A Fistful of Sand

I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Savatthi   in the Eastern Monastery, the palace     of Migara's mother. Now on that occasion the Blessed One, on emerging from seclusion in the late afternoon, sat warming his back in the western sun. Then Ven. Ananda     went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to the Blessed One, massaged the Blessed One's limbs with his hand and said, "It's Amazing, lord. It's astounding, how the Blessed One's complexion is no longer so clear & bright; his limbs are flabby & wrinkled; his back, bent forward; there's a discernible change in his faculties — the faculty of the eye, the faculty of the ear, the faculty of the nose, the faculty of the tongue, the faculty of the body."   "That's the way it is, Ananda. When young, one is subject to aging; when healthy, subject to illness; when alive, subject to death. The complexion is no longer so clear ...

Hell was once defined as a place where there is a Starbuck’s on every corner.  I guess I live in a sort of a purgatory. While there’s not a Starbuck’s on every corner, they are about a half-mile apart.  Sometimes stop at a Starbuck’s for a cup of coffee. If I get there before 10 am I get to hear the local North Shore Tea Party people hold their daily meeting. They hang out on the couches in front of the fireplace after they ask anyone who has previously sat in their meeting place to leave. They are very important people these wealthy North Shore Tea Party types. They sit comfortably speaking at great length about the problems of the world and how to solve them. The first thing they need to do is impeach President Obama, then repeal the Affordable Care Act, stop anyone with a “liberal” bent to not vote, and then pass anti-abortion laws and bring back the death penalty for misdemeanors.  They say these things at the top of their lungs, causing their harden...

Although we call the tradition “the Pure Land Tradition”, it is unwise and untrue to maintain that there is but one Pure Land Tradition within Buddhism. There are many.         Indian Pure Land Afghani Pure Land Chinese Pure Land Japanese Pure Land Tibetan Pure Land New World Pure Land Hongaku Pure Land Each school has commonalities with all other schools but also differences. Indian, Afghani, and Chinese Pure Land Buddhist schools would hardly recognize the Honen (Jodo Shu) or Shinran (Jodo Shin Shu) as authentic teachings yet the Japanese Schools maintain the supreme teaching of the Pure Land School. The Japanese sects would not recognize New World Pure Land Buddhism who claim to have the purest teachings according to the sutras. Hongaku Buddhism’s form of Pure Land attempts to be all-inclusive and recognizes all other form of Pure Land Tradition but has its own unique flavor because it is essentially a Tendai School. The Tibet...