A great year for Amidaji

It has been a great spiritual pleasure for me that this year when we had the 850^th anniversary of Shinran Shonin’s birth in this world, and 20 years have passed since my ordination, our Amidaji international sangha has grown in quality with people of faith who are active in both learning and teaching. We are indeed a genuine Sangha where faith in Amida Buddha can be received and those who don’t have faith yet, can be guided and helped to receive it.
 
Also, this year has been very auspicious in the sense that I successfully examined and ordained Rev Kosho Arana of Colombia as a Buddhist monk (priest). He and our lay teachers, together with various lay members, are doing their best in their respective parts of the world to promote the orthodox teaching of Amidaji branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. I also try my best to do my duty, inspired as I am by Amida Buddha and my fellow travelers on the Nembutsu Path. After so many years of struggle, which I explained in my autobiography, The Path Between the Thorns, I am finally at home in a Sangha which is a reflection of Amida’s Light in the world.
 
I often say that NOBODY has the monopoly on the Jodo Shinshu teaching (and ordinations), as there are people of genuine faith in all branches of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism or without any official affiliation at all. They are themselves reflections of Amida’s Light in the world and future Buddhas who will, sooner or later, be able to manifest an infinite number of Nirmanakaya (accommodated) bodies all over the samsaric universes to guide all beings, while in the same time dwell forever in Sambhogakaya form in the Pure Land of Peace and Bliss.   
 
To Amida Budha, to Amida Dharma, and to all people of faith from inside or outside of Amidaji,
I bow in gratitude with my head touching the ground and worship them as the Three Treasures.

Namo Amida Bu 
 
Josho Adrian Cirlea – Daisojo of Amidaji branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism 

(Amidaji International Temple)
 

Links of Amidaji branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism

( except this website)

Amidaji group in Russian language 

 Amidaji website in Spanish maintained by our members in Latino America

Youtube page of Amidaji in Spanish

Youtube channel in English (Rev Josho Adrian Cirlea)

Youtube channel of Joshin from USA 

Website in Romanian 

We should not make publicity to nonBuddhist holidays or the gods and spirits they represent

Some time ago I posted this message advising Buddhists to stop making publicity to nonBuddhist holidays:

 
Being respectful towards our nonBuddhist neighbours and friends does NOT mean that we should pray to or make publicity to false, nonBuddhist gods. As Pure Land Buddhists we should promote only Amida Buddha and encourage people to entrust only to Amida Buddha. By making publicity to nonBuddhist gods and spirits you create the evil karma of offering false teachings to sentient beings. I very much dislike how fake Buddhists post images (and even praises) of nonBuddhist gods and spirits on various nonBuddhists celebrations, including Christmas, Easter and even pre-Christian holidays. Remember, respect does NOT mean promotion! Respect means working together with your neighbors, helping them in times of need, etc. Promoting the images of their gods and spirits is a mistake, not a sign of respect. Pull yourselves together and stop being stupid when you try to be nice.

Question and Answer - the True Teaching of Shakyamuni on Amida Buddha and His Pure Land

Rev Kosho Arana at Amidaji

    Click here for the Spanish version

by Rev Kosho Arana 

 

 I recently received this question from a Facebook contact   Fatih Ozkan:

 I would like to ask some questions:

 Was Amitabha Buddha actually preached by Shakyamuni   Buddha  or was he later invented as an Upaya by the Mahayana   saints? Are Amitabha Buddha and The Pure Land literally real or   an archetype? Buddha-Dharma says that all dharmas   (phenomena) are sealed with three realities: pain, impermanence   and selflessness. How can Sukhavati be an eternal realm now?

 Sincerely, A-Mi-To-Fo 

*

  Hello Dear Ozkan, Namo Amida Bu

 Thank you for your questions. They are very important.

I will answer them as best I can.

The teachings about Amida Buddha (Amitabha Buddha) are an essential part of more than 290 Sutras in the Mahayana Canon, especially the Sukavativyuha or the Larger Sutra on the Buddha of Infinite Life which was preached by Shakyamuni Buddha.  This teaching has been praised by many Mahayana masters including but not limited to Bodhisattva Nagarjuna, Bodhisattva Vasubandhu, Bodhisattva Asanga, Master Tan Luan, Master Tao Ch’o, Master Shantao, Master Honen and Master Shinran. Shakyamuni Buddha Himself taught in many sutras the existence of innumerable Enlightened Realms outside Samsara, called Pure Lands which are created by different Buddhas according to their specific vows.

I take refuge in Amida NOT in God or Jesus (video by Joshin of Amidaji)

This video was posted by Joshin Dave Kruemke of our Amidaji Sangha
 (click here to read his short biography) .

You can visit his YouTube channel at this link (click here)
Namo Amida Bu 🙏

Nembutsu - the Path of the Last Dharma Age (commentary on the words of Bodhisattva Manjushri)

 

"In the Record of Holy Chu-lin Temple, it is recorded: 'While Bodhisattva Samantabhadra and Bodhisattva Manjusri sat facing each other in the east and west and were revealing the wondrous teachings to a multitude of sentient beings in the great hall of Chu-lin Temple on Mount Wut'ai, the meditation master Fachao kneeled and asked Bodhisattva Manjusri, 'What sort of teaching would make it possible for common mortals of the future defiled world to depart from the delusive triple realms forever and to be born in the Pure Land?'
Bodhisattva Manjusri replied, 'There is no practice superior to the recitation of the Name of Amida Buddha for birth in the Pure Land. Even in the path for the instantaneous realization of
Enlightenment, there is the sole teaching of Nembutsu. Therefore, the acclaimed holy teachings from the lifetime of Buddha Shakyamuni are the teachings of Amida Buddha, particularly for the common people in the defiled world of the future.' ”[1]
 

Commentary:
“Common mortals of the future defiled world” are us, people living in the Last Dharma Age, far removed from the presence in human form of the historical Buddha and His direct disciples.

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 (hidden) 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 December 2nd, 2023 -

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.