Shin Ugly Blog

In his magnum opus, the Kyo-Gyo-Shin-Sho, Master Shinran quotes from many Dharma sources: from various sutras (sermons) of the Buddha, from the writings of the seven Pure Land Masters, and from various other Buddhist sages as well.

In fact, 90% of the Kyo-Gyo-Shin-Sho (True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way) is actually quotes from other sources, strung together by Master Shinran’s vision as the supreme expositor of the True Teaching.

Here is a piece of a more extensive quotation by Master Shinran, from THE NIRVANA SUTRA. In it, Shakyamuni Buddha is speaking to his followers about two kinds of enlightenment: (more…)

We’ve been talking about Master Shinran’s observation that being able to truly hear and accept the True Teaching of the Pure Land Way is “the most difficult of all difficulties”.

Here (once again) is Master Shinran speaking about this in his HYMNS OF THE PURE LAND:

It is difficult to encounter a time when a Tathagata appears in the world,
And difficult to hear the teachings of the Buddha.
It is rare to hear the excellent dharma for bodhisattvas,
Even in a span of countless ages.

It is difficult to meet true teachers,
And difficult to instruct.
It is difficult to hear the teaching well,
And more difficult to accept it.

More difficult even than trust in the teachings of Shakyamuni’s lifetime
Is the true entrusting of the universal Vow.
The Sutra teaches that it is “the most difficult of all difficulties”,
That “nothing surpasses this difficulty”.

There are a number of reasons this teaching is so difficult to hear and accept. (more…)

Anyone who’s been following the blog knows that it has one purpose: to be a vehicle for Shinran Shonen’s Dharma teaching.

After he met his teacher Honen, the rest of Shinran’s life was dedicated to sharing the revelation that Amida Buddha had given to him. He called it SHINJIN - sometimes translated as FAITH, sometimes translated as TRUE ENTRUSTING.

Whatever word you use, Shinran was not a mincer of words, nor a code-talker. On the contrary, his calling as a Dharma Teacher was to speak PLAINLY. He offered plain talk, for plain people, about suffering - and also the END of suffering. (more…)

Shinran Shonin, whose distinct karma is was to be THE Dharma Master for this singular “path of the foolish”, was all about coming to a state of deep receptivity to Amida’s call - a receptivity that opens the door to the mystery of SHINJIN.

Let’s listen deeply to his words - together: (more…)

A dharma friend named Woody asked me recently:

What about the vinaya pitaka? What about the 5 and 8 precepts? Is there no call to morality and goodness? Is there no room for these things in true entrusting?

In my last post to him, What Is the Purpose of the Dharma?, I explained why Dharma Master Shinran rejected mixed practices as well as a compulsive emphasis on moralizing. I closed by saying this:

But that (answer about not doing mixed practices) is not the end, of course. (more…)

The last several blog posts are a good example of the two sides of the SHIN UGLY dialogue that has defined authentic Shin Buddhism from the beginning. (more…)

My dharma friend Jason writes:

I believe that what I’m about to say is from Shinran, but please correct me if I’m wrong.

Is it right to say that, after the one thought-moment of shinjin has been given, Amida has transformed all our past, present and future karma from the karma of samsaric rebirth into the karma for birth in the Pure Land? (more…)

Before you read this WONDERFUL note from a dharma friend, you might want to read our dialogue in the prior post, which is HERE.

Then again, you might want to start with this post, and get the context later.

For anyone willing to listen deeply (like my dharma friend), Amida Buddha’s transmission of TRUE wisdom and TRUE compassion works just as well either way. (more…)

Anyone who follows this blog - and there are readers from around the globe - knows that I have only one purpose in writing it: to present the teaching (Dharma) of Shakyamuni Buddha and Shinran Shonin in clear and simple language that anyone can understand.

For any readers who have little or no Buddhist understanding, the Dharma is one leg of the three legged stool that Buddhists call “The Three Jewels”…or “the Triple Gem”: Buddha, Sangha, Dharma: (more…)

The Shinran Manifesto says this: Return to the True Teaching of Shinran, Our True Teacher.

QUESTION: Which of these teachers is teaching the same teaching as Master Shinran? Which is teaching a different teaching? (more…)

Professor Eiken Kobai’s book “UMisunderstandings of Master Rennyo” is now available online at his website, The Shin Buddhism Study Center.

Rennyo was the critical figure in reviving the Shin sangha when it was moribund, only 200 years after Shinran’s death. His genius was in understanding that the wisdom and scholarship of Shinran needed to be boiled down to the basics so that common people could grasp this dharma message. By doing that, he opened the dharma gates WIDELY - and countless people received the true benefit of Amida Buddha’s merit transference - and the sure promise of taking birth and becoming Buddhas at the end of their lives.

Countless people found the way - the only way in this age of Dharma Decline - to end their endless suffering and rebirth as non-Buddhas, at last.

In our day, when the Shin sangha is moribund once again, the need is exactly the same. For this reason, Prof. Kobai’s book is critical reading for those who care about the survival of the Shin sanga as the dharma vehicle for transmission of Buddha’s teaching - rather than the divergent teachings of unenlightened men who are revising and distorting Shinran’s True Teaching to meet their own intellectual tastes and fashions.

Kobai clears away the misconceptions that many scholars have had about Rennyo, and shows how his teaching was an accurate and faithful distillation and transmission of Shinran’s thought. He refuted false teaching and walked from temple to temple to establish seekers in the exact same SHINJIN that he shared with his true teacher Shinran.

Most important - the ONLY way out of the wilderness for the Shin sangha in our day is to do the exact same thing NOW that Rennyo did THEN.

That is the sole purpose of this website. It is the purpose of Eiken Kobai’s faithful scholarship as well - which is why I am so pleased to make his work more available to the English speaking world.

NamuAmidaButsu,

Paul R.

This is the fourth of four posts that I am writing to answer a question posed by a Shin Buddhist dharma friend named Ray.

Ray asks why I think that “Shin Semiotics” - the view of modern Shin Buddhist scholars - that Amida Buddha is symbol and mythos rather than a real person - is such a lamentable diversion, and so harmful to the propagation of Shinran’s teaching. (more…)

Paul,

Larry

===

Hi Larry -

Here’s the short answer - a prelude of the divergences I am committed to examining on the SHIN UGLY Blog.

Doing this examination takes significant time and effort to unpack in blog articles, etc. So please bear with me.

Namu-Amida-Butsu,

Paul (more…)

This is the third of four posts that I am writing to answer a question posed by a dharma friend named Ray.

Ray asks why I think the view of modern Shin Buddhist scholars - that Amida Buddha is symbol and mythos rather than a real person - is such a lamentable diversion, and so harmful to the propagation of Shinran’s teaching.

These four posts are my answer to his question. This post, in particular is about his use of Karen Armstrong’s teaching about what’s wrong with fundamentalist theology and what’s right with modernist and post-modernist theology - an approach that Ray uses to provide him with tools for understanding Shinran and Shin Buddhism.

I call Ray’s approach - which is also the approach of modern Shin Buddhist scholars and clerics - “Shin Semiotics”.

In a broader context, these posts concerning “Shin Semiotics” offer a basis for an honest discussion around what I call “The Shinran Manifesto”: the call to RETURN TO THE TRUE TEACHING OF SHINRAN, OUR TRUE TEACHER . (more…)

The SHINRAN Manifesto says, “Return to the True Teaching of Shinran, our True teacher”.

Not everyone agrees that this is a good idea. In this conversation with “Joe”, his sincere reasons for disagreement becomes very clear.

I’ll give Joe’s entire message in one piece, so his position is clear in context. Then I’ll reply to what he says, point by point, to share my views, and compare them to his. (more…)

It is the position of many modern Shin Buddhists to deny the personhood of Amida Buddha.

I’ve said before, and say again, this is truly a lamentable divergence from the True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way that Shinran has provided us all.

We know from his writing that such divergences gave Shinran fits - because it made it impossible for the hearers of such distorted dharma to come to the same settled Shinjin (true entrusting) that would guarantee their birth in the Pure Land at the end of this life.

That’s exactly why I’m pointing out these differences for what they are - and challenging modern and post-modern Shin Buddhist clerics and teachers with the Shinran Manifesto: RETURN TO THE TRUE TEACHING OF SHINRAN, OUR TRUE TEACHER.

For example, here’s an excerpt from a tract written by a modern Shin Buddhist teacher that is now appearing on the websites of several Shin Buddhist temples: (more…)

My goal of completing one straightforward exposition before beginning another sometimes gets diverted by people’s sincere questions and comments.

Right now, for example, I’m having a dialogue with a dharma friend named Ray, to answer his question about why I think Shin Semiotics - the idea that Amida Buddha is simply Mythos and Symbol rather than a real Buddha like Shakyamuni - is a major and lamentable diversion from Shinran’s True Teaching.

That dialogue is getting a bit diverted because he asked me a question about a book called Coffinman - the bio and Shin Buddhist ruminations of a Japanese mortician.

His question - as you will see below, provide me a chance to unpack an examination I was preparing to begin later, but will enter into now, in order to respond to him.

In it I discuss why simply talking about the mystical right brained experience of light and life - Shin Mysticism - is not, by itself, an adequate expression of Shinran’s True Teaching.

This is all part of the clarion call of The SHINRAN Manifesto, which encourages Shin Buddhists, whether Japanese, American, or otherwise, whether clerics, scholars or laypeople, to RETURN TO THE TRUE TEACHING OF SHINRAN, OUR TRUE TEACHER. (more…)

This is the second of four posts that I am writing to answer a question posed by a dharma friend named Ray.

Ray asks why I think the view of modern Shin Buddhist scholars - that Amida Buddha is symbol and mythos rather than a real person - is such a lamentable diversion, and so harmful to the propagation of Shinran’s teaching.

These four posts are my answer to his question. This post, in particular is about my PERSONAL encounter with Shin Semiotics, and its inadequacy in dealing with the suffering in my own life experience. Subsequent posts will be less personal, and more oriented to intellectually understanding of how and why “Shin Semiotics” - including the idea that Amida Buddha is a fictive mythos and symbol - is emphatically NOT the dharma of Shinran’s True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way.

In a broader context, these posts concerning “Shin Semiotics” offer a basis for an honest discussion around what I call “The Shinran Manifesto”: the call to RETURN TO THE TRUE TEACHING OF SHINRAN, OUR TRUE TEACHER . (more…)

This is the first of four posts that I am writing to answer a question posed by a dharma friend named Ray on the Yahoo! egroup SHINLIST.

Ray asks why I think the view of modern Shin Buddhist scholars - that Amida Buddha is symbol and mythos rather than a real person - is such a lamentable diversion, and so harmful to the propagation of Shinran’s teaching.

This introductory letter, and the three that will follow it, are my answer to his question.

In a broader context, these posts offer a basis for an honest discussion around what I call “The Shinran Manifesto”: the call to RETURN TO THE TRUE TEACHING OF SHINRAN, OUR TRUE TEACHER . (more…)

Ray: hi paul,

well, there are certainly a lot of ruffled feathers at the shinlist (a Yahoo! egroup). i am surprised and disappointed at the personal and abusive remarks aimed at you.

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Hi Ray,

I’m neither surprised, nor disappointed. I expected it.

When I began this work, I anticipated this exact reaction from any number of people.

I’m hardly made of stone, but I have a very strong sense of vocation about what I am doing here. A bit of verbal abuse will not deter me from doing it. (more…)

RETURN TO THE TRUE TEACHING OF SHINRAN, OUR TRUE TEACHER.

I call this “The SHINRAN Manifesto” - but in fact it is no more, and no less, than the summation of the life and work of the second major teacher of Shin Buddhism (after Shinran himself) - Rennyo the Restorer.

In fact, he is called “The Venerable Shonin who revived the Teachings of Shinran Shonin”.

I’ve included an online collection of Rennyo’s letters in the resources section of the Shin Ugly Blog links. If you actually go and read them, you will see that their message about the True Teaching and the message of the SHIN UGLY Blog are one and the same.

Indeed, if you find that they are NOT the same message, I would consider it a favor to be corrected in an email or a comment to the blog. Shinran (and by extension Rennyo) are the PLUMBLINE for understanding the True Teaching - certainly not me - or anyone else, either.

I’ve included two pieces in this blog post:

• The introduction to Rennyo’s letters (from the Buddhist Church of America collection).
• A selection from one of Rennyo’s letters, which gives a clear window into his own bedrock belief concerning the personhood of Amida Buddha

(more…)

RETURN TO THE TRUE TEACHING OF SHINRAN, OUR TRUE TEACHER.

That’s the SHINRAN Manifesto.

Here’s the first of several Shin Ugly Blog posts where I examine the TRUE teaching of Shinran - and the teaching of others - concerning Amida Buddha.

Here’s a question to challenge all of us in the Shin Buddhist community - clerics, scholars and laypeople alike: what did Shinran believe and teach concerning Amida Buddha?

Here’s the Shin Ugly answer - plain talk in plain English to dispel confusion and help people find the same SHINJIN (true entrusting) as Shinran:

Amida Buddha has personhood in the same way Shakyamuni Buddha does.

Like Shakyamuni Buddha, Amida Buddha had a time in his existence when he was not a Buddha.

Like Shakyamuni Buddha, Amida Buddha went through a process that took place over many lifetimes which resulted in his attaining Buddhahood.

I’m going to unpack these few sentences in more detail below - simply and plainly - so that a plain person does not become confused, muddled or befuddled. (more…)

Here it is - starkly and simply - a clarion call to Shin Buddhist clerics, scholars and laypeople alike:

RETURN TO THE TRUE TEACHING OF SHINRAN, OUR TRUE TEACHER

(more…)