Japan Days

I am coming to the last few days now of a very busy two week stay in Japan at my wife’s family temple in Kagoshima, a prefecture in the southern tip of Kyushu. It has been an exciting time, not least to stay overnight at the Head Temple in Fukuoka of our home temple in London. To go back there always challenges me to focus on what makes not only my Buddhist practice possible but on the foundation of my entire life in the Other Power originating from Amida Buddha. To be here now in Kagoshima, or at the Head Temple in Fukuoka or back home in London with the sangha there, it is the gift of Amida Buddha. My life was given to me by my parents, their’s by their own parents and so on back through countless generations. An immeasurable life from which everything arises and never departs from.

An interesting fact I learnt about the Jodo Shinshu liturgy is that in the nembutsu wasan we chant after the Shoshinge, Namu Amida Butsu is recited forty times in total around the six wasan verses (where we just have the word Namu or Amida Butsu, this is also included in the total as it was originally Namu Amida Butsu in full). Forty times corresponds to the forty names of Amida Buddha extolled by Tan-Luan (Jp: Donran) in his ‘Gathas in Praise of Amida Buddha’ (San Amida Butsu-ge). Shinran Shonin also includes all of these names in his ‘Wasan Based on Gathas in Praise of Amida Buddha’ from the Sanjo Wasan. Making sense of the Jodo Shinshu liturgy is not easy so to learn this helps immensely!

 

Blog links: ‘The Path Back Home’ etc.

A relatively recent addition to our little Shinshu corner of the blogosphere is The Path back Home by Bryan Yamami (actually the blog’s been around a while but isn’t widely known). He writes in his first post last year:

For the past three years, I’ve begun taking Buddhist studies classes from the Institute of Buddhist Studies with the eventual goal of graduating with a MBS (Masters in Buddhist Studies). Once I finish that program, I am planning to go to Japan for two years of additional ministerial training and return to the States and start my tenure as a Jodo Shinshu minister under the guidance of Rev. Masao Kodani at the Senshin Buddhist Temple.

It’s nice to see someone prepared to enter the ministry the long and hard way and his account of his experiences is useful to anyone thinking of going down a similar route.

Also a trainee minister is Eric Burkett who has a blog (though without a news feed unfortunately) called Happy Hour at the Buddha Bar. He’s doing his training at the Buddhist Church of San Francisco which he says is the oldest continuing Buddhist congregation in the mainland United States.

And another good site people might not be aware of (which again cries out for an rss feed) is the monthly ‘Reflections’ page of West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple which is written by my Jeff Wilson; the guy who introduced me to Jodo Shin by his example and who has done so much via many channels to dispel misconceptions about the tradition and raise its profile. There’s also a monthly message from the temple’s minister Rev. Fumiaki Usuki.

 

Maintaining the Temple

Living Pure Land Buddhism can be called dynamic symbolism because it always involves people in creative activities such as building stupas or temples and in purifying or cleaning them as part of their daily lives. Their pure, living faith, the innermost spirituality underpinning such creative activities, does not allow them to stagnate or to become attached to anything anywhere, instead it drives them on in a quest to benefit both themselves and others.” (Rev. Kemmyo T Sato)

On re-launching this blog I wanted to try to make it as much rooted in down-to-earth everyday realities as in doctrinal discussion. I don’t know whether I’ve managed that or not. Right now though our temple is gearing up for the final major sangha meeting of the year, and it reminded me of the incredible amount of hard work it takes to keep the temple clean and pure, and a conducive environment to Dharma practice. Most of this heavy burden falls on the two resident priests and their families, and any lay-people resident or staying in the taya. Local followers and neighbours also provide a lot of support, and then members from further away help when they are visiting, or offer other kinds of assistance such as translating materials, writing reports and so on.

When I first started attending the temple, many years ago, I took the wonderful qualities of the temple very much for granted. Gradually though I have come to realise that not only are they the result of great effort, but they are in fact a dynamic expression of the faith of each and every person involved. In that sense the preparation and maintenance of the temple is an act of gratitude of each member of the sangha towards the Buddha, the saying of namuamidabutsu, and conversely for the person enjoying that environment they are all the hearing of namuamidabutsu. Looked at in this way every element of the temple becomes more than the sum of its parts and transports one’s awareness. Each polished shrine ornament, the offerings of flowers, the garden, the food people bring … all direct one’s attention to the Infinite Light and Life. Namuamidabutsu.