Tag Archives: karma
The Maturity of Circumstances
The recent retreat I attended started with a kind of shadow over it due to some unresolved issues from the previous retreat. Bearing this in mind Sensei talked a bit about the role of problems in the Shin path. He started out by saying; “There are lots of problems but listening to the Dharma,” slight [...]
Link: Amida’s Protection?
The great thread Book Discussion-Ganso Daishi Gohogo-Chapter One-An Extraordinary Encounter over at the Jodo Shu forum, which I linked the other day, has raised another couple of interesting topics; (1) The Nature of Amida’s Protection, and (2) Karma. I suspect that my views on these topics, as they stand at this point in time, are somewhat [...]
More on “Menju Kuketsu no Shi”
Recently I wrote a post about the importance of faith-transmission in Jodo Shinshu. This weekend when I was at the temple I was helping edit a collection of Dharma-words from the head priest Venerable Chimyo Takehara and came across the following which helps clarify my previous post further: Because Shin Buddhist awareness of “their bad karma” [...]
Reflections on Orientation
I’ve written a lot recently about the importance of ‘orientation’ in practice. It’s so easy though to fall into various traps here and I was reminded of this last night whilst reading a discourse in Dōgen’s Eihei Kōroku (I.3): Seeing an opportunity and then taking action is not skillful. Manifesting a body and plotting some [...]
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 [...]
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