Dharma January 2008

Another Happy New Year!

K. Ken Fujimoto

This is the beginning of another New Year and the second one since my family and I have come to San Jose. This past year has been another exciting and full one. It saw more learning and adjusting on my part and on yours as well, I would imagine. I hope to have your continued support throughout the New Year and in the years to come.

We need to take care of some housekeeping first, since the coming year will see some changes being implemented from the very beginning. The New Year's Day service will be the time that we will install our Betsuin Board and the cabinets of the affiliated organizations. The installation and the volunteer recognition have also been separated from the Ho-onko service because this should be the single, most important service of the year in our tradition.

This does not mean that the volunteer recognition is not important. The focus on both tends to get lost when we do them together so we will have the recognition at a new service in February.

The Ho-onko service is literally, the gathering to listen to the Buddha-dharma as an expression of our gratitude. We are to express our gratitude for being embraced in the compassionate-wisdom we know as Amida. However, we need to address the reasons for that gratitude. This observance is held on the memorial of Shinran Shonin so the most obvious object of our gratitude would be towards him. We are expressing our gratitude to Shinran Shonin for dedicating his life and gleaning through the volumes of Buddhist works to find and point out the essence of that teaching in the life of the Nembutsu and spreading that teaching to all who would listen. This year is particularly important since we will also be kicking off the approaching 750th Memorial Service to be held throughout the Jodo Shinshu world and concluding with a series 0 services in Kyoto in 2011 and 2012.

However, if we stop there, we are only creating and spreading a cult of personality and this definitely should not be what we are doing. This would be in direct opposition to Shinran's teachings and goals. We need to come to see that it is through our karma and interdependence that we are able to be. Not only that, but also that these causes, conditions and interactions are creating who we are now and who we are becoming. We often hear criticism that our Jodo Shinshu teaching uses the passive voice too much, but the fact that we have an aversion to using the passive voice may be the real reason that we need to use it.

Shinran Shonin constantly negated or denied self power. He did so, not because one does not need to make an effort, but because we are so good at deceiving ourselves and taking credit for what we do. We feel a sense of accomplishment for things that required so many causes and conditions coming together perfectly for it to have happened. We exert our egos by saying I did this or that, when with a little reflection and thought, we can see that we were given the causes and conditions that enabled us to do whatever it may have been.

Can I honestly say that I am writing this article when so many teachers, friends, authors, and others have played important roles in giving me the knowledge and skills to be able to write it? There were countless others that played a role in nurturing me so that I could be perceptive and open to many of these concepts and ideas. How can I say that I did this?

The active voice creates a situation where one wants to assert their individuality and uniqueness, whether it is real or only perceived. It is this constant assertion of the ego, the need to be right and good that causes many of the problems we face today. It seems to go against all the social conventions and ideals that we have been conditioned to accept. This is one of the reasons that so many people have a difficult time understanding and accepting Buddhism. This is why people say we need to change the presentation. Yet, before we change the presentation, we need to be sure that we do not change the essence of the teaching.

Historically, one of the reasons that Buddhism takes so long to take root in any given society is that it subtly changes the society to become more Buddhistic and accepting of Buddhist ideals and concepts before it becomes a part of that society and a local form of Buddhism is developed. This is unlike the way of most other world religions that force their values and ideals upon a society as it goes into it.

Perhaps we should be changing the society before we change the teaching or its presentation. In any case we need to continue to listen to the teaching to make sure that we do not alter that which is critical. Let us continue to gather and listen to the teaching so that we can better see the causes and conditions that enable us to be. Hopefully, we will come to better see those conditions and events on our lives and become able to live our lives in a way that will manifest that sense of gratitude and influence those around us.

One point that seems to need clarification from last month's article is that the Last Age of the Dharma is actually a bad thing and not just a stage in the development. This can be seen in that a synonym for the Last Age is the Age of the Decadent Dharma. This refers to a stage where form overrides the essence and realization of the teaching. I hope that this helps in understanding the article better. This oversight comes from knowing something and assuming others to know the same thing. Please excuse my oversight.

Gassho and a Happy and meaningful New Year.

Happy New Year!

G. Sakamoto

Happy New Year to each of you and thank you for the kindness and support we've received throughout the year. We look forward to another year of sharing and enjoying a life of nembutsu together.

As I thought about this past year, preparing to write this article, I tried to somehow characterize it, to find something outstanding that would define the year. There was the wonderful Jr. Choir trip to Japan where our families were able to spend time together developing friendships and enjoying each other's company. Joining the choir, our family traveled abroad together for the first time.

This past year was also a time when we experienced the death of many friends. People like Fred Sugimoto and Richard Okano, Jane Asanuma and Tok Onishi, Harry Yoshioka and Karen Suzuki. To single out these individuals runs the risk of offending the families of those not mentioned, but the intent is to demonstrate the breadth of individuals who have died this past year, 65 in all as I write this article. Surely, their passing lessens our sangha. We grieve, as we have each year, the death of people so profoundly connected to our lives. And through the sharing of our grief and our appreciation of the lives experienced together we are strengthened and our hearts feel the warmth of infinite compassion.

The third Dana Day Project was successfully completed with funds raised, intentionally distributed to recipients outside our Sangha. The Dana Club, started by Alvin Hironaga, helped with the Second Harvest Food Bank and the Georgia Travis Center. The Sangha Support committee continues to provide assistance to community organizations. When a fire killed one man and destroyed the Morioka building next to the Wesley Methodist Church, Teri Oshidari began collecting money to help the other men who were living in the building. Everything they owned was lost in the fire. The money collected was combined with the monies collected by Wesley and their ministers presented each of the survivors of the fire with a check to help them recover. In three weeks, over a thousand dollars was collected from our sangha.

In the midst of the growing awareness of the effects of global warming, the uncertainty of the Middle East, the economic hardships of the sub-prime melt down, in all of the complexities and uncertainties we face we are still sustained by life that surrounds us.

After a recent memorial service I was asked, "Can you give me a simple explanation of the nembutsu?" The question was asked by someone who grew up in our temple, someone who in high school wrote a rather remarkable essay expressing her appreciation of the Dharma, someone whose life experiences are deepening and maturing. I responded, "It is both Amida's call and my response of gratitude." Actually, my answer was a much longer one, but I can edit here. Hopefully I was able to reduce my answer to something similar to the above.

The experiences we cycle through everyday are varied and profound. If we are mindful, our experiences pull us into a world of infinite interconnectedness and compassion. The person we dislike is suddenly a teacher. Strangers are like brothers. We care for the welfare of others. The nembutsu is both the world of compassion calling to look and see, and my gratitude for what I am able to experience.

May this new year bring infinite possibilities of discovery and opportunities of mindfulness.

On Impermanence

Al Hironaga

Happy New Year - the year 2008 is here! Wow, have you noticed how time is flying by? We live in the information age where everything is quickly changing and more knowledge than we can possibly absorb is instantly available to us. We hear news from the opposite side of the world as it happens. We are constantly in touch with our friends and relatives via our cell phones. We can send and receive instant messages via the internet. During my lifetime, speeds have increased, elapsed times have gotten shorter and a tremendous amount of information has become available to us right in our homes via the internet. Just keeping up with current technology is an awesome task, one for which the younger generation seems better suited. Yes, I admit that I have had to ask my son to fix the "broken" computer, that I can't understand Rap music and that I can't keep up with my sons at video games. How about you?

I am of the older generation - one of the many Baby Boomers who are fast approaching retirement age. We were born following World War II way back in the late Forties and Fifties, when milk was delivered to our homes by the milk man, television was not yet invented and radio was our main mode of entertainment, and you had to wait until your neighbors were done talking on the party-line telephone before you could use it. In Hawaii, we almost never called our relatives on the other islands, because it was a long distance call and thus expensive. My parents rarely went shopping at the grocery store because we had a backyard garden and bought most of what we ate from the grocery trucks that came around the neighborhood several times a week. After television was invented and sold (with only rounded black and white pictures), we watched programs one week after those here on the mainland did, because the video tapes had to be shipped across the ocean to the islands to be replayed locally. Satellites and satellite communication had not yet been produced. In the early years after the introduction of television, we all gathered at the home of the one neighbor who owned a TV set and watched the programs. It wasn't until several years later that our family finally purchased our own TV set. And during those days when video games had not yet been invented, we played with pinball machines, juke boxes, and simple arcade games. We made many of our childhood toys ourselves out of cardboard, wood, metal and nails. Those were my "good old days"! Are these similar to your experiences?

As expected, the times have changed and I, too, have changed. I have learned to use a personal computer, and I now communicate with my friends and cohorts via the internet every day. Many of my hours at work are spent in front of a computer screen typing on the keyboard. In fact, right now, I am typing this message on my own computer at home. No liquid white-out or erasable bond paper like I always used while writing my papers during college many years ago. When I finish, I don't have to drive a paper copy of the article to the temple to submit it. I'll email this message to the Dharma staff at the Betsuin, and they'll edit the soft copy and electronically paste it into one of the pages of the Dharma on their computer. The staff will print the Dharma on the new high-speed printer, which does not require messy chemicals and cleanup. Yes, these "modern" days are not bad either. Things have gotten easier for many people. How is it for you?

Although the story of your lives may be different, each of us has experienced changes in our worlds. Some changes we consider good and others we determine to be not as good. The only constant in our lives is that there will always be changes. The Buddha has taught us that change is inevitable, so by expecting changes, we are better able to accept and adapt ourselves to the changes in our lives. As we start off the new year, here's wishing all of you a healthy and happy 2008 and I hope that all of the changes in your lives are for the better.

In Gassho,
Al Hironaga