Temple of Latter Days

X. Let us cease from wrath and refrain from angry looks. Nor let us be resentful when others differ from us. For all men have hearts, and each heart has its own leanings. Their right is our wrong, and our right is their wrong. We are not unquestionably sages, nor are they unquestionably fools. Both of us are simply ordinary men. How can any one lay down a rule by which to distinguish right from wrong? For we are all, one with another, wise and foolish, like a ring which has no end.

Seventeen article Japanese Constitution, Prince Shotoku

Happy New Year!  It’s amazing how time seems to fly. There are parts of me that long for abilities and various things from my younger days. However, in general, I find myself at a wonderful point in life. If I were to die tomorrow, I could go without regret. This may just be a natural occurrence of my age, to feel a sense of contentment. I read in a book called The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50 by Jonathon Rauch, that all human beings, including most large primates, after about age 50, feel life gets better. In the book, he shows various biological and psychological studies have shown this to be true. I really feel this way too. When I was younger, there was so much frustration and stress about what am I going to become and then questions about my life. Will I be able to fulfill my role as a Shin Buddhist priest, will I ever meet my true companion, will I do the right thing as a father, etc. I still worry and fret about things; I don’t think this ever ends. However, I believe I am at just the right place in my life. I am still healthy enough to walk around, read, watch television, have conversations with friends and imagine that I could actually be a little healthier if I exercise. It won’t be long until I will only be able to wish that I had exercised and took better care of myself, when I was my current age.

However, I have to honestly say, I don’t regret all my bad habits that I have hopefully given up in old age, like smoking, drinking and playing around. In fact, Carmela says that when I am 80 I can go ahead and smoke and drink all that I want. I doubt I’ll want to do much playing around then, but who knows?  I don't even regret my two previous marriages, because they allowed me to appreciate my current life and marriage to Carmela, my true companion and my marriage to Cheryl also gave me two wonderful daughters to worry and fret about. 2020 will be a good year, just as 2019 was. Namo Amida Butsu!

Instead of sharing New Year’s resolutions, which I would usually have broken, now that it’s about three weeks after the actual new year, when I am writing this. I would like to share something more realistic -- the three main reasons I believe I feel content with my life:

  1. There is very little that I know except that I know very little.

  2. No matter how hard I try or tried, things usually don’t go the way I plan or expect them to. But things seem to have turned out just right anyway.

  3. It’s all going to be ok, because life has a way of embracing us all. This to me is called the Nembutsu.

Growing up in Salt Lake City, and, as I have often spoken about, having lived across the street from Whittier Ward, and having the South High School seminary across the fence from my backyard, I have been significantly influenced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS), the Mormons. There are positive and negative aspects to the culture that is created by this particular Utah atmosphere. However, as a whole, I couldn’t think of any place I would rather be or have been raised in. There are parts that I didn’t like, such as the idea that if you did not belong to “The Church” and you were not white, something was wrong with you. However, I really think that all human beings have these ignorant, selfish feelings and attitudes. I remember how growing up, my father would tell me that we were better than everyone else, because we were Japanese. And you know what, I believed him! I really thought I was better than everyone else. Here I was a poor, fat, Japanese-American kid with terrible eyesight, believing he was better than everyone one else, just because he was born Japanese. I know there are many ethnic Americans that grow up having some sort of inferiority complex. I never had that problem. I had a superiority complex.

I have heard other ethnic Americans talk about how they were embarrassed by not eating the same foods as their white American friends. I always felt sorry that my white friends didn’t get to eat all the things I did. Nonetheless, I did ask my Mom why we had to drink real orange juice instead of “Tang” like my friends or the astronauts. Or why didn’t we use Miracle Whip salad dressing for our food instead of Best Foods Mayonnaise. It had nothing to do with price or which was better, it was more about how I wanted to eat the same things my friends got to eat. Why couldn’t we buy instant mashed potatoes instead of real potatoes and potato chips. My friends ate instant mashed potatoes for after-school snacks. I had to have potato chips. This was not inferiority; it was jealousy and greed.

As a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist and now being a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist priest, I also had this sense of superiority to my LDS friends, in terms of religion. I used to think, lucky me. I don’t have to go to church all day on Sunday like they did and I got summer vacation from church. I didn’t have to have family home evening on Monday nights and I could watch television. When I was growing up, my friends were not allowed to drink Coke or Pepsi, but I did and made sure they saw me. I would tell them how much better coke tasted than root beer. (That has changed a bit; in 2012, the LDS church released an official statement allowing Mormons to drink caffeinated sodas.)   None of this superiority at the time had anything to do with religious doctrine. I didn’t know much about religious doctrine, Buddhist or Mormon.

However, as I began to study religion more seriously, I began to think how Jodo Shinshu was so much more logical compared to the Mormon doctrine and story. I bought into the “South Park” and “Book of Mormon” musical mentality and ridicule of the story of Joseph Smith and the angel Moroni. It seemed so obvious that Jodo Shinshu was far superior then this new Mormon religion. I really wondered how an intelligent person could believe such a fantastic story. I also felt this same way about much of the Christian doctrine in general. I knew most of us have broken one or more of the ten commandments, and if that were true, no one was getting to heaven. 

Now that I am older and not wiser, I believe I have seen a lot more of our human condition. I realize that a religion’s doctrine is not what is important. We have religion because we human beings need a place that our hearts and minds can feel at home. Where there is a sense of myself being free to be myself. Carmela and I recently gave a seminar on Buddhism and Psychology. I explained that there is definitely an overlap between Shinshu and Psychotherapy, however, they are not the same thing. Psychotherapy is trying to help you fit into society’s idea of normal or at least normal enough to fit into our society, so that you can live in society. Shinshu is trying to show you that even though you may not be normal or fit into society, you are still loved and accepted.

In my old age now, when I objectively look at the histories of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism and the LDS Church, I find some startling similarities. Of course, there are great differences in the two religions and their beliefs. The main one for me is that I do not believe Jodo Shinshu is the one true religion. It is the one true religion for me, but I could not say if it is that for Carmela, my daughters or family and friends. Whereas I can appreciate the LDS church, but don’t believe that it is the one true religion for everyone as they claim. How can their be one true religion in this world of so much diversity. However, the LDS church is only a little over 200 years old. Jodo Shinshu is close to 800 years old. Who knows how the LDS doctrine will be when it reaches 800 years. Jodo Shinshu can trace its spiritual roots to India, China, Korea and then Japan. However, it is a very Japanese form of Buddhism. It is in fact the largest sect of Buddhism in Japan. In a similar manner, although the LDS religion traces its roots to Jesus Christ, it is a very American form of Christianity. 

If we look at Shinran and Joseph Smith, both were guided by visions. Joseph Smith said he met the angel Moroni and was led to the golden plates which were the foundation of the Book of Mormon. Shinran Shonin said he had a dream of the Bodhisattvha Kannon which led him to his teacher Honen Shonin. Shinran Shonin’s masterwork Kyogyoshinsho was a treatise to explain what Honen Shonin had taught. Shinran Shonin began to develop a following of students through various areas of Japan. However, our Hongwanji temple system was first began by his daughter Kakushinni and then brought to fruition by his eighth generation descendant Rennyo Shonin, years after Shinran Shonin had died. In a similar manner, Joseph Smith began the foundation of the Mormon Church, but was murdered and it wasn’t until his successor, Brigham Young, brought the followers to what is now Salt Lake City, Utah, that the LDS Church began. During the development of our Hongwanji temples, we were attacked by the older Buddhist schools. Hongwanji had to fight to survive. The older Buddhist traditions even got the Japanese government to label Hongwanji “dangerous.”  The older Buddhist schools said Hongwanji doctrine was not real Buddhism and posed a threat to Japan. In a similar manner, the older Christian groups attacked the early LDS Church saying they were “not real Christians” and posed a threat to the United States. They even got the U.S. Army to watch over this renegade Church, that is why Fort Douglas was established.

The term “Latter Day” in the name “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” refers to the Mormon doctrine as a teaching that has survived the corruption of the original Christian teachings and the Book of Mormon established the true way that Jesus had taught in the latter days. Jodo Shinshu Doctrine is fueled by the idea of “Mappo.”  Mappo could be translated as the Latter Days of Buddhism. It was said that the original intent and teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha would be corrupted over time as all things are impermanent. However, the Nembutsu teachings would remain true and real. We could actually call ourselves the “Temple of Buddhists in the Age of Latter Days.”  I could not, in good conscience, call either group “saints”. “Human beings” yes, but “saints…”

I think this all goes to prove the point of the quote I began this article with. It is one of my favorite Buddhist quotes. Authored by Prince Shotoku, considered the Father of Japanese Buddhism. This document was written in 604. It was considered one of the first constitutions ever written to help guide a country. As most things filled with great wisdom, this teaching has stood the test of time. We’ll have to see how Jodo Shinshu in America or the LDS Church holds up in the years to come. Until then, let's not forget these words of Prince Shotoku. “We are not unquestionably sages, nor are they unquestionably fools. Both of us are simply ordinary men. How can anyone lay down a rule by which to distinguish right from wrong? For we are all, one with another, wise and foolish, like a ring which has no end.” Happy New Year everyone. Namo Amida Butsu!

~J.K. Hirano