Thoughts after a religious service with my Nembutsu friends

I recite in the middle of my personal chaos and everybody in the Amidado (Amida Hall), recites in the middle of his/her personal chaos. We do not transform this chaos into order or purity, we don’t think at all to purity or negativity, we just recite and the sacred sounds of sutras and Nembutsu come from Amida, carrying us, embracing us, accepting us.

In Jodo Shinshu we leave everything to Amida Buddha, our bad karma and our good karma. We do not rely on our good karma to attain Buddhahood in the Pure Land and our bad karma does not count, only Amida is important. Recitation reminds us of this, when no matter how we feel, we continue to recite.

Also, our everyday life is sometimes good or bad, we chose what we like and reject what we don’t like, but in the Amidado we don’t do this. We follow only the Path, not our own likes and dislikes, not our own opinions, but the Dharma.

Chanting in the middle of our chaotically mental states reminds us that exactly in the middle of our everyday life with its ups and downs, we follow the Nembutsu Path. We have to keep going in the middle of our own chaos, we have to walk the white path in the middle of the river of fire and water.

Shakyamuni urges us to go to the Pure Land, and Amida is calling us. The path is here, in the middle of our misery, ignorance, blind passions and personal difficulties. It is the path Amida has built for us. While we recite the Name and feel our minds are disturbed by personal thoughts or other problems, we just let them be as they are, and we continue to say....... NA MO A MI DA BU, NA MO A MI DA BU, NA MOA MI DA BU.......