On Reciting the Name of the Buddha by Master Kuang-ch'in

Practice reciting the name of the Buddha to the extent that "flowers flourish and the Buddha comes into view."

We all have a Buddha immanent in our minds. When we practice recitation to the extent that our minds are pure and free of vexations, we will meet the buddha within ourselves. Therefore, only by the extinction of all vexations can we attain the stage where "flowers flourish and the Buddha comes into view."

We should practice compassion and forbearance in our daily lives while avoiding impulsiveness and petulance and controlling our temper. Be adroit and harmonious when dealing with people and handle everything with the help of reason.

Seek not the faults of others and do not be vexed by the rights or wrongs we perceive. Be gentle and kind to others, though not for the sake of building up connections. Treat everyone, be he/she moral or immoral, with equality and impartiality.

Do not turn others away with an icy face. With every move intended for the benefit of others and done with sympathetic compassion, not only will we foster good affinity with others but our minds will be purified and ourselves free of all vexations.

We are thereby attaining the stage where "flowers flourish and the Buddha comes into view."

~ The Analects of Master Kuang-ch'in

Pureland practice

From: The Other Buddhism by Caroline Brazier

The experience of Pureland Buddhism is that we develop appreciation. This is not just for what others have given to us, or for the world we inhabit, though these are important. The central practices and teachings are grounded in an attitude of appreciation that goes beyond the worldly to the transcendent. The practice is deeply rooted in the sense of other-ness, an appreciation of the reality of a measureless beneficent presence beyond the limits of the self-world. This practice...centres on devotion to Amida Buddha ...It is a practice that expresses deep joy and gratitude, that reaches out in ... wistful longing ... and that gratefully allows the practitioner to rest in the knowledge that despite their imperfection, they are blessed.
...

Pureland practice is simple. The nembutsu, the act of calling on Amida Buddha, is an outpouring of the heart. This simple phrase forms a bridge between the practitioner, limited and flawed as he or she is, and the immensity of the universal love and immeasurable generosity that Amida embodies. It is an expression of gratitude, a deep cry of joy that erupts from the heart. Across the divide of separateness, it brings us into contact with the universal light.

From, Caroline Brazier, The other Buddhism: Amida comes West, 2007. Published by O Books, p. 73-74.
http://www.o-books.com/product_info.php?products_id=431

if i were emperor

of a deserted island

it would be nice

Soseki

without my journey

and without this spring,

i would have missed this dawn

Shiki

but for their cries

the herons would be lost

amidst the morning snow.

Ciyo-ni

my gardener of chrysanthemums

you are becoming their servant

Buson

a fallen flower

flew back to it's perch

a butterfly

Moritake

even if the cherry blossoms bloom

ours is a world of suffering

Issa

for the man who says

he tires of his child

there are no flowers

Basho

Haiku

the old doll
in the junk store window
sunning herself

-Issa

Honen's One Sheet Document

On January 23, 1212, Honen wrote the One Sheet Document (Ichimai-Kishomon) at the request of Genchi, his close disciple...

"My O-Nembutsu is not a meditation that has been advocated by wise masters of China and Japan. My O-Nembutsu is not the meditation of Amida's name after mastering the profound meaning through studying it. My O-Nembutsu is just to recite Amida's name - Namo Amida Bu, Namo Amida Bu - without any other reason than faith that I will be received into his pure land of ultimate bliss without fail. Even the Three Minds and the Four Cultivations are all decisively enveloped in believing one will be received into his pure land by reciting Namo Amida Bu. If you hold to deeper knowledge besides the recitation of Amida Buddha's name, you will miss the compassion of the two honourable ones (Amida Nyorai and Shakyamuni Buddha) and you will be left out of the supreme vow of Amida Buddha. If you believe in my O-Nembutsu, even if you master the whole teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha, just recite Amida Buddha's name with all your heart, as though you had no knowledge and no intelligence at all"
He passed away two days later on January 25, 1212 at the age of eighty.

Copied from an email from Amida_friends@amidatrust.com :

Master Hui Re's teaching

Amitabha's vows

Call my name.

I will know you

I will save you.

When you die,

my light will purify you.

You will be reborn in a lotus flower

as a saintly being.

If I fail to achieve these goals,

I will not become a Buddha.

Thus I vow.

(From the July 2007 Pure Land retreat, Master Hui Re. Translated by Ben Le, edited by Maxine)

Pure Land Haiku

in autumn wind
trusting in the Buddha
little butterfly

-Issa

Enlightning

A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe'; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely but striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.

Albert Einstein

Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and spritual; and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.

Albert Einstein

If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism.

Albert Einstein

Letting go of the goal of perfection

"Pure Land [...] invites the practitioner to let go of striving for individual goals and personal perfection. Such projects are built of sand. More though, such striving traps us in that very delusion that Buddhist teaching would have us relinquish. It binds us to the cycle of self-creation. To accept our complexities and our messy natures is a great relief."

Caroline Brazier - The Other Buddhism

How all the Buddhas of the Six Directions protect the Nembutsu Practitioner

From: Honen's Senchakushu. Pg 142

"... [It] is taught in the ... Amida sutra, if a man or woman single-mindedly and wholeheartedly thinks of A-mi-t'o Fo and desires birth [in the Pureland] for seven days and nights up to the whole of his or her life span, then all the buddhas of the six directions, as many as the sands of the Ganges, together will come and always protect him or her. This is why that sutra is known as the "sutra of protection." The "sutra of protection" means that [many buddhas] also prevent all devils and evil spirits from coming into contact with the practitioner; and also that they prevent sudden illness, sudden death, sudden and calamitous disasters for befalling him or her; and that they spontaneously eradicate all misfortunes and obstacles. Those whose practice is not wholehearted are excepted."

From: Honen's Senchakushu: passages on the selection of the Nembusu in the Original Vow. Translated and edited by Senchakushu English Translation Project.

On Buddha Recitation & attachment to form

It is like lighting a fire on top of ice. As the fire intensifies, the ice melts. When the ice melts, the fire is extinguished. So it is with Buddha Recitation.... In the end, the practitioner will attain the realm of No-Birth and see the fire of rebirth spontaneously disappear.

Pure Land Patriarch
Master T'ao Ch'o