10 min
Interview · Dharmavidya David Brazier
Pureland Buddhism
David and Caroline Brazier talk with Iain McNay about what drew them to Pure Land rather than to the Zen they trained in.
Overview
What does pure land point to?
Pure Land is a path of trust and devotion centred on Amida Buddha (Amitābha), the Buddha of Infinite Light, who vowed to welcome all beings into his Pure Land. Practitioners turn to Amida's compassion, above all through reciting his name: Namu Amida Butsu in Japan, Namo Amituofo in China. In the Japanese Shin tradition this is understood as entrusting oneself fully to Amida rather than to one's own effort; in Chinese Pure Land, recitation goes together with a sincere and ethical daily life. Followed by millions across East Asia and in Buddhist communities worldwide, it is practised in temples and at home through chanting, gratitude and an honest awareness of one's own limitations.
The name is not a technique to master. It is said in trust, and said in thanks.A central teaching within Pure Land
Teachers
Teachers across every lineage of Pure Land.
Pure Land holds many schools and lineages beneath it. Its teachers are gathered below.
DD
Pure Land
Dharmavidya David Brazier
Dharmavidya David Brazier is the founder of the Amida community, a Pure Land Buddhist sangha in the West centred on the nembutsu and on trust in Amida's acceptance of beings just as they are. A psychotherapist as well as a teacher, he has written books linking Buddhism and psychology, including “Zen Therapy” and “The Feeling Buddha”, and a series on the foundations of Pure Land Buddhism for Tricycle.
TraditionPure Land
RD
Pure Land
Rev. Dr. Kenneth Kenshin Tanaka
Rev. Dr. Kenneth Kenshin Tanaka is a Shin Buddhist minister and scholar who earned his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley. He served as a minister of the Buddhist Churches of America and taught at the Institute of Buddhist Studies before spending twenty years as a professor of Buddhist studies at Musashino University in Tokyo, where he is now emeritus. He has written on Pure Land thought for general readers and scholars alike, including “Ocean” and “The Dawn of Chinese Pure Land Buddhist Doctrine”.
TraditionPure Land
RD
Pure Land
Rev. Dr. Nobuo Haneda
Rev. Dr. Nobuo Haneda is a Shin Buddhist teacher and the head of the Maida Center of Buddhism in Berkeley, California. In Dharma talks and seminars in English at Shin temples across the United States and Hawaii, he explores the teachings of Shinran and the nembutsu as a path of awakening to one's deepest wish.
TraditionPure Land
RP
Pure Land
Rev. Prof. Kemmyo Taira Sato
Rev. Prof. Kemmyo Taira Sato is a Shin Buddhist priest and a former pupil of the Zen scholar D.T. Suzuki. In 1994 he founded Three Wheels in London, a branch of Shogyoji temple in Japan in the Jōdo Shinshū tradition, where services, retreats and eza, gatherings to meet and sit with Dharma talks in English, are held. Since 1997 Three Wheels has also held an annual ceremony of peace and reconciliation between British and Japanese war veterans.
TraditionPure Land
VW
Pure Land
Venerable Wuling
Venerable Wuling, born in 1946 in New York, is a Buddhist nun in the Chinese Pure Land tradition, ordained in Taiwan and a disciple of Venerable Master Chin Kung. Based in Toowoomba, Australia, at the Pure Land Learning College Association, she teaches the recitation of Amitābha's name together with sincerity, gratitude and kindness in daily life. She has led translation work and written several books in English, including “In One Lifetime: Pure Land Buddhism” and “Everything We Do Matters”.
TraditionPure Land
Artists
Musicians and singers.
Devotional music and chant from within this path, alongside its teachers.
Pure Land
Imee Ooi
Chinese-Malaysian composer, producer and singer who sets classical Buddhist chant, mantra and dharani in Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan and Mandarin, with more than fifty albums to her name.
TraditionPure Land
KT
Pure Land
Kinnara Taiko
Kinnara Taiko was formed in 1969 at Senshin Buddhist Temple, a Jōdo Shinshū temple in Los Angeles, by Rev. Masao Kodani and six other temple members. The group approaches taiko drumming as Buddhist practice: the emphasis lies on taking part and on self-awareness, on just playing rather than striving for perfection. Kinnara plays at temple services and Obon festivals, at schools and community events, and helped other temples start taiko groups of their own.
TraditionPure Land
Talks & videos
Watch across pure land.
Documentaries, interviews and talks connected to this path and its sub-paths.
55 min
Talk · Dharmavidya David Brazier
Regaining Innocence
On the nembutsu and the precepts as the way back to innocence, from the 2019 Bodhi gathering.
47 min
Talk · Dharmavidya David Brazier
What Pure Land Says About the Buddha's Awakening
A retreat talk arguing that the Pure Land reading of the Buddha's enlightenment differs from the one most Western practitioners have been given.
Upcoming events
Events across pure land.
Events tagged to an unpublished school or lineage automatically remain discoverable here while that level stays unpublished.
No upcoming events are currently listed.