Buddhist Thoughts Newsletter
Carmela, Kacie and I returned from the Philippines last night. Except for a few glitches in luggage, it was a good trip. My one suggestion is never travel Asiana Airlines. I have done a lot of traveling and I have been fortunate to have never lost luggage. I would guess over one hundred domestic flights and a dozen or more international. However, o
When I was a child, the New Year was all about having to go back to school, thinking of the Christmas toys I had already broken and how many mochis I would get to eat that day. My Mom tried to restrict me to six mochi on New Year Day, two at Bachan’s (Grandma) in the morning, two at her Mom’s at lunch and two more at dinner back at Bachan’s.
With the immigration of Japanese to America and Hawaii at the onset of the Meiji era 1868 to 1912, these Japanese immigrants who were 99 percent Buddhist, requested their Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji Ha (Nishi Hongwanji) in Kyoto, Japan to send priests. Thus began the migration of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism to America.
When I was in High School, I remember clearly thinking about who I was and who I wanted to be. I had just turned 16. My parents had bought me a 1967 Dodge Charger. My Dad wanted me to get a 1965 Ford Mustang. As with so many things at that time in my life, I didn’t want a mustang, not just because my dad thought I should. I
The nembutsu, for its practicers, is not a practice or a good act. Since it is not performed out of one’s own designs, it is not a practice. Since it is not good done through one’s own calculation, it is not a good act. Because it arises wholly from Other Power and is free of self-power, for the practicer, it is not a practice or a good act.
Chapter 8 Tannisho
Obon, Obon it’s festival day!
We will gather friends all along the way
and bring fruits and vegetables for the shrine.
Like Mogallana many, many years ago.
Obon, Obon it’s festival day!
All our humble thanks we will here convey,
to our dearly loved ones who lived in the past.
With nembutsu, nembutsu ‘pon our lips.
Obon, Obon it’s festival day!
O’ the streets are lined with our lanterns gay,
and the wind bells twinkling a top the trees.
Sway to and fro, to and fro in the breeze.
Obon, Obon it’s festival day!
Words and music by Yumiko Hojo
“Faith, then, is a quality of human living. At its best it has taken the form of serenity and courage and loyalty and service: a quiet confidence and joy which enable one to feel at home in the universe, and to find meaning in the world and in one’s own life, and meaning that is profound and ultimate, and is stable no matter what may happen to oneself at the level of immediate event. Men and women of this kind of faith face catastrophe and confusion, affluence and sorrow, unperturbed; face opportunity with conviction and drive, and face others with cheerful charity.”
The meaning and end of religion Wilfred Cantwell Smith
I recently discovered this book How Do You Live? first published in 1937. It was written in Japan by Genzaburo Yoshino. The Japanese title is Kime tachi wa do ikiru ka? In English, it is translated as How Do You Live? After I read it, I couldn’t believe I had never heard of this book before. It was one of those surprises when you find something amazing. I found this book quite by accident. I was searching for another book by my favorite author Neil Gaiman and in the google search, this book came up because he had written a foreword to the first English translation of this book published in 2021.
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.
