New Moon Foundation

Through an association between Amida Trust and New Moon Foundation, the practice of Pureland Buddhism, for so long present on the Big Island of Hawai`i, has been reinvigorated.

The Amida School (Amida-shu) is a Buddhist sangha following the Pureland tradition. This tradition derives from the insights, practice, dedication and faith of such masters as Nagarjuna (1st century) and Vasubandhu (4th century) in India, Hui Yuan (334-416) and Shan Tao (613-681) in China, and Honen Shonin (1133-1212) and his many disciples in Japan.

Reverend Dharmavidya Brazier, Head of the Amida Order from the United Kingdom, initially arrived in Hawai'i in 2004. In both 2006 and 2007, New Moon Foundation invited him to return to offer an expanded series of teachings and sangha gatherings throughout the Big Island that included training in Buddhist based psychotherapy.

The Buddhist practice in the Amida Order is primarily focused on chanting and the principle form of chanting is nembutsu. Nembutsu is the invocation of the Buddha of eternal life. Major features of this approach to spirituality are a sense of the bitter-sweetness of life, of the smallness of human existence in the scheme of things, appreciation of beauty and naturalness, personal humility and faith, and a reliance upon community. Central are reverence for the sacred and fellow feeling for one another. The Amida Order has a substantial involvement in engaged Buddhism.

Due to the warm and enthusiastic reception from the Island-wide community, plus seed funding from New Moon Foundation, the teachings and practices of the Amida Order have been established on the Big Island. In 2007, under the auspices of their U.S. organization, Amida West, Amida Trust established Amida Hawai`i which offers Pureland Buddhist inspired teachings and practices, sangha gatherings, and volunteer opportunities throughout Hawai`i Island.

Rev. Dharmavidya David Brazier, Ph.D., is a spiritual leader of the Amida community. A Buddhist for more than 35 years, he is author of five books, including Zen Therapy, The Feeling Buddha and The New Buddhism. He has studied extensively with eminent teachers from all the main Buddhist traditions and was originally ordained as a Soto Zen monk. In addition to this he has worked in many fields, including as a social worker and psychotherapist. In 1996 he was involved, with his wife Caroline and a group of others, in setting up Amida Trust, from which the Amida Order grew two years later. The Amida Order is a socially engaged Pureland foundation based in UK, which includes a full time Buddhist training community.

Rev. Prasada Caroline Brazier is a full time member of the Amida Order, and a practicing psychotherapist for fifteen years. She is author of Buddhist Psychology (published as Buddhism on the Couch in the US) that is based on the models taught on the psychotherapy training program which she co-ordinates for Amida Trust and runs with her husband, David. Her understanding of therapy in the context of life conditions, and her interest in other aspects of engaged work come from her therapeutic practice, her life in the spiritual community, and many years of working in community development and women's health activism.

Amida West: Hawai`i