Our main goals at the Jodo Shu North America English-speaking Web site are to unite people across America and around the world in our Buddhist practice, share the dharma of the Pure Land, and to provide support, education, and compassion to all. Honen Shonin’s Jodo Shu is meant to be practiced in or out of a formal sanctuary, and with or without a sangha. We offer remote prayers to those in our virtual sangha who don’t have a formal temple nearby.
Transfer of Merit: In large, formal services such as Higan, we offer incense to our ancestors while ministers chant either “Namu Amida Butsu” or selections from the “Sutra of the Buddha of Immeasurable Life.” This portion of the service represents the practice of “eko” or transfer of merit to our ancestors so that they may travel on to the Pure Land . If you request a remote prayer here, the ministers of Jodo Shu North America will conduct a special transfer of merit for your family or selected ancestors and will send to you a family tablet for your alter.
Mizuko-Kuyo: This is a very special prayer for the children we’ve lost – either at a young age or in utero due to miscarriage or abortion. In Jodo Shu there is no judgment, and the mizuko-kuyo prayer is, for some, the only way that families can make peace with their unborn children in a formal religious ceremony. Mizuko-kuyo is also an “eko” practice, or transference of merit so that your child may pass
lovingly into the Pure Land and into Amida’s hands. Attendees chant a prolonged nembutsu ichie (“Namu Amida Butsu”) to help deliver the child. The family will receive a tablet for the child. Mizuko-kuyo and all of our prayers – as well as our community and sanctuary – are open to our friends belonging to all religions, creeds, and personal beliefs.
Please also contact us at info@jodoshuna.org for in-person services, including:
– Ancestral transference of merit
– Mizuko-kuyo
– Weddings (including same-gender)