In Kikyoshiki you chant the Ryogemon (aka Gaikemon) but I don’t know whether you would have done this in a Ti-sarana or not. In the end the important thing is simply the aspiration and mind of taking refuge and not the form of the ceremony itself.

Do you know what your Dharma name means Michael? What are the kanji?

(Ryogemon: http://shinmission_sg.tripod.com/homagecreed/)

My Dharma name Kyōshin (慶心) means ‘Joyful mind’ or more specifically ‘Mind rejoicing in what has been received’.

(It tends to confuse some Japanese people as in modern Japanese the first character is pronounced ‘kei’ whereas in the case of my Dharma name the character is actually pronounced as it appears in the ‘Shoshinge’ i.e. ‘kyō’.)

I go to a BCA temple once a month. It is a small sangha of 10-12 people and I drive a little over 2 hours to get there. It’s part of the Tri-State/Denver Buddhist Temple. Here is the website: http://www.tsdbt.org I will also start lay minister training with Bright Dawn Institute for American Buddhism this fall. That website is http://www.brightdawn.org I live in a small town and I think I am probably the only Buddhist here. I practice daily devotionals twice a day, in the morning and in the evening. Other than that, I do read a lot of Buddhist books, mostly Jodo Shinshu.

Those discussions seem to go round year after year don’t they! Personally I’m happy following the ways that I’ve learnt from my Japanese friends, including their way of saying nembutsu, but at home I do incorporate one English gatha (based on Vasubandhu’s profession of faith) into my daily gongyo at the end as it really resonates with me:

“O World-Honoured One, with the mind that is single,
I Take refuge in the Tathagata of Unhindered Light
Filling the Ten Quarters,
And aspire to be born in the Land of Bliss.”

“Contemplating the features of that world,
I see that it transcends the three realms.
It is infinite, like space,
Vast and boundless.”

When people based in the US have such discussions on the net I often wonder whether they have actually visited a BCA temple. When I was over in the US earlier this year I visited a Sunday service at the Seattle Betsuin and found that probably over 60% of the liturgy was in the form of English gathas (though they also had a traditional service afterwards for those who wanted that).

A lot of people also forget that the sutras are chanted in ancient Sino-Japanese which is almost as challenging to modern Japanese people as it is to Westerners. In that sense it is similar to Christian churches that use Latin. Something about using a different language seems to contribute to adjusting the mind into a different framework and is very conducive to creating ritual space.

Look forwards to hearing from you again in the future. What is your practice like, do you have a local temple?