Shin Ugly Blog

As 2005 draws to a close, a small band of Shin Buddhists, including clerics, scholars and laypeople, look forward to 2006 with a firm sense of great purpose.

That purpose is nothing less than to restore the dying Shin Sangha by propagating, once again, the True Teaching of Shinran Shonin.

Authentic propgation of the True Teaching was no small task in Master Shinran’s day. It was no small task in Master Rennyo’s day. And it is no small task in our day either. (more…)

This message is being broadcast to those interested in the True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way, as expounded by both Shinran Shonin and Rennyo Shonin.

Please forward it to anyone who you think would be interested.

Some of you know that several of us have been working on a project to make the True Teaching of Shinran more widely available on the net by providing a teaching website for Eiken Kobai Sensei - one of the world’s leading scholars of True Shin Buddhism.

I’m happy to say that project is now complete. The site URL is (more…)

So much of the True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way (literally KyoGyoShinSho) is encapsulated in the few short paragraphs of Dharma Master Shinran’s preface to that document - his most important work.

I invite you to listen deeply with me as Shinran describes the reason for his his JOY - the JOY of a person of true SHINJIN - the true entrusting that is the gift of the compassionate Buddha Amida to the hungry heart: (more…)

The Dharma thought of Dharma Master Shinran is at odds with the current fashion in thinking today. To discuss Shinran’s Dharma HONESTLY, we must first meet him on his own terms - rather than the terms we have been familiar with.

Then, once we have understood what he says - and what he means - we are each free to decide for ourselves whether we accept what he says as Dharma Truth. Do we believe Shinran saw clearly and spoke truly as a Dharma Master - or was he just foolish and deluded in his assertions about the most important subject of all: suffering and the end of suffering? (more…)