Dynamic Concentration in Pure Land Buddhism

 

Dynamic Concentration

in Pure Land Buddhism

See video first: https://youtu.be/l4IDayXV6r0

Yuki's comment: I did a bit of searching online and was surprised to find that this practice at Ichikukai was originally practiced with the name of Amitabha, e.g. was a form of nembutsu, just as described in your What’s Next book and just like we practice with our Gurus' name in Amrita Mandala!!! Story goes that the founder of this method, Inoue Masakane (b. 1790) learned this from a woman who was a practitioner of an esoteric Pureland Buddhism called “hidden nembutsu”. He had an awakening with this method, but due to his father’s dying will to penetrate into the meaning of Shinto prayer, and his later having a vision of a Shinto deity, adopted his awakening experience and the method for it into a Shinto practice, that has been passed on to this day at a place like Ichikukai. Some of his disciples actually continued practicing it in its original form of rhythmic shouting of Amitabha’s name, which they called “kosho nembutsu” (loud voice nenbutsu), and apparently was practiced as recently as 1990s and may still be practiced somewhere in Japan. I thought this to be a compelling story as I have heard of your strong connection to Pureland Buddhism and so is your teacher Terayama-Roshi”.

Pemako Morning Coffee - Tips about Dynamic Concentration

 

Pemako Morning Coffee

- Tips about Dynamic Concentration

Ben: Got another question, this time regarding DC shouting. Trying to figure out the most effective way to practice shouting GR mantras.

I don't remember where but I saw Kim say recently to shout a couple hundred repetitions of a guru mantra every day (I think that's what he said??). I have been trying this but my question is, is it better to shout them for like 15 minutes or more straight and then rest in ati to feel the blessings, or is it best to do shorter periods and then spend some time in ati before shouting again to recharge. I hope I am phrasing this question ok.

I think the answer might be to try them out and see what works best, but would like to confirm if anyone has hints on this. It seems that for me, when I shout for a long time straight, like say 20 minutes, the blessings still do not last all that long. So I think doing it the way we do Pemako coffee, with 50 hung phets followed by ati, then another 50, then another 50, seems like it might be the best way. Is it ok or preferable to do GR shouting this way, doing 50-100 reps then rest, then another set to recharge the blessings, and so on? For me it feels like I really need to yank on it to get the blessings at an intensity where I can feel them properly.
I also remember Kim talking about the shinto, I think, initiation where they had to shout all day long. What do you all think about longer shouting sessions, like say doing an hour+ of GR mantra?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Kim: Pemako coffee style is nice and compact. 50 reps at once makes a nice hole when you put some punch into it. It's a good formula. What I meant with few hundred reps is that you can increase the 50 to hundred at once. Doing more than what one is used to is good because doing DC for longer lets you forget that you're doing it while you're doing it and it teaches you how the body, when you let it, produces sharp loud sound in a beautiful almost effortless manner.

At Ichikukai Dojo we would shout for 3 days straight, with short breaks and 6 hours of sleep. Loved the shouting, absolutely hated the rest of it because you actually got punched by the seniors while you were shouting. Not kidding.

But longer shouting sessions, similar to longer chanting sessions, there is something really powerful about them. We've had 12 hour chantings of NGR and GR hoped few years ago that we would have 24's but we haven't had good opportunity for that yet. Actually I think we should just start doing it 　

What you can do at home is to use the coffee formula for 1 hour, or 2, or 6, with short breaks for toilet and meals, and see how it works. Even when you put some punch into each syllable, you can manage it without getting (that) sore throat :)

Pemako Morning Coffee, guided practice: https://youtu.be/s-B0JMYOgvM