Prayer for Love and Mercy

Well, maybe the current situation of Buddhism is that there are too many Buddhist scriptures, and various sects have been born and it is difficult to control them, but I think that the basis of Buddha's teachings is still the original Buddhist scriptures (Agama sutras). I was originally saved by Shinran, so I think of myself as a "Jodo Shinshu sect". Despite that, why do I dare to push the "original Buddhist scriptures" (Agama sutras) here? Because I have to go back to the topic of money here. In modern society, or rather since ancient times before Christ, humans have been obsessed with, addicted to, and controlled by the "money" they created themselves, and as a result, they have become increasingly unhappy. God, Buddha, could not bear to see us like that, showed us the path to happiness that we should really follow. So I guess that at that time, full-scale religions arose simultaneously all over the world, and the teachings to regain control over ...

 I was troubled by the sheer number of Buddhist scriptures, but now I think they were all expressions of the Buddha's compassion. They are all organically connected, and I think that it would be a disregard of the Buddha's compassion to say which is higher and which is lower, or to take which and discard which. The image is that the entire Buddhist scriptures form one whole body, and each scripture is like a part of that body. Or perhaps it's like the process of the Buddha's answer to the ultimate problem of "saving everyone." For example, the Lotus Sutra suddenly gives the answer that "everyone will become a Buddha," but if you read the Lotus Sutra as it is, your honest impression is that you don't really know what to do to achieve that. I think that this is the ultimate answer to the ultimate problem, and the process of answering that leads to this has continued from the original Buddhist scriptures to the Lotus Sutra. First, the historical Bud...

 Since the Mahayana Buddhist scriptures were established after the death of Buddha, are they false sutras? It is true that the Buddha, as a historical entity, did not preach them. So who preached them? It was the usual "guided by love and compassion." Someone. Oh, love is God. And Buddha is compassion. So in Buddhism it was "guided by compassion." The Mahayana Buddhist scriptures were preached after the death of Buddha "guided by compassion," but Buddha is compassion, so it was Buddha who preached them. The original Buddhist scriptures show the way to enlightenment, and to get there you have to become a monk and practice. Then you finally attain enlightenment and become a Buddha. However, that is not the end. Once you become a Buddha, it is impossible to look at people who cannot become a monk or practice, and therefore cannot become a Buddha, and do nothing. Inevitably, they return to this world to save those who cannot be saved. They have no choice but t...

Well, I'd like to talk about how I first got involved with religion. I'm sure I'll go off on a tangent again soon, but I'll deal with that when the time comes. Anyway. I was born in Japan, so Buddhism is the most familiar religious soil to me. So I started with Buddhism. Well, it was a natural progression. I went to a Jesuit school for middle and high school. Priests and teachers were there. Apparently there was a Bible study group every Friday, but I never attended one. Looking back, I wonder why I went to that school. It's the end of the road. The treasure was right in front of me, but I couldn't see it at all. You can't see true treasure unless your spiritual eyes are opened. It's not smart to get into a good university by taking an entrance exam. If you can't see the treasure even though it's right in front of you, you're just an idiot. It's embarrassing. So anyway, I started with Buddhism. Not Christianity, which I thought I had a co...

If I continue talking about money, it will become all about politics and economics, and it will no longer be a prayer blog, so I would like to return to the main topic of religion. However, human beings cannot be happy by prayer alone. We must be involved in reality. And reality is money, above all. What cash! I will definitely come back to this topic later. To take back sovereignty from money and into the hands of humans. By the way, I said that you cannot be happy by praying alone, but I don't really think so. I will take back what I said before, "People can be happy just by praying" In fact, this is my true feeling. The reason is that if you pray, God, that is, Buddha, will always listen. And he will tell you what to do and guide you. If you pray, he will always answer you. And after that, you just have to proceed as usual led by love and mercy. So, last time I said that God, Buddha, had pity on us and sent down the true religion to all parts of the world, and this is ...

So when did humanity start to become addicted to money? Well, here is what Socrates said. "Aren't you ashamed that you only think about increasing your own money?" Already in the 5th century BC, Greek philosophers were astonished. I have seen almost the same words in Buddhist scriptures. In other words, people all over the world were already addicted to money by this time. There was no need to wait for modern capitalism. And this period roughly coincides with the emergence of advanced philosophy and religion in the world. Greek philosophy in Europe, Buddhism and Jainism in India, and the Hundred Schools of Thought in China. Then Judaism, Christianity, and Islam followed. (However, it may not be true that the establishment of Judaism was triggered by humanity becoming addicted to money.) Unable to bear to watch humanity become obsessed with the money they themselves created, become slaves to it, worship it, become addicted to it, and become unhappy, the merciful God, the B...

When did humanity become dominated by money? You might first think of modern capitalism. You say capitalism, but what is capital? It's money, right? Isn't it "moneyism"? People often say that capitalism is an ideology that is opposed to socialism, but which is more important, money or society? It's society, of course! But don't some country's leaders use the word "socialism" as if it were a synonym for evil? They say, "X is socialism. (And that's why it's no good)." Of course they say that because they are super rich, that is, they are the poster children of money. And the people around them are also super rich (with personal assets of hundreds of billions of dollars! Completely incomprehensible), so there's no stopping them. What was meant to be "a government of the people, by the people, for the people" (Lincoln) has become "a government of MONEY, by MONEY, for MONEY" (a certain leader) Is this really o...