(At Ryuganji Temple, the head priest writes a monthly Buddhist column on the bulletin board in front of the gate. This is the column for June 2025.)
A question from a disciple
Last fall, I received a series of inquiries from people who wanted to become disciples, and since February of this year, I have been training two disciples.
One day, I received a question, “How should I chant the Nembutsu?
I remembered with nostalgia that I had run into this same question in my younger days. I thought that there might be others besides my disciples who might be similarly troubled, so I have written my own answer below.
Aim for 60,000 times a day!
Nembutsu is the practice of simply chanting “Namu Amida Buddha” in the hope that Amida Buddha will protect us. It is called “igyo” (easy practice) because it is a simple practice that anyone can do anytime, anywhere. Honen, the founder of the Jodo sect, is said to have chanted the Nembutsu 60,000 times a day.
If he chanted once per second, it would take him more than 16 hours to do so, which means that he chanted the Nembutsu from morning till night – such a stoic lifestyle!
We Jodo-sect monks learn this “60,000 times a day” as an ideal number during our training, but it is almost impossible to achieve this in our daily lives. If we were to chant the Nembutsu single-mindedly while riding the train, watching a movie at the cinema, or enjoying a family gathering on a holiday, it would interfere with our social life. In Honen’s time, the Nembutsu may have been an easy practice, but today, it has become a difficult practice.
Mindfulness is more important than frequency
Nevertheless, even under unavoidable circumstances, in our Jodo sect, chanting “Namu Amidabutsu” is the only practice. If we cannot do this satisfactorily, we cannot make satisfactory progress in our Buddhist practice. We are also concerned that the Buddha may abandon me.
However, when we read the words of Honen, it seems that his emphasis was not on the number of times one chanted, but on the importance of “shijoshin,” or facing the Buddha with a true heart.
That is right. It is meaningless to boast about how many times you have chanted Namu Amidabutsu if your heart is not in it. This is a fundamental lesson not only for Buddhism but also for our lives.
Therefore, it is important to live with a mind that is truthful and without falsehood. If we always live with a mind of truth, even if we can recite Namu Amidabutsu only a few times a day, our practice of Buddhism will naturally deepen. And our daily lives will also become more fulfilling.
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