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The Western Pure Land of Amitabha
The Western Pure Land of Amitabha Feb /11/ 2023 – Feb/ 12/ 2023 Amitabha Pure Land, we also call it Western Paradise. We saw many Buddhism practitioners who start their greetings with saying: “Namo Amitabha”; we also saw some people who cultivate Buddha Dharma by reciting the name of Amitabha, they think it is a simple but efficient way of cultivation. When we talk about where should we reborn after this life after decades of cultivation, most people would say “reborn in the ultimate bliss pure land”. This “ultimate bliss pure land” here means Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. Amitabha Pure Land is so popular and influential in our…
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Buddha Pure Land
Buddha Pure Land Feb /04/ 2023 – Feb/ 05/ 2023 At the beginning of this chapter, let’s figure out the relationship between the “Zen”, “pure land” and “esoteric dharma”. There are some connections between the “Zen”, “pure land” and “esoteric dharma”. Last month, we understood the importance of “seeing “self-nature from Zen study, which is not only the ultimate goal of our cultivation but also the essence of our dharma practice. The “pure land” is the directions or places that we are heading to after this life. As we know, most people practice Buddha’s Dharma for specific goals, like to reborn in the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss. I…
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Zen Cultivation
Zen CultivationJan /28/ 2023 – Jan / 29/ 2023 After the previous 3 introduction of Zen history, I believe we had a better understanding of of Zen now, which is not rely on words or letters but a special transmission outside of the scriptures. It is amazing, but how to cultivate in Zen? We actually got some ideal from couple weeks ago; we call it investigating a Zen topic. Take an example for it, when Bodhidharma had a meeting with emperor Wu, the emperor asked the Bodhidharma, “Who am I talking to?” Bodhidharma knew that the emperor Wu was still struggling about the phenomenon, so he answered him as “I…
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Chinese New Year Celebration Talk
Chinese New Year Celebration TalkJan /20/ 2023 – Jan / 21/ 2023 Hello everyone, I am so glad that we can spend Chinese New Year here in the Great Thunder Meditation Center. Today is one of the most important days of Chinese and also for the Buddhists. From today, the spring will come back to the earth, and everything refreshes, just as our old Chinese saying goes, “spring is to one year what morning is to one day.” I sincerely hope that everyone has a bright new year and please believe that today is going to be a fantastic beginning. Before I came here, I got a text from my…
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Spreading Zen In the Orient
Spreading Zen In the OrientJan /14/ 2023 – Jan / 15/ 2023 There was a young man who was living with his mother; the only way he made his living was selling firewood. One day he delivered some firewood to a shop when he was about to leave; he heard a guest was reciting a sutra. As soon as he heard the text of this sutra, his mind at once became enlightened. Thereupon the young man asked the guest the name of the book and inquired whence he came and why he recited this particular sutra. The guest replied that he came from Dong Shan Monastery in the Huang Mei…
