• 41 Posts
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Joined 7 months ago
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Cake day: February 28th, 2025

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  • I think we should start with better understanding how much life is complex in general. Our ideas and our way of being are a product of education, culture, society and the historic period we live in. But still ideas don’t exist themselves like an entity, they just illusions and products of mind. When we see other acting or thinking in a way we perceive as wrong, we should always remember that right and wrong aren’t absolute and never changing things. We can agree that right view, right action and right speak are conductive to the path of enlightenment in a Buddhist sense, but still those aren’t absolute and should be pondered case by case. For being compassionate towards others, we should first of all not be attached to our own idea of right or justice, and then understand why people may think in a specific way, and how often we too can get attached to our own ideas, even if these are for the benefit of the others.






  • StrangeMedOPMtoBuddhismIppen’s quote about one thought-moment Nembutsu
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    5 months ago

    I practice shikantaza and nembutsu, and throughout the day, I mentally recite in my mind whenever I remember it. I’ve found that these two practices are complementary, which is also a widely practiced combination in mainland Buddhism. Nembutsu plays a role in connecting with the Pure Land of Amitabha and my own Buddha Nature at the same time. Shikantaza, on the other hand, embodies realization itself and, in a more Chan/Zen sense, the here and now Satori (practice of no-practice).

    You may wonder why I practice both the Pure Land and Chan. The answer is that Chan points to our inherent nature, but it doesn’t mean that after truly realizing emptiness we instantly attain the same level of enlightenment as a fully realized Buddha, not even higher grades Bodhisattvas. Therefore, for me, the Pure Land serves as a kind of assurance for continuing my practice even after this body dissolves.




  • StrangeMedOPMtoBuddhism見返り阿弥陀 Mikaeri Amida
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    5 months ago

    Pure Land Buddhism is quite different between Mainland and Japan, I think it is always better to go to the source, aka the Pure Land sutras. Saying once in full sincerity is in theory enough, since Amida Vows are already fulfilled since it became a Buddha, so a practitioner’s rebirth “already” happened.








  • StrangeMedOPMtoBuddhismLong Scroll, section 31
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    5 months ago

    And yet you get hurt when you touch fire. Is that a just dream? The point is understanding emptiness of practice, ideas, interpretations and reality. But it doesn’t mean everything is only illusion (at least not in our common way of understanding it). Both conventional and ultimate true coexist, but until we think and not directly experience non-duality, we’re caught up in duality. The Diamond Sutra really is the master in showings the dialectics of non-duality.








  • StrangeMedMtoBuddhismdo you meditate?
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    6 months ago

    On a surface level repeating the Name surely has an anchor like function on a mental level, but there is much more of it. I respect your opinion, but this is a Buddhist community so it DOES matter what the Buddha said, and meditation is not only a practice to focus mind in many traditions.



  • StrangeMedMtoBuddhismdo you meditate?
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    6 months ago

    Cheesecake doesn’t make you think of the Buddha, am I right? Mindfulness of the Buddha is a practice Shakyamuni himself suggested, you can find it in the Pali Canon, not only in Mahayana sutras. Also there is much more than just simply repeating a word, since nembutsu is also tied with the Primal Vows of Amida itself, regarding rebirth in the Pure Land




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