Japanese page 🌸 Live OTSUTOME in April 2025 🌸
-- Hanamatsuri --
Let's Nembutsu together on Zoom!
- Session A: April (26)27 (e.g., Morning on 27 in Europe)
- Session B: April 27/28 (e.g., Evening on 27 in Americas)
• Local time near your city, and fuller information (in PDF) --> PDF flier
• One-hour reminder mail request (Please choose A or B) -->
• Direct access to the meeting room --> Go to Room 4332892972 directly.
[Pinned] Note) Our emails may be sometimes sorted into your spam/junk folder. If you don't receive any response from us within a couple of days, please check such a folder as well.
[17-Apr-2025]
There are two other Q & A snippets. See Q & A section below.
[2-Apr-2025]
"Q & A Snippet" is newly added. See Q & A section below. This is mainly used to post a brief answer to a short question anonymously sent us from the "Short Comment" field in the Q & A page. (We just received a new such question yesterday.)
[29-Oct-2024]
A new Spanish version of Rinkaian's Otsutome, which must be useful during Live OTSUTOME, is now available by courtesy of Shishin-san. Please see Special Issues section below.
[8-Sep-2024]
Another questions via the Q & A textbox is added (The answer is incorporated in the previous one.): Please see Q & A section.
[27-Aug-2024]
To two other readers who sent us questions via the Q & A textbox: Please jump to the Q & A page from the Q & A section below.
[17-Aug-2024]
To a reader who sent us a question via the Q & A textbox: We have prepared an answer. Please jump to the Q & A page from the Q & A section below.
[25-Jul-2024]
To the donor who sent us Bitcoin on July 22nd: Thank you very much for your valuable donation. We are truly grateful, and will use it carefully. If you don't mind, please let us know your name and/or contact information. In gassho, -Kasahara.
[2-Mar-2024]
For those who live in Japan and are interested in Jodo Shu --
At Rinkaian Temple, we welcome people who live in or around Tokyo and are interested in the teachings of Jodo Shu and Honen Shonin. If you understand Japanese, please join in the Nembutsu gathering (4th Sat.) and Sutra Copying Session (2nd Wed.) held every month at the temple. (Participation fee is 500 yen. For further information, please see our Japanese page or Rinkaian's Google calendar.) Moreover, another monthly event called "Live OTSUTOME" is held online in English. You can participate for free. (See above.)
Besides, if you want to talk with Jodo Shu priests or come to the temple, please contact us by email.
[5-Jan-2024]
Another new YouTube video is uploaded. (https://youtu.be/2MN0lD6ckNs )
Rev. Kasahara answers a question: How do you view the relationship between Amida Buddha and the Historical Buddha?
[3-Jan-2024]
We are happy to announce that our OTSUTOME book has now been published!
The book is a paperback available from Amazon. For those in US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Japan, Canada, and Australia, you can get it directly from amazon in your country. Please search for a product code "B0CR8ZF419." (The right image is linked to the Japanese Amazon website.)
We know that for other contries, there is a prohibitive shipping cost. We are asking you for any idea to circumvent this problem! Anyway if anyone in such a country wants to get the book, please contact us.
No. 66: ¿Alguna vez te han pedido dirigir un funeral para alguna mascota, perro o gato? ¿Cuál es la enseñanza del budismo al respecto?
No. 67: Amitabha es todo compasivo y dador. ¿Por qué no deberíamos pedirle cosas materiales sobre asuntos mundanos a Él? La protección también es un asunto mundano.
While our Spanish translations have been originally made by courtesy of Sebastian “Kodo” López, in addition, we now happily introduce a new translator Felipe “Shinpo” Rodriguez. (12-Jul-2024)
Q & A Snippets (17-Apr-2025)
Question 1: Formerly a Christian, I have practiced Nichiren Buddhism for the past two years and have received great benefit from it. Despite this benefit, however, I have a restless mind. My general studies in Japanese Buddhism led me to an awareness of Pure Land Buddhism, and for the past several months, I have felt as if Amida has been calling to me. In this time, I have gone back and forth, sometimes devoting myself to a Lotus Sutra-based practice, sometimes devoting myself to a Nembutsu practice. I seem to be caught in the thicket of views, views which seem mutually exclusive. My practice is suffering as a result of my indecision. Do you have any advice for the spiritual seeker?
Answer 1: As you know well, the essence of Nichiren Buddhism is the Daimoku, and that of Jōdo Buddhism is the Nembutsu. You will find the answer within your own chanting of each.
Furthermore, in Tendai Buddhism, the Lotus Sutra and the Nembutsu are traditionally practiced together, so such an approach is not denied.
Question 2: Hello, I know at least 4 people who are practicing Pure Land Buddhism here in USA but we have no sangha; we all took refuge at different temples. is it possible we start a group? what would a nembutsu group in Jodo Shu look like practically? which version of OTSUTOME should we use if we meet? How often should we meet? Please give us as many details as you can.
Answer 2: That's great! Please do create your group. There should be many more Nembutsu practitioners in USA. The Jodo Shu faith and practice do not necessarily require monastic life. I believe they are well-suited to the lives of modern people. A sangha through the internet would also be good. I think the activities would center around Otsutome and reading sessions, but there are no particular rules.
Have you ever participated in the Live Otsutome of Rinkai-an Temple? If not, please do join us. You might find some hints for your activities there.
♢ English version of Senchaku Hongan Nembutsu Shu [選択本願念仏集] (sometimes abbreviated as Senchaku Shu [選択集]) provided by BDK America: Downloaded PDF (Feb 2023)
♢ Spanish version of an essential part of Rinkaian's otsutome procedure is now available. This version is created by Shishin 至心 Daleffe-san. For the Spanish speaking people, even if you cannot obtain our OTSUTOME book sold via amazon, this version is sufficient to carry during Live OTSUTOME. (Oct 2024) (Machine-translated) Shishin 至心 Daleffe-san ha creado una versión en español de una parte esencial del procedimiento Otsutome de Rinkaian. Para las personas de habla hispana, incluso si nuestro libro OTSUTOME no está disponible a través de Amazon, esta versión es suficiente para llevar durante "Live OTSUTOME." (Oct 2024)
References by Jodo Shu Research Institute
While we introduced some JSRI articles here before, they are not available any more. Fortunately, I found them in 'Wayback Machine' (web.archive.org) although some included images are lost and formatting is incomplete. The following anchors are directly linked to web.archive.org. (By admin_yumiko; As of 20-Nov-2020)
If you want to develop a better knowledge about Jodo-shu, these references will be of much help to you. They are excellently solid and diligent works! ...in spite of their poor page layout :-(
(Some of them may include advanced or specialized research topics.)
Rin-Kai-An (literally 'forest-ocean-hermitage' in Chinese characters; pronounced "link-eye-an") is a temple devoted to "Jodo-shu" or Pure Land Buddhism, also called Honen Buddhism, a branch of Buddhism founded in the 12th century. Rinkaian itself was established in 2002 for missions of Jodo-shu, and is now located in Tama City, which is in the west area of Tokyo.
Although our web site currently does not provide much English content, you can download Daily service texts or the like from the downloads page, some of which are linked to YouTube videos.
Moreover, Jodo-shu's official site may help you learn about Honen Buddhism, the founder "Honen" himself, or Buddhism in general.
If you have any questions, you can contact us via any one of several means (including social media and e-mail).
From 'Hōjō' Kasahara
Hi. My name is Taijun Kasahara. Please call me "Hojo-san" (pronounced like "haw-jaw-san") or just "Kasahara-san," my family name.
I hope this site will show you the way of "easy practice" of Buddhism, o-Nembutsu ("o" is a prefix expressing respectfulness toward Nembutsu) and help you learn Honen/Pure land Buddhism in an authentic way.
Your requests and questions are welcome, and I hope to expand this site by conversing and communicating with everyone. Please don't hesitate to contact us. I'd be happ to hear from you any time.
Note: Sometimes Japanese people friendlily call such an elderly priest as "Hojo-san," in which hojo literally means a room or a hut with an area of about nine square meters, and in turn, mainly refers to a buddhist priest living in such a simple house.
Rinkaian's Google calendar
There are two other Q & A snippets. See Q & A section below.
We are happy to announce that our OTSUTOME book has now been published!
OTSUTOME Book From Hawaii Council of Jodo Missions (9.3 MB-PDF file; including 81 pages) (Jun 2020)
(Oct 2024)