Shoshinge Archives - San Mateo Buddhist Temple

Shōshinge: Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu (Session 29)

Posted on July 11, 2023September 22, 2023

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

We welcome you to join us via Zoom Meeting from the comfort and safety of your own home on Wednesday, October 11 for this free Dharma Study Class.

6:00 p.m. Shōshinge Sōfu Chanting

Chanting Shōshinge embodies the heart of daily Nembutsu practice in Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. Join us to experience the settled the mind through focused breathing and meditative listening.

7:00 p.m. Reading and Discussion

Please join us as we encounter the teachings of Honen-bo Genku, Shinran Shonin’s teacher, who established a radically inclusive Sangha community where leading figures of high society sat shoulder to shoulder with outcastes and thieves to hear the message of Amida Buddha’s great compassion:

Master Genku, well-versed in the Buddha’s teaching,
Turned compassionately to foolish people, both good and evil;
Establishing in this remote land the teaching and realization that are the true essence of the Pure Land way,
He transmits the selected Primal Vow to us of the defiled world:

Shōshinge: Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu (Session 28)

Posted on June 13, 2023September 14, 2023

Wednesday, September 13, 2023

We welcome you to join us via Zoom Meeting from the comfort and safety of your own home on Wednesday, September 13 for this free Dharma Study Class.

6:00 p.m. Shōshinge Sōfu Chanting

Chanting Shōshinge embodies the heart of daily Nembutsu practice in Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. Join us to experience the settled the mind through focused breathing and meditative listening.

7:00 p.m. Reading and Discussion

Please join us for a conversation about the teachings of the Japanese Pure Land Master Genshin, whose teachings offer the assurance that the light of the Buddha’s compassion is constantly illuminating our path forward in life, even when we are not aware of it.

The person burdened with extreme evil should simply say the Name:
Although I too am within Amida’s grasp,
Passions obstruct my eyes and I cannot see him;
Nevertheless, great compassion is untiring and illumines me always.

Shōshinge: Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu (Session 27)

Posted on January 12, 2023September 13, 2023

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Please join us for a conversation about the teachings of the Japanese Pure Land Master Genshin, whose teachings set the stage for the flowering of the Pure Land teaching in Japan.

Genshin, having broadly elucidated the teachings of Sakyamuni’s lifetime,
Wholeheartedly took refuge in the land of peace and urges all to do so;
Ascertaining that minds devoted to single practice are profound, to sundry practice, shallow,
He sets forth truly the difference between the fulfilled land and the transformed land.

Shōshinge: Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu (Session 26)

Posted on December 8, 2022September 13, 2023

Wednesday, March 8, 2023

In this month’s session we will further explore the teachings of the Chinese Pure Land Master Shan-tao (Shandao), who illuminates the path to attaining the threefold wisdom realized by Queen Vaidehi.

Shan-tao alone in his time clarified the Buddha’s true intent;
Sorrowing at the plight of meditative and non meditative practicers and people of grave evil,
He reveals that Amida’s light and Name are the causes of birth.
When the practicer enters the great ocean of wisdom, the Primal Vow,

He receives the diamondlike mind
And accords with the one thought-moment of joy; whereupon,
Equally with Vaidehi, he acquires the threefold wisdom
And is immediately brought to attain the eternal bliss of dharma-nature.

Shōshinge: Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu (Session 25)

Posted on November 8, 2022September 13, 2023

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

In this month’s session we will encounter the teachings of the Chinese Pure Land Master Shan-tao (Shandao), who clarified the meaning of the Contemplation Sutra as an expression of the Buddha’s vast compassion for all beings.

Shōshinge: Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu (Session 24)

Posted on September 14, 2022September 13, 2023

Wednesday, December 14, 2022

In this month’s session we will continue our study of the teachings of the Chinese Pure Land Master Tao-ch’o (Daochuo), whose teachings illuminate how our encounter with the Buddha’s compassionate vow brings about liberation for all of us who struggle to practice goodness in the world of conflict and delusion.

With kind concern he teaches the three characteristics of entrusting and non-entrusting,
Compassionately guiding all identically, whether they live when the dharma survives as but form, when in its last stage, or when it has become extinct.
Though a person has committed evil all his life, when he encounters the Primal Vow,
He will reach the world of peace and realize the perfect fruit of enlightenment.

Shōshinge: Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu (Session 23)

Posted on August 9, 2022September 13, 2023

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

In this month’s session we will encounter the teachings of the Chinese Pure Land Master Tao-ch’o (Daochuo), whose teachings encourage us to pass through the Pure Land Gate and recite the Name of Amida Buddha (Namo Amida Butsu).

Tao-ch’o determined how difficult it is to fulfill the Path of Sages,
And reveals that only passage through the Pure Land gate is possible for us.
He criticizes self-power endeavor in the myriad good practices,
And encourages us solely to say the fulfilled Name embodying true virtue.

Shōshinge: Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu (Session 22)

Posted on July 19, 2022September 13, 2023

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

In this month’s session we will continue our study of the Chinese Pure Land Master Tanluan, whose insight that birth-and-death is itself nirvana opens the gate to realizing peace of mind for oneself, so that one can help others on their path to liberation from suffering.

When a foolish being of delusion and defilement awakens shinjin,
He realizes that birth-and-death is itself nirvana;
Without fail he reaches the land of immeasurable light
And universally guides sentient beings to enlightenment.

Sweetness and Bitterness

Posted on July 1, 2022July 22, 2022

The other day, my son went with a friend to the San Mateo County Fair. When he returned home, I asked him if he had eaten anything at the fair, to which he replied, “Yes, cotton candy.” The flavor of cotton candy is pure sweetness and I liked it myself when I was a kid. When I recently tasted cotton candy for the first time in years, I found the sweetness to be a bit too much. As a child, my favorite foods were simply sweet or salty, but as I get older, I find that I appreciate a much wider variety of flavors.

Shōshinge: Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu (Session 21)

Posted on June 14, 2022September 13, 2023

Wednesday, September 14, 2022

In this month’s session we will continue our study of the Chinese Pure Land Master Tanluan, whose commentary on the treatise of Bodhisattva Vasubandhu clarifies that our attainment of awakening and our guiding of others to awakening are both possible not through our own efforts, but by relying on Amida Buddha’s compassionate vow.

In his commentary on the treatise of Bodhisattva Vasubandhu,
He shows that the cause and attainment of birth in the fulfilled land lie in the Vow.
Our going and returning, directed to us by Amida, come about through Other Power;
The truly decisive cause is shinjin.