Welcome to the Hongwanji Buddhist Mission of Australia
Visit of Rev Dr Toshikazu Arai to Australia
Rev Dr Toshikazu Arai
Guest Speaker, November 2010:
Rev Dr Toshikazu Arai, Professor Emeritus of Soai University, Osaka
will give two public lectures. All welcome!
Dr Arai is a Shin Buddhist priest, Indologist and peace activist. He is a popular and well-loved teacher of Shin Buddhism.
Friday 12 November, 2pm: Shin Buddhism - Its History and Teaching
Saturday 13 November, 2pm: Salvation of Ordinary Foolish Ones
Buddhist Council of New South Wales,
Level 1, 441 Pacific Highway, Crows Nest
For more information and bookings please contact:
Hongwanji Buddhist Mission of Australia,
Phone (02) 8901-4334, or email
HANAMATSURI
Sunday 11 April, 2010 at 11 am
Guest Speaker Rev Dr Mark Healsmith.
All welcome!
Join us to celebrate the birthday of the Buddha
Please bring a potluck dish for lunch.
We are Australians and Australian residents who have chosen the Way of the Buddha as the guide and inspiration for our lives. We come from all parts of Australia to gather at our weekly Dharma sessions [PDF] to share the Buddha's teachings and to enjoy each others company. We are a small but family temple and love to welcome our friends and neighbours of whatever faith to join with us in peace.
Our Hongwanji tradition began 700 years ago during the life of the Founder of our lineage, Shinran. Shinran was a great and famous disciple of Buddha. The last Buddha to live on earth was Shakyamuni upon whose teaching all Buddhism today is based. Shakyamuni lived in India nearly 2,600 years ago and his teachings are alive and guiding people's lives today.
Our Mission is an affiliate of the Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-Ha. With approximately 10,000 temples and 12,000,000 members it is one of the largest denomination in Japan. This form of Buddhism espouses the teaching of Jodo Shinshu (also known as Shin Buddhism or True Pure Land Buddhism). The Hongwanji tradition traces its beginning to Shinran Shonin (1173-1262), a priest of the Kamakura Period and a student of Honen Shonin, the founder of the Jodo sect.Shinran systemized his teaching in the work entitled KYO GYO SHIN SHO. 'Kyo', the teaching, is the Larger Shukhavativyuha Sutra which Sakyamuni Buddha expounded as the teaching, the raison d'etre for his birth into this world. 'Gyo', the practice, is the Name of the Buddha, Namo Amida Butsu, elucidated within the Sutra and is the very essence for our deliverance into the Pure Land. 'Shin', the faith, is the single-hearted repose in the teaching wherein, through hearing, the Name is received unquestionably and without doubt. 'Sho', the attainment, is the Buddhahood that is attained with deliverance into the Pure Land through faith as its true cause.
Embodied within the Name are the totality of the Vows and Practices necessary for deliverance, and thus endowed it becomes the true cause for deliverance into the Pure Land. All utterances of the Name are but thanksgivings for this blessing.
We, who otherwise will be unable to attain perfection, are given faith by hearing the Name and are embraced and not forsaken by the Wisdom and Compassion of Amida Buddha, and thus are counted within the "ranks of the truly assured". Therefore does it behoove us to live virtuously and when that time shall have come, we shall receive the bliss of Buddhahood.
Shinjin-Faith is truly the single path by which all men may turn from illusion and attain birth in the Pure Land through the workings of the Name. Assuredly is the Name the life-essence for all.
We invite you to attend one of our scheduled Sunday Services.
Shinran Shonin