Shin Ugly Blog

If you’re not familiar with Shinran, you probably don’t know Genshin. He was the sixth of Shinran’s Seven Pure Land Masters Shinran referred to as he unpacked this final teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha for plain people in this age of Dharma Decline.

On Beliefnet’s Pure Land discussion list severall folks talked recently about Genshin’s personal AHA! moment.

If you’re doing ANY kind of PRACTICE - Buddhist or otherwise - in order to clean up your act, tame your mind, experience pristine awareness, deconstruct your egotism, etc, etc, etc - I invite you to listen deeply to the discussion. (more…)

Shin Ugly - Shinran’s plain teaching for plain people about suffering and the end of suffering - pivots around one central concept: there is only one way to END your suffering and become a TRUE Buddha in this age of Dharma Decline - and that is to become a person of SHINJIN (True Entrusting) in the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha.

The teaching is not hard, intellectually - even for someone with no background in Buddhism at all, like my friend Anna. In fact, the very simplicity of it all is what makes it hard for sophisticated folks like us. (more…)

Anna writes: The Shin Ugly blog is blossoming into a wonderful source of easy to understand information and it is really appealing to me. So simple yet so clear.

Thank you for the time and energy which you spend to share these teachings….I appreciate it and I appreciate you. Along with you, my dharma friend, I take refuge in Amida Buddha - in his Primal Vow to bring me at last to the Pure Land.

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I’m highlighting my friend Anna’s comment because she is a good example of what is SO RIGHT with SHIN UGLY - Shinran’s plain talk for plain people about suffering and the end of suffering - and what is SO WRONG with so much of what is being written by clerics and scholars about Shin Buddhism today. (more…)

For anyone who aspires to Buddhahood, the SHIN UGLY perspective of Shinran is unique - and sometimes hard to understand, even though it is simplicity itself.

Shinran teaches that ultimately there are only two dharma gates (paths to FULL awakening) for us human beings to consider: (more…)

Though I know Jessie has entered a state of complete transcendence, this kind of news (below) is hard for me to read - harder than reading about natural disaster, as terrible as the recent Tsunami, and the more recent earthquake, are to hear about.

Why? Because here in THIS news is the human condition of selfishness - of greed - of dishonesty - writ large. (more…)

In his great work, True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way, Shinran quotes many, many teachers to make one critical point: (more…)

Life flies by and breaks our heart.
Our friends die. Things fall apart.

We run from what the mirror shows.
We act in ways we do not know. (more…)

I am grateful to Ananda, beyond any words I can say - for seeing clearly - for listening deeply - and for asking ONE question of his cousin and teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha, one day on a hill called Vulture Peak.

Because of his question - and Shakyamuni’s answer - and Shinran’s true teaching - my beloved Jessie has ended her countless births into lives of endless suffering at last. She lives now as a True Buddha - and soon enough I will too.

Shakyamuni Buddha invites you each and all to join us - whether you’re old or young, smart or dumb, Buddhist or non-Buddhist. None of it matters in the least.

Here’s the backstory: (more…)

Rennyo is called “The Restorer” because he blew away the dust that had obscured Shinran’s SHIN UGLY teaching after several hundred years.

Here’s a Q&A he did with a sincere inquirer. (more…)

Here is more of Professor Eiken Kobai’s accurate transmission of Shinran’s teaching, in detail, with lots of references. As you read it, you’ll see that for Shinran, it’s all about becoming a person of SHINJIN - TRUE ENTRUSTING.

For an uneducated person like me, it is a great gift to have access to Kobai’s work, as I attempt to explain this most powerful and effective path to the END of suffering to others.

Shinran Shonin stated that the salvation of “being embraced, never to be forsaken” (sesshu fusha) comes from being in the “rightly-established state” (shojoju). (more…)

Sometimes, I have found, people step forward to engage in a profound dharma dialogue - though intially they don’t actually KNOW they are stepping forward, but rather often think they are stepping backward - away from authentic engagement and deep listening.

In such a state, I’ve observed and experienced how people can throw a series of intellectual punches - whether from inside the Buddha-dharma, or from some other metaphysical perspective: pow, pow, bam, bam, BAM. (more…)

Two Rivers and a White Path is Shan-tao’s parable of the path of birth into the Pure Land. It is set forth in his Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra as part of his exposition of the sutra passage: (more…)

This is teaching from Professor Eiken Kobai - a Japanese Shin Scholar of the highest rank.

His writing confirms what I came to understand by my own layman’s reading of Shakyamuni Buddha and his disciple Shinran in translation - and now share as SHIN UGLY - Shinran’s plain teaching in plain language for plain people about how Amida Buddha’s great compassion works to end our suffering once and for all. (more…)

Paul: we’re all still stuck with our endless cravings and aversions.

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Fogueira: I think the difference between our philosophies is I don’t KNOW that they’re endless and you think they probably are.

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That probably sums it up, dear friend. It’s a conclusion I came to, in the wake of great suffering, after 30 years on the path - in this lifetime.

As for your not knowing, I can offer you an experiment that might or might not be helpful: (more…)

LuanTaoChe: Dear Brother Paul,

Thank you for sharing your experience of Jessie in The Pure Land, as a full Buddha.

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Dear LuanTaoChe -

We’ve never met, and probably never will, this side of death.

But it is clear that we share the same reality. (more…)

Originally an email I wrote in November 2004, this is a wonderful true story. It’s hard to read, emotionally - but has the most amazing ending imaginable.

Reading it has changed lives - forever.

It contains, in capsule form, everything you always wanted to know about ending your suffering and becoming a Buddha - but didn’t know to ask. (more…)