Our Practice

You may have heard that Buddhism is "not a religion"...

Amida Buddhism is an inquiry into the meaning of our lives and inquiry which is both deeply personal and wholly transcendent. It is a religious path, inviting us to take refuge, as deluded and vulnerable beings - foolish beings - in Amida Buddha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, through a simple act of prayer called Nembutsu.

Amida Buddhism has a characteristic flavour: the bitter-sweet feeling of confronting our own frail and fallible human nature and the many troubles of the world around, while feeling totally loved and accepted just as we are. It provides a place where we can face ourselves in honesty and arrive at a deep sense of fellow feeling with all sentient beings, all likewise afflicted, likewise impermanent.

Amida Buddhism provides the frame within which we can turn our lives to useful purpose. We do not have to achieve and particular degree of spiritual accomplishment before we can make ourselves useful. we do not have to struggle to love ourselves - because we are loved already and received by the Buddha just as we are. We do not have to cultivate self-esteem, for the modest are always acceptable. We do not have to become enlightened - because it is precisely for ordinary beings such as ourselves that Amida Buddha made his great vows.