It is a cliché to say that publishing an introductory textbook to a vast and philosophical subject like Buddhism is much harder than some writers
Who can really practice with a genuine mind? At the end of Master Shandao’s passage on interpreting the Sincere Mind, he states: For [disavowing] the threefold
Whenever I teach Japanese Buddhism, whether in the Americas, Europe, or East Asia, I frequently run into the same assumption among students that Buddhists, for
Last time, we explored how a Pure Land aspirant attains both “genuineness in self-benefiting” and “genuineness in benefiting others” through the dedication of real merits
To seek refuge in Amitabha Buddha is to receive his “real” merits and virtues In our discussion of the Sincere Mind in my last three
In the first part of our exploration of the Sincere Mind, we concluded that there was a problem. Apparently, to be reborn in the Land
To many practitioners of the Mahayana schools of Buddhism of East Asia and the esoteric traditions of the Himalayas and Japan, bodhisattvas, or “enlightenment beings,”
A finger pointing at the moon The simple question of “What is a Buddha?” was raised in a casual discussion with a venerable Pure Land
Causes of rebirth in different realms With regard to my previous article* discussing the cause of assured rebirth in Amitabha’s Pure Land, many readers were surprised
Qianfo’an (千佛庵), the Temple of One Thousand Buddhas, better known as Xiaoxitian (小西天) or the Little Western Paradise, is located in present-day Xi County, Linfen
Recently, I was sitting on a train coming back home from Sydney Central and couldn’t help but overhear a conversation between a teenaged girl and
Two ways of establishing faith from Amitabha’s Name Master Shandao states in Praise of Rites of Rebirth: “The honorable Amitabha set forth an extremely solemn vow. He
