Shin Ugly Blog

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

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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…)

Professor Eiken Kobai’s book “Understanding Jodo Shinshu” is now available online at his website, The Shin Buddhism Study Center.

If you are interested in Shinran’s TRUE teaching -
If you want to end your suffering, at last -
If you are confused by the many and varied modern Shin teachings that are only loosely based on Shinran’s thought -

…then this book will clear up the muddle.

In particular, Kobai’s precise reading and explanation of Shinran will give you the understanding you need to end your confusion, and become a person of “settled Shinjin”, the same “true entrusting” as Shinran had - the gift of Amida Buddha. (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…)

Here’s the introduction Professor Kobai invited me to write to the next edition of his wonderful book, UNDERSTANDING JODO SHINSHU.

It’s not about Professor Kobai, ultimately. And it’s certainly not about me. It’s about the clarion call to the Shin Buddhist community, that I have called “The SHINRAN Manifesto”:

Return to the TRUE Teaching of Shinran, Our TRUE Teacher.

Here it is: (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…)

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…)

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. (more…)

Someone wrote me saying how confused she was. We dialogued by email, and she was STILL confused.

That happens a lot.

We’re confused people, living in a confused and confusing world. (more…)

The Shin Ugly truth is this: regardless of who we are, and what we do, we are all living a life that I call ICEBERG US - bound and determined in ways we cannot even see by our own blind passion, our own cravings and aversions, our own ineradicable egotism.

This is why my teacher Shinran, looking deeply and honestly at himself, said for his whole long life, “I am an evil person”…and “Hell is my only home”.

Shinran KNEW he was stuck - that his existential predicament was inescapable - that playing at being a good Buddhist was a worthless exercise.

He had seen through his own agenda - he knew it was just another form of religious self-indulgence in order to convince himself that he was earning some kind of karmic brownie points - while ignoring the truth of his own endless grasping - even his grasping after merit, or the acclaim of others as a good, righteous and spiritual person. (more…)

Rennyo the Restorer was ALL about the bottom line of Jodo-Shinshu - Shin Buddhism.

He is my own model for what I call SHIN UGLY - because he avoided Shinran’s deep scholarship while being faithful to his TRUE teaching as he talked to the common people in common language about this ultimate teaching of Shakyamuni - the the one we call the Buddha.

Rennyo’s letters are RICH with simple-to-understand meaning and instruction for sincere seekers - plain people in our day who are earnestly searching for TRUE and FINAL enlightenment - the end of suffering at last - by whatever name they call it - whether they are Buddhists, or not. (more…)

Because the Shin Buddhist community has not stayed with the True Teaching of Shinran, confusion exists where it should not.

All of us who are of the same mind as Shinran should be committed to dispelling all doubts, correcting all mis-understandings, and clearing up all confusion.

Why? So people can respond to Amida Buddha’s call, and find the end of suffering at last.

This response to a friend is long, but it is worth reading if you are a person of SHINJIN (true entrusting) who cares about others- or are sincerely seeking to become a person of SHINJIN yourself.

Namu-Amida-Butsu

Paul R (more…)

Rev. Al Bloom (of Shin Dharma Net): Your discussion sounds much like that of scholars and clerics. Why make a contrast between scholars and clerics who are trying to understand their faith and relating to the world they live in.

Is it necessary to be a know-nothing to have SHINJIN (true entrusting)? (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…)

This blog is my personal legacy work. If I die tonight (no plans to do so) it is here for my daughter to read, so that she may find her way to the True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way.

Of course, it’s not JUST for my daughter. It’s for her, her friends, Jessie’s friends, my friends - and anyone who is tired of suffering in life after life.

And it’s also for those who already have a deep and true aspiration to be able to help other people in a real and profound way.

Only when we are free of the chains and fetters of our endless delusions and obscurations can we REALLY help those we love - and those we don’t even know in this life - though (as Shinran teaches) we knew ALL of them from countless lives before. (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…)

To complete the three part discussion on The Easy Path to Buddhahood (see the menu for links to parts one and two), there are so many passages that I could quote from.

I’ve decided to choose a passage from an authentic Shin teacher from the 15th century named Rennyo. His writings have a lot to say to the Shin Buddhist community today. (more…)

I’ve been having a wonderful dharma dialogue with a Shin Buddhist friend named John.

It didn’t start out so wonderfully. In fact, it was almost an abortion right from the start. (more…)

Shoren: Thank you Paul.

Deepest Gassho to you for this. (more…)

In his great work, True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way, Shinran answered critics within Buddhism - particularly scholars - who thought his teaching of no practice except simple faith in Amida was not Buddhism at all.

Those scholars were experts on the Path of the Sages. For them, the teachings of Nagarjuna on emptiness (sunyata) were critical as they sought to end their own suffering and become Buddhas at last. (more…)

You might ask: Is an accurate teacher important to the transmission of SHINJIN - the state of TRUE ENTRUSTING that leads to the end of suffering at last?

No, it’s CRITICAL.

That was the opinion of Rennyo, called “The Restorer”, because he restored Shinran’s SHIN UGLY teaching to a Shin Buddhist community that had lost it’s way.

Let’s listen to what he said: (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…)

I’ve looked at a lot of what’s available on the net, and given the name “Shin Buddhism” or “Jodo Shinshu”.

The very best resource I have found is a Professor in Japan named Eiken Kobai. You can access his teaching from the link in the “resources” section of links.

Here’s his brief bio from his website: (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…)

Both before and after I entrusted myself to Amida’s Primal Vow, I spent a lot of time looking on the net for instruction that was in accord with Shinran’s Teaching.

In all my looking (and I did a bunch) I found precious little that lined up with the plain sense of what I had read in Shinran’s Collected Works, and a lot of teachings that were supposed to be Shin Buddhism, but were in fact something else. (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…)

UGLY means plain talk, in plain English, about what Buddha called TOPIC A - the most important in the world.

For Buddha, that topic is suffering, and the end of suffering.

YOUR suffering, MY suffering, and OUR suffering - the macro view (of the world’s suffering), and the micro view (of our individual suffering) - with the dots all connected by Buddha’s singular, profound understanding. (more…)