Amida-shu
The Amida School (Amida-shu) is a Buddhist sangha following the Pureland tradition. This tradition derives from the insights, practice, dedication and faith of such great masters as Nagarjuna (1st century) and Vasubandhu (4th century) in India, Hui Yuan (334-416) and Shan Tao (613-681) in China, and Honen Shonin (1133-1212) and his many disciples in Japan.
The practice of this school is primarily focussed on chanting and the principle form of chanting is nembutsu. Nembutsu is the invocation of the Buddha of eternal life. The cental belief of this form of spirituality is in the unconditional acceptance of Amida Buddha. Amida Buddha accepts us all exactly as we are without judgement. Amida Pureland is, therefore, a religion of absolute (i.e. unconditional) grace.
Amidism thus differs from some forms of Buddhism in believing that there is nothing that one has to do in order to become acceptable to Buddha. There are no spiritual or moral states that have to be achieved or mastered and there is no punishment or penalty for failure. There are, of course, the natural consequences that we see in the world, but, in the eyes of Buddha, we are already completely accepted. That is what it means for Buddha to be Buddha.
Our spiritual practice, therefore, is full of awe, gratitude, humility, appreciation of the bitter-sweetness of life and all the other thousand and one sentiments that rise up in us when we are touched to our core by a truly spiritual vision of life. In our tradition we express these feelings through reciting the nembutsu, “Namo Amida Bu” which is the Buddha Prayer. Amida-shu is a Buddha Prayer denomination of Buddhism.
Out of these feelings, naturally, for many people, springs a desire to be of service to others. Amida-shu members are, therefore, well known for their socially engaged attitudes and activities.
Amida-shu has temples in UK, France, India and Hawaii and also members in Canada, Zambia, and Israel as well as students in many parts of the world. The home base is at -
The Buddhist House,
12 Coventry Road,
Narborough LE19 2GR,
UK
Telpehone: +44(0)116.2867476
E-mail: amida@amidatrust.com
Within the Amida-shu is the Amida Order. The head of the Amida Order is Dharmavidya David Brazier. You can read his Pastoral Letters. He also has a personal weblog. Amida-shu and the Amida Order have a constitution called Provisions for Structure, Continuity and Governance which includes criteria and procedures for admissions, policy making, consultation, complaints, amendment, succession and all matters to do with the formal affairs of the Order and School.The Amida Trust is the sponsoring body of the Amida-shu. It is a religious charity registered in England, having a board of trustees. Only a minority of tustees are members of Amida-shu, thus ensuring public accountability and oversight. Amida Trust sponsors a wide range of socially engaged Buddhist activity and has a membership. Members and supporters of the Trust are not required to be members of Amida-shu. Non-school members can actively participate in the work of the Trust in many ways so long as they are broadly sympathetic to Buddhism.
Practice & Liturgy
The central practice of Amida-shu is nembutsu, the chanting of the Name of Amida Buddha, usually in the form Namo Amida Bu, using tones, rhythms, melodies and choreographies. The practice expresses religious feeling. There is nothing calculating or spiritually ambitious about it. Whether we enter the Pure Land is a matter of grace, not achievement. The Tathagata pours down the rain of Dharma on great and poor alike. How we are affected depends upon our condition both our individual karmic condition and the human condition. The nembutsu, therfore, is like calling out from the human condition toward the sacred, from this to That.
As an extended form of nembutsu, we also recite, chant or sing Buddhist sutras, litanies and hymns. The practice is “with body, speech and heart” so includes bowing, sitting, making offerings, walking – especially circumambulating the Buddha shrine (probably one of the earliest Buddhist practices) – and other similar forms of ritual. There is also nei quan, a form of systematic introspection leading to experiences of contrition of a cathartic nature.
The liturgy of the Amida Order incorporates several important principles: It dramatizes the expression of faith; it incorporates time honoured elements; it is flexible to adapt to context; it is a sacred art form; it enables us to express the nembutsu with body, speech and heart; and it sustains community life.
Audio clips of our liturgy and nembutsu chanting can be found here.
KEY TEACHINGS
There are three central teachings of the Amida-shu:
Trikaya Nature of Buddha In Pureland, in common with all Mahayana Buddhism, Buddha is understood to mean not merely a species of particularly gifted human teacher, but also the spiritual principle or reality that informs such teachers and, beyond that, ultimate reality. These three constitute the trikaya or three bodies of the Tathagata.
Bombu Nature of Persons Pureland places particular emphsis upon the deluded or foolish nature of ordinary beings. This is called being bombu or having guchi nature. We are all frail, vulnerable and prone to error and do not claim enlightened or other elevated spiritual status.
Nembutsu as the Core of all Practice Pureland Buddhists practise nembutsu. Other practices are admitted only insofar as they are expressions of nembutsu. Pureland Buddhists do not use practices that have spiritual accomplishment as their aim.
Additional key concepts:
Other Power: All Buddhism is divided into jiriki (“self-power”) and tariki (“other-power”). Pureland Buddhism is tariki. This means that Amida Buddhism is a religion of grace, faith and devotion.
Pure Land: The activity of Buddhas generates a Buddha-field or Pure Land. Pureland Buddhists have faith in this process, in this and all future lives. We see ourselves as engaged in the Tathagata’s work of transformation.
Social Engagement: Since as Pureland Buddhists we do not have to wait until we are enlightened before we become part of the Buddha Land, we can get on with assisting all sentient beings immediately, without needing to take care about our own salvation.
Tathagata: The spiritual dimension of Buddhahood (see: Trikaya, above) is often called Tathagata, meaning “come from tathata”. Tathata refers to the sacred dimension of reality, literally “thusness”.
Further teachings can be found here
