1st “Ekai-sama taught me through her own example how we should humbly respect the Buddha’s vision that is beyond our comprehension.”　Old lady who has been listening to the Dharma for eighty years.
2nd
 “Ekai-sama was someone who had no time for people hesitating and saying ‘I cannot do it’.” Old lady who has been listening to the Dharma for eighty years.
3rd “It was my mistake to keep trying to overcome my father. Many years have passed since my father’s death and I have now come to understand the meaning of accepting my father just as he was.” Reverend Harutaka Aso, Shinto priest.
4th “My life right now is full of vitality and highly charged. I am happy to have been given time for myself.” Follower who died a year ago.
5th “I have found it is Chomon itself (the Introspection Session) for me just to listen and introspect intently step by step, taking care not to overlook a single problem.” Bomori-san (wife of Head Priest of a temple) from Nagano prefecture.


6th

“Despite the hard work here, such as being on night call, I have continued to work and not left, because for me my patients are one with my father who died of leukemia at the age of forty-nine.” A nurse whom the Head Priest met at hospital.
7th
 “Evidence of our world of nembutsu is that we receive new life illumined by light from the Pure Land. Rather than being a bright light, this is said to be ‘a faint light that seems at once to exist and not exist.’ This is very close to the light Chuang-tzu called ‘bao-guang ’ (hazy light).” Head Priest.
8th

“The founder of Shogyoji Temple became a Buddhist priest seeking in the midst of bloody conflicts the world of peaceful harmony beyond our karma of warfare. Now, coming in contact with the sorrow and joy of the two brothers of the Aso, our founding family, I truly revere the prayer he made.” Head Priest.
9th “Bound by our deep and heavy karma we cannot attain freedom within this world. It is through birth in the Pure Land, however, that we can become one with others in the hands of the Buddha whilst still living our lives mired in this world. Reverend Koreyuki Aso, a Shinto priest, used the expression soko (life-giving light) to describe this light that works upon us from out of the Pure Land.” Head Priest.
10th “How to be rather than how to live. This is my present concern. What is important is not how to live but how to be. I have suffered by looking upon my father’s death as something to surmount but it is actually something to accept. My starting point was all wrong.” Harutaka Aso, Shinto priest.
11st “One day Venerable Takehara observed that this temple was a place where an unsavable person should be saved. The only thing an unsavable person has to practise is pronouncing the nembutsu as if facing death. Venerable Takehara’s words, ‘If we can say <thank-you> and <sorry> in our daily lives in the same way we would at the point of death, then that will be truly appreciated’, are still echoing deep in my mind.” Former Head Priest of neighbouring temple.


12th “When my son was carried into hospital as an emergency, I almost fainted. At that point the words, ‘The only place you should desire to go is the Pure Land’, came into my mind. This accident was a punishment to me for being such a weak person who had merely pretended to understand the nembutsu.” Dharma friend.
13th

“When my home is built, the nation will be formed. When the nation starts to develop, the international world will be formed.” From The One Sheet Teaching by Daigyoin
14th “The way of ‘filial piety’ is the point of contact between ultimate truth and secular truth. What connects the Buddha Dharma and the National Law is ‘respect.’ All that has been done for us comes quite simply from our parents. Without our parents we wouldn’t be able to revere the Buddha.” Kojun Shinohara.
15th “Why is it a sin to doubt Buddha’s Wisdom? I asked myself. Then I realised that it was the gravest sin for me to obstruct the Tathagata’s great work to benefit others through my own belief in the karmic law of cause and effect, the doctrine that a good deed brings about happiness and an evil one sadness.” An old priest at Shogyoji.
16th “A true sign of the nembutsu is the ‘light’ that illuminates us from the Pure Land. It is not something shining outwardly but a ‘light’ that gives us new life from within.” Head Priest.
17th “Even when we suffer through holding conflicting opinions from one another, this will eventually open up the opportunity for us to meet in the Pure Land.” Head Priest.
18th “It is because of our failure to respect one another that we cannot stop fighting however often we may repeat our discussions.” Head Priest.
19th “When I get used to the way of living in the Samgha, I return to the selfish world where I take everything for granted without any gratitude. On attending the service, however, I am reminded of the fact that I live on the ‘Mountain of Treasure (Pure Land)’.” Dharma friend staying at the temple.
20th “What is important is for us to become aware of the traditions of our Samgha and then to revere them.” Head Priest.
21st “The breaking down of our preconceptions and our awakening to truth happen simultaneously.” Head Priest.
22nd “The way of living in which we each look upon everything we receive as particularly meant for me alone and are moved to pronounce the nembutsu is an ideal example of the Samgha way of life.” Head Priest.
23rd “Although we look upon faith as something that is given, what is important is for us to feel surprise that such a gift has not been easily prepared.” Head Priest.
24th


25th


26th


27th


28th “To give thanks for being given a place [where we can follow the Buddha-dharma] is the fundamental spirit of the Samgha.” Head Priest.
29th


30th
 “It is the spirit of dojo and taya that, when welcoming those who come to listen to the Buddha-dharma, we should do so with introspection and gratitude, based on a remembrance of our own original experience of salvation.” Head Priest.