“This, then is the true teaching easy to practice for small, foolish beings; it is the straight way easy to traverse for the dull and ignorant. Among all the teachings the Great Sage preached in his lifetime, none surpasses this ocean of virtues. Let the one who seeks to abandon the defiled and aspire for the pure; who is confused in practice and vacillating in faith; whose mind is dark and whose understanding deficient; whose evils are heavy and whose karmic obstructions manifold-let such persons embrace above all the Tathagata’s exhortation, take refuge without fail in the most excellent direct path, devote themselves solely to this practice, and revere only this shinjin.”
This past year or so have been some of the strangest, life altering months of my entire life. Covid has changed the entire world and how we live our lives. Relationships between individuals, families, communities, societies, and countries have been changed by something invisible. That said, isn’t religion something we cannot see with our eyes? Whatever religion you may be, religion is something that cannot be seen, yet should change us. Religion revolves around unseen forces in our lives. God? Buddha? It has made me realize that for myself, Jodo Shinshu is the only religion for me. It was as though Shinran Shonin in his preface to Kyogyoshinsho is describing me.
I remember when I thought of Amida Buddha in terms of an anthropomorphic being. Yes, kind of a substitute for my neighborhood friends’ God or Jesus; Amida Buddha was like God and Shinran was like Jesus. Before I stepped a foot into the Mormon Church across the street from my house, I didn’t think much about what they did on Sundays and what I did on Sundays as being that different. However, once I started studying religion, I began to see great differences.
As a child, I know I was very nervous and anxious. I had difficulty sleeping and I worried about a lot of things. I think this worry and anxiety foretold an interest in religious study. In about third or fourth grade, I would have these chest pains. Not a dull pain, but sharp stabs of pain. I told my mom, “I think I’m having little heart attacks.” To this day, I’m still a hypochondriac, I sometimes tell Carmela, “I’m having some chest pain, I may be having a heart attack.” She calmly asks, “Can you breathe okay?” When I painfully squeeze out an affirmative, she says in a very unconcerned voice, “You’re fine, don't worry about it.” My Mom didn’t ignore my complaints, but took me to Dr. Toshiko Toyota, who was the family physician for most of the Japanese Americans in Salt Lake City.
She was a brilliant woman. Yes, both my Mom and Dr. Toyota were brilliant women. My Mom for believing I may be having little heart attacks and Dr. Toyota for examining me. Dr. Toshiko Toyota was born in a small town in Nevada, yet was able to become a woman physician, a surgeon! When you think of the time and place, this was an amazing accomplishment. I’m sure the reason she worked as a family doctor rather than a surgeon was because of race and gender discrimination. However, our community was very lucky to have such a brilliant woman as our doctor. She told my mom that the pains I had were stress related and not heart attacks. She told me that I must quit worrying about school so much. I didn’t really worry about my grades or being bullied, etc. The only real anxiety I felt was that the teacher wouldn’t call on me when I raised my hand. I wanted to be recognized for knowing the answer. One of the biggest questions in my life had been, “Why do people make such a big deal about differences in race and religion?”
This dilemma launched my study of religion. In high school and college, I was always curious about race and religion. I knew that my friends and I had similar likes and dislikes. We agreed on who the cutest girls were, what foods we preferred, what toys we wanted for Christmas, television shows, music etc. The only differences were our race and religion. In the sixties and seventies, race was a huge part of the social divide in our country. As bad as things are now, it was much worse back then. The “N” word was not even controversial. You would hear it in the streets of Salt Lake and on television. The other racial slurs for ethnic minorities were just as common. I think race relations are still bad, but from my perspective they have improved from my youth.
Growing up in Salt Lake City, although there were other Christian churches, if you talked about “The Church” you meant the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS), the Mormons. When I was a senior in high school, I noticed many of my friends began to change. These were friends I did everything with. These guys would begin to act religious and talk about not drinking, swearing, etc. I thought, “What’s up with this? I know you! You drink, you swear and fight, what’s with this holier-than-thou attitude?” By the time I got to college, all my neighborhood and school friends had left for missions. For those that do not know, in the Mormon Church, a young person of faith (in my day, that meant male) gives two years of their life to go on a mission. Meaning they will go to a different state or country to talk to people about the Mormon Church and try to convert them.
When I was at the University of Utah, I began to understand race relations by beginning the Office for Asian American Affairs at the Center for Ethnic Student Affairs. While I was the Asian American Affairs advisor, I started the Asian American Student Association and was staff advisor for the Black Student Union, Chicano Student Association, and the Red American Student Association. I was also involved with the University of Utah’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and also student body officer. These activities made me quite aware of the racial divide in our society. I began to see how this may be a never-ending struggle. The physical differences between the races will always make us see those different from us as “the other,” and I don’t know what we can do, other than emphasize for our humanity over our skin color. Even if the economic divide is lessened, race may be too big a bridge to cross.
At the University, I also began to see the different religious teachings in our society. For myself, it helped me see the differences between myself as a Buddhist and my Christian and Jewish friends. In college, I didn’t know any other Buddhists other than Jodo Shinshu. It wasn’t until 1993, when other Buddhist churches and temples began to appear. There was a very small Nichiren Temple (but that temple was gone by the 2000s.) It was also about this time that I changed from my concerns about racial issues as my life’s work, to religion.
As I have mentioned many times, while at the University of Utah, I decided to become an attorney. My going to the Institute of Buddhist Studies after graduating from the University was initially just a break, before going to the University of Utah’s Law School. I think if you are willing to listen, life in general has a way of guiding you into a direction that is right for you. I know this seems rather mystical and mumbo jumbo (new age), but I am only saying how my life has moved and guided me. It was because of the late Rev. Russell Hamada that I ended up a Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji Ha priest. It’s hard to believe it has been almost 40 years since I was ordained and 28 years since I have been in Salt Lake City as resident minister.
We had not had live services in our temple since April of 2020, which has had a tremendous effect on my own feelings of self-worth. I still do weekly services on Facebook Live. Have had smaller funerals or memorial services. I meet and help prepare seminars for BCA’s Center for Buddhist Education on Zoom. I can continue study and read at home. I am still happily married to Carmela and my daughters seem to be doing well in California. I walk and play with my dogs, Miso, Musubi and Koge. However, my personal identity is very much wrapped up in being Rev. Jerry Hirano and at least 80 percent of that is the in-person interaction I have with others. These interactions cannot be replicated over a screen.
This year and a half have also made me wonder about the religious truths and the differences we hold. The differences between God and Amida Buddha. Would a sentient anthropomorphic God create this disease? Amida Buddha is not a creator god. Our religion does not believe that there is a good and evil plan for the Universe couched in religion. Buddhism does focus upon the unseen, just as much as Christianity and other religions. However, these unseen realities are really a pragmatic embrace of our humanity, letting us know, “It will be okay.”
We do not see Amida Buddha, however, if you listen and open up your heart-mind, we can have a direct and profound experience that touches us deeply. The other day, I was watching the PBS documentary on Helen Keller. I love my Akitas, Koge and Musubi. The first Akitas were introduced into the U.S. as a gift to Helen Keller on her visit to Japan in the 1940s. In her book “My Life” which is quoted in the documentary, Helen Keller writes about how she profoundly experienced an invisible world and saw the beauty in it. Although not Buddhist, I felt she would have easily fit in to our Buddhist world view. The beauty of our world view is Amida Buddha’s compassion. It is something that can only be heard and felt with our heart. I want to close with this quote from Helen Keller’s book.
““I used to wish that I could see pictures with my hands as I do statues, but now I do not often think about it because my dear Father has filled my mind with beautiful pictures, even of things I cannot see. If the light were not in your eyes, dear Mr. Brooks, you would understand better how happy your little Helen was when her teacher explained to her that the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen nor even touched, but just felt in the heart. Every day I find out something which makes me glad.” ”
Namo Amida Butsu …
~ Rev. J.K. Hirano