Shoshinge Archives - San Mateo Buddhist Temple

The Peace of Mind We Receive from Sakyamuni Buddha

Posted on February 1, 2024January 29, 2025

In February, we observe our Nirvana Day Service commemorating Sakyamuni Buddha’s passing from this world into the lasting peace of parinirvana. In departing from this world, Sakyamuni embodied the essential truth that all who are born into human life will eventually pass through the gate of death. Given that our bodily form will not last forever, where shall we find meaning and purpose in this life? Observing the world in which we live, it seems that many lives are devoted to the pursuit of fame and profit. Shinran Shonin himself concludes his Hymns of the Dharma-Ages with the following verse:

I am such that I do not know right and wrong
And cannot distinguish false and true;
I lack even small love and small compassion,
And yet, for fame and profit, enjoy teaching others.

Shōshinge: Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu (Session 31)

Posted on December 13, 2023April 30, 2026

This session concludes our journey through the Shoshinge, which began in the Spring of 2020. As we read this final section, we reflect upon the significance of Shoshinge as a whole and consider the essential teachings that Shinran Shonin illuminates in his verses.

The mahasattvas and masters who spread the sutras
Save the countless beings of utter defilement and evil.
With the same mind, all people of the present, whether monk or lay,
Should rely wholly on the teachings of these venerable masters.

Shōshinge: Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu (Session 30)

Posted on November 15, 2023December 13, 2023

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

We continue our study of the teachings of Honen-bo Genku, Shinran Shonin’s teacher, reflecting upon the hindrances caused by doubt, and benefits of shinjin, or entrusting in the Buddha’s teachings:

Return to this house of transmigration, of birth-and death,
Is decidedly caused by doubt.
Swift entrance into the city of tranquility, the uncreated,
Is necessarily brought about by shinjin.

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

Posted on October 11, 2023October 12, 2023

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Please join us as we encounter the teachings of Honen-bo Genku, Shinran Shonin’s teacher, who established a radically inclusive Sangha community where samurai and aristocrats 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 September 13, 2023October 11, 2023

Wednesday, September 13, 2023

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.