Pure Land Buddhism

sanath SG

About Jodo Shinshu Buddhism

JODO SHINSHU
Jodo Shinshu, literally meaning True Pure Land Denomination was founded by Shinran Shonin. It is also often called Shin Buddhism.
The accepted date of the founding of the denomination is 15th April 1224, when the first draft of Shinran Shonins most important book Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Attainment (Kyogyoshinsho) was completed.

SHINRAN SHONIN
Shinran Shonin was born on 21st May 1173 (1st day of 4th month, 3rd year of Joan) in the village of Hino on the outskirts of Kyoto.
When he was four years old, he lost his father and at the age of nine his mother. Thus, orphaned at a young age he entered the priesthood at Mount Hiei, which was then the main center of Buddhist learning.
Here he was to stay for twenty years, practicing the most arduous of physical and mental disciplines. The principal teaching of the monasteries emphasized the purification of the self for the attainment of Enlightenment. Never did a young priest apply himself so wholeheartedly to all the disciplines. He soon became renowned for his scholarship and could have easily become head of one of the larger monasteries, but he was neither interested in position nor in the pursuit of knowledge. His main concern was Enlightenment. After two decades on Mt. Hiei, Shinran Shonin came to the sober realization that Enlightenment was impossible for the common man. The disciplines of Mt. Hiei made him acutely conscious of his own human weakness. His life was finite; his knowledge incomplete and his capacity for perfect goodness limited. Upon meditation he discovered that in all his activities the Three Poisons of greed, hatred and anger essentially motivated him.
In this state of mental anguish, Shinran Shonin renounced the life on Mt. Hiei. His descent form the mountain was the turning point in his religious pursuit. Shortly thereafter, he met a kindly priest, Honen shonin, who taught a single faith in Amida Buddha and the recitation of the Nembutsu as the very way of religious fulfillment. Honen shonin brought Shinran Shonin face-to-face with Amida Buddhas infinity Wisdom and Compassion. For the first time in his life Shinran Shonin found inner peace in the faith that Amida Buddha was primarily concerned with such as person as him. The Buddhist life he realized he could be lived by the man in the street without confinement to a monastery. The gate of lifes meaning was now open to all and thousands of people flocked to hear and accept the hopeful message of the Nembutsu.
The powerful monastic orders, however, feared a weakening of their long established tradition and prestige and convinced the Imperial Court to banish Honen shonin and Shinran Shonin, but the spiritual energy of the Nembutsu had been unleashed. The teaching soon gathered momentum as it spread from person to person and from village to village. Especially, during his years in exile, Shinran Shonin personally met with countless persons to awaken their faith in Amida Buddha.
Shinran Shonin finally settled in Inada and there completed the first draft of the Teaching, Practice, Faith and Attainment in 1224.
In 1232 when he was fifty-nine, he retired to Kyoto. During the intervening years until his death, he wrote many books, which are read and studied even today. He died on 16th January 1263 (28th day of 11th month, 2nd year of Kocho).

TEACHING, PRACTICE, FAITH AND ATTAINMENT
Shinran Shonin never claimed that he was founding a new religion. He was merely stating the true purpose of Sakyamuni Buddhas advent on earth, which was to awaken mankind to the Wisdom and Compassion of Amida Buddha. After Sakyamuni Buddhas Nirvana, seven patriarchs transmitted the heart of Amida Buddha over the centuries. They were Nagarjuna, Vasubhandhu, in India; Donran, Doshaku and Zendo in China and Genshin and Honen in Japan.
In the Teaching, Practice, Faith and Attainment Shinran Shonin quoted from the various Sutras and writings of these patriarchs to support his faith in Amida Buddha.

THE THREE SUTRAS
From the voluminous Buddhist Tripitaka Shinran Shonin selected the following Three Sutras that bring us directly to the heart of Amida Buddha.
1. The Larger Sutra on the Eternal Life. In this sutra Sakyamuni Buddha tells the Sangha about Amida Buddha.
2. The Meditation Sutra on the Eternal Buddha. This sutra shows the actual case of Queen Vaidehi who finds salvation through Amida Buddha.
3. The Smaller Sutra on Amida Buddha. This sutra describes the beauty of the Pure Land and extols the virtues of Amida Buddha.

THE THREE-FOLD BODY OF BUDDHA
Trikaya, meaning Three Bodies, is not three separate bodies but three aspects of the one body of Buddhahood. Buddha as Dharmakaya (Body of Truth) resides in everything. The Dharmakaya is impersonal law, principle, ultimate reality the Truth of the Universe. It is indescribable and inexpressible. The Buddha as Sambhogaka (Accommodated Body) is personal and appears before our religious awareness as Amida Buddha of Wisdom and Compassion. Buddha as Nirmanakaya (Manifested Body) refers to the historical Buddha Sakyamuni who appeared on earth 2500 years ago.
In Jodo Shinshu the object of worship is Amida Buddha. Amida Buddha is depicted artistically as an active Buddha in a standing position, hands held up in a gesture of bestowing blessings on all beings and leaning slightly forward symbolizing the eternal activity of Wisdom and Compassion.
The Primal Vow of Amida Buddha promises Universal Enlightenment for all beings. In all the religions of the world there is no vow that has such a sweeping power, promising hope and lifes fulfillment to all human beings as well as all living things. The all compassionate activity of Amida Buddha will never cease as long as beings are lost, forlorn, suffering or wandering in a meaningless existence.

NAME
The Name is Namo Amida Butsu, literally meaning I place my faith in Amida Buddha. The power of universal salvation consummated by Amida Buddha is embodied in this sacred name, which is easy to keep in our minds as well as easy to recite. Amida Buddha communicates with us through his Name. The Name has three aspects. Its substance is perfect in virtue and ultimate value that Amida Buddha was able to perfect on our behalf. It possesses the absolute power to save all sentient beings. Its form is two-fold: it is Amida Buddhas voice calling to us and at the same time it is our vocal response to His call. Its meaning is the actualization of our salvation and complete assurance of our Enlightenment. Thus whenever there is Namo Amida Butsu, there is Amida Buddha and wherever there is Amida Buddha, there is Namo Amida Butsu.

FAITH
When we truly hear the Name, Faith is awakened in our hearts. Hearing the Name is not merely hearing the sounds of Namo Amida Butsu, but hearing Amida Buddha with our whole being, calling us to throughout timeless time. Thus, when we hear Amida Buddhas voice in our innermost being, faith is awakened. We now realize that this faith itself and even the power to awaken it is a gift from Amida Buddha. Faith completes our Oneness with Amida Buddha and is the true cause of our Enlightenment.

RECITATION OF THE NAME
The Awakening of faith naturally prompts a response to Amida Buddha. This is the Nembutsu of gratitude to Amida Buddha for salvation that is assured. Those who recite the Nembutsu in faith have attained the ranks of the truly assured. Such persons live the life of Nembutsu.

PURE LAND
Absolute Enlightenment is attained in the Pure Land after death when all the finite, limited qualities of the physical being are extinct. While the human weakness of greed, anger and ignorance are still functioning the perfection of personality is impossibility.
Birth in the Pure Land means becoming a Buddha and achieving perfect Oneness with Amida Buddha. We are thus identified totally with Amida Buddhas Wisdom and Compassion. This Oneness is not a static end itself, for True Wisdom-Compassion is an active, moving spiritual force. So long as there is suffering and ignorance in the Universe the power of compassion will never cease its work of mercy. Thus we, who become one with Amida Buddha in the Pure Land, will return repeatedly to this shore of suffering for the salvation of all beings. Shinran Shonin said,
Though I, my life having run its course,
Return to the Pure Land of Eternal Rest,
Come back shall I to earth again and again,
Just as the waves of Wakano-Ura Bay.
When alone you rejoice in the Sacred Teachings,
Believe that there are two,
And when there are two to rejoice,
Believe that there are three,
That other shall be Shinran.
The Pure Land ideal is the culmination of the teaching of Compassion and Wisdom.

THE PURPOSE OF LIFE
While the ultimate objective of life in Jodo Shinshu lies in the achievement of Buddhahood, lifes immediate purpose is realized in the awakening of faith. In this religious experience we know that we now live in Amida Buddhas Light. This is the spiritual state Shinran Shonin called the ranks of the truly assured. The recitation of the Nembutsu Namu Amida Butsu flows naturally and clearly as waters from a mountain spring.
The life of faith has achieved a high lever of internal organization. It will have developed the wisdom and the insight to understand the changing wisdom and the insight to understand the changing circumstances of life. Even under adverse conditions a man of faith will be strong because his inner conviction is strong. He has gained a new vision and dimension in his life. Because his spiritual roots reach down into the Compassion of Amida Buddha, his taste of life is inexpressibly sensitive. His religious acts are performed out of gratitude to Amida Buddha. He asks nothing of Amida Buddha but dedicates his whole being to him.

- by Rev Kenryu Tsuji, Buddhist Churches of America

sanath SG

Shin Buddhism
At the heart of the Shin Buddhist teaching lies a vision of true reality as alive with wisdom and compassion, working to bring all beings to the highest fulfillment of human life, the attainment of Buddhahood.

Shinran teaches that this activity manifests itself as Amida Buddha, who resolved to save all beings by bringing into his Pure Land, the realm of enlightenment, all who say his Name, entrusting themselves to his Vow. He thus performed practices for long eons and fulfilled this Vow, so that his Name, Namu Amida Butsu, came to resound throughout the universe, awakening all beings to the reality of great compassion.

Saying the Name results in birth into the Pure Land, not because it is a good act that people perform, but because it is the activity of Amida Buddha himself giving the virtues of his own practice to them. Shinran therefore stresses that genuine nembutsu arises naturally and spontaneously from the Buddha's mind that unfolds itself in us and transforms our minds into wisdom and compassion.

As long as we perform religious practices or say the nembutsu contriving to achieve Buddhahood, our acts are based on attachment to our own goodness. In fact, we constantly cling to imagined selves that we take to be permanent and real, seeking to enhance and protect ourselves by erecting barriers against all that we see as standing apart. Thus arise the feelings that poison ordinary life - desire, envy, anger, fear. Acts rooted in such anxiety and self-attachment can only lead to further pain.

A mind of true sincerity and authentic trust arises when we genuinely hear and are grasped by Amida's Primal Vow, and realize that our own designs are futile and unnecessary. Seeing ourselves with the Buddha's wisdom, we perceive for the first time that all our acts arise from egocentric passions. Nevertheless, this is at the same time to know that Amida's light and life pervade our existence just as we are.

When karmic bonds to this life end with death, people of the nembutsu go to the Pure Land. But with their fulfillment of perfect wisdom-compassion, they return immediately to this world in the dynamic activity of bringing all beings to awakening.

The following passages, although brief, reveal the essential elements of Shinran's religious awakening: the realization of the Buddha's wisdom-compassion working in one's existence in the immediate present, coupled with insight into the actual nature of the bound and ignorant self.

Words of Shinran
"Saved by the inconceivable working of Amida's Vow, I shall realize birth in the Pure Land": the moment you entrust yourself thus to the Vow, so that the mind set upon saying the nembutsu arises within you, you are immediately brought to share in the benefit of being grasped, never to be abandoned.

Know that the Primal Vow of Amida makes no distinction between people young and old, good and evil; only shinjin is essential. For it is the Vow to save the person whose karmic evil is deep and grave and whose blind passions abound. Thus, for those who entrust themselves to the Primal Vow no good acts are required, because no good surpasses the nembutsu. Nor need they despair of the evil they commit, for no evil can obstruct the working of Amida's Primal Vow.

Tannisho, 1

Even a good person attains birth in the Pure Land, so it goes without saying that an evil person will.

Though it is so, people commonly say, "Even an evil person attains birth, so it goes without saying that a good person will." This statement may seem well-founded at first, but it runs counter to the intent of the Primal Vow, which is Other Power. This is because people who rely on doing good through their self-power fail to entrust themselves wholeheartedly to Other Power and therefore are not in accord with Amida's Primal Vow, but when they overturn the mind of self-power and entrust themselves to Other Power, they will attain birth in the true and real fulfilled land.

It is impossible for us, who are possessed of blind passions, to free ourselves from birth-and-death through any practice whatever. Sorrowing at this, Amida made the Vow, the essential intent of which is the evil person's attainment of Buddhahood. Hence, evil persons who entrust themselves to Other Power are precisely the ones who possess the true cause of birth.

Accordingly he said, "Even the good person is born in the Pure Land, so without question is the person who is evil."

Tannisho, 3

Xabir SG

Namo Amituofuo.

We got a Jodo Shinshu priest (sanath) here, so everyone feel free to discuss or ask anything.

disappear SG

http://www.ymba.org/BWF/bwf23.htm#danger The Path of Birth and Death is Full of Danger

http://www.ymba.org/BWF/bwf23.htm#seek The Need to Seek Liberation in this Very Life

disappear SG

Original Post of Preface Removed.

(Tannisho) VII
In the person of nembutsu opens up the great path of unobstructed freedom. The reason is that the gods of heaven and earth bow before the practicer of true entrusting, and those of the world of demons and rival ways cannot obstruct such a person. The consequences of karmic evil cannot bear fruit, nor does any form of good equal the nembutsu. Thus, it is called the great path of unobstructed freedom.

Origami SG

Originally posted by disappear:
http://www.ymba.org/BWF/bwf23.htm#danger The Path of Birth and Death is Full of Danger

http://www.ymba.org/BWF/bwf23.htm#seek The Need to Seek Liberation in this Very Life

Quote a paragraph from the book:

"Those practitioners who follow other schools, stressing only self-help and a firm, never-changing mind, believe that we should just pursue our cultivation life after life. Even if we do not achieve emancipation in this life, we shall certainly do so in a future lifetime. However, there is one thing we should consider: [b]Do we have any firm assurances that in the next lifetime, we will continue cultivating? For, if we have not yet attained Enlightenment, we are bound to be deluded upon rebirth, easily forgetting the vow to cultivate which we made in our previous lifetimes. Moreover, in this world conditions favoring progress in the Way are few, while the opportunities for retrogression are many. How many monks and nuns have failed to pursue their cultivation upon rebirth, as in the examples summarized in the first chapter?"

I finally decided to still post this, even though it has apparently created the impression that i was posting links which seem to demean other sects of Buddhism as lowly. However, that has NEVER been the intention of the author and the author of that book has NEVER thought like that.

Please refer to the PREFACE of that book for clarification. The preface will be in the following post.

[/b]

It is something we think about at times. So we must do purifications and aspirations to have the karma to meet the Dharma in our next life. But then again, we are who we are in our next life because of our karma. So no need to worry about it. Karma takes care.

For tibetan buddhism, other than the Triple Gem, we take refuge in one more as well. We take refuge in our Guru. Usually a rinpoche, meaning precious one in tibetan, these high lamas have the ability to choose where to come back for their next life. One of the most famous is His Eminence Karmapa. For 17 life times, he predicted where he will be reborn even before his passing. Then thru the usual divination and test, it has always been correct. Tibetans practise guru devotion. We take refuge in our guru as well. He is our link to buddhism. With proper guru devotion, we create the cause to be with him in all our lives.

One real life story from my friend when she and her family was in Italy recently. His Holiness Dalai Lama was there. My friend just missed it by a day. She asked one of her local friends why she didn't tell her HH was coming. She said she didn't know she was a buddhist. But she being a Catholic all her life also did something which came from within. She was riding on her bike in Italy when she saw HH the day before. Immediately she stopped and knew who He was and just placed her palms together and bowed. She said she just knew what to do although she was stunned. This was a karmic imprint from previous lives and she had a connection with HH to be able to see him.

We need to purify ourselves. This is the most important practise. If we can keep the vows in the five precepts our whole life, it will be the path to liberation.

disappear SG

"Let us return ! Do not abide
In this homeland of maras. Since innumerable kalpas ago
We have been transmigrating
Passing through all the six courses.
Nowhere has there been any pleasure;
We hear only the voices of grief and sorrow.
After this present lifetime has ended,
Let us enter the city of nirvana !" (KGSS V, 32)

Came across a chinese website below

disappear SG

http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~horai/ichimai-kishomon.htm