Blog Navigation Tips - Etcetera
The Shin Ugly Blog is meant to serve anyone who wants to hear the plain teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha and his disciple Shinran about suffering, and the end of suffering.
I recognize that not everyone is familiar with a blog (short for weblog) format. So here’s a brief navigation guide.
- To get to the “front door” which displays all blog posts for the last 30 days, just click on the blog title on the top green horizontal bar.
- To see the posts in a one-day-at-time format, click each day in the CALENDAR in the menu on the right.
- To see all posts for a month, click the month you want to see in the ARCHIVES section in the menu on the right.
- To see all posts in a category, click in the CATEGORIES section in the menu on the right.
- You can email me privately with questions, comments, and suggestions - also on the bottom in the menu on the right.
- To avoid spam (a big problem for bloggers these days), all comments are on moderation. Eventually they are reviewed, and typically I will post them. Often I will delay posting them until I have had a chance to consider what’s been said, and reply accordingly.
- Because my posts tend to be long I use the “teaser” format so that the blog is more easy to review. To go from the teaser to the whole post, either click on the “…more”, or click on the post title.
- You’ll see, in every post, how there are links to other posts in blue. These are designed to help people go back and forth - to learn more quickly the basic truths of Shin Buddhism.
Now for the Etcetera:
The purpose of the Shin Ugly Blog is to explain clearly Shinran’s plain teaching for plain people about suffering and the end of suffering.
I call that plain teaching SHIN UGLY.
The purpose of the blog is NOT to have an inter-religious dialogue - a discussion in depth about religions and spiritual paths in general. Nor is it to have a discussion in depth about other dharma paths within Buddhism.
I am willing to talk about other paths (Buddhist and non-Buddhist both) as Shinran did - but only to compare and contrast them with Shakyamuni’s and Shinran’s teaching of Shin Buddhism. The idea is to preach (indeed) and teach a body of CONTENT in a left-brained and unambiguous way. That preaching and teaching - and the concurrent listening - is the ONLY practice for Shin Buddhists. So a lot of thought, and effort, goes into doing it RIGHT.
If that’s OK with you, you are more than welcome to be here. If you have sincere questions about what Shinran or Shakyamuni are talking about, or any other true teachers of Shin Buddhism , you are more than welcome to ask questions.
On the other hand, if you’re really just looking for a Saturday Night internet barfight - Buddhist or otherwise - this isn’t the right venue for you to have that kind of fun.
Why? Because - speaking plainly - this blog is dedicated to those who are feeling the pull of Amida’s call - and are trying to hear clearly the True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way. Someone passed this most precious and powerful dharma (teaching) along to me, and I’m passing it along to others - as best as I can.
Enjoy the blog. I’ll repost this once in a while, for new readers.
Namu-Amida-Butsu (I take refuge in Amida Buddha)
Paul