Buddhist Thoughts Newsletter
It has been said by some, that originally the lion was on the Chinese zodiac. Most of the zodiacs have stories about how the various animals came to be represented. In the past, I have told you about the mouse and cat and why the mouse is the first animal in the zodiac and the cat is not even on it. There is also a story about why the Tiger is on the zodiac and I would like to share this story with you.
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?
We live in a world where permanence is stressed. We try to hold on to our youth, forgetting the knowledge that our age has given us. In our lives we stress over the natural changes that occur. Shakyamuni Buddha proclaimed that birth, sickness, old age and death were the natural conditions of our lives.
No Buddhist Thoughts article this month. Come back next month!
Are our temples a vehicle to convey Japanese American culture or Buddhist culture? I have always believed Buddhist culture specifically Jodo Shinshu teachings are the reasons we have a temple. Rev. Mas said there were two things that he felt exemplified Japanese American culture, Taiko and Bon Odori.
What is it about Jodo Shinshu that has made many of us who in our youth worked for civil rights, move into lives and work based upon religion and identity, such as the Jodo Shinshu ministry? As I had expressed in the last couple of articles, the Social Justice of liberation theology (Catholic) and also the African America Church are different than our Buddhist ideals of social justice.
With the recent shootings and anti-Asian racism that has been in the news, I am reprinting a revised version of an article I wrote almost 30 years ago, just after I came back to Salt Lake City, Utah after almost thirteen years of living in Berkeley, Oakland, San Jose, California and Kyoto, Japan. In each of these places, I felt like an outsider.
This pandemic has given each of us so much to think about. I know that there has been a great deal of suffering and that does make me sad. But I believe that in many ways, the pandemic has forced me to really look at what I’m doing with my life. I really enjoyed my life before the pandemic. I traveled a lot and met a lot of different people. However, in retrospect I realize my life was so fast!
The week of January 6 was an interesting week. Once again there are talks of impeachment for Ex-president Trump, that has a nice ring to it, ex-president. I’m sure our new President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were hoping that their administration would start under far less controversial terms.
The reason I love the holiday season is because it is about happiness and family. It is about love for all of humanity. However, I know that this year has been a difficult year for many people. It may be one that you wish never happened. Yes, this Thanksgiving was very different than most other Thanksgivings you have probably ever experienced.
Each of you has come to see me, crossing the borders of more than ten provinces at the risk of your life, solely with the intent of asking about the path to birth in the land of bliss. But if you imagine in me some special knowledge of a path to birth other than the nembutsu or of scriptural writings that teach it, you are greatly mistaken.
In our new world, we hear the ridiculous sound bite “Fake News” over and over. We usually hear this being spouted by our “President” on some news programs. We know that his entire presence on the world stage is not for our country but for whatever publicity fuels his fevered little mind. I try hard not to listen. I try hard not to get discouraged by witnessing our country being dragged down like some dead decaying whale corpse sinking to the bottom of the sea.
Obon is a generic term for the Buddhist service and dancing called Bon Odori. This Obon service and dance have been going on for some 500 years. I personally really like the Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji Ha (Nishi Hongwanji’s) the BCA term for this service “Kangi-E” this literally means Gathering of Joy. During this age of corona virus isolation and the black lives matter movement, we are facing an unprecedented time of suffering, isolation and death.
I know that we are all feeling confused, fearful, anxious, angry, grieving, etc. during this time of the Covid-19 pandemic. If you are like me, there are days when I wake up feeling pretty good thinking, “What will I do today? Wonder what the weather is like? I don’t have to really do anything, it’s a free day!”
We are in an unprecedented time. People my age, the so called baby boomers, have never faced anything like it. The “Greatest generation,” my parent’s age group faced it, with World War II and the incarceration of all Japanese on the West Coast of the U.S. My grandparents’ generation faced the depression, World War I and the flu pandemic of 1918. I have been thinking that maybe this is just the way life is meant to be.