Blog links: ‘The Path Back Home’ etc.

A relatively recent addition to our little Shinshu corner of the blogosphere is The Path back Home by Bryan Yamami (actually the blog’s been around a while but isn’t widely known). He writes in his first post last year:

For the past three years, I’ve begun taking Buddhist studies classes from the Institute of Buddhist Studies with the eventual goal of graduating with a MBS (Masters in Buddhist Studies). Once I finish that program, I am planning to go to Japan for two years of additional ministerial training and return to the States and start my tenure as a Jodo Shinshu minister under the guidance of Rev. Masao Kodani at the Senshin Buddhist Temple.

It’s nice to see someone prepared to enter the ministry the long and hard way and his account of his experiences is useful to anyone thinking of going down a similar route.

Also a trainee minister is Eric Burkett who has a blog (though without a news feed unfortunately) called Happy Hour at the Buddha Bar. He’s doing his training at the Buddhist Church of San Francisco which he says is the oldest continuing Buddhist congregation in the mainland United States.

And another good site people might not be aware of (which again cries out for an rss feed) is the monthly ‘Reflections’ page of West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple which is written by my Jeff Wilson; the guy who introduced me to Jodo Shin by his example and who has done so much via many channels to dispel misconceptions about the tradition and raise its profile. There’s also a monthly message from the temple’s minister Rev. Fumiaki Usuki.

 

Jeff Wilson on some Zen myths

My old friend and zenchishiki Jeff Wilson is an increasingly important voice in the Western Buddhist community because of the way he balances a deep understanding of the needs of practitioners (of which he himself is one) with a critical awareness of the implications of modern scholarship.  Like all people of true faith he isn’t shaken when academic research questions the assumptions of tradition, nor is he obstinate and unheeding, but rather he takes it as an impetus to deepen his spiritual journey.

Anyway check out his latest post at Tricycle for an interesting follow-up to his now infamous post about meditation in Buddhism.

 

Jeff Wilson on Shin Buddhist Fundamentalism

Jeff Wilson is a contributing editor to Tricycle, a Shin Buddhist lay-teacher, and a university professor of Religious Studies and East Asian Studies; teaching Buddhism, East Asian Religion, and similar subjects. His writings have appeared in such venues as Buddhadharma, the Journal of Global Buddhism, The Pure Land, and the Journal of Buddhist Ethics.

Personally, I practice Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, not Shinran-shu Buddhism, meaning that I accept the tradition as a whole and Shinran’s central place in it, rather than just reading Shinran and reducing him to a decontextulized fundamentalist. (www.americanbuddhist.org/articles/jeffwilson)

Shinran’s motivation was to preserve the liberating message of his teacher Honen, and to further elucidate how it operates in one’s life. He in no way sought to differentiate himself from Honen’s community or to found a separate sect, despite the fact that in some cases his thought goes well beyond what Honen taught to his followers.

Jodo Shinshu arose after Shinran’s death, mainly through the centralizing effect of the Hongwanji memorial/temple and the simultaneous growth of Shinran’s Pure Land teachings in the outlying provinces where he had lived. It developed alongside Jodo Shu (which itself is divided into sub-schools based on Honen’s disciples), not in opposition to Jodo Shu but simply evolving it its own particular way based on its karma.

My understanding of the “True” in True Pure Land School is that it points to the essence of Honen’s (and the other previous ancestors’) teaching of universal liberation through the Other Power of the Primal Vow. This is in opposition not to Jodo Shu, but to divergent views among those who lack shinjin, such as are attested to in the Tannisho. “Untrue” Pure Land is that which relies on self-power and calculation. Even such believers will reach the Pure Land though, so really the truth being discussed is whether one is aware of the actual nature of things (a quality not restricted to any sect or practice), not whether one is part of the correct in-group.

It is related to the difference between Fulfilled Pure Land and Provisional Pure Land laid out by Shinran in the fifth and sixth chapters of the Kyogyoshinsho, respectively.

[I]n the West we often have a tendency to create “Protestant Buddhisms”–focusing on the founder of a sect and believing that his doctrine is the test of purity and orthodoxy. Thus the emphasis for many on uncovering the original message of Shakyamuni Buddha, the great attention given Dogen’s writings (to be honest they have never been popular in Japan until after the influence of Westernism), etc. However, this is mainly baggage from the development of religion in the West. There is a danger in seeking full understanding of a sect in the founder, hundreds or thousands of years ago, as if the tradition burst into full being as a complete whole like Athena from Zeus’ head and any developments since then are degradations.

One cannot understand Jodo Shinshu without understanding Shinran. However, we do not live in Shinran’s time, and Jodo Shinshu has changed and developed in the intervening seven-and-a-half centuries. One cannot understand Jodo Shinshu by ONLY understanding Shinran. We rely on the full tradition, expanded and explored by many great teachers since Shinran. Jodo Shinshu exists most fully on the ground today in the hearts of Shin followers and the thankfulness embodied in the living nembutsu, not in the ancient texts of Japan, even those of the beloved masters. (Nov 6th, 2001 - Shin Buddhist Fellowship Yahoo Group)