A Fistful of Sand

You can visit Hongaku Jodo by clicking here. A person has six properties, six media of sensory contact, eighteen considerations, & four determinations. He has been stilled where the currents of construing do not flow. And when the currents of construing do not flow, he is said to be a sage at peace. One should not be negligent of discernment, should guard the truth, be devoted to relinquishment, and train only for calm. This is the summary of the analysis of the six properties. — Dhatu-vibhanga Sutta: An Analysis of the Properties  Majjhima Nikaya 140 Much can be gleaned from this simple statement. The eighteen considerations, for example, refers to the six senses, their objects and their consciousnesses. Simply by mentioning them the Sutta suggests that they are objects or processes that we should be aware of. The Sutta flatly states that a person has these eighteen considerations, they ought to be examined and taken into account when we look at the experiences we...

Visit the  Hongaku Jodo Website Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. It has been suggested in Fairy Dust Buddhism, that there exists a ‘Holy Trinity’ of Gotama, Nāgārjuna, & Jesus and this is an interesting idea. Many Westerners came to Buddhism as a rejection of Christianity. Others suggest all religions teach the same thing, but no matter how much we would like to make it so, not all religions are alike, have the same goals, or the same starting points. There are reasons why so many have rejected both the Christian religion and the Christian spirituality. The starting point for Jesus, whether a historical figure or not, is very different than the Buddha’s. They seem to reject each other’s teachings.The notion of a soul, a creator god or the possibility of escaping the results of one’s actions were convincingly rebuked by the Buddha. The Jesus teachings reject the idea of emptiness, kamma, and anattā. The Buddha rejected ‘reincarnation’ and Jesus support...

Hongaku Jodo Website Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. It is easy to think that Mahāyāna has made it pretty clear that they distinguish between ‘the Buddha’ and ‘Buddha’ as a state of being per se . The problem with referring to ‘Living Buddhas’ and people becoming a Buddha in this lifetime is that it is Canonically false and logically inconsistent with the nature of the teaching and reality generally. The moment ‘I’ think that I might be enlightened then I am sure I am not. Just the very idea that everyone is already enlightened and they just need to uncover it is a trick of ego. ‘Everyone’ includes me and that means that I am telling myself that ‘I’ am already enlightened. Okay, if this is true, then the very ‘I’ that needs to be examined is enlightened — so why bother? To briefly characterize these perspectives, it might be fair to say that the Nikāyas and Āgamas give us a ‘historical-realistic perspective’ on the Buddha, while the Mahāyāna sūtras give u...

Visit the  Hongaku Jodo Website Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. ‘Indeed, the Blessed One is worthy and rightly self-awakened, consummate in knowledge & conduct, well-gone, an expert with regard to the world, unexcelled as a trainer for those people fit to be tamed, the Teacher of divine & human beings, awakened, blessed.’ — Anguttara Nikaya 11.12 Clear insight doesn't come from thought or conjecture. It comes from investigating the mind it is grounded in an sufficiently calm and stable. As we peer with intensity into every corner of the mind when it's free from thought-formations, judgements, preconceptions or likes and dislikes for its obsessions. One has try hard to maintain this state and at the same time inquire further, because superficial knowledge isn't true knowledge. It’s not what we are aiming at. As long as we haven't gone deeper into the mind, we don't really know anything about it, its workings and how we experien...