this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2025
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Cheesecake doesn’t make you think of the Buddha, am I right? Mindfulness of the Buddha is a practice Shakyamuni himself suggested, you can find it in the Pali Canon, not only in Mahayana sutras. Also there is much more than just simply repeating a word, since nembutsu is also tied with the Primal Vows of Amida itself, regarding rebirth in the Pure Land
What one thinks doesn't matter. Because thinking has nothing to do with this technique.
Scriptural relevance doesn't matter either.
What matters is what you are doing with your awareness. In this meditation technique you are directing your awareness at a thing (the repeated phrase) and holding it there. Like you would hold a thing in your hand.
It doesn't matter if the thing that you hold is a pebble, a grape or a chip of wood. It's the same holding.
This nembutsu meditation is a variety of samatha. The "object" in this case being a scripturally-relevant phrase.
The phrase is not chosen because the phrase has special power. The phrase is chosen because we like scripture.
On a surface level repeating the Name surely has an anchor like function on a mental level, but there is much more of it. I respect your opinion, but this is a Buddhist community so it DOES matter what the Buddha said, and meditation is not only a practice to focus mind in many traditions.
"anchor like function" and community standards aside...
The central thing that the technique does. The stillness, clarity etc. For that it doesn't matter at all.