", Buddha and visions from the Contemplation Sutra

I decided to give a short explanation of the following passage from the Contemplation Sutra that many find it difficult to understand or have the tendency to misinterpret it:

“Buddha Tathagatas have cosmic bodies, and so enter into the meditating mind of each sentient being. For this reason, when you contemplate a Buddha, your mind itself takes the form of His thirty-two physical characteristics and eighty secondary marks.

Your mind produces the Buddha’s image and is itself the Buddha. The ocean of perfectly and universally enlightened Buddhas thus arises in the meditating mind. For this reason, you should single-mindedly concentrate and deeply contemplate the Buddha Tathagata, Arhat, and Perfectly Enlightened One.”[1]

 If we really have a vision with a Buddha, that vision appears because of two reasons:

The Path Between the Thorns - my spiritual autobiography

 At this link you can read the spiritual biographies of other members of Amidaji International Temple

My spiritual life is nothing special and it does not deserve a book. However, I decided to write about it because I prefer to be the one who tells my own story and I think that some events of my missionary activity as well as my interactions with various peoples and institutions should be put on paper as long as they are still fresh in my mind.

I called this book The Path Between the Thorns because for me, the 18 years since I became a priest where a constant fighting and struggle against inner and outer obstacles placed in my way by my own delusions as well as proponents of wrong views. I am happy to say that despite all these, I have never lost my Path, and although the thorns sometimes hurt my feet, I always knew the right direction to take as Amida Buddha and the true teaching of Shakyamuni and the lineage Masters were always my guiding light.

There are some things in this biography, like events, fragments of letters and discussions that many wished to be forgotten. However, I think that people should know about them and come to their own conclusions on that fragment of Jodo Shinshu history where I myself am just a small piece. 

The Four Noble Truths from the Jodo Shinshu perspective

 After manifesting the attainment of perfect Enlightenment, Shakyamuni Buddha spoke about the Four Noble Truths: 

1.     The Noble Truth of Suffering:
“Birth is suffering, decay is suffering, disease is suffering, death is suffering, to be separated from the pleasant is suffering, not to get what one desires is suffering. In brief all the experiences made with the body and mind, which have craving as their base, are suffering.”
 
2.     The Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering:
“It is this craving which produces rebirth, accompanied by passionate clinging, welcoming this and that. It is the craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence and craving for non-existence.”

The six paramitas (perfections) in the Jodo Shinshu context

Shaku Shingan: “You may have heard of how at O-higan in North America, it is often taught that we "must" attain the six perfections (paramitas).” 

My answer: I know that some link Ohigan with the six paramitas (perfections). This is not good because we are not a self-power school.
 
The word “Ohigan” means “the other shore”. We also celebrate Ohigan at Amidaji but the meaning we attach to it is to remember the importance of birth in the Pure Land. This is what “going to the other shore” means.
 
The six paramitas were taught in the context of self-power practices so we can simply ignore this term. However, if we wish to use it then we must reinterpret it in the context of Other Power faith.