Dharmavidya Web

Question 38: Is attachment to the guru OK?

Quick answer: Yes, if it helps practice.

Question 37: How to regard Amida?

Quick answer: Amida is a real person and is a Buddha Tathagata.

Question 36: What happens when an Amidist dies?

Quick answer: He or she goes directly to the Pure Land.

Question 35: How to deal with anger over collective issues

Quick answer: Put your faith in the bigger process.

Question 34: Is Oneness the Goal of Practice?

Quick answer: No, but we must distinguish different meanings of "oneness".

Question 33: Do you have a theory about Jesus

Quick answer: There are many Buddhas.

Question 32: Do Amida Buddhists meditate?

Quick answer: 1. Amida Buddhists practise nembutsu. 2. Nembutsu is amplified by spiritual exercises.

Question 31: Does equanimity imply incapacity to make judgements?

Quick answer: No, it means being able to take the rough with the smooth, not being incapable of telling one from the other.

Question 30: Do Pureland Buddhists practice intercessory prayer?

Quick answer: No, we practise merit transference.

Question 29: What is the link between Buddhism and social engagement?

Quick answer: Buddha taught compassion for all and established a sangha that was a social movement, not just an arrangement to support individual practice.

Question 28: What does the Amida logo mean?

Quick answer: The setting sun behind clouds symobises Amida's Light imperfectly perceived.

Question 27: How can one keep to principles in a corrupt world?

Quick answer: None of us does; however, if you take a long term view, have faith, and stand by your sangha, remarkable things happen.

Question 26: Isn't it more important to develop intersubjectivity than private personal practice?

Quick answer: Yes, practice is an encouter with Buddha, with sangha, and with the world as it is.

Question 25: Why do Buddhas put out their tongues?

Quick answer: To demonstrate that they are Buddhas and to, symbolically, display the Dharma.

Question 24: What is meant by saying: Good ultimately prevails?

Quick answer: Good actions do not necessarily bring immediate result but they always do eventually bear fruit.

Question 23: What does Shinran's statement that even good people go to the Pure Land mean?

Quick answer: Amida Buddha's Pure Land is primarily for the non-good, i.e. for people like us, but good people are not excluded.

Question 22: Do social engagement and practice conflict?

Quick answer: Not if it is real practice. The purpose of practice is to express faith and make us useful.

Question 21: Can purity survive an impure society?

Quick answer: Only impure beings like ourselves can help society.

Question 20: Isn't Pureland more like Christianity than like Buddhism itself?

Quick answer: No, Pureland is Buddhism itself without the Christian-like elements taken out.

Question 19: Is the Buddha portayed in New Buddhism academically correct?

Quick answer: No, and there is no need for us to treat academe as an ultimate authority.

Question 18: How are we to understand the parallels between Christianity and Pureland?

Quick answer: 1. Buddhism influenced Christianity. 2. Some truths are universal.

Question 17: Does faith in the future imply faith in this world?

Quick answer: Have faith in faith.

Question 16: Does metaphysics have a place in Critical Buddhism?

Quick answer: Yes. You cannot do without metaphysics and attempts to do so are blind to their own metaphysical assumptions.

Question 15: Are some people evil?

Quick answer: Yes, we all are. We do, however, have the ability to sometimes see how acting upon our perverse nature brings undesirable results.

Question 14: What should we think about sexism in Buddhism?

Quick answer: We should lament it, correct it, and not support those forms of Buddhism that practise it.

Question 13: What is Buddha?

Quick answer: Buddha is our spiritual friend.

Question 12: How should we regard natural disasters?

Quick answer: As spurs to faith and practice.

Qustion 11: What do you think of Ohtani's book on Eshinni?

Quick answer: The books on Eshinni are an important source.

Question 10: How can one cope with acute anxiety?

Quick answer: Reconnect with the natural world in a spirit of awe.

Question 9: Does Buddhism offer wholeness and healing?

Quick answer: Though we strive to be whole, we are loved as we are.

Question 8: Can we be enlightened yet still be overwhelmed by our animal nature?

Quick answer: If we are enlightened to our animal nature we will treat it kindly but firmly.

Question 7: What can one do when spirituality seems unreal?

Quick answer: That's just it. We are bound to find it so some of the time - that's the kind of beings we are. To think otherwise would be perfectionism.

Question 6: Is meditation necessary?

Quick answer: No, but refuge is.

Question 5: Should Buddhists study Krishnamurti?

Quick answer: Krishnamurti's philosophy is distantly related to Buddhism. Whether you like it is a matter of taste.

Question 4: How do Don Cupitt's ideas seem from a Pureland perspective?

Quick answer: Similar concerns, different conclusions.

Question 3: What is the Buddhist view of romantic love?

Quick answer: Relationships can be a spiritual path but they are commonly full of delusion.

Question 2: Does compassion start with oneself?

Quick answer: No. Fellow feeling comes primarily from allowing oneself to be moved by the needs and suffering of others or from realising that one has the same deficiencies as they do.

Question One: What part do fantasy and transference play in Buddhist practice?

Quick answer: Buddhist practice involves working through thes issues even though this language is not the language Buddhists use.