No distance in Dharma

[Dharmavidya]

Members of the Amida communion are scattered all around the world, but we are all part of one family. There is a bond of love here even between people who have never met face to face. This is something quite remarkable. Each member and each group contributes in a unique manner. Each shows their faith and love by whatever means they can. We are not just local groupings. We are all part of something that is growing simultaneously in many places with a common energy that is somehow organic. This organic aspect (bija-niyama) is very important in creating synergisms that gradually become more and more creative. We are carried by a faith that operates at an unconscious (chitta-niyama) as much as a conscious (karma-niyama) level.

Also, it is quite charactersitic of the Amida sangha that people drawn to it are often those who already have a good deal of experience of the spiritual path in one or more other spiritual traditions. They find here somehing particularly valuable that might be more difficult for the less experienced to appreciate. This also means that not only individuals but also some of the groups that affiliate have an existing history of spiritual engagement and this in turn means that the Amida communion gains and grows by these in-flowing currents. Of course, it also brings along the difficulties of orientation and acclimatization, but in general this is experienced as a welcome enrichment rather than a problem. Confluence of different experience expressed through the Amidist framework leads to creativity and spiritual maturity for us all.

Thus the people and groups that constitute Amida make up a distinctive kind of sangha: less standardized, more creative, in which each contributes to the whole rather than just to their own immediate locality or sub-set. This is sometimes an ideal and sometimes a reality, but it certainly provides a useful way for us to think as the sangha expands into new areas and domains. Not so much, 'what do we have to do to follow the Amida way?' more, 'what can we contribute to the international Amida movement?' Clearly there is a baseline for all of accepting the bombu paradigm, practising nembutsu, and relating to the Buddha as teacher, spiritual refuge and embodiment of ultimate truth; but within this broad frame we are all culturally engaged Buddhists acting as a leven in our world in as many different ways as our imaginations will stretch to; and each is part of the whole wherever they are and whatever their means of staying in touch. The nembutsu can be practised anywhere and the Dharma life can enrich all nations.

Namo Amida Bu

[Katrien Sercu]

This broad and deep approach gives trust and openess to the Amida community. It's not the question to follow the leaders(s) and to be obedient, as i met so often in other spiritual groups, where uniqueness and freedom of men were seen as a danger. I meet here the grateful opportunity to be inspired by the 'leaders', who are for me the people of the Amida order and to be inspired by the whole Amida sangha in all different forms, mostly by ning; to get the chance to find our own way to contribute in that comunion, without being divided in a hierarchic way and being judged, when just searching -by expressing- to try to understand the dharma and join the sangha.
That's the biggest reason that i can trust Amida Trust: every one has his place on his own way, connected and embedded by Love, respect, creativity and joy, in interdependency to the whole, without losing the uniqueness. This is so good!