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- HISTORICAL BACKGROUND -
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A Buddhist View of Easter

by Rev. Marvin Harada
This article is one of many Orange County Buddhist Church's minister messages found at http://www.bca-ocbc.org

You are all aware that Easter is the Christian religious observance that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is thought in Christianity that Jesus rose from the dead, or was “resurrected.” This event proved that Jesus was the son of God, the Christ. Christians throughout the world celebrate this event as Easter.

My feeling is that the real “resurrection” of Jesus does not rely on whether he rose from the dead or not. I would think that the real “resurrection” occurs when Christians receive the teachings of Jesus within their hearts and minds. When a Christian really and truly receives the teachings of Jesus in one’s heart and mind, then Jesus truly “comes alive.” From a Buddhist perspective, isn’t that the real meaning of “resurrection?”

In the same manner, for Buddhists, when we receive the Buddha’s teachings in our hearts and minds, then the Buddha comes “alive” for us. Shakyamuni is not just a great teacher that lived over 2500 years ago, but is a “living teacher” in a spiritual sense for us today. Shinran Shonin lived over 700 years ago, but when Shin Buddhists sincerely follow the path of the Nembutsu, Shinran Shonin comes alive for us today. Of course the Buddha and Shinran do not “literally” come alive or come back from the dead, but their teachings, their way of life of the Dharma, “comes alive” for us today.

Buddhism is not as concerned with historical fact as it is concerned with religious truth. Historical fact stands at one point in time. Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. America became independent on July 4, 1776.

Religious truth, however, stands beyond time. While Shakyamuni Buddha lived and died as a human being in history, the truth that he attained is a timeless, eternal truth. What is significant for Buddhists is not to simply celebrate the historical events of the Buddha’s life like his birth or entrance into Nirvana, but that the Buddha “come alive” for us in our life here and now.

If Christianity focuses on the historical event of Jesus rising from the dead, then it stands on one event in time. If instead it focuses on Christians receiving the teachings of Jesus in their hearts, then it becomes a religion that stands beyond time.

Thich Nhat Hanh, a well-known Buddhist Monk and prolific writer of Buddhist books writes:

“Redemption and resurrection are neither words nor objects of belief. They are our daily practice. We practice in such a way that Buddha is born every moment of our daily life, that Jesus Christ is born every moment of our daily life.” —from Going Home.

Thich Nhat Hanh has even written a book titled, “Living Buddha, Living Christ” in which he discusses his appreciation of both Jesus and Shakyamuni Buddha, and how they must become living teachers for us today.

“When we understand and practice deeply the life and teachings of Buddha or the life and teachings of Jesus, we penetrate the door and enter the abode of the living Buddha and the living Christ, and life eternal presents itself to us.”

—p. 56, Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh

In the book Living Buddha, Living Christ, Thich Nhat Hanh relates that he came to have an appreciation of Jesus and Christianity not by reading the bible, but by meeting kind and wonderful Christians. Through these Christians, he came to respect and admire the life and teachings of Jesus.

In the same manner, people who do not know anything about Buddhism, or who have never been exposed to Buddhism can come to know Shakyamuni Buddha through how we live as Buddhists.

For Thich Nhat Hanh, the life eternal, is not an everlasting life in heaven which occurs after death. Life eternal means to transcend life and death, to stand beyond time. It is what is expressed as “immeasurable life” in Shin Buddhism. Amida Buddha is immeasurable life and immeasurable light. Namuamidabutsu means “I open my heart and mind to immeasurable light and immeasurable life.” Through the Nembutsu, through receiving the truth of Namuamidabutsu in our hearts and minds, we become life eternal, we transcend life and death.

Why should we attempt to transcend life and death? Why should we try to stand beyond time? Because to do so means our fear and apprehension of death is gone. It means that our life is fulfilled, whether we live to be 9 or 90. It means that we can truly be one in our hearts with the loved ones we have lost, whether it was last year or fifty years ago. It means that we have the peace of mind to someday leave our loved ones behind when our time too has come. Who is there that would not want to transcend life and death?

May the Nembutsu enter our hearts and minds, and may we find the true peace, joy, serenity, and meaning of life eternal, of immeasurable life, of life that stands beyond time.

Namuamidabutsu.

A man stumbled over a stone which upset him greatly.The cause of his stumbling was the stone. Therefore, the cause of anger and misery which was produced by his stumbling was completely outside of him. If there were no stone in his path, he might not have stumbled; hence, no anger or misery would have resulted.

This logic seems quite correct. However, many people pass the same path. Some of them stumble over the stone and others do not. Those who do see the obstruction are able to avoid the trouble.

Thus, the cause of anger and misery really lies in this man who did not see the stone. He himself is the cause of trouble because he did not or was unable to see the stone. A man who observes and is careful, is free from stumbling. Therefore, the cause of trouble is carelessness, blindness and ignorance.

This analysis shows the difference between a religious and non-religious person. A religious person from a Buddhist point of view always sees the cause of misery or happiness just as a scientist looks into the cause of things. Religion begins from introspection. Without self-introspection there is no religion. Buddhism teaches the truth about life, and the world, and the causes of miseries and troubles of life. It teaches how to understand and to face and transcend human miseries and troubles.

In our life there are many troubles which we stumble over. A man stumbles over a stone and scorns to find a stone in the middle of the road and he blames someone for leaving it there. A man says that he is deceived and blames the deceiver, but some are not deceived no matter how much others try to deceive them. A wise and alert person is not deceived. Those who are gullible or greedy are easily deceived. Here again, we see the cause of deception is in the one who is deceived rather than the one who tries to deceive. A husband thinks that his wife is the cause of his unhappiness and, contrarily, the wife thinks that the husband is the cause of her troubles. This is typically a modern way of thinking which is always looking outward and blaming everything around oneself. Perhaps this is the influence of the modern materialistic outlook of life. Materials are everything for a materialist who has no time to think what he is. He always looks around him but never looks at himself.

Let us think of an instance that I stumbled over. That "I" becomes the most important factor. It is said in the Dhammapada:

Awakening is the ultimate goal of the Buddhist path, no matter what school or tradition one may follow. From a narrow, ego-centered world one is awakened to an open, limitless world. In Pure Land vocabulary one realizes the limits of self-power and awakens to the vast universe of Other Power. In the language of Heidegger, calculative thinking gives itself up to meditative thinking, a "thinking which is open to its contents, open to what is given."

The highest form of awakening is Buddahood that has a single clear focus: the deliverance of all beings drowning in the ocean of samsara. This is summed up in the classical East Asian Definition of a "Buddha":

Awakening is dynamic, constantly evolving in accordance with life's realities–unfolding from ego-self to compassionate self, from enclosed self, from foolish self to enlightened self.

Several years ago, one of my students, Kate, participated in the annual Japan-America Student Conference. Started in 1934, it is a prestigious gathering of the top eighty students from both countries. It holds a four-week traveling seminar during the summer in the U.S. and Japan. A series of round-table discussion were held in various cities, starting in Tokyo and culminating in Nagasaki in August.

Due to the demanding schedule and the hot, humid weather, Kate was fatigued and restless. When the group came to the Nagasaki Peace Plaza, dedicated to the victims of the 1945 atomic holocaust, they came to a large fountain spraying cool water into the summer heat. When Kate first saw the fountain, she just wanted to jump in, cool her body, and soothe her fatigue. But when she saw the plaque that read "This fountain is dedicated to the children of Nagasaki who died crying for water," such thoughts completely vanished. Instead her thoughts turned to the dying, burned children, the unspeakable horror of war, the inhumanity of humankind that runs deep.

At that very moment Kate experienced a radical awakening, a transformation of consciousness, which completely changed her life. Her thoughts no longer fixated on herself and her needs–they were now directed to the plight of others in need. And this was not a momentary sentimentalism at work. Returning to her college, she concentrated on elevating the status of low-income students and welfare mothers. She eventually graduated from law school as an effective advocate for the poor, the underprivileged, and the disenfranchised.

Many people experience this type of awakening, but normally it touches only one aspect of life and rarely involves the total person. Furthermore, a single experience may not effect any real transformation. The awakening must be repeated and deepened for as long as we are living and breathing. As one writer put it, "It isn't like you have one rite of passage, one death-rebirth experience, and then you Get It!" Hakuin, who revitalized Rinzai Zen in eighteenth-century Japan, spoke of awakening (satori) on two stages: initial awakening through use of the koan-riddles, and subsequent series of awakening to deepen the first exposure, the latter being even more important on the path.

Buddhist awakening differs in two ways from ordinary forms of heightened consciousness. First is the somatic involvement, such that the final test of real transformation is a body-mind that has become supple, pliant, and gentle. The somatic emphasis helps us avoid playing mind games and engaging in discursive strategies. Second is the shattering of the conventional notions of I, me, and mine that opens the self up to bottomless and endless reaches of life itself. This is evident in the goals of various Buddhist traditions.

Awakening in Yogacara Buddhism occurs with the turnabout (paravritti) at the base of the whole mind system deep below our normal consciousness and involving the entire phenomenal world. In Hua-yen Buddhism the enlightenment experience is symbolized by a huge flower garland, Gandavyuha, placed on the entire universe, signifying a cosmic awakening. In Pure Land Buddhism the karmic bondage from the beginningless beginning of time is transformed into the very content of supreme awakening, dedicating itself to the salvation of all beings, including a single blade of grass.

In 1960, a group of medical personnel conducted research on how to cure sickness. The results were published in a book entitled, "Your Mind Can Make You Sick And Well." In their research they found that it is more important to take care of our mind than our body. This does not mean the body is not important; it too, is important. In Buddhism the mind is more important than any other physical item. One of the teachings about the mind is as follows:

"All mental states have Mind as their forerunner. The Mind is their chief, and they are Mind–made. If one speaks or acts with a defiled mind, Suffering follows—even as the wheel follows the hoof of the draught ox." Buddha – Dhammapada -1 stanza.

Today everyone suffers from mental problems on many different levels. In the West, doctors, parapsychologists and psychiatrists are available to help us. As an Eastern world religion, Buddhism tries to analyze the cause and effect of suffering and unhappiness and tries to keep the mind pure. In order to achieve this, Buddhists practice Temporary Preventive Methods and Permanent Preventive Methods.

The Buddha said, "O bikkhus, there are two kinds of illness. What are those two? Physical illness and mental illness. There seem to be people who enjoy freedom from physical illness even for a year or two—even for a hundred years or more. But, O bukkhus, rare in this world are those who enjoy freedom for mental illness even for one moment, except those who are free from mental defilement." — Dr. W. Rahula, "What the Buddha Taught" (Page 67, 1996 edition, Sri Lanka.)

According to the Temporary Methods, we should always strive to do the right things in our day to day life. Sometimes defining what is right or what is wrong differs among many people and that can create confusion. In Buddhism, precepts are considered as right actions or free from misconduct. There are precepts for different people and for different occasions. In my country of Sri Lanka, for example, monks have many precepts to guide them (more than a thousand!). Five of the most commonly practiced precepts are:

I take the precept to abstain from destroying living beings.
I take the precept to abstain from taking things not given.
I take the precept to abstain from sexual misconduct.
I take the precept to abstain from false speech.
I take the precept to abstain from distilled and fermented liquor that
causes intoxication and heedlessness.

If we are free from taking alcohol, or heavy drugs and are free from sexual misconduct, then basically our body is in good condition. If every one of us does not steal or tell lies, our life would be very peaceful. Whoever is not killing any human or any other beings, his or her mind would be filled with love and compassion. These five rules are very simple and anyone who practices it can have a healthy mind and body.

To achieve permanent relief to our life, Buddhism recommends meditation or mind cultivation. It is suggested that this be practiced regularly in order to benefit the health and mental state. There are two kinds of meditation methods which appear in Buddhist texts:

1. The development of the Mental Concentration or Samatha Bhavana
2. Insight Meditation or Vipassana Bhavana.

There are various methods of Mental Concentration prescribed in our religious texts that lead up to the highest mystic states such as the sphere of Nothingness. This form of meditation existed before the Buddha. One is advised to first seek out well-experienced teachers or a meditation master. Then, with the help of the meditation master, a meditation technique is suggested that will be most appropriate for that person. There are forty methods that appear in the guide textbooks (religious books).

Practicing Insight Meditation leads to the complete liberation of the mind—to the realization of nature. It is an analytical method based on mindfulness, awareness, vigilance, and observation—the mindfulness or awareness of In and Out Breathing (ANAPANASATI BHAVANA). This meditation method is very popular among Buddhists meditators in the world, and it is included in the above two meditation methods. It is easy to use in day to day life without disturbing one's normal activities.

Preparing for Meditation
You may sit, stand, walk, or lie down. But for cultivating the mindfulness of In and Out Breathing, one should sit, and if so desire, use a chair to keep the body erect and the mind alert. It is very necessary in this exercise that the meditator sit erect, but not stiff; with the hands placed comfortably on his or her lap. Thus seated, you may close your eyes or you may gaze at the tip of your nose, whichever is more comfortable for you. Now bring your mind to concentrate on breathing in and breathing out; let your mind watch and observe your breathing in and out. When you breathe, you sometimes take deep breaths, sometimes not. This does not matter at all. Breathe normally and naturally. When you do take deep breaths you should be aware that they are deep breaths, and soon your mind will be so fully focused on your breathing that you will become aware of its movements and changes. Forget all other things, your surroundings, and your environment. Do not raise your eyes and look at anything. Try to do this for five or ten minutes.

The Result That You Acquire.
This exercise on breathing will bring you immediate results: you will feel healthy and relaxed, sleep soundly, and be more efficient in your daily work. You will feel calm and tranquil. Even in moments when you are nervous or excited, if you practice this for a couple of minutes, you will see that you become immediately quiet and at peace. You will feel as if you have just awakened from a good rest.

Nature of Modern Life.
Today we are living in a world where people have to work very hard physically and mentally. Without working hard, it is difficult to survive in the modern society. Competition is everywhere and one cannot easily rest. The Mind is the nucleus of life. When there is no real peace and rest in the mind, it is hard to enjoy life. People will naturally try to overcome this through pleasing the senses: drinking, gambling, etc.–all the while having the illusion that they are enjoying the real happiness in life. Sense stimulation is not the real way to have relaxation. The more we try to please the senses, the more will we become slaves to them. There will be no end to our craving for satisfaction. The way to relax is to calm the senses by training the mind. If we can train the mind, then we will be able to handle life's challenges better. When the mind is relaxed and purified, it will be free. When the mind is free, it will see many things which others cannot see with their naked eyes.

What points about Buddhism do you like?

I find Buddhism appealing because it is voluntary, open, personal and peaceful.

By "voluntary" I mean it's not a "sin" to turn away from the Dharma or teaching. We make efforts to share the teachings and our experiences, but if people are not interested, we simply wait for them to become interested. When the time is right they will seek answers to their question. The Buddha called out, "ehi passiko" (come here and see!) if people are interested.

"Open" mean that Buddhism is open-minded about other religions and sects. Buddhists think there are 84,000 ways to enlightenment. Of course, although Buddhists would like others to take an interest in the Dharma, they just don't think it's right to force people to take interest. What's more, we don't think people are doomed to be punished if they walk other paths.

By "personal" I mean that there is much value given to personal understanding. Dharma cannot come alive without speaking directly to our unique experience. We do not accept the Dharma blindly. We test how it works in our everyday life. Just before he died, the Buddha said, "Make yourself the light, and make the Dharma the light." Also he cautioned:

Do not accept a statement on the ground that it is found in our books, nor on the supposition that "this is acceptable," nor because it is the saying of your teacher.  Anguttara-Nikaya IV, 382

But he did not mean to imply that we can do whatever we please because there is no standard. No, the standard is the Dharma. The Buddha was telling us to see how the teachings work in our lives before we accept them.

I am also impressed by how peaceful Buddhism is. Throughout history, Buddhists have taught not to be violent towards others just because they believed differently. In modern times the Dalai Lama of Tibet is a great example of a Buddhist leader acting peacefully. Even though the Chinese regime has taken over his Buddhist country and make life miserable for his people, the Dalai Lama works without rest to find a peaceful way to free his homeland.

This is not to claim that the Buddhist communities were or are completely immune from violent actions against each other. There have been skirmishes to be sure, but they were motivated more by institutional jealousies than doctrinal differences. I suppose all religious institutions sometimes fail to live up to the pure ideals of their teachings. Buddhism is no exception. It seems to me, however, that Buddhism has exhibited, relatively speaking, a high degree of peace that many observers, including non-Buddhists, regard as the hallmark of the tradition.

Are there any other points that you like?

Yes. I am attracted to the teaching that "All sentient beings possess Buddha nature." This means that not only humans, but animals, birds, fish and other creatures are all sacred and should be treated with respect. Humans do not have any right to rule over them. When their lives are taken so we can have food, we must be grateful to them for their sacrifice. The East Asian Buddhists expanded this way of thinking to even include inanimate things such as the mountains, rivers, grass and soil. We humans must also live well together. We are part of nature, not rulers of nature. We must cherish and protect it.

Buddhism is often accused of being too difficult for the average person. Ministers are often requested to speak more simply. And when we do, it is often dismissed as good for children but not something a grown adult could believe in. This dilemma is the result of differences in attitude. Of all the divisions of learning, the one that is approached with the most preconceived notions is that of religion. When we study a foreign language, calculus, biology, or even a class in skiing, we empty our minds and listen carefully, trying to understand something that is completely foreign to us. And once we get the general "hang" of things, we begin to ask questions on fine points.

This is true of most types of learning – except for religion. When it comes to religion, we bring to it a whole lifetime of images, ideas, emotions, and Sunday School conclusions about the nature of man and life. Rather than trying to learn about Buddhism as we learn about skiing, we instead go shopping for the "right" interpretation of Buddhism, or worse, for the teaching which most closely fits what we already believe. In other words, the best religion is the religion that most closely agrees with what "I" already believe. We have already formed our own religion and when we say that "I am Buddhist", we often mean that "Buddhism is the religion that most agrees with my theories of religion". We accept and use Buddhism to fit our needs.

The real value of Buddhism however, is in its ability to transform a human being. Any religion worth its salt must be able to take a human being to a deeper and broader level of awareness, it must change a person's life for the better in a fundamental way. One must encounter Buddhism on its terms not on one's own terms. When a minister is told that his sermon was very good, it often means that it was entertaining, that it agreed with what the hearer believes.

For all these various reasons, the Buddhist admonition to "listen" is an important concept. For minister and layman alike, "listening" means to set aside for a moment the desire to hear what one wants to hear. It is to listen to what is being said by the scriptures with an "empty" mind, "empty" meaning open-minded, free of ulterior motivations. Since the minister is essentially the transmitter and/or interpreter of the written scriptures, it is his duty to read the scriptures with an "empty", "listening" mind. It is for the minister, a narrow and tricky path between talking about Buddhism and talking about "Kodani-isms". Likewise for a layman. A non-swimmer who falls into the water never thinks to relax and thereby float. Instead he acts on what he thinks is right and thrashes his arms wildly – and drowns. "Listening" is to relax one's defenses, to set aside one's preconceptions, to lower one's hand of critical comment, and to quietly relax and float. Gassho!

Love exists in itself,not relying on owning or being owned. Like the pearl, love can only buy itself, because love is not a matter of currency or exchange. No one has enough to buy it but everyone has enough to cultivate it. Metta reunites us with what it means to be alive and unbound.

Researchers once gave a plant to every resident of a nursing home. They told half of these elderly people that the plants were theirs to care for – they had to pay close attention to their plants' needs for water and sunlight, and they had to respond carefully to those needs. The researchers told the other half of the residents that their plants were theirs to enjoy but that they did not have to take any responsibility for them; the nursing staff would care for the plants.

At the end of a year, the researchers compared the two groups of elders. The residents who had been asked to care for their plants were living considerably longer than the norm, were much healthier, and were more oriented towards and connected to their world. The other residents, those who had plants but did not have to stay responsive to them, simply reflected the norms for people their age in longevity, health, alertness, and engagement with the world.

This study shows, among other things, the enlivening power of connection, of love, of intimacy. This is the effect that metta can have on our lives. But when I heard about the study, I also reflected on how often we regard intimacy as a force between ourselves and something outside ourselves – another person, or even a plant -- and how rarely we consider the force of being intimate with ourselves, with our own inner experience. How rarely do we lay claim to our own lives and feel connected to ourselves!

A way to discover intimacy with ourselves and all of life is to live with integrity, basing our lives on a vision of compassionate nonharming. When we dedicate ourselves to actions that do not hurt ourselves or others, our lives become all of one piece, a "seamless garment" with nothing separate or disconnected in the spiritual reality we discover.

Significantly, when we do metta practice, we begin by directing metta toward ourselves. This is the essential foundation for being able to offer genuine love to others. When we truly love ourselves, we want to take care of others, because that is what is most enriching, or nourishing, for us. When we have a genuine inner life, we are intimate with ourselves and intimate with others. The insight into our inner world allows us to connect to everything around us, so that we can see quite clearly the oneness of all that lives. We see that all beings want to be happy, and that this impulse unites us. We can recognize the rightness and beauty of our common urge towards happiness, and realize intimacy in this shared urge.

If we are practicing metta and we cannot see the goodness in ourselves or in someone else, then we reflect on that fundamental wish to be happy that underlies all action. "Just as I want to be happy, all beings want to be happy." This reflection gives rise to openness, awareness, and love. As we commit to these values, we become embodiments of a lineage that stretches back through beginningless time. All good people of all time have wanted to express openness, awareness, and love. With every phrase of metta, we are declaring our alignment with these values.

From this beginning, metta practice proceeds in a very structured way and specific way. After we have spent some time directing metta to ourselves, we then move on to someone who has been very good to us, for whom we feel gratitude and respect. In the traditional terminology, this person is known as a "benefactor." Later we move to someone who is a beloved friend. It is relatively easy to direct lovingkindness to these categories of beings (we say beings rather than people to include the possibility of animals in these categories.) After we have established this state of connection, we move on to those that it may be harder to direct lovingkindness toward. In this way we open up our limits and extend our capacity for benevolence.

Thus, next we direct lovingkindness to someone whom we feel neutral toward, someone for whom we feel neither great liking nor disliking. This is often an interesting time in the practice, because it may be difficult to find somebody for whom we have no instantaneous judgment. If we can find such a neutral person, we direct metta toward them.

After this, we are ready for the next step — directing metta toward someone with whom we have experienced conflict, someone toward whom we feel lack of forgiveness, or anger, or fear. In the Buddhist scriptures this person is somewhat dramatically known as "the enemy." This is a very powerful stage in the practice, because the enemy, or the person with whom we have difficulty stands right at the division between the finite and the infinite radiance of love. At this point, conditional love unfolds into unconditional love. Here dependent love can turn to the flowering of an independent love that is not based upon getting what we want or having our expectations met. Here we learn that the inherent happiness of love is not compromised by likes and dislikes, and thus, like the sun, it can shine on everything. This love is truly boundless. It is born out of freedom, and it is offered freely.

Through the power of this practice, we cultivate an equality of loving feeling toward ourselves and all beings. There was a time in Burma when I was practicing metta intensively. I had taken about six weeks to go through all the different categories: myself, benefactor, friend, neutral person, and enemy. After I had spent these six weeks doing the metta meditation all day long, my teacher, U Pandita, called me into his room and said, "Say you were walking in the forest with your benefactor, your friend, your neutral person, and your enemy. Bandits come up and demand that you choose one person in your group to be sacrificed. Which one would you choose to die?"

I was shocked at U Pandita's question. I sat there and looked deep into my heart, trying to find a basis from which I could choose. I saw that I could not feel any distinction between any of those people, including myself. Finally I looked at U Pandita and replied, "I couldn't choose; everyone seems the same to me."

U Pandita then asked, "You wouldn't choose your enemy?" I thought a minute and then answered, "No, I couldn't."

Finally U Pandita asked me, "Don't you think you should be able to sacrifice yourself to save the others?" He asked the question as if more than anything else in the world he wanted me to say, "Yes, I'd sacrifice myself." A lot of conditioning rose up in me – an urge to please him, to be "right" and to win approval. But there was no way I could honestly say "yes," so I said, "No, I can't see any difference between myself and any of the others." He simply nodded in response, and I left.

Later I was reading the Visuddhi Magga, one of the great commentarial works of Buddhist literature which describes different meditation techniques and the experiences of practicing these techniques. In the section on metta meditation, I came to that very question about the bandits. The answer I had given was indeed considered the correct one for the intensive practice of metta.

Of course, in different life situations many different courses of action might be appropriate. But the point here is that metta does not mean that we denigrate ourselves in any situation in order to uphold other people's happiness. Authentic intimacy is not brought about by denying our own desire to be happy in unhappy deference to others, nor by denying others in narcissistic deference to ourselves. Metta means equality, oneness, wholeness. To truly walk the Middle Way of the Buddha, to avoid the extremes of addiction and self-hatred, we must walk in friendship with ourselves as well as with all beings.

When I was practicing metta intensively in Burma, at times when I repeated the metta phrases (May I be happy; may all beings be happy), I would picture myself in a wide open field planting seeds. Doing metta we plant the seeds of love, knowing that nature will take its course and in time those seeds will bear fruit. Some seeds will come to fruition quickly, some slowly, but our work is simply to plant the seeds. Every time we form the intention in the mind for our own happiness or for the happiness of others, we are doing our work; we are channeling the powerful energies of our own minds. Beyond that, we can trust the laws of nature to continually support the flowering of our love. As Pablo Neruda says:

"Perhaps the earth can teach us, as when everything seems dead in winter and later proves to be alive."

So the intention is enough. We form the intention in our mind for our happiness and the happiness of all. This is different from struggling to fabricate a certain feeling, to create it out of our will, to make it happen. We just settle back and plant the seeds without worrying about the immediate result. That is our work. If we do our work, then manifold benefits will surely come. Fortunately, the Buddha was characteristically precise about what those benefits include. He said that the intimacy and caring that fill our hearts as the force of lovingkindness develops will bring eleven particular advantages:

1)  You will sleep easily.
2)  You will wake easily.
3)  You will have pleasant dreams.
4)  People will love you.
5)  Devas (celestial beings) and animals will love you.
6)  Devas will protect you.
7)  External dangers (poisons, weapons, and fire) will not harm you.
8)  Your face will be radiant.
9)  Your mind will be serene.
10) You will die unconfused.
11) You will be reborn in happy realms.

People doing formal metta practice often memorize these eleven benefits and recite them to themselves regularly. Reminding ourselves of the fruit of our intention and effort can bring a lot of faith and rapture, sustaining us through those inevitable times when it seems as if the practice is not "getting anywhere." When we consider each of these benefits, we can see more fully how metta revolutionizes our lives.

• YOU WILL SLEEP AND WAKE EASILY;YOU WILL HAVE PLEASANT DREAMS.
When we steep our hearts in lovingkindness, we are able to sleep easily, to awaken easily, and to have pleasant dreams. To have self-respect in life, to walk through this life with grace and confidence, means having a commitment to nonharming and to loving care. If we do not have these things, we can neither rest nor be at peace; we are always fighting against ourselves. The feelings we create by harming are painful both for ourselves and for others. Thus harming leads to guilt, tension, and complexity. Sleeping easily, waking easily, but living a clear and simple life, free from resentment, fear, and guilt, extends into our sleeping, dreaming and waking.

• PEOPLE WILL LOVE YOU.
The next benefit the Buddha pointed out is that if we practice metta we will receive in return the love of others. This is not a heartless calculating motivation, but rather a r recognition that the energy we extend in this world draws to it that same kind of energy. If we extend the force of love, love returns to us. The American psychologist William James once said, "My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items I notice shape my mind." Perhaps this is partially how this law works – opening to the energy of love within us, we can notice it more specifically around us.

• DEVAS (celestial beings) AND ANIMALS WILL LOVE YOU AND PROTECT YOU.
The next set of benefits the Buddha points out promises that if we practice metta we will be protected. Devas, and other invisible beings, are classically taught as part of the Buddhist cosmology, but we don't have to believe in the intervention of invisible forces in order to comprehend how the practice of metta protects us. Pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame, and fame and ill repute will revolve throughout our lives. But nevertheless we can be protected by the nature of how we receive, how we hold that which our karma brings us.

• EXTERNAL DANGERS (poisons, weapons, and fire) WILL NOT HARM YOU.
Imagine taking a very small glass of water and putting into it a teaspoon of salt. Because of the small size of the container, the teaspoon of salt is going to have a big impact upon the water. However, if you approach a much larger body of water, such as a lake, and put into it that same teaspoonful of salt, it will not have the same intensity of impact, because of the vastness and openness of the vessel receiving it. Even when the salt remains the same, the spaciousness of the vessel receiving it changes everything.

We spend a lot of our lives looking for a feeling of safety or protection; we try to alter the amount of salt that comes our way. Ironically, the salt is the very thing that we cannot do anything about, as life changes and offers us repeated ups and downs. Our true work is to create a container so immense that any amount of salt, even a truckload, can come into it without affecting our capacity to receive it. No situation, even an extreme one, then can mandate a particular reaction.

• YOUR FACE WILL BE RADIANT.
Another benefit of cultivating of metta is that one's face becomes very clear and shining. This means that an unfeigned inner beauty shines forth. We know in life situations how mind affects matter, how if we are enraged about something, it shows in our face. If somebody is full of hatred, it shows in the way they stand, the way they move, the way their jaw is set. It is not very attractive. No amount of make-up, jewelry, or embellishments bring beauty to a sullen, disgruntled, angry face. In just the same way, when someone's mind is filled with the rapture of lovingkindness or compassion, it is beautiful to see the expression of light, of radiance, on their face and bearing.

• YOUR MIND WILL BE SERENE.
With the practice of metta one also has a serene mind. The feeling of lovingkindness generates great peace. This is the mind that can say, "You are really a klutz, but I love you." It is a feeling endowed with acceptance, patience, and spaciousness. This great peace allows union with all of life, because we are not relying on changing circumstances for our happiness.

The peace of metta offers the kind of happiness that gives us the ability to concentrate. Serenity is the most important ingredient in being able to be present or being able to concentrate the mind. Concentration is an act of cherishing a chosen object. If we have no serenity, the mind will be scattered, and we will not be able to gather in the energy that is being lost to distraction. When we can concentrate, all of this energy is returned to us. This is the potency that heals us.

• YOU WILL DIE UNCONFUSED.
If we practice metta, another major benefit is that we will die unconfused. Our habitual ways of thinking, acting, and relating to life tend to be the ones that are strongest at the time of death as well. If we spend a lifetime feeling separate, apart, cultivating anger, giving way to frustration, to fear, to desire, that will likely be the mental-emotional environment within which we face our death. But if we have lived our life in a way that honors our connectedness, reflects our oneness, and cultivates caring and giving, that is likely to be how we will die.

• YOU WILL BE REBORN IN HAPPY REALMS.
The last specific benefit the Buddha spoke of was being reborn in happy realms as a result of filling our hearts with lovingkindness. The potential for rebirth again and again in various realms of pleasure or pain is part of the Buddhist worldview. For someone who subscribes to this vision of life, rebirth in a realm where one can attain liberation is most important. For those who don't subscribe to this vision, the benefits of metta can surely be seen to come to us in this lifetime.

Metta is the priceless treasure that enlivens us and brings us into intimacy with ourselves and others. It is the force of love that will lead beyond fragmentation, loneliness and fear. The late Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba often said, "Don't throw anyone out of your heart." One of the most powerful healings (and greatest adventures) of our lifetime can come about as we learn to live by this dictum.

Last Sunday I talked about the classic movie, "The Wizard of Oz", and related its story to Buddhism. Many years ago I wrote a similar article, but this time I would like to write it from a slightly different perspective.

Of course, we all have seen "The Wizard of Oz," and it is one of my all time favorite movies. Dorothy, getting stuck in a tornado, hits her head and wakes up to find herself in an altogether different world, the land of Oz. She is lost, and seeks to find her way back home. She is instructed by the Good Witch of the East to follow the yellow brick road, to meet the Wizard of Oz, who could surely help her get home.

Although Dorothy is lost, once she is instructed to follow the yellow brick road, her journey home has begun. She is not lost anymore. She has been given a direction on her journey home.

It is scary to be lost. If you have ever been lost before, it can become a panic stricken situation. To be lost in the woods, not knowing which way is out, can be petrifying. To drive in a strange city, to lose your way and find yourself in a rough part of town can also be scary.

Sometimes we are lost and we don't even know it or want to admit it. Men never get lost. That's why  men never ask for directions. I can remember driving around looking for a place that I swear I knew, only to drive around and around aimlessly. Gail would ask, "Why don't you stop and ask someone?" I would respond that I was sure it was just right around here – somewhere. Finally, I would have to swallow my pride and admit I didn't know where I was. As soon as I stopped to get directions we were on our way to our destination.

Buddhism gives us many metaphors in imparting the teachings to us. One of the metaphors to describe the unenlightened life is the metaphor of being lost. The unenlightened life of delusion, is to be like a lost soul in the forest, wandering about aimlessly, not knowing the way out. Buddhism gives us direction, a way out of our ignorance, our delusion, out of the world of samsara.

We have to ask ourselves, what is the direction of my life? Where is my life headed? What is the focus of my life?

You might think that you have some kind of direction of your life right now, but ask yourself if that direction is a true and lasting one. For example, your main focus or direction of your life might be your career. You are focused and are headed in the direction of your career, climbing the ladder within the company. But what happens to your focus or direction if you lose your job, or someday when you retire. Many people whose lives have been their work cannot cope with retirement. The whole meaning of their life was work, so when (one's) work is gone, then one's meaning in life is gone as well.

What if your direction of life is to find a spouse, a husband or wife. Finally you find the person of your dreams, and you begin to have a blissful marriage. What do you do if one day your spouse says he (or she) is leaving you for someone else, or you are separated from your beloved spouse by death? The direction of your life is gone.

For many parents with children, the focus, the direction of their life is raising their children. Especially for mothers, during the child-rearing years, they give their children the utmost of care and nurturing. During the infant stage, mothers wake up two or three times during the night for feedings. Later, there is the constant shuttling to school, piano lessons, soccer practice, and scout meetings. What does a mother do, however, when her children are all grown up and raised? If the focus, the direction of the mother's life has been raising her children, then when her children are raised, it can leave a huge void, an emptiness in her life. I know of some mothers who actually have had depression and psychological disorders after their children were raised and left home. If the total focus, direction of your life is gone, then what do you do? What direction do you go in?

Our work, our marriages, our families, are all vitally important to our lives. We give everything of ourselves to succeed in our work, marriage, and family life. They are the main focus, the main direction of our life. However, we must understand that they are not the ultimate, lasting direction of life. Events can take away that focus, that direction from our life. Once one of those directions are gone, then we find ourselves lost, wandering about in the forest of life. What should I do now? What meaning is there in life now? Temporarily we might go to Las Vegas, or on a cruise to make ourselves feel better, but it is only a temporary reprieve from a deeper emptiness, a void in our life.

Buddhism gives us the ultimate, true direction in life. Once we turn our lives towards the teachings, towards truth, towards enlightenment, we will never be lost, we will never lack meaning or purpose in life.

If we lose our job, or retire, we always have something to do, we can listen to the Dharma, we can reflect on the teachings.

If we lose our spouse, we are not alone, because we have discovered a path that is filled with fellow travelers also seeking the truth.

If our children grow up and leave home, we still have meaning and purpose in life. Now, instead of raising one's children, it is time for us to be raised, to be nurtured, by the heart of the Buddha.

Even if one's health begins to fail, and you can no longer play golf, or work in the yard, you still have direction, meaning in your life. Kaneko, Daiei, a great minister and scholar in Japan, spent the last two years of his life bedridden. He expressed how those years taught him so much about life and true gratitude.

To follow the path of Buddhism, to follow the path of the Nembutsu, is to have a direction for your life. By having a direction for your life, you will never be lost, you will never lack meaning or purpose in life. You will never feel totally alone, nor feel emptiness in your heart or mind. Who is there that would not want such a direction of one's life? That is why the message of Buddhism is so universal, so important to all people of all time.

May we discover the true direction of our life, the path of the Buddha-Dharma. Gassho.

As with many of you, I sat glued to the television watching the tragic events of September 11, 2001 unfold before my very eyes. I had just come downstairs for breakfast when the live pictures showed the first tower collapse onto itself. Shocked into denial and confused, we sat as pieces of a deranged puzzle were revealed to us one by one. When the majority of the pieces had fallen into place and the big picture finally sank in, we sat in horror and sadness.

Not wishing to trivialize what had happened, but the emotion that I felt reminded me of a scene from the first Star Wars movie. Immediately after the Dark Imperial Force had destroyed the planet Alderran using their new technological weapon, the Death Star, the great Jedi master, Obi Wan Kenobi even though he was billions of miles away, suddenly lost his balance and stumbled during a training session with his protégé, Luke Skywalker. When asked what was wrong, Obi Wan's reply was, "I felt a great disturbance in the Force."

Along with millions of people around the world, we have proceeded through this week in a fog and haze. We have been stumbling along because our balance has been lost. We have all felt and witnessed "a great disturbance" in our hearts.

We can only begin to imagine the panic and horror that the passengers on the plane must have felt as they realized that their planes were not going to their original destination. We can only touch the surface of the deep grief and hollowness of those families who lost their loved ones as they watched helplessly as the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon collapsed. We can only begin to ask the questions that even if answered will never settle our hearts and bring all the lost lives back.

Without any doubt, we as a nation and as part of this global community, have been able to witness in one instance the marvels and ingenuity of the human potential by being able to build skyscrapers over 100 stories high and planes that weigh tons carrying hundreds of people at a time. And in the very next instant, we witnessed the cold, horrible human potential and calculation that has willfully allowed such destruction and turmoil upon another fellow human being.

And we have taken this personally. Our nation's leaders have told us that we are under attack. All that we stand for; all that our founders have worked for: democracy, free trade, freedom, itself, is being attacked. Someone has dared to step into our neighborhood and pick a fight. From the comments and opinions that have been broadcast on the newspapers, radio and television, we, as a nation, feel justified for "eye for an eye" retaliation.

This is also a great disturbance.

Make no mistake. I think that those who are directly and indirectly responsible for this horrific crime should be pursued, captured and punished to the fullest extent of our nation's law. What disturbs me is the almost flippant, and arrogant attitude for revenge, that if carried out will once again disrupt the balance of life and death. Let us not mistake revenge for justice.

Rudyard Kipling once wrote, "Keep your mind about you while all others are losing theirs." This sentiment fits in with our observance of Higan. Higan is the reference to the "Other Shore" of Amida Buddha's Pure Land of Utmost Joy. This is in contrast to the term, shigan that refers to "This Shore" of delusion, ignorance, greed and anger. The Higan service is to observe the perfection of the Six Paramitas:  "dana" selfless giving, "sila" discipline or morality, "ksanti" patience, "virya" endeavor, "dhyana" insight or meditation, and "prajna" wisdom. Through the perfection of the Six Paramitas, one is able to cross over from the shore of delusion and arrive upon the shore of Enlightenment or Nirvana. Higan is observed twice a year at the Equinoxes of the autumn and spring. This is the ideal time for practice: there is a sense of balance because the length of day and night is equal and the temperature is neither too cold nor too hot. There are no external things to inhibit one's practice. The perfection of the Six Paramitas challenges and awakens us to our limitations and our ultimate potential. They teach us about the human limitations of an egocentric, self-serving Self. At the same time they reveal the infinite and boundless wisdom and compassion of a power beyond this self.

Shinran Shonin (1173-1262), the founder of our Jodo Shinshu school of Buddhism relates the following about this limited Self. Good thoughts arise in us through the prompting of good karma from the past and evil comes to be thought and performed though the working of evil karma. The late master Shinran said, "Know that every evil act done–even as slight as a particle on the tip of a strand of rabbit's fur or sheep's wool, has its cause in past karma. Since you lack the karmic cause inducing you to kill even a single person, you do not kill. It is not that you do not kill because your heart is good. In the same way, a person may wish not to harm anyone and yet end up killing a hundred or a thousand people. If the karmic cause so prompts us, we, human beings will do anything."

If the causes and conditions are just so, we will commit any kind of act. That is the nature of human beings. We can fall into the deep abyss of darkness and terror as long as this deluded, self-centered, egotistical self is maintained. However, when this self is abandoned, we can then realize the ultimate potential that transcends this limited self and embrace this life with ultimate and pure wisdom and compassion. This is a power beyond our limited self, which transcends the borders of countries created by man. May this Power bless not just America but the whole world.

Before we feel justified in retaliation, we must examine our thoughts, action and speech. As Shinran Shonin's insight reveals, we have that same potential to commit such horrid actions as the terrorists had committed on that fateful September  day.  We also have the same potential to awaken ultimate wisdom and compassion as well. All actions are the result of previous causes and conditions. Whatever action we choose to take, as individuals and as a nation, we must be willing to accept the full responsibility and effects without hiding behind a veil of justifications, excuses or even religion. Perhaps this is a crucial time for us to reflect upon the words of Rudyard Kipling and try during this Higan or Equinox season to regain the "balance" of our lives that was recently lost.

Without a doubt, the lives that were lost due to the terrorists are a tremendous tragedy. Their lives should never be forgotten. Our nation and community leaders have asked us to remember the lives lost on September 11th. They have asked us to remember the victims trapped in the buildings and planes, of the brave who risked and  in  some cases lost their lives while helping others. They ask us to use their memory as the nourishment to strengthen us so that we can rebuild and once again become a proud America. Their lives will not pass in vain if they help us awaken and cherish the sanctity of human life regardless of country or creed I submit to you, instead of becoming a Proud America or one that is only concerned with the welfare of One's Self or one's country, let us become a Grateful America, one that is concerned for the welfare of all beings.

Namo Amida Butsu

Hanamatsuri, literally Flower Festival, is celebrated on April 8, commemorating the birth of Siddhartha Gautama. Siddhartha became enlightened as Sakyamuni Buddha and this mark the release of sentient beings from suffering and sorrow.

According to our tradition, the historical Buddha, Sakyamuni, was born in Nepal on April 8, 566 B.C. He was born the son of King Suddohana and Queen Maya. There are many flowery descriptions of the scene at his birth, including celestial birds singing beautiful songs, beautiful flowers, and a sweet gentle rain bathing the baby Buddha. It is not necessarily the beauty of the flowers, the sounds of the celestial birds, nor the sweet gentle rain that fell, but the vibrant fact that on this day was born the greatest of sentient beings who became the Enlightened One, the Buddha.

Every year we celebrate our own birthday. In our youth we are anxious to reach "adulthood," and in our old age we attempt to cling to our "youth." What are the meaning and reason for celebrating our birth? Much of the meaning of our own birth is often lost in the gifts and the merriment. The celebration of our birth is an expression of gratitude. This gratitude is extended towards our friends, parents and to life itself. This gratitude grows from an understanding that our birth is the result of many people and that our lives are intertwined with all others.

Understanding the Buddha's teaching of interdependency of all things will make it clear that our birth is the result of many causes and conditions. Realizing this we can see that our birth is truly a rare and wonderful gift, and we have an obligation to live out this life in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha.

This obligation to live our lives out to the fullest becomes even more striking when we look at the symbolism and the significance of the flower. The flower, as with all human beings, has its moment of youth and beauty, but its beauty soon begins to fade and eventually it dies. Our birth is like the blossoming of a beautiful flower, but it is the seed of our own demise. When we can understand our own impermanent nature, then it becomes very clear how we should live our lives.

From the murky depths of this quagmire of life, there still are occasions when sentient beings may, out of sincerity of mind, effort and intelligence, produce pure thoughts which may bloom into the ultimate purity of the white lotus, enlightenment. Hanamatsuri represents one of these occasions. It is a time for us to show our gratitude and rededicate ourselves as we contemplate the importance the birth of our teach, master, spiritual guide and friend, Sakyamuni Buddha.

Namo Amidabutsu.

from Dharma Chatter by Rev. Masao Kodani

That the universe is an ever-inter-changing infinity of matter and energy with no beginning and no end.

That there is no creator-being separate from this universe.

That true-reality is a verb and not a noun and that awakening is in regards to this verb-ness of things.

That the "I-ness", "Me-ness"; "myself-ness"; the "noun-ness" of myself and things is a delusion I cling to as if my life depended upon it.

That it is in the nature of being human that we slavishly cling to the idea of a permanent, unchanging self; a soul, a tamashii, a reikon which moves through time and space and that the real world is a relationship between noun things when all the while the truth is that the real world is the becoming itself.

That awakening to this true world is not a matter of objective observation or intellectual effort, but an awakening involving ones entire being (kokoro) which brings a transformation of being. It is not a cold scientific fact, but one which involves intellect, emotion, truth, love, and beauty. For us it is the human personification of truth, love, beauty, goodness, etc. as Amida Buddha, a truth which moves towards us, taking all forms to jostle us into seeing our attachment to self and the "thing-ness" of the world, and in so doing, allowing us to experience if not clearly understand, the "be-ing-ness" of everything.

That for us, religion is not a matter of belief, a way of life, a philosophy, or a set of moral-ethical rules by which to live. It is not miracle healing, horoscopes, omamori, lucky days and unlucky days, who we were in former lives, auras, amulets, divinations, or exorcisms - but awakening to not who but what we are, what it means to live and die, and how wonderful it is to breathe this air this day.

That the goal and purpose of Buddhism is Enlightenment, a wisdom beyond wisdom, beyond logic, beyond objectivity, beyond subjectivity. The problem is not how to get it, but rather understanding what it is we are being given. There are no conditions, no deals, no promises to keep; no prayers, no meditative powers, no vibrations to use to "break through" - There is only being given and receiving what is being given. This is the "most difficult of difficult things", to accept unconditionally the Diamond-Kokoro.

For Shin Buddhists, the truth of enlightenment is expressed as "Amida Buddha." What do we mean when we say we take refuge in Amida Buddha? If we are not careful, Amida can become objectified and taken to mean a kind of deity or god. This is not what is meant by Amida Buddha in Shin Buddhism.

The word "Amida" is a combination of two Sanskrit words, Amitayus and Amitabha. Amitayus means "immeasurable life." Amitabha means "immeasurable light." Therefore, the contents of enlightenment are immeasurable life and immeasurable light. What does this mean? Allow me to explain this by two examples. First, I would like to explain immeasurable life by an example from Saichi the Myokonin.

Myokonin is a term used in Shin Buddhism to refer to the most devout and exemplary followers of the Nembutsu, Namuamidabutsu. These Myokonin, in many cases, wrote poems expressing their understanding of the Nembutsu, Amida Buddha, the Pure Land, and other aspects of Shin Buddhism. Saichi wrote one particular poem that I am especially fond of and that I think clearly illustrates what we mean by immeasurable life.

 The poem goes as follows:

We must read this poem by Saichi carefully, because it is easy to misinterpret this subtle but most profound poem.

First, Saichi says, "How grateful! While others die, I do not die."

Here, Saichi is not saying arrogantly, "I am strong and healthy! I outlived all of my friends. Others die, but I am still alive and kicking!"

I don't think that is what Saichi is saying by those few lines. Through the Nembutsu, through the truth of enlightenment, Saichi has touched upon an essence of life, life beyond his ego self, life beyond his limited physical life as a human being. That essence, that truth, is immeasurable life.

The last two lines are also subtle and almost like a Zen koan. Saichi says, "Not dying, I go to Amida's Pure Land."

Normally we think that we die, and then go to the Pure Land. Here Saichi throws that logic and way of thinking upside down. Saichi says, "Not dying, I go to Amida's Pure Land." How can Saichi say this?

Saichi can make this statement because he has touched upon immeasurable life. In so doing, he touches the Pure Land here and now, not as a heaven or realm up there as a place to go when he dies, but as the world of truth or enlightenment. Physically, he knows he will die like all human beings, but religiously, spiritually, he has touched on a truth, an essence of life that transcends life and death. That is the meaning of "Not dying." His life here and now is not just a life of a mere 70, 80, or 90 years. His life has touched the infinite. His life is immeasurable.

Amida is immeasurable life. Immeasurable life is all around us. It flows through our hearts and minds. It is one with us in life, and is one with us in death. We can sense it even as we stand in front of the great ocean, or at the foothills of a great mountain. Saichi touched on this great immeasurable life, and in so doing, his life too, becomes immeasurable.

I would now like to explain immeasurable light by quoting from our recently published book, "Coffinman." This book, a true story about a man who became a mortician, clearly illustrates what is meant by immeasurable light.

The author, Shinmon Aoki, in working as a mortician, and preparing corpses for funerals by placing them in coffins, comes to be known as the "Coffinman." Although he is first confronted by the unpleasant things that he must do as a mortician, he continues in earnest his work, and begins to sense a radiance, a light, in the faces of the deceased. He then begins to sense this light in insects, in trees, in life around him. This leads him to a study of religion, and eventually Shin Buddhism. In Shinran Shonin's writings, he discovers what he has been seeing and sensing experientially, as "immeasurable light."

In his book "Coffinman," Shinmon Aoki quotes from a Dr. Kazukiyo Imura, who has also seen this light. Dr. Imura was terminally ill, but in facing death, his heart and mind were opened to great immeasurable light.

 "On the evening of that day, as I was parking the car at the apartment, I saw a mysterious aura. Everything around me was extremely bright. The people going to the supermarket to shop appeared to be shining. The kids who were running around appeared to be shining. The dogs, the drooping heads of rice, the weeds, the telephone poles, even down to the tiny pebbles, all appeared to be shining. When I got back to the apartment, even my wife appeared to be shining, so much so that I wanted to put my hands together in reverence."

—p. 58 Coffinman, by Shinmon Aoki

Dr. Imura, as he faced his own death, had his heart and mind opened up to immeasurable light. He saw a radiance in all things around him. People, animals, plants, even inanimate objects like telephone poles and tiny pebbles, all radiated immeasurable light. This light is not the kind of light that you would see in a movie like, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," or "Star Trek." It is a light that we see more with our heart than our eyes.

Shinran Shonin, the founder of Shin Buddhism, expresses this light throughout his writings. In one of his poems, or wasan he expresses how immeasurable light radiates and shines within flowers.

This great immeasurable light shines within each and every flower. As Shinran states, "There is no place they do not reach." This means that immeasurable light reaches everywhere, even into the depths of my heart. It radiates within the hearts and minds of all beings. It radiates within the mountains and trees, and illuminates the oceans and rivers. Although the world might appear dark and dreary, there is a great immeasurable light that can brighten the darkest of days, the darkest of lives.

Amida Buddha means "immeasurable life and immeasurable light." Namuamidabutsu therefore means, "I open my heart and mind to this great immeasurable life and light." Although my life might be dark and dreary, although my life might be sunk in my limited ego self, Namuamidabutsu, as immeasurable life and immeasurable light, illuminates my heart and mind, and allows me to touch the timeless, the infinite.

Gassho.

According to scholars who study such things, there was no equivalent in ancient Japan for the English word "nature," which in modern Japanese is the word shizen. When a Japanese of ancient times wanted to express the equivalent of our word "nature," he did so by using concrete expressions of it. For example, the ancient Japanese referred to nature itself as mountains-rivers-great earth" (san-ga-daichi) or "grass-trees-country-ground" (so-moku-koku-do). They referred to the changes in nature as "flying flowers-falling leaves" (hi-ka, ruku-yo).

The fact that the ancient Japanese used concrete terms to express what we today refer to as "nature," does not mean that they did not have the ability to express things abstractly. It means that rather than considering nature to be something standing in contrast to themselves, or that nature is something to make use of, they felt nature to be a part of themselves. That is why the poems of that period used mountains, rivers, moon, flowers, wind, etc., to express their feelings of nostalgia, impermanence, love, sorrow, etc.

Today, however, because Japan has been so influenced by the West, nature is considered something to be used for our benefit. This feeling is the basis of science and technological development.

A scientific principle may be important to a scientist first for itself, but for most of us, a scientific principle is important for how it can be used to make life "easier."

The near catastrophes in American and Russian atomic reactors, however, show what can happen if we one-sidedly try to exploit nature solely for what seems to be our benefit.

We have benefited a great deal from the scientific and technological developments of recent years, but at the same time, we have lost sight of nature for what it is for itself. That is, we no longer look at things with an attitude that the thing in itself is sufficient reason for its existence.

Stated in other words, a mountain is no longer simply accepted as a mountain; it is something that must be exploited because it may give various resources. A river is no longer looked on as having value as flowing water. It is looked at for how many kilowatts of power will be generated if a dam were constructed across it. Trees are considered for the number of board-feet of lumber that it will produce and grass for the number of cattle it will support. Similarly, people are no longer valued as individuals, but for the work they can do and how much they can consume.

When we consider the utility of things as the most important characteristic of that thing, that thing is no longer what it is, but what it can be used for.

Regarding this matter, I am brought to recall a story about Rennyo Shonin, the Eighth Spiritual Leader of the Hongwanji. He once found a scrap of paper in the corridor. "This belongs to the Buddha," he said, and reverently placed his hands together in gassho and bowed towards it.

I believe the Japanese term mottai-nai should be used more often by us in the United states. This term is written with the characters for "thing" and "essence" and a negating suffix. It is often translated as "irreverent" or "sacrilegious" when used by itself. When used as in, "How mottai-nai!" it is usually translated as "how wasteful!" or "What a waste!" but mottai-nai implies that if you consider something only from the point of how you can use it, you disregard the essence or life of that thing.

When, however, we consider everything as "belonging to the Buddha," we accept water as water, a scrap of paper as a scrap of paper, and acknowledge its value for itself.

That is the world in which everything has its own reason for existence. It is the world in which, as the Amida Sutra says about the Buddha's Land, the world in which white colors radiate white light, red colors radiate red light, yellow colors radiate yellow light, etc.

The American Jodo Shinshu meaning of Obon and Bon Odori is unique. It is a meaning that is significantly different from other schools of Buddhism and in particular from the popular Japanese belief that it is dancing performed for the "souls" of deceased relatives who are believed to return to this world at Obon time.

Obon stems from the story of Mokuren (Mogallana), a disciple of the Buddha, famed for his meditative prowess. While in a deep meditative state, Mokuren sees his mother suffering in the realm of Hungry Ghosts and rushes to the Buddha to seek advice on how to help release her from this realm of suffering. The Buddha advises Mokuren to participate in the annual rainy season retreat and make an offering to the Sangha of his fellow monks at the end of the retreat. Having done this, Mokuren sees his mother released from her afflictions and danced for joy. This dance of joy is seen to be the original Bon Odori. The name Bon or Obon is from the Japanese reading of the sutra where this story appears—the Ullambana Sutra or Urabongyo in Japanese. The offering of clothing and food to the monks is popularly seen to be the act that affected Mokuren's mother's release, hence the offering of food, lights, and entertainment at Obon.

The Jodo Shinshu rejects the idea of "tamashii" or "soul" and interprets the story of Mokuren as the memory of one's deceased relatives and friends as stimulating or urging oneself to awakening. It is this awakening to a deluded self and its embracement in the Truth that causes us to "dance in Joy."

Jodo Shinshu temples in America observe Obon and Bon Odori over a one or two day period. The majority of the temples have the Obon services in the morning or over a weekend, separate from the Bon Odori. In most cases the Bon Odori is held in conjunction with the temple bazaar or carnival. Some temples separate their fund-raising activities from the Bon Odori so that everyone can participate in the dancing as a spiritual and festive activity.

As a spiritual activity then, the idea of Bon Odori is to just dance, without fretting over how one looks or showing off one's ability. It is to come and dance just as you are with no conniving, no calculating, no image protecting or flaunting. According to Jodo Shinshu, Truth-Reality is ours for the receiving. We need do nothing but hear and receive it. But to simply hear and receive is as difficult as it is to just dance. We would much rather practice until we have "got it" before we dance in front of others—in much the same way that we rehearse "really living" and only end up watching life go by.

ON THE OTHER EXTREME, when we have mastered the dance, we strut and preen to impress others—much in the same way that we do in life—re-living rather than living anew. To "just do" anything is extremely difficult, for it involves setting aside one's ego for a moment. Bon Odori is an exercise in "just dancing," in "just hearing and accepting," in being a river forever flowing and changing instead of the riverbank forever watching. The beauty and significance of live is a "be-ing" not "being."

When people no longer have the energy or inclination to dance the old dances, it means that something of greater value is replacing the life that the old dances embodied. The old language is the first to disappear and the old foods the last. Somewhere in between, the old songs and the old dances maintain a link to our ancient inheritance, giving form and substance, however unconsciously, to our ancient habits and values. Sometimes those old songs and dances remain frozen in time, like an exotic insect frozen in amber. At other times, the songs and dances send out new roots to grow and flourish in new soil and new sunlight and shade. Bon Odori is such a dance. It cannot remain alive and vibrant if people cannot come "sono mama - just as they are," join the circle and dance. It is not meant to be watched, it is meant to be danced—and therefore no professional dancer or singer can preserve it in its purity. Its purity is in being done by anyone and everyone.

Bon Odori is the one great Japanese-American tradition of folk culture. It reveals for all to see what remains of the old culture, what's in it that is still valued because it can still nourish and enrich us, and how much of it has taken root in its new environment to become something new yet familiar.

Namo Amidabutsu.

I once asked a sansei temple member what Buddhist characteristicshe most remembered about her grandmother. She responded by telling how, whenever her grandmother washed rice, she would replace any grains of rice which had washed out of the cooking pot and declare, "Mottai Nai (how unworthy I am)." As the wonderful Shinshu teacher Yoshitaka sensei of Denver has written, "With this one phrase we are filled with Buddha-centered power (tariki) that is impossible to measure...We will never be deadlocked if we work with the feeling of 'motta-nai'."

The feeling of "motta nai" arises out of the awareness of the interdependence of all existence and how we must live at the expense of other beings. While we cannot help but cause pain to others, it is through our Buddhist practice that we try to minimize the pain we cause others. There are many examples of this kind of behavior in Shinshu history. The stories of our eight patriarch Rennyo Shonin poignantly illustrates this feeling of "mottai nai." Once, Rennyo Shonin was walking down a hallway when he spotted a scrap of paper lying on the floor. Picking it up, he placed it between his palms in gassho and said, "This is also the Buddhas; it will not do to regard it lightly." Of this episode Tamai sensei comments, "In Rennyo Shonin's eyes, the light of our indebtedness sparkled in even a tiny scrap of paper."

Often, I am asked how to live Jodo Shinshu in our daily lives. Frequently, the question is asked while we are enjoying refreshments following a Sunday service; eating off a paper styrofoam plate with plastic utensils and drinking from a styrofoam cup. Following our discussion, everything is dumped into the trash, used once and wasted! This is truly "motta nai", especially since all this time we have cupboards full of ceramic dishes at the temple which we almost never use anymore.

When I reflect on the few grains of rice or the scrap of paper, I cannot help but feel overwhelmed by the waste of our modern world. It was amusing yet sad to see the elderly issei (first generation) women face the same dilemma when I was a minister at the San Francisco Buddhist Temple. There was one room set aside for an increasingly growing accumulation of used tofu containers, paper and plastic bags, etc., which the ladies could not bring themselves to throw away. They were caught between two cultures: their traditional, often impoverished upbringing and the opulent, consumption/convenience world of today. We have lost their spirit of "mottai nai" at this very juncture of history when we need it most for many people today have become acutely aware that we are destroying our world with our waste, all in the name of progress and for the sake of convenience. I am not speaking merely of trash. Waste or pollution is an accumulating by-product of our opulent lifestyle, a lifestyle which caters to desire which, in Buddhism, is the very cause of suffering. Some of those problems with the greatest potential for disaster seem to me, to name just a few, the destruction of the earth's protective ozone layer, the so-called "greenhouse effect", the pollution of the world's water supplies, the loss of wilderness and radioactive waste.

If we think carefully about waste or pollution in our world, we realize it is the result of countless, thoughtless, and insensitive actions. For instance, it seems that the majority of people I talk with feel it necessary to travel long distances for a vacation. It is quite common for people from "the mainland" to travel to Hawaii for a week or two, especially graduating high school students. Yet, this must be a trip in excess of twelve thousand miles, multiplied by millions of people each year contributing to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This sense of having to "get away" for a vacation reminds me of an old Japanese story.

There was once a man who was searching for the first sign of spring. He set out and scoured the whole countryside looking for the first plum blossom that had opened. Everywhere he saw swelled buds ready to burst open but not a single one had bloomed so he trudged home disappointed. As he entered his own yard, he glanced up and spied a single open blossom on his own tree! Why is it we tend to seek far away from ourselves for happiness when it is right at hand? Those who feel the need to "get away" are most likely trying to get away from themselves. Of course, vacations or rest may be necessary for health, but we need not go far. We may actually choose to stay where we are - perish the thought!  and probably not be so tired from our trip.

In order to keep our Shin Buddhist spirit alive, we need to translate its principles and values in terms of modern experience. At the same temple where the lady related the story of her grandmother and the rice grains, I often spoke of Buddhism as an ecological perspective, yet very few people were open to such a view. After every social event, the garbage would be filled with styrofoam and easily recycled aluminum soda and beer cans. I took this as a theme for one of the sermons and talked about the two levels of reality as taught in Buddhism.

The first level is a kind of flat, two-dimensional view of things which sees them without any depth; a superficial view of life. This view lacks any profound view of "causes and conditions", a phrase we often encounter in Buddhism. The fact that everything is produced by profound causes and conditions is the second and true view of existence. In the words of Rev. Phillip Eidmann, "We are thus endlessly interrelated with all and everything in the universe. When we really understand our relation to the whole universe, it makes us very humble...our gratitude extends to everything in the universe...To express our gratitude, we then strive to make all beings happy." We find an example of this kind of attitude when, before eating, we say "Itadakimasu (I humbly partake of this food)." So often I hear people, even ministers, flippantly and with gusto saying "Itadakimasu" while their hands are joined in gassho. What a contradiction! They might as well shout "Dig In!" This kind of attitude truly lacks the Shinshu spirit which recognizes that all forms of life have the right to exist on their own terms. It is arrogance to think that other forms of life were put here for our benefit.

In the superficial view of existence, everything and everyone are barely, if at all, reflected upon. An aluminum can, for instance, is used and discarded with the assumption that it exists only for our convenience. Within the vast realm of the true perspective ("the vast ocean of the Dharma") we see the past and the future of the aluminum can: the bauxite ore, probably from Jamaica, where whole hills are torn away and shipped to the United States or Canada where the refining process requires a tremendous quantity of energy produced by burning oil which contributes to acid rain and the Greenhouse Effect, and so on and on, to a profound extent. Understanding this, how can we toss the can into the already enormous trash sites of America? The least we can do is place the can between the palms like Rennyo Shonin, reverently bow in gassho, and while saying "mottai nai", place it in the recycling bag. Actually we don't need what's in the can to begin with! What is so sad to me as a minister is that, after I delivered the above sermon, most of the easily recycled aluminum cans and the other unnecessary trash continued to be discarded. It seems that people want their religion, too, to be convenient.

The crisis and challenge for modern man is to find a way to live in harmony with his environment, whether that environment be his family or his physical environment. Shin Buddhism teaches us a way to live harmoniously in our inner mental world, and the external world. Actually the inner and the outer are ultimately the same. This Buddhist sense of the unity of opposites is too deep to go into here but, as one aspect of this idea, suffice it to say that our thoughts and values become manifest in our behavior. If we have a mind of harmony, our behavior will be harmonious. In this spirit, we could adopt a lifestyle that is sustainable. In other words, it would be a lifestyle that people a hundred, thousand, or ten thousand years from now could also pursue without damaging or destroying the fragile ecology of the earth. This truly is harmony, something we are far from today.

In this essay, I have emphasized only one aspect of Jodo Shinshu, although an integral aspect. I have done so because it is a side almost virtually ignored. If I am asked how one lives Shin Buddhism in one's daily life, it is certainly proper for me to give suggestions such as the following: by turning off unnecessary lights around the house; by traveling less (the automobile being one of the main sources of pollution of this planet); by not promoting the use of pesticides by demanding perfect fruit and vegetables (you don't demand a perfect spouse do you?); by promoting beauty and quality in our homes, work places and surroundings; by promoting renewable energy sources, returnable bottles and recyclable materials; by turning down the thermostat on your heater.

This list could go on and on but I hope the connecting thread of all these actions is evident. In Shin Buddhism, we often speak of our deep indebtedness to all that supports us, for all existence is possessed of Buddha nature. It is our responsibility to conserve our great physical and cultural endowment for the future. This is the true meaning of the conservation movement, a movement motivated by humility and gratitude.

Rev. Haya Akegarasu, in an essay titled, “One Flower,” states the following:

I hold here a single violet. The Kegon Sutra, Lotus Sutra, Yuima Sutra, Muryoju Sutra—none of them can compare to this single violet. The Koran, the Bible, the Zend-Avesta, the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Analects of Confucious—none of them can compare to this single violet. Paintings by Raphael, sculpture by Rodin, brush painting by Sesshu—none of the works of art on earth can compare to this violet.
 Things made by a person’s hands or words that come out of his mouth are always secondary as compared with the person himself. Something that is made cannot compare with something that is born. I like that man who said about the lilies of the field: “King Solomon in all his glory is not clothed as one of them.”
 No empire or kingdom can compare to the single violet that is smiling in my hand.

 I think that this is a profound statement. It has particular meaning for us as we live in an age of technology and science. Over the centuries, man has created many inventions and developed technology. We have gone from a horse and buggy to the automobile. We have landed a man on the moon. We have built towering skyscrapers and bridges over vast rivers and canyons. We are entertained by television and video games. We listen to concerts by surround sound stereo, or carry in our pocket a tiny player that contains the music of hundreds of CDs. I write this article on a computer, one of the most amazing of inventions.

However, Rev. Akegarasu, in this essay, states that nothing created by man, can compare to “a single violet.” Something that is made cannot compare with something that is born. The computer, the TV, the VCR, the automobile—none of them compare to your life, my life, because we have been born.

Shakyamuni Buddha once gave a most unusual sermon. With all of his disciples gathered around him, waiting for him to deliver a message on the Dharma, the Buddha spoke not a single word, but instead simply held up a single flower. All of the monks looked at each other in bewilderment, waiting for the Buddha to speak, wondering what the message was about. Only the disciple Mahakashapa smiled to the Buddha in response.

I think that this wordless sermon by Shakyamuni Buddha, and the “One Flower” essay by Rev. Akegarasu have the same meaning. Shakyamuni Buddha was trying to impart to his followers the essence of life, the truth of the Dharma that is expressed simply in a single flower. Just look at a single flower that is in full bloom. The flower seems to be saying, “I will live my life 100%!” With the totality of its being, the flower shouts this nobility of life. Something that is made cannot compare with something that is born.

Each and every one of us expresses this most noble life, because we have been born. This life that we have been given cannot be compared to anything made by man. This one life that we have received cannot be compared to any work of art. It cannot be compared to any invention like a stereo or DVD player. It cannot be compared to a plasma big screen TV or a laptop computer. It cannot be compared to a Sony Play Station, or an espresso coffee maker. This one life is incomparable to anything made by man.

Rev. Akegarasu and Shakyamuni Buddha saw this noble, incomparable life even in a single flower.

The Zen Master, Zenkei Shibayama also expresses this beautifully in the following poem titled, “A Flower Does Not Talk.”

Silently a flower blooms,
In silence it falls away;
Yet here now, at this moment, at this place,
   the whole of the flower, the whole of
   the world is blooming.

This is the talk of the flower, the truth
   of the blossom;
The glory of eternal life is fully shining here.

As we observe Hanamatsuri and celebrate the birth of Shakyamuni Buddha, may we be reminded of the nobility of life that we have all received, and may we live this one, incomparable life radiantly like a flower in full bloom.

Namuamidabutsu.

Siddhartha Gautama was twenty-nine years old when he left his family to search for a way to end his and others' suffering. He studied meditation with many teachers, and after six years of practice, he sat under the bodhi tree and vowed not to stand up until he was enlightened.

He sat all night, and as the morning star arose, he had a profound breakthrough and became a Buddha, filled with understanding and love. The Buddha spent the next forty-nine days enjoying the peace of his realization. After that he walked slowly to the Deer Park in Sarnath to share his understanding with the five ascetics with whom he had practiced earlier.

When the five men saw him coming, they felt uneasy. Siddhartha had abandoned them, they thought. But he looked so radiant that they could not resist welcoming him. They washed his feet and offered him water to drink. The Buddha said, "Dear friends, I have seen deeply that nothing can be by itself alone, that everything has to inter-be with everything else. I have seen that all beings are endowed with the nature of awakening." He offered to say more, but the monks didn't know whether to believe him or not. So the Buddha said, "Have I ever lied to you?" They knew he hadn't, and they agreed to receive his teachings.

The Buddha then taught the Four Noble Truths of the existence of suffering, the making of suffering, the possibility of restoring well-being, and the Noble Eightfold Path that leads to well-being. Hearing this, an immaculate vision of the Four Noble Truths arose in Kondanna, one of the five ascetics. The Buddha observed this and exclaimed, "Kondanna understands!" and from that day on, Kondanna was called "The One Who Understands."

The Buddha then declared, "Dear friends, with humans, gods, brahmans, monastics, and maras as witnesses, I tell you that if I have not experienced directly all that I have told you, I would not proclaim that I am an enlightened person, free from suffering. Because I myself have identified suffering, understood suffering, identified the causes of suffering, removed the causes of suffering, confirmed the existence of well-being, obtained well-being, identified the path to well-being, gone to the end of the path, and realized total liberation, I now proclaim to you that I am a free person."

At that moment the Earth shook, and the voices of the gods, humans and other living beings throughout the cosmos said that on the planet Earth, an enlightened person has been born and had put into motion the wheel of the Dharma, The Way of Understanding and Love. This teaching is recorded in the Discourse on Turning the Wheel of the Dharma (Dhamma Cakka Pavattana Sutta). Since then, two thousand, six hundred years have passed, and the wheel of the Dharma continues to turn. It is up to us, the present generation, to keep the wheel turning for the happiness of the many.

Three points characterize this sutra. The first is the teaching of the Middle Way. The Buddha wanted his five friends to be free from the idea that austerity is the only correct practice. He had learned firsthand that if you destroy your health, you have no energy left to realize the path. The other extreme to be avoided, he said, is indulgence in sense pleasure — being possessed by sexual desire, running after fame, eating immoderately, sleeping too much, or chasing after possessions.

The second point is the teaching of the Four Noble Truths. This teaching was of great value during the lifetime of the Buddha, is of great value in our own time, and will be of great value for millennia to come. The third point is engagement in the world. The teachings of the Buddha were not to escape from life, but to help us relate to ourselves and world as thoroughly as possible. The Noble Eightfold Path includes Right Speech and Right Livelihood. These teachings are for people in the world who have to communicate with each other and earn a living.

The Discourse on Turning the Wheel of the Dharma is filled with joy and hope. It teaches us to recognize suffering as suffering and to transform our suffering into mindfulness, compassion, peace and liberation.
 

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The Only Thing I Know
in Life is Gratitude

by Rev. Marvin Harada
This article is one of many Orange County Buddhist Church's minister messages found at http://www.bca-ocbc.org

The highlight of this past summer was our Jr. YBA or high school age youth group's tour to Japan. This was the first time we have conducted such a tour, and it was a very wonderful trip and experience. A group of 24 young people and 11 adults, 35 in all, traveled to Kyoto, Japan, at the end of June. The purpose of the trip was to visit our mother temple, the Nishi Honganji, in Kyoto, and to experience the religion and culture of Japan.

In addition to visiting the Honganji, and attending the morning service there, we also went sightseeing to some of the famous temples and sites in Kyoto.

One of the most famous temples in Kyoto is called "Ryoanji." Ryoanji has one of the most famous rock gardens in the world. You might have seen pictures of it before. It is a most simple garden, consisting of mostly white rocks that are meticulously raked in a pattern, and a few other larger rocks. It is so simple, that you initially fail to see the beauty of the garden. One of the kids in our group, upon seeing the garden, asked me most honestly, "Sensei, is this it?" I laughed in response, and said, "Yes, this is it." I couldn't blame the young person, because I think most people initially think there must be more to the garden because it is so strikingly simple.

Although I had been to Ryoanji several times before, this time I noticed something that was most interesting. In the back, in a corner that most people simply walk by, there is a beautiful little stone fountain, with a Buddhist saying on it. The Buddhist saying is, Ware, tada taru o shiru, which means something like: "All I know in life is to be contented, to be grateful." When we reflect on this statement, it is a most profound and amazing statement.

In life, we rely on our intelligence to carry us through life and to advance our careers. Our whole education from the time we are young, is focused on the learning of "things," like math, science, history, or English. We go from elementary levels of math, like arithmetic, and then learn more difficult levels like algebra or even calculus. My friend in college was a math major, and I couldn't believe the difficult and lengthy equations he had to memorize in his courses.

Even in religion, or in the study of Buddhism, one ends up learning a lot of "things," like the eightfold path, the six paramitas, the five precepts, the teachings of karma, impermanence, and interdependency. We might even study Buddhist philosophers like Nagarjuna, and his teaching of "Emptiness," or Vasubandhu's teaching of "Mind Only."

However, this statement by this Zen monk, written on the fountain at Ryoanji says, "I don't know a lot of things. In fact, I really know nothing in this world. I don't know history, or science, or math. I don't know philosophy, or psychology, or metaphysics. I only know one thing. I know how to be contented, how to be grateful."

When you think about it, what an amazing statement that is. To really and truly know gratitude, and how to be grateful—maybe that is the most important thing to know in life.

A person who only knows gratitude is unaffected by the events of the world around him. You could get a huge pay cut, but instead of being bitter or upset, you could still be grateful. "At least I still have a job." You could be severely criticized by others, and be unfazed. "I am so grateful for others who have shown me what I did not see in myself." You even could be told by the doctor that you have a terminal illness and only months to live and find a way to be grateful. "I am so fortunate that I now know there are only a few months to express my gratitude to so many people."

Really, someone who knows gratitude, knows everything that is necessary to know in life. In knowing gratitude, the ultimate source of happiness is known. In knowing gratitude, all relationships with others are harmonious, even with your enemies. In knowing gratitude, there is nothing that you lack in life. Rich or poor, sickness or health, large home or tiny shack, big Mercedes or little Pinto, it doesn't matter, because you can be grateful for whatever you have or don't have in life.

This simple saying from the Ryoanji temple gives me a wonderful lesson in Buddhism and in life. More than the knowledge of philosophy or difficult doctrines, more than the knowledge of history or science, more than knowing politics or government, to simply know how to be contented, how to be grateful, is perhaps to know the most important thing in life.

Namuamidabutsu

Meaning of Ryoanji Fountain characters:
Middle square of fountain represents the Chinese character kuchi, which is a part of each of the four characters: ware (I), tada (only), taru (content, grateful), and shiru (to know), as diagrammed here.
 
 
 

"Shinnen akemashite omedeto."
(Shin-nay-en Ah-kay-ma-she-tay O-may-day-toe)
This is "A Happy New Year" in Japanese.
It means, literally, congratulations that a new year has "opened up."

Some people say that sending New Year greeting cards is a mere formality. But it is not a formality to me. It is a very important and opportune time to greet many friends. It is a very happy time for me. I have neglected many friends through the year, not writing or calling, and I would like to visit them at least once at the new year to say hello or to send greetings to let friends know that we are all well.

Many people send me a greeting card. Each card brings a happy greeting and is such a joy to receive. Some say that they have moved and others report an addition to the family or that they have lost dear ones. I have sent a little over a thousand cards this year. My daughter helped me, but with every one I took care as if I were visiting my friends personally. My thoughts were with them. It is a wonderful season and it is a very happy time to send greeting cards.

New Year comes only to those who welcome it. After all, it is we who make a new year. It is in the culture; it is in our minds. There are different New Years such as the Chinese New Year and the Jewish New Year, according to their traditions. Unless we make it, the new year is not there. I do not think that there is a new year in a dog's life. So we should not take the New Year for granted as a mere formality. We have to make it a new year, and we should make it an important thing.

I feel so much about warm-heart nowadays. There were times I thought so much of justice, and at other times, of reason and rationality, and sometimes I thought of money and health. These things are very important, there is no question of that. But nowadays I feel a deep longing for the warmth of life.

It is the warmth that makes life grow. The late Dr. Kuki once said that he became a Buddhist because Buddhist life is warm. As I read the accounts and teachings of Gautama Buddha, I saw that more people became his disciples because of his profound understanding and warmth than because of convincing reason or rationality. That is why there are no missionaries propagating Buddhism. The all-important thing is that each Buddhist live his good Buddhist life.

Another thought for the New Year is the way of "let it go" or non-attachment. We cling too much to many things. We create troubles, tensions, and many problems because we are so possessive and clinging. We have to learn the doctrine of non-attachment and "let it go." "Let it go" does not mean carelessness or neglect, just as non-attachment is not indifference or aloofness. It is simply freedom from clinging and possessiveness.

When you do something, do it with all your might. Put your life into it. But do not possess or be possessed by it. Do not cling to it. When it is finished, let it go.

Many mothers kill their only son because of clinging or possessive love. One must let him go when he is grown, as cubs are pushed off by the mother lion. Lovers should love, but should not possess; when love becomes possession, it spoils. Money is a wonderful thing and a very important thing in modern life, but when one clings to it, he becomes a miser, and when one is possessed by money, there is no life. If one clings to opposition, that becomes anger. If one clings to well-being, that becomes greed.

It is so easy cling to words and actions that others have said and done in the past, and thus we create problems. We cling to the past and neglect the present. The world and life are continually changing, so instead of clinging to the past, we have to live a fresh new life each day. Nor should one cling to the future and neglect the present, because the future is unknown and yet to come. We should live the best in the present.

In the last analysis, all things in this world and life come and go as they will. Let the Way take the ways and let go your own clinging. This is the greatest release. Even to life we should not cling, but let it go, and we are able to live freely. Many deaths are transcended by letting go.

These are my thoughts for the New Year.

Since the popular novel-documentary "Roots" was published, many have become interested in tracing their own roots. Those who are in the minority ethnic groups, especially, are tracing their roots to learn about their cultural heritage.

Although the practice of tracing one's roots seems to be a new and modern trend, Buddhism has always taught it as one of the important practices. However, instead of the term "roots," the more familiar term "cause" has been used in Buddhism.

There are many causes established in the past in order for us to exist today. Generally speaking, there are two kinds of causes: direct causes and indirect causes. Direct causes are physical and material things, such as food, clothing, a home, etc. Indirect causes, which are more important, are also known as unseen blessings. These are things we often cannot see with our naked eyes. Living plants are constantly producing oxygen for us to breathe and exist. Farmers work hard to produce the vegetables we consume. Children feel the love and compassion of their parents. The present generation is benefiting from the various endeavors of past generations. Certainly there are countless numbers of things that can be classified as unseen blessings. And these are the ones that we take for granted every day, for we cannot see and feel them directly.

Therefore, when we trace the causes of our own existence, we come to the realization that there are innumerable indirect causes from which we are benefiting. It is said that the iceberg floats on the ocean with only one-seventh of it showing above the surface. The major portion, six-sevenths of it, is immersed in the ocean. That is, in order for a small portion of the iceberg to be above water level, a major portion has to support it under water. Our life, too, is like an iceberg. The direct causes for our existence are like the tip of the iceberg, and the unseen or indirect causes for our existence are like the hidden part of the iceberg. Because we cannot see the part immersed in the ocean, we are not aware of it and take it for granted.

It is meaningful to realize that the major portion of our existence is dependent upon the indirect and unseen blessings that we are receiving. Hence, an ignorant captain of a ship in the North Sea will only see the part of the iceberg above the ocean, ignorant of the huge portion underneath. As he maneuvers his ship, he will surely get into trouble. However, when a wise sea captain sees the iceberg, he will immediately recognize the huge portion hidden from his view and maneuver his ship accordingly. To realize the causes for our existence is to realize not only the part shown above the ocean, but also the major portion hidden underneath to support the part above. Hence, to trace our "roots" Buddhistically means to truly realize and appreciate the virtues of the unseen efforts of many, past and present.

When we reflect upon the lives of the Issei (first generation), we come to understand the tremendous pioneer spirit they had in overcoming many obstacles, hardships and hostilities. They dedicated themselves throughout their lives to establish a strong foundation, both spiritually and physically, for the Nisei, Sansei, Yonsei, who will reap the benefits. However, how often do we really think about their contribution towards the welfare of our lives today? Not only did they give us a firm foundation for our livelihood, they also gave us the Nembutsu teaching. Although many of the Issei have departed from among us, we continue to receive the unseen blessings of their dedication and spirit of Nembutsu.

In Buddhism, the word enlightenment is used quite often. However, this term seems to give us the connotation of something unattainable. But if we were to understand enlightenment in terms of Awareness or Awakening, it would seem more realistic. That is, Awareness or Awakening, as in Shakyamuni Buddha's Enlightenment or discovering the Truth, means to see and feel the things we did not see before, due to our blindness and self-centeredness. Therefore, as we truly and sincerely open our inner eyes to see and feel the various causes, direct and indirect, which we did not see and feel before, we are becoming aware of the unseen blessings that are abundantly surrounding us. In this awareness, we will take things less for granted and be able to truly put our hands together in Gassho and extend our gratitude with Nembutsu in our heart. Let us become sincerely aware of the many past and present blessings that are constantly surrounding us and make each day an expression of gratitude. Such is a Nembutsu way of life.

We are approaching Obon*, a time when we reflect on those loved ones who have passed on before us. When we think about it, although we feel as if our life is our own, in reality it is not. It is a gift; it has been bestowed upon us from generations and generations in the past.

We all know that we were born from our parents. Without them, we would not have been born. Our parents also had parents. Without our grandparents, we would not have been born. Some young children nowadays are fortunate enough to have known even their great grandparents. Without our great grandparents, we would not have been born either.

Our insight into our life doesn’t seem to go much beyond a couple of generations. We can easily see and understand our parents and grandparents making our life possible, but we don’t think too much about ten, twenty, or thirty generations back in our past.

In the book, River of Fire, River of Water, Taitetsu Unno quotes a Japanese poet by the name of Mitsuo Aida. In that poem, Mitsuo Aida writes that if you go back ten generations in your past, there are over 1,000 people responsible for your life coming into being. It is even more amazing if you count back twenty generations. Unbelievably, if you go back twenty generations in your past, there are over one million people directly responsible for your life coming into being. If even one of those one million people is missing, then truly we would not have been born into this world.

Twenty generations might seem like a long time, but it probably only goes back about 500 years or so. If you roughly figure that a generation occurs every 25 years, then every 100 years there would be four generations. Twenty generations would be exactly 500 years, or around the year 1500.

You could continue to go back further and further, even before man walked the face of the earth. Our ancestors then would be the various forms of life that existed prior to man, the dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.

Although we are Buddhist, I am sure that everyone has heard about the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible. When I was in college, I took a class on the bible. I wrote a paper on the Book of Genesis in which the story of Adam and Eve appears. This story relates how life began on earth from these two individuals, a man named Adam, and a woman named Eve.

Personally, I cannot accept taking this story literally, but if you take the story poetically, symbolically, then there is a wonderful message in the story.

If we all descended from Adam and Eve, then that would mean that all people of the earth are part of the same family, a family not of Christians or Jews, Buddhists or Muslims, but a family called “humanity.” It would mean that all people of the earth from time immemorial are our brothers and sisters. How can we quarrel and fight with those with whom we share the same family? To call each other Iraqis, North Koreans, Republicans, Democrats, is to miss the most important classification—that we are all human beings. I think that the story of Adam and Eve teaches us the common humanity of life that we all share with all human beings, now, from eons past, and for centuries to come.

Next year we hope to publish our next BEC (Buddhist Education Center) book, which is a translation of another Japanese author, Hideo Yonezawa. In his book, Yonezawa Sensei talks about the Pure Land as not being a realm out there or somewhere that we go to when we die, but that the Pure Land is the world around us that we live in. Yonezawa says that we have come from the Pure Land, we live in the Pure Land now, and that we “return” to the Pure Land when we die.

Yonezawa also states that if you trace back your ancestors in time, eventually you would reach the very beginnings of the universe. In my words, I would say that we are born not from Adam and Eve, but we are born from the universe. The story of Adam and Eve is a poetic way of expressing that origin of life, that is even beyond human understanding. It puts that mysterious origin of our life into the world of myth, which stands beyond time and space.

Obon is a time when we remember those who have passed on before us, from generations ago, to recent times. When I think of, for example, my own grandparents, many thoughts arise and I realize that I have learned many important values from them.

My Grandpa Harada was a wonderful baker and cook. He also had a keen sense of humor and was a great story teller. I think I received from his life the value of humor and being able to laugh. Grandma Harada valued education. Although she had little education in comparison to nowadays, I think I learned the value of learning and education from her.

My Grandma Tameno was generous and giving. When I went to Trick or Treat at Halloween, I would get a whole bag of goodies equivalent to what I had received from going to all the other houses. I think she taught me the value of giving. Grandpa Tameno had a deep faith in the Nembutsu. He continues to teach me that my own understanding is so shallow and limited in comparison to what I felt from his simple recitation of the Nembutsu.

This year at Obon, while I recall people in my past, I also reflect back further, to my own birth into this world from the very universe itself.

Our emergence into this world is like a single wave that rises to the surface of the great ocean. Who knows how long it took that individual wave to emerge, within the vastness and unfathomable depth of the ocean. But yet the wave emerges, from eons of time and space. The wave that emerges is unique. There is no wave like it amidst millions of waves. This one wave rises above the surface and has its unique life as a wave. It is a brief and fleeting life in comparison to the eternity of the ocean, but nonetheless, it has a most precious and rare life as a wave. The little individual wave, because of the great ocean beneath it, rises to the surface and begins its own unique life. We too, because of an infinite number of people, causes and conditions in our past, appear into this world and receive this thing we call life. May we reflect on this precious, unique life that we have been given from the universe as we observe our Obon this year.

Namuamidabutsu.

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Your Path is Your Own

by Rev. Michael Hayashi
Copyright © September 2004 Heart Links / All rights reserved

Dear Members,
Recently, we received an e-mail from Romania. It was from a lady who was worried about mixing Zen style practice (zazen) and Jodo Shinshu practice (nembutsu). I decided to use my answer as a Dharma message because I think it hits on some of the questions newer and even some older members have in regards to Amida Buddha, practice, and the nembutsu. I hope you can find it of some use. In Gassho,  Michael

Dear Marion,
Your e-mail was referred to me by the president of our temple. I am Michael Hayashi, one of two ministers serving Southern Alberta. I am specifically a Jodo Shinshu school devotee. I see no reason not to continue on with both practices; they seem to be working on at least some level. I would fear anyone who tells you that you cannot at least try the various flavors of the teaching that are out there. All practice is centred on getting you to an experience; some will suit you and some will not depending on your character, life stage, even, sometimes, mood. Do not worry about it. It is expected that your relation to the Buddhist teaching will change and grow. Our founder, Shinran Shonin, encouraged people to consult with other teachers if they had any doubts about the Jodo Shinshu teaching. I guess the ultimate statement on his position is "I, Shinran, do not have a single disciple."

Since we follow a highly introspective form of the Buddhist teaching, the real relationship that we seek to establish is solely between Amida and ourselves. There can be no discipleship between Jodo Shinshu followers. There is no human who acts as an intermediary between us and Amida. Other people, even teachers, can at best be seen as ones who have assisted us, challenged us, accepted us, and encouraged us to grow. That is a long way of saying your path is your own. The teachings are there as guides. As you follow any of the Buddhist paths, you are essentially discovering new aspects to yourself. You are free to wander a little; seek out new aspects of the teaching, as you take this internal journey. No one can tell you whether to meditate or not, or whether to recite the name of Amida or not. It is very difficult to write in a second language, so there may be some things that I gleaned from your letter that you did not intend to say. Having offered this as an apology of sorts, I would like to offer some of my thoughts on Amida Buddha and practice in Jodo Shinshu.

I should point out to you that, although our school makes much of a vocalized observance, the nembutsu is not so much a thing to say, as a tool of sorts, to guide us on an inner search. Jodo Shinshu is certainly devotional, but it is less centered on a figure. Rather, the symbol of Amida, for me, quickly becomes representative of all of the people who have contributed to making my life wonderful. In some of your letter, I got the sense that Amida had taken on too much of a "God" like existence for you. I often call Amida the life force. just to break myself out of my own tendency to think of him like a person. This thing (for lack of a better indicator) is much larger than our ability to conceive of it. Amida is a symbol of all of the love and caring that has supported me in the past and will carry me on into the future. As such, it (once again for lack of a better indicator) is seen to be an other power. I rather liked your explanation of the sense of other power in your practice. I rather liked hearing of this aspect of zazen practice. The other, as I conceive of it, manifests itself as we seek to let go of the reins so to say. I often think of "other" though in the sense that it is the others in my life that were often the source of my inspiration, guidance, and acceptance. They were the ones that, in a sense, allowed me to, or otherwise encouraged me to become (for better or worse) the person that I have become right now. The practice is saying the nembutsu and going on the inner search it leads you on. That is about it. Pretty simple, huh? Our life becomes the source of the teachings.

In Jodo Shinshu, you will not find instructional booklets or other guidelines to be followed. We do publish books, though. But they can only be reflections on one's personal interaction with the teachings. No one says that we each have to have similar experiences as we interact with the teachings. The books are of value to us only as they provide fuel for our own internal search. Later I will be writing down some publication data on some of the books that I have found to be nourishing to me. The introspective nature of our path naturally leads to gratitude. As we come to know ourselves better, our faults and foibles and our brilliant moments of idealism and caring, we realize that, in spite of all that has gone on, we have been constantly embraced by a loving force that we call Amida.

When we gather at temples, we sing songs, chant shorter sutras, and engage in a Dharma talk/discussion as a typical observance of our gratitude. We are grateful to Amida Buddha as a scriptural personage. We are grateful for the myriad of teachings that make up the Buddhist tradition. We are grateful to all those who have led us to the teachings. We are grateful to all of the beings around us now who put up with us, care for us and accept us—because they are the ones who make our lives worth living.

Namuamidabutsu,
Michael Hayashi
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Suggested reading:
1) Shinran: An Introduction to his Thought, Yoshifumi Ueda and Dennis Hirota (Hongwanji International Centre, Kyoto, 1989.)

2) Buddha of Infinite Light: The Teachings of Shin Buddhism, the Japanese Way of Wisdom and Compassion, D.T. Suzuki (Shambala Publications, Boston, 1998). ISBN 1-57062-301-5

3) River of Fire River of Water: An Introduction to the Pure Land Tradition of Shin Buddhism, Taitetsu Unno. ISBN 0-38548-511-5

The founder of Buddhism Gautama, the Buddha, was born in 566 B.C., a son of a wealthy and powerful king, Suddodana, in what is now Nepal. His full name was Prince Siddhartha Gautama. As prince of a kingdom, he was blessed with great material wealth and luxury. However, he recognized that his existence was spiritually empty. He knew nothing of suffering and death.

At the age of 29, Prince Siddhartha left his wife and family and renounced his kingdom to devote himself to a search for the answer to the suffering of birth, old age, illness and death. For six years he mingled with ascetics and hermits, practicing the difficult system of salvation they taught, subjecting his body to the severest of disciplines, but found it led nowhere.

As he quietly meditated under the Bodhi Tree, there developed in him a deep spiritual insight into the nature of existence. He realized that it was possible to escape the chain of birth and death. He became the Buddha, the Enlightened One, the Awakened One. He spent the remaining forty-five years of his life in a labor of love and compassion, spreading the Teachings. He passed away at the age of eighty, leaving the following message to his disciples: "The Dharma which I have given you shall be your Teacher, when I am gone."

The teachings of Buddhism are called the Buddha Dharma. All Buddhist practices are used by an individual to change himself and assist him in deepening his awareness and understanding of what is true in life. The truth of the Dharma tells us that wisdom and compassion can transcend the suffering caused by greed and ignorance. Through the development of inner peace and calm, and through compassionate concern for all sentient beings, we may all attain enlightenment. Each person has his own particular needs and can choose the path he is most attracted to in order to open his spiritual self.  They can include elaborate services or none at all. Various methods of practice may range from a formalized meditation in a monastery, to a generalized, unstructured effort to increase our awareness in everyday life.

The goal of Buddhism is ENLIGHTENMENT of all sentient beings.
The Buddha Dharma helps us along that path.

The Four Noble Truths
The first truth is that life, because of its fleeting nature, is painful.

The second truth is that this pain is caused by our desires and our attachment to worldly phenomena.

The third truth is that it is possible to eliminate the suffering of existence.

The fourth truth is that there is a path that leads to the elimination of suffering: The Eightfold Noble Path.

The Noble Eightfold Path
The Dharma asks us to know and regard life as it is, to accept life's ebb and flow and to live our lives naturally, spontaneously, and freely through the Noble Eightfold Path.

RIGHT VIEWS:  To keep ourselves free from prejudice, superstition, and delusion, and to see life as it truly is.

RIGHT THOUGHTS:  To turn away from the evils of this world and direct our minds towards righteousness.

RIGHT SPEECH:  To refrain from pointless and harmful talk and to speak kindly and courteously to all.

RIGHT CONDUCT:  To see that our deeds are peaceful, benevolent, compassionate and pure; to live the Teachings of the Buddha daily.

RIGHT LIVELIHOOD:  To earn our living honorably in such a way as to entail no evil consequences.

RIGHT EFFORT:  To direct our efforts incessantly to the overcoming of ignorance and selfish desires.

RIGHT MINDFULNESS:  To cherish good and pure thought, for all that we say and do arise from our thoughts.

RIGHT MEDITATION:  To concentrate our will on the Buddha, His Life and His Teachings.