Amida-shu is a form of Buddhism that affirms (together with all Mahayana Buddhsim) the threefold nature of Buddha (ultimate Buddha, spiritual Buddha, Buddha in the world), adheres to the Pureland Buddhist emphasis upon the ‘bombu’ nature of the practitioner (that we do not have the power to become enlightened unaided), and adopts as its core practice the ‘nembutsu’ (calling upon Amida Tathagata).
These three constitute the core teachings of Amida-shu. Different members of Amida-shu may interpret these teaching in different ways. Amida-shu is in favour of personal spirituality and regards these three teachings as a framework within which individuals pursue their spiritual quest. The nature of faith, the real meaning of a ‘spiritual Buddha’, the value of particular practices, and so on are things for the practitioner to find out through experiential immersion, experiment, and reflection. Amida-shu is thus a school of Buddhism with much scope for enquiry and is not a ‘hand-me-down’ set of dogmas, even though it does provide a simple frame within which enquiry can proceed.
Broadly, Amida-shu differs from many other schools of Buddhism in seeing many of the elements of Buddhist teaching as ‘outcomes’ rather than as ‘means’. Thus, it is common for Buddhism to be presented as a means to attain enlightenment and the ‘eightfold path’, for instance, will then be presented as the method by which one can practice so as to arrive at the spiritual goal, whereas in Amida-shu the eightfold path will tend rather to be seen as the outcome of a spiritual life. This gives a particular 'flavour' to this kind of spirituality making it celebratory rather than goal oriented. The emphasis on 'bombu nature' similarly eliminates any kudos in being 'spiritually advanced' and facilitates a spiritual relaxation into a sense of assured grace.
The Amida-shu understanding of ‘faith’ is ‘other power’ but not passive. We believe that by associating ourselves with a Buddha we become part of that Buddha’s work.
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"There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship."
~ Saint Thomas Aquinas
I think my son is very clever (for which I can take no credit, I must admit) - look what he's doing tonight. And I'm delighted that he loves his job so much.
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It is possible to take our existence as a sacred world, to take this place as open space rather than claustrophobic dark void. It is possible to take a friendly relationship to our ego natures, it is possible to appreciate the aesthetic play of forms in emptiness, and to exist in this place like majestic kings of our own consciousness. But to do that, we would have to give up grasping to make everything come out the way we daydream it should. So, suffering is caused by ignorance, or suffering exaggerated by ignorance or ignorant grasping and clinging to our notion of what we think should be, is what causes the suffering of suffering. The suffering itself is not so bad, its the resentment against suffering that is the real pain.
~ Allen Ginsberg, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Vol.II, No.1
In spiritual life there is no room for compromise. Awakening is not negotiable; we cannot bargain to hold on to things that please us while relinquishing things that do not matter to us. A lukewarm yearning for awakening is not enough to sustain us through the difficulties involved in letting go. It is important to understand that anything that can be lost was never truly ours, anything that we deeply cling to only imprisons us.
~ Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield, Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart
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- 15:48 wondering what Gok would do for a chubby red-wearing pension-age Buddhist #
- 19:28 it's raining again, but in my head, the boys of summer tinyurl.com/6jmpyd #
...... I can hear:
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- 14:17 gosh, impressed with Izzy's favouite song - Dear Mr. President - Pink #
- 15:12 watching newton faulkner almost drowned out by the crowd all singing bohemian rapsody #
- 18:01 thinking about 'the end' news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7564061.stm #
- 19:32 "won't you be my number two?" tinyurl.com/65ygga (thanks to Joe Jackson tinyurl.com/5mobl3) #
