A Fistful of Sand

“What more does the community of bhikkhus expect from me, Ananda? I have set forth the Dhamma without making any distinction of esoteric and exoteric doctrine; there is nothing, Ananda, with regard to the teachings that the Tathagata holds to the last with the closed fist of a teacher who keeps some things back.” —Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, Digha Nikāya 16                     A Note : Pāli is the language most likely used by the historical Buddha so, the                          author has opted to use Pāli terms in this article. The term  vipallāsa  sounds innocent enough. It sounds like you can walk into any ethnic restaurant and buy an entrée of vipallāsa and have a nice glass of red wine to wash it down with.  Yet to partake in vipallāsa is a very dangerous thing and bring years of pain and suffering into one’s life.  You see, a vipallāsa is ...

Visit the Hongaku Jodo Website Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. People in Vain ________________________________________________ Quite often in the West we use the words “awakening” and “enlightenment interchangeably. This is a misinterpretation on our part. They are not synonyms but clearly represent two distinct stages on the Path. Awakening is often referred to as the “Great Awakening” in the Canons of both Pali and Mahayana. Awakening can be seen as a process, indeed it is the process leading to the attainment of Enlightenment.There are many degrees of Awakening and Enlightenment. Attaining the Enlightenment of the Arahants, Pratyekabuddha (Pali, paccekabuddha, literally "a lone buddha", "a buddha on their own" or "a private buddha" ), Bodhisattvas, and others. It need to be awake in order to see clearly. That clear seeing allows us to at least have the possibility of gaining Enlightenment. To experience a Great Awakenin...

Nagarjuna urges us not to mistake the finger for the moon. He tells us not to confound words and meaning, that is, not to mistake the secular words that are used to point to ultimate truth for that truth itself. We are able to see the moon because of the finger. However, we should not look at the finger and think that it is the moon. This is the meaning of the phrase, “Rely on the meaning, not on the words.” Here, the topic of our discussion is the significance of symbols. Dr. Nubuo Haneda got himself into considerable controversy and argument with some of the hard liners in Jodo Shin Shu (True Pure Land school) people a few years ago by advancing the idea that Amida was a symbol and not to be taken as a literal being living out in space somewhere. At the time I had already been teaching that message at a Zen center I worked at. I likened Amida, Tara, Manjushri and all the Cosmic Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to Jungian or cultural archetypes, though they are not exactly the same. Late...

Because I am a Mahāyāna priest ordained in several lineages it all the propaganda regarding the Mahāyāna movement comes to my eyes or ears almost daily. It seems that many have personal definitions of what Mahāyāna is. The word has almost become meaningless in and of itself. These definitions are most often juxtaposed to another word that is just as meaningless — Hīnayāna. When studying under one Zen “master” the words were bandied about with nuanced meaning, Mahāyāna = good, superior, vast and authentic; Hīnayāna = bad, inferior, narrow, small, corrupt and inauthentic.  What do these words mean? Because the words seem important they ought to be examined. In the Mahāyāsütrālaṅkāra of the famous Asaṅga (circa the 4 th century CE), co-founder of the Vijñāvāda or Yogācā school of Mahāyāna Buddhism uses both terms. In his work the school called Theravada (Pali) or Sthaviravada (Sanskrit) was identified as the Hīnayāna. Asaṅga possibly had the Indian Sthaviravadin in mind wh...

Buddha Nature is today taught as being interchangeable with Tathagatagarbha . They mean different things but this is not taught today. Buddha-nature, Buddha-dhatu or Buddha Principle, is taught differently in various Mahayana Buddhism traditions. Broadly speaking Buddha-nature is concerned with ascertaining what allows sentient beings to become Buddhas. The term is from the Mahayana Parinirvana Sutra where it is defined as the “true sacred nature” of the individual., in other words, a soul. Technically speaking, this universal definition is anti-Buddhist. No verses have caused so much controversy than the two that reference the “luminous mind.” They are found near the beginning of the Anguttara Sutta. They have been used to justify the idea of a soul theory inherent in the Buddhadhamma as well as the foundation of the teachings found in the Buddha-nature and Tathagatagarbha teachings. These enigmatic versus have no explanation in the Pali suttas and imaginations have run wil...

A walker in faith should practice the six recollections beginning with recollection of the Buddha. Then his faith will gain fixity. Vimuttimagga Hongaku Jodo (HJ) is part of the Mahayana Tradition. In particular it began as a strictly Pure Land Buddhist organization, that's what  jodo  means. It means Pure Land. The over all title of the organization is the Hongaku Jodo Compassionate Lotus Tendai Tradition. Both Zen and Pure Land are extremely important to the Tendai traditions. For some Tendai monks, Vajrayana is also quite important. Hongaku can be taken to mean "original enlightenment," which we at Hongaku tend to associate with "original emptiness" relating it to the space between two conceptual thoughts.  Because of the nature of our clergy Hongaku Jodo seeks to remain faithful to the core teachings of the Buddha. This makes Hongaku unique amongst Buddhist organizations and Sanghas in the Mahayana tradition. While these core teachin...