THE HISTORY AND REASONS FOR ESTABLISHING AMIDA SOCIETY
In the early 20th Century, the late great lay Buddhist teacher, Xia Lian-Ju, called for Buddhists of the Pure Land School to establish Amida Society Organizations all over the world. Decades later upon Buddhist supports began opening centers in the United States. The Amida Society in the Los Angeles County, California was established and registered on January 8, 1990 as a religious nonprofit corporation as described in Section 501(c)(3), 509(a)(1) and 170(b)(1)(A)(i) of the Internal Revenue Code, and Code Section 23701d (Church) of the Revenue and Taxation Code of the State of California.
The primary purpose of the Amida Society is to share the benefits of Buddhist education by distributing educational materials, providing lecture classes, seminars and retreats, and establishing a superb environment for practicing and studying, completely free of charge to the public. We believe that education is key to resolving problems, whether big or small, family or societal, personal or global.
The Amida Society is dedicated to giving and abstains from solicitations. We give according to needs and our ability, while only accepting recognition as a virtue of generosity. In all times and places, Amida Society strives to serve in accordance with the flow of causes and conditions and avoids exertion in disguise of service. This way, our actions would be in accordance with the Buddhist core values of purity, equality, and equanimity. Additionally, we follow the late VM Yuan Yin’s three quests, as displayed at his center of spiritual practice —quest for blessings, quest for wisdom, and quest for rebirth in Amida Buddha’s Western Pure Land, the land of absolute purity, wisdom, and sophistication. It is the goal of the Amida Fellowship that all practitioners attain these three virtuous quests and eventually fulfill the great Bodhisattva vow of returning from the Western Pure Land to serve and benefit all sentient beings. Thus, it is the goal of Amida Society to provide the best possible environment and atmosphere for these attainments.
Educational Materials
Include: scriptures, commentaries, and essays in book form; various beautiful hanging pictures of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and other printed religious matters; recorded seminars and speeches on sutras by various venerable masters on CDs and DVDs; Buddha-name chanting machines; wrist and neck mala beads; and desk-top statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. They can also be mailed to out-of-town requesters.
Sutra Classes, Seminars, and Retreats
Lecture classes, with averages of 100 people in attendance, are given weekly. The Amida Society Study Group is dedicated to English-speaking practitioners who wish to expand and share their knowledge of Buddhism and ways of practice.
Amida Society also hosts one or two large scale, 3-day or 7-day chanting retreats each year. The primary objective of these special seminars is to benefit the practitioners with increased faith and wisdom, inspired by the profound knowledge and understanding of the sutra teachings and individual spiritual characters of the venerable masters. These activities represent Amida Society’s commitment to promulgation of the dharma education by word. Please check with Front Desk or call (626) 286-5700 for latest schedules.
Chanting Meditation Sessions
Regarding these activities, please check with Front Desk or call (626) 286-5700 for latest schedules.
Amida Society Building Floor Plan
The Amida Society is a 13,000-square foot, 2-story building, built on an 18,000-square foot property, at the intersection of Cloverly Avenue and Las Tunas Drive in the downtown area of Temple City, Southern California, across from Ralph’s supermarket. The Amida Society building has been open to the public 7 days a week since September 1997 at this location. Regular group practices of Buddha name recitation/chanting and sutra study classes separately take place in two spacious halls on the ground floor of the building. Both halls take the basic, upright shape of a square and are suitably decorated to express adornments of the Dharma. They provide a superb environment for chanting meditation practices and sutra studies. The study hall, also free for public access, is located on the second floor and holds over 10,000 volumes of Buddhist sutras, literatures, and related publications, as well as audio/visual recordings of dharma lectures given by the venerable masters. It offers a great source for research.
We look forward to greeting you at the Amida Society!