Tag Archives: hōnen
Oroka
My friend Jon, a contributor here, has started a new creative blog Oroka. Do check it out. I have a post up there about a trip to Hannya-ji near Nara. Oroka 愚か means something like ignorance, foolishness or stupidity in Japanese. As the title of Jon’s site it recalls Hōnen’s teaching, as recounted by his disciple Shinran, ”The [...]
Honen Shonin Memorial Day
Today is the memorial day for Honen Shonin, the master of Shinran Shonin and transmitter to him of the single practice of Nembutsu. In the following passage from his essay ‘Married Life in Shin Buddhism’, Reverend Kemmyo Taira Sato describes the depth in which Shinran revered his master Honen: For Shinran Shonin his wife was [...]
Falling Without Falling
Yesterday chanting ‘Shoshinge’ during evening devotions my attitude was wrong somehow and so the cadence of the syllables, the candlelight and scent of incense conspired to bring a myriad pleasurable memories of doing otsutome pouring into my mind. Of course memories aren’t inherently good or bad but these felt like I was feeding an attachment [...]
Temple Stay: Jan ’08 (Part 1)
My stay at the temple is going well. I’m just taking a short break from helping work on the glossary and notes to Sensei’s forthcoming Tannisho translation/commentary before it is sent off to a professional editor. I’ve attended two services so far. The cycle of chanting Shinran’s Wasan (Hymns) re-starts with the turn of the [...]
Autumn Ramblings II
This is totally irrelevant but the other day I wrote about how beautiful the trees are at the moment despite the wet summer. Then today the BBC reports: “Parks and forests in the UK are making up for the miserable summer by providing visitors with spectacular autumn leaf displays, experts say.” It turns out that [...]
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