Shin Ugly Blog

I know you are interested in the survival of Shin Buddhism in the West.

I - along with others - have very specific concerns and suggestions, in that regard.

I have neither personal nor professional fear of others’ opinions, nor any career-based affiliations that would force me to speak in veiled and muted language about such a critically important topic.

That is a great advantage when it comes to speaking plainly - even bluntly - to the memetic strains of modernism and post-modernism that infect the Shin Sangha and distort the teaching to the point where people are simply CONFUSED.

That kind of needless confusion is a shameful and tragic failure in the Shin Buddhist Sangha (community) of EPIC proportions. That’s not just my opinion, but the opinion of Shinran, Yuien and Rennyo as well.

As TRUE teachers, they all considered it their vocation to respond to such confusion - bluntly, in the plainest language.

And they did - again, and again, and again.

Their response, Professor Eiken Kobai’s response, and my response all had one purpose: to distinguish between true and false teaching, each in our day.

Why is that SO important? Because making that critical distinction is JOB #1 to restore the Shin Buddhist Sangha and open wide the dharma gate to countless suffering beings:

1. It’s the only way to dispel the current clouds of CONFUSION.
2. It’s the only way people can hear and understand the plain teaching of Shinran that lead to the same SHINJIN - the same TRUE ENTRUSTING - as Shinran had.
3. It’s the only way we have to come to the END of suffering - Amida Buddha’s salvation that will carry us to Buddhahood in His Pure Land at the end of this lifetime.
4. It’s the only way we will be able to teach anyone else who is hungry to hear about the way to end suffering, as well.

So I invite you to keep listening to the CONTENT of the Shin Ugly Blog. It’s going to take not one voice, but MANY voices, all calling with one heart for the Shin Buddhist community to return to Shinran’s True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way.

Same as it ever was.

Best wishes,

Paul R

This entry was posted on Friday, March 18th, 2005 at 9:28 pm and is filed under True Teaching and True Teachers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.