As a Pure Land Buddhist, I am not concerned with personal liberation like the Zen masters are. For that is self power (jiriki).
Rather, I am concerned with the liberation of all sentient beings by uttering the Name-that-calls (Nembutsu) in Buddha Remembrance. This is known as other power (tariki).
Buddha Remembrance is Nembutsu practice in which the follower chants the name of Amida Buddha mindfully with utmost sincerity and gratitude. Since most people may not be able to visualize the Pure Land or Amida himself, they still possess gratitude and sincerity.
Often when I practice Buddha Remembrance, I do so in short bursts to avoid entering a trance. It is important to beware of this since a trance-like state of mind may be mistaken for samadhi (mental concentration or composing of the mind).
For example, yesterday I experienced a calm state of mind, and although there was self doubt, it was easy to let go of those feelings and return to that feeling of calm.
During this time, I was at the library studying Buddhism.
You might think I learned something, and I did: the academic works of Pure Land by the Chinese Buddhist Buddhist Education Foundation are more to my liking.
For I'm not totally into Vajrayana even though some of my blog posts refer to it.
My skepticism of Vajrayana is based on Chogyam Trungpa's lifestyle and how it affected his ability to carefully pick his successor. In all fairness, it boggles the mind that Shambhala members would condone what happened, but they weathered it well.
Nor am I really into Theravada since it had the wrong idea about Mahayana. Even Zen masters are equally wrong-minded. For Mahayana is not cheating nor does it promote Nirvana, the Pure Land, or even Tusita Heaven as a reward for their respective practices.
Anyway, after my aborted attempt to find a good Buddhist book to read, I walked to the mall and had lunch. During the time I was there, I experienced this joy that comes to me more often these days.
It is because I've been doing short bursts of Buddha Remembrance consisting of silently chanting the Nembutsu (Namu Amida Butsu or the shortened version Nam'Am'da') ten to twenty times, counting them off one finger at a time.
Hey, I only have ten fingers!
To reference some words in this text, click on the labels below. If you're a novice at using Blogspot, the labels are in colored text and link to other blog posts.
Samadhi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam%C4%81dhi_%28Buddhism%29
Chogyam Trungpa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%B6gyam_Trungpa
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