A faith reminder

On this Labor Day weekend in the United States, while people are enjoying the last moments of summer, “faith” might not seem to be a topic to occupy anybody’s mind.

Yet, maybe this is the perfect time to reflect on it, in between burgers and watermelon and games. Our individual understanding of it is what may (and hopefully will) sustain us in the times when we aren’t pleasantly distracted by holidays or celebrations…

“Faith is a response of our being to something greater which calls for our commitment. Some call it God, Buddha, the Tao, Mana, Kami; each person’s faith wears its own garment. We are told that faith moves mountains; that faith is the evidence of things unseen; It is the assurance of things hoped for. Faith is an encounter with the mystery of life which cannot simply be objectified and placed outside us or in our hip pocket. We do not argue faith, we give witness to its power in our lives.”

This is an excerpt from an essay of mine. You are welcome to read it all in “Faith Transforms Life.”

Gassho,

Al Bloom

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The name that calls

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Guest Post…

When I receive correspondence that includes thoughts, opinions, and/or experiences spurred by writings that have appeared in this blog or on the Shin Dharma Net site, I’d like to share them with readers. This is one way we can learn from each other. I trust the following entry will be a source for reflection and add to our joint store of knowledge –Al Bloom

Dear Friends:

I find the nembutsu everywhere. In retrospect I found it when I discovered

Jiddu Krishnamurti’s writings when I was 17 years old. Later, I carried a copy of “Flight of the Eagle” in my back pocket for years, underlining passage after passage, not quite understanding what I was reading but drawn into it.

JK writes about seeing the real versus chasing after the ideal. When you see the reality of the craving, clinging, selfish ego with all its selfish habits (including spiritual seeking) – if you stay with it, really look at it – then something else arises “darkly” (mysteriously).

Also, when I was 17 I bought a book of poetry in a bookstore in Vancouver (travelled there from Michigan with a Canadian friend). In the bag along with the receipt the cashier put a copy of the Hsin Hsin Ming (Sosan, Seng-Ts’an). I had that taped to my wall for years until it got lost in my travels. I still return to that text: “To separate what you like from what you dislike is the disease of the mind.” It seems to me now that it should say “to separate what you like from what you dislike is the disease called the mind.”

The mind seems to only separate. The “inward-turning mind” (Shinran) is the ego, the separator, the ideal-seeker. In one translation at least, the Shin Shin Ming offers what I consider to be a nembutsu teaching. It says (something like) when you see delusion arising, simply say “not two”. That was my nembutsu for years prior to my discovery of Shinran. When I caught myself liking/disliking, loving/loathing/, craving/hating-and seeking something inside me said, or remembered, “not two”.

There’s a contraction – what I sometimes call a gut-crunch or a heart-crunch – and I see my rejection of what is and my desire for something better (or my clinging to what is and my fear of losing it) and when I see this (or when this is “seen”) I hear “not two” or “namandabu namandabu.”

The contraction, the suffering, is my teacher.

There is a simultaneous recognition of suffering and its release in “one thought moment” (if I may borrow that phrase). And so, for me, the “devil” is my teacher, the poison is the cure, the glitch is the key. My own primal, ignorant gut-crunch, when recognized, is actually “the name that calls”!

Prior to hearing this call my only response to this “mechanism of suffering” (to quote non-duality teacher John Wheeler) was to seek an escape from it, to kill it somehow, extinguish it through my own efforts. But my efforts were a part of that mechanism of suffering, and so inevitably my efforts to escape made things worse. How desperate I was!

But one day I was in my car stopped at a red light and the phrase “knot, too” popped into my head. And I thought, the knot (contraction) is “it”, too! So, “not two/knot, too” was punned by my puzzled, puzzling, self-powered brain. That pun stopped, for a moment, my constant effort to make myself better. I relaxed. (I may have teared up.)

A silly pun “came to me” and I felt a kind of grace. And when I say grace, I don’t mean that theistically. I just mean grace as a poetic descriptive word for the indescribable (call it Amida, call it Samantabhadra, just don’t call it supernatural!).

That wasn’t the first time I felt that grace – which is my home, despite myself. It just clicked then, like my blinkers as I was ready to make a turn. As it clicks now when I see this “self”-created primal contraction.

Then something happens “darkly”: I am embraced by true reality.

I find the nembutsu in Zen/Ch’an, in Dzogchen, in Advaita, in the great sage Nisargadatta (his phrase “I am That”, to me, is the same as namu amida butsu). I find it everywhere, because I find my self-seeking everywhere.

Must I condemn myself? Must I damn myself for constantly clutching and grasping and hating?

I can’t get rid of myself. I want constant bliss (pleasure). Where is it? I don’t’ want what I have, I don’t want to be where I am, I don’t want to be who I am.

If I keep seeking, will I find paradise?

My sole occupation is to drive myself crazy. Yet, somehow, I’m hearing something else. What is that?

The truth about all this nonsense is seeping through. Is that the name that calls? Is my craziness itself somehow the gift?

Namu amida butsu.

JV

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Embracing effortlessness

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Guest Post…

When I receive correspondence that includes thoughts, opinions, and/or experiences spurred by writings that have appeared in this blog or on the Shin Dharma Net site, I’d like to share them with readers. This is one way we can learn from each other. I trust the following entry will be a source for reflection and add to our joint store of knowledge –Al Bloom

While saying the nembutsu once I had a sense that Amida’s light is never an object of our awareness but it is the light that illuminates ourselves. What I mean is that Amida’s light can’t be seen but can be felt when we see the darkest bits of ourselves (illuminated by this invisible light, so to speak). This made me question the way in which I was reciting the nembutsu. Until then I had thought that jiriki was a drive within me to go on reciting the nembutsu forever, whereas tariki was the drive to stop it whenever I felt it was a reasonable time to stop. Then, it seemed the other way round. The drive to let the nembutsu resound forever was in fact beyond my control whereas the other one was my desire to control or channel that flow, my own calculation. However, this does not mean that I recite the nembutsu 24/7 but that in a sense it is always there and my awareness returns to it again and again, though by no means all the time. I think part of what I’m referring to was underlying a question I asked you previously about Tao Cho’s definition of perfect (tariki) and imperfect (jiriki) shinjin. There’s no need to keep reminding myself to say Namu Amida Butsu, since it comes naturally to me and when it does it feels as if it is always there, in the background, ready to leap to the foreground at any time.

Also, as I have been exploring my own sense of failure in regards to Buddhist practice, which did underlie my years of Tibetan Buddhism, I’ve come to a new understanding of myself. I realize I have been trying hard for years to prove myself or to change certain aspects of myself, to no avail. At the end of that effort there’s a sense of despair and failure. At the core of the drive to (im)prove myself is a fundamental lack of confidence or the feeling of being unloved. Without going too much into the details of my personal story, I can identify as a constant thread in my character the resistance to being loved, accepting gifts or any other form of kindness, out of an arrogance that is ultimately fear of being vulnerable or exposed. I can’t obviously love without first feeling loved and therefore I work hard at building the self-protective shell of arrogance, success, achievement that covers my own needs and feelings of vulnerability. Before coming to Shin Buddhism, I realized that I had been using the practice of meditation in that way and that I had neglected the fundamental need to be loved and accepted.

In wrestling with nembutsu and shinjin I realized how I was obviously doing the same thing, building a shell, trying to control and attain something through the drive to prove myself by achieving things by my own efforts. Then I saw the difficulty of accepting shinjin, which was the same resistance I’ve always felt to accepting gifts or affection. I realized that shinjin was indeed the Buddha’s gift, nothing to do with my efforts or wish to prove myself, and how difficult it was to welcome it, to let that years old resistance go. In a sense, there’s nothing I could do to bring about that gift and that’s what made it so difficult to accept. I couldn’t earn it, control it or even deserve it. It’s a completely free gift and that is very hard to deal with. It showed me the depth of my own arrogance and fear, which in an indirect way were cries for protection and warmth. In that realization there’s a giving in to the gift, if only briefly, that fills me with joy and makes me feel loved in a fundamental, unconditional and non-threatening way. This doesn’t feel like the kind of love that would go away or would be transformed into hatred if one does something wrong. In other words, it is not conditional or coercive.

I felt as if a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders. There’s nothing I could do to improve or earn the gift nor could it be taken away or destroyed by whatever I might do wrong. It was beyond me, nothing I could do. That was a great relief and the following imperfect haiku came to mind: “Effortless rainbow/my heart reli(e)ved becomes/namu amida butsu.” Still, the fear, the resistance, and the arrogance are there and they come and go, as they always have. But I feel there’s a little hole of hope; the view is somehow shifted. Also, the constant need to work hard and prove myself is eased, if only slightly, by this sense that I need not do anything to be welcomed into Amida’s realm of awakening (i.e. being loved, becoming awakened, etc.), but simply to accept the gift (s)he extends in namu amida butsu. It’s almost a scary thought, since it exposes and undermines the drive that has articulated most of my life. On the other hand, it feels refreshing, relieving and liberating; both worth relying on and difficult to do because of its utter easiness. It feels somehow like a home, a place I can return to, but certainly not a place I inhabit all the time, or even often. There’s a sense of gratitude towards this space of warmth, this home, which paradoxically reveals further and further my own coldness and lack of gratitude.

It seems to me that your choice of the phrase “self-acceptance” to describe Shinran’s journey is very insightful. Self-acceptance couldn’t happen without first feeling accepted by an-other, likewise with love and compassion. It is impossible to love others if one does not love oneself and it seems equally impossible to love oneself if one does not feel loved by an-other. Self-acceptance happens because others accept us. To accept that acceptance seems to me what lies at the core of letting shinjin happen. By accepting the acceptance, the mind of the Buddha merges or takes over us, because in such accepting space there’s no room for the dichotomies, judgments or insecurities of our little mind (or the mind of doubt, I suppose it could be called too).

E. G-A
Manchester UK

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Buddhism and ‘survival of the fittest’

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Dear Friends:

There is no clearer evidence for the relevance of Buddhism to the current political debate on the vision for our society and democracy than the reaction of conservative politicians and their supporters to President Obama’s explanation that no one, including the rich, has attained success alone and without assistance from others in some form, whether personal or social/government involvement. He clearly was articulating the principle of interdependence, which is the heart of Buddhist teaching in all traditions. It is really an obvious principle beginning with our individual births. We are part of a vast net and subject to innumerable causes and conditions that create the foundation of any achievement we experience.

Human beings require the longest period of nurture until they can fend for themselves in the environment. No one would survive if from the first day they had to care for themselves, lacking a family or some type of caregiver. We understand the process of socialization through which demanding, ego-centric infants are gradually integrated by discipline into the social fabric and made aware of their mutual relations and responsibilities that are needed for a peaceful family and harmonious community. As Hillary Clinton wrote, “It takes a village.” No one is raised in a vacuum. How many times do we hear modest athletes and even politicians and leaders acknowledge that their victories are the result of the support of others, though they themselves possess significant abilities.

Those who criticize the President for articulating this principle in the context of the vitriolic political atmosphere and an obstructive congress must ignore much of their own experience. The Chinese Sage, Mencius, in the 4th C. BCE described the division of labor in society where each artisan and producer requires each other for society to function properly. Each depends on the other for the product they need but cannot produce themselves. This is was another perspective on interdependence.

Our society has been permeated by the libertarian philosophy taught by Ayn Rand, illustrated by Ron and Rand Paul. She emphasized an untrammeled individualism of each for him/herself. In “Atlas Shrugged” she states: ”My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”

A rational selfishness is the dynamic for progress in society as each person works to advance and protect their own interest. “Happiness is possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but rational goals, seeks nothing but rational values and finds his joy in nothing buy rational actions,” Rand declares.

Progress in society is marked by how easily a person can pursue his/her own benefit. There need be no external authority like government to regulate behavior, since each person will self-correct as their efforts are successful or thwarted. Though Ayn Rand and her proponents reject strenuously that her philosophy is associated with social Darwinism, her advocacy of laissez-faire capitalism with its stress on competition suggests that the principle of “survival of the fittest” is also implied by Ayn Rand’s view.

The forthcoming Presidential election gains its significance in part because citizens will decide which vision of society will be the path for the future.

Thank you. Gassho,

Al Bloom

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Buddhism in society

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The United States is in the throes of a critical and contentious political campaign. The character of the nation is at stake as the effort to defeat President Barack Obama carries overtones of racism, and is flooded with money from unfettered corporate funding. What claims to be conservatism is really radicalism, bordering on anarchy. The outcome will determine whether society moves definitively to the right becoming a body of disparate individuals competing for the survival of the fittest – or whether it defines itself as a mutually interdependent society where all share responsibility in providing for the basic needs of its unprotected and neediest members.

Buddhist teaching in all traditions highlights the interdependence of all aspects of reality. Each of us attains well-being when all others achieve it. We’re a net, with every node supporting and enabling all other nodes. For years, most Americans have believed in the safety net for all. Now, even this is threatened. Buddhists must make their voices heard in the marketplace of ideas and help to create and sustain a society where everyone can be assured a decent life with dignity and security.

One area of particular concern is the contradictory thinking dominating recent debate over the health care law. No better illustration of this can be found than in the discussion of the mandate, which requires everyone to have health insurance. The party that initially supported it now opposes it because it was included in President Obama’s program.

The original reason for creating the mandate was to prevent “deadbeats” and “freeloaders,” in line with Republican thinking about personal responsibility and the work ethic. Now, however, they oppose the mandate as coercive and unconstitutional because the government imposes the individual requirement with a penalty. In reality, its effect is to enlarge the shared risk pool.

But, whether it’s a tax or a penalty under the commerce clause is semantics and irrelevant. The word “tax” has become a forbidden political term. Yet, in the mandate it only affects those who refuse to buy insurance when they’re able. Chief Justice Roberts simply indicated that it is constitutional if construed as a tax. It doesn’t mean that everyone across the board is taxed.

The law reaffirms the interconnection and interdependence of all citizens in supporting the shared risk of insurance. It’s here that Buddhists can play a role by helping to make clear the principle behind the mandate and promoting a clearer understanding of government’s role in firmly establishing human dignity and security in receiving health care.

Health care must be seen as a human right and part of the pursuit of happiness, a pillar principle of our society.

Gassho _/\_ Al Bloom

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Pure Land and The Lotus

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Buddhism’s Pure Land and Lotus Sutra traditions are two major “contenders” for adherents in the West. Let me give a brief overview of their perspectives and appeal.

With the Lotus Sutra, the Nichiren schools – including Soka Gakkai – follow the Tendai theory of Critical Classification of Teaching. In this theory, Buddha’s life is traced through five periods in which his teachings are given according to the spiritual development of his disciples. This system maintains that The Lotus Sutra and the Mahayana Nirvana Sutra are the Buddha’s final and supreme teachings, given as his followers attain their highest spiritual development. Any teachings given before those Sutras are considered false teaching.

While Nichiren followed this theory, he also taught that the recitation of the name of the Lotus Sutra (Daimoku – “Namu Myoho Renge Kyo”) contained all the virtue and spiritual power of the Lotus Sutra itself. Therefore, recitation of the title of the Sutra joined the believer with the power of the Universe, bringing material and spiritual benefits. Also, Chapters 2 and 16 are chanted in services with accompanying benefits. Chapter 2 emphasizes the Buddha’s compassion in teaching people at the level they can understand. It’s a graded system, extending from simple, elementary teaching to the profound. This is the basis of the Tendai theory. Chapter 16 proclaims the eternity of the Buddha.

According to the general Pure Land teaching, the world has declined spiritually, and Buddhism along with it. Consequently, people in this world are corrupt and spiritually incapable. The Buddha, recognizing their plight, provided the Nembutsu (“Namu Amida Butsu”) as the means to be born in the Pure Land where conditions are right for the practice to attain enlightenment and Buddhahood. Recitation of the Nembutsu is an easy practice within the capacity of the ordinary person, and its merit brings birth into the Pure Land at death.

Both the tradition of the Lotus and the Pure Land teaching became widely popular in Japan. They gave rise to a saying that “one recites the Lotus in the morning and does Nembutsu in the evening.” This contrast expresses the view that the Lotus Sutra is this-worldly, focusing on this life, while the Pure Land teaching is other-worldly, assuring people of a positive destiny in the afterlife. Nichiren declared that only the Lotus Sutra was true, because the Pure Land teaching was a lower level teaching and was devoted to Amida Buddha rather than Sakyamuni, the teacher of the Lotus. The Pure Land teachers maintained that Pure Land sutras were taught at the same time as the Lotus. Highlighting our spiritual weakness, ineradicable blind passions, and egoism, they emphasized that we need the compassion and assistance of Amida Buddha through the Nembutsu.

Our contemporary world is home to vastly different spiritual traditions, and we can (and should) benefit from the insights they offer. We need spiritual support for living in this complex world, for navigating its many conflicts. Additionally, we need a view of ourselves from the perspective of eternity. The nembutsu and daimoku illustrate how Buddhism’s various expressions offer insights and practices to open our minds to deeper self-understanding… and wider vistas of fulfillment.

Gassho _/\_ Al Bloom

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p.s. As always, feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think.

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The importance of ‘now’

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Our lives today, no matter where we live or what our situation may be, are often focused on “what’s coming.” We get tied up with schedules that tell us of obligations to be fulfilled, errands to run, people to call, meetings to attend, and on and on in a seemingly endless round of preoccupation with the next hour, day, week, month, year. All of this is part of living. Yet, in the process of “filling time,” we lose sight of the significance of the present moment. Our minds can’t really be “here” if they’re constantly engaged in getting “there.”

When we are always rushing around and skimming life’s surface, it can happen that as years pass we question the value of our lives, whether they have been truly useful or whether they have lacked meaning because we’ve not truly lived in the moment. We may look around at others and think the same of those whose lives we see as marked by disappointments, sadness, even remorse, because they appear to be wasted in a frenzy of expendable activity.

My friend and colleague of many years, the late Ruth Tabrah, talked of the importance of the ‘now’ in a small volume published posthumously, titled, “Just Live! On Becoming Buddhist.” In the chapter “A Matter of Choice,” she spoke of listening “with keen interest and an open mind to Reverend Kuriyama when I visited his temple in Nogata, Japan…” and then she wrote:

“‘No one would say that my life has real value,’ he told us. ‘For it is a life
filled with wasted time and effort, a life of constant regrets. Yet, suddenly
we come to realize that even such a life is not wasted and that it has a definite
significance. It begins when we give care and concern to the now which I live
at this very moment. True life and true realization are found in the now.’”

Shin people have every good cause to be living in the ‘now,’ as their lives are meant to be natural, not strained, free of the frenzy of self-power striving, and in day-to-day terms, free of feeling valueless and even lost, living in a constant cloud of commotion and busyness.

Ruth went on to say:

“The person who lives this moment of ‘now,’ entrusting in the Buddha, lives
life without any impasse, no dead-end. Such a person is called the person of
complete freedom, whose life is intimately bound with true and real life, open
and endlessly unfolding.”

Consider giving yourself more ‘now’ time. As you do this, hopefully you’ll feel less and less like an overstretched elastic band from all your ‘tomorrow’ commitments. And as you discover the importance of ‘now’ to your peace of mind, you’ll also see there is no real “wasted time and effort,” that your life truly has meaning and value.

Thanks for visiting.

Gassho _/\_ Al Bloom

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p.s. As always, feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think.

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Reading for a modern Shin

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While there are many excellent and helpful publications listed in the “Books” section of Shin Dharma Net (see index at right), unfortunately, Shin literature isn’t easy to come by in general bookstores. Still, there are two consistently dependable sources: Buddhist Churches of America Bookstore (BCABS) in Berkeley, and the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii Book Store (HHBS) in Honolulu. As good books become increasingly accessible, a more reliable understanding of the teaching will reach a wider audience, and its meaning for modern people become clearer.

Here are a few recent and forthcoming books to illumine our understanding of Shinran and Shin Buddhism:

>> “Cultivating Spirituality: A Modern Shin Buddhist Anthology,” by Mark L. Blum and Robert F. Rhodes (2011) SUNY Press (NY). This book contains essays by modern leading Japanese teachers of the Otani-Higashi Hongwanji tradition. The introduction provides an orientation to the modern development of Shin (Hardcover & Kindle eds. at Amazon).

>> Two by Jitsuen Kakehashi:

“Bearer of the Light: The Life and Thought of Rennyo,” Pure Land Publications (from BCAB). This text focuses on Shin Buddhism’s eighth monshu – successor to Shinran – who was active in the 15th century. He established Hongwanji organizationally and socially, making it a large and powerful religious community. Additionally, he was an eloquent propagator. Hongwanji still benefits from the impetus he gave it in early modern times.

– and –

“Hearing the Buddha’s Call,” translated by Toshi Arai, and published recently by the Buddhist Study Center in Honolulu (contact the BSC for information). This book focuses on Shinran’s life and teachings, offering a modern interpretation based on important passages in his writings.

>> By Koshin Ohtani:

“The Buddha’s Wish for the World,” (1st ed., 2009), published by (and available through) the American Buddhist Study Center; and “The Buddha’s Call to Awaken” (available now at HHBS). They are translations of the present Monshu’s thought as he seeks to establish Shin Buddhism as both a socially relevant and a personal faith.

>> Finally, available August 15th (pre-order from Amazon) … “Shinran’s Kyogyoshinsho: The Collection of Passages Expounding the True Teaching, Living, Faith, and Realizing of the Pure Land,” by Daisetz Teitaro (D.T.) Suzuki. Here we have a re-publication of Dr. Suzuki’s translation of Shinran’s major work. Regrettably, Suzuki Sensei passed away before completing the final volume of the work.

I hope some of these books will fit into your reading schedule, and that by encountering their message you’ll gain new insights to deepen and enrich your 21st-century experience with Shin Buddhism.

Thanks for visiting.

Gassho _/\_ Al Bloom

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p.s. As always, feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think.

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Reconsidering Independence Day

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In the U.S., our annual fourth of July celebration will soon be here. For the occasion, my good friend, Rev. Richard Tennes, minister at the Honpa Hongwanji Betsuin temple in Honolulu, has written an illuminating essay that breathes the spirit of Buddhism… and the aspiration for freedom and equality for all people, which are threatened by economic stress and social conflict. I thought it appropriate to share it with my blog readers, in the hope it may inspire us all and raise our hopes for our society – and the world.

Gassho _/\_ Al Bloom

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p.s. As always, feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think.

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Celebrating the Fourth

by Rev. Richard Tennes

On July 4th we will celebrate Independence Day. Our national holiday commemorates the establishment of a country whose formation was based on the idea of just laws and the principle of protecting the freedom, rights, and dignity of all human beings from the arbitrary whims of the powerful. America was founded on the belief that might does not equal right. Of course, it has never fully lived up to that ideal.

When we think about the Fourth of July, we seldom reflect upon these ideals and usually think of parades, sports, and fireworks accompanied by lots of eating and beer drinking (these days it is also another day for stores to have sales). If a visitor from another planet were to observe our festivities on that day, he or she might come to the conclusion that the Fourth of July is a celebration of over-consumption and noise.

As a Buddhist, I wish I could show that space visitor a country where everyone truly feels safe and is able to work and live a decent life, a place where everyone receives a good education, where communities are strong because people are kind and care about their neighbors, where they work hard to make sure no one is forgotten or neglected. I would like to show our visitor a country where financial success is possible, but always with a sense of profound responsibility to share the greater benefits one has received in such a way as to make life better for everyone. I would especially like to be able to demonstrate that this is a country of citizens who live in appreciation of what they have received, who treasure life and never waste the precious resources of the land, people who do not take advantage of each other, do not feel perpetually entitled to having more than they need, but always desire the best conditions for all beings, not only here but everywhere in the world.

Some might say this is a dream. The Buddha taught that we should awaken to life as it really is and not live in a dream world. But the potential of what America could be is not so much a dream as it is an aspiration, a commitment to live in such a way as to transform selfishness into generosity, cruelty and violence into compassion, ignorance into wisdom, and fear into trust. Are we willing to make that aspiration?

Today, many people seem unconcerned about the decline of American society and feel content to permit the erosion of our most basic and precious democratic traditions. As Buddhists we need to understand that our own happiness and well being always depend on the well being and happiness of others. To ignore what is happening to my neighbors all over the country because I still possess my own “slice of the pie,” is certainly to live in a state of arrogance and delusion. Let us, as American Buddhists, work for the dream of a peaceful, kind, and open society. Let us aspire to renew the noble purpose of America as a place where human rights, justice, and liberty do not depend upon privilege.Let us refuse to live in fear of imagined enemies by remembering what we have always been: a haven for the tired, poor, and “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Namo Amida Butsu.

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Obon… Festival of ancestors

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The Bon season is upon us. For readers not familiar with this, Bon commemorates the deaths of our ancestors, traditionally, as far back as seven generations. The traditional Buddhist story authorizing the commemoration relates how the monk Mogallana, a disciple of Sakyamuni, discovered that his mother was suffering in the hell of hungry ghosts.

This hell is one dimension among the six paths in the afterlife, including the lowest hells, hungry ghosts, beasts, angry spirits, human, and gods. The hungry ghosts are beings with small mouths and large stomachs, symbolizing greed and the inability of people to be satisfied. People enter these realms depending on their karmic heritage. In this instance, Mogallana appealed to the Buddha on how to rescue his mother from this hell. Sakyamuni replied that he should give offerings to the monk Order. Mogallana complied and his mother was freed. At that, Mogallana danced for joy, providing the basis for the later Bon dances. This commemoration was officially instituted in Japan by Prince Shotoku, to be held on on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month. In modern Japan this came to be July 15 and in some places August 15.

In Japan, the festival occurs in a lull period just prior to harvest in the agricultural cycle. The cycle begins with the return of ancestors to help their families with planting rice, by bringing fertility and rain. It ends with the return of the ancestors to the other world, sometimes in the ritual of floating lanterns-boats (toro-nagashi). In Hawaii, this ritual has been universalized by a Buddhist organization holding a community toro-nagashi for all people, Buddhist or non-buddhist, on Memorial Day in May. It’s been estimated that 40,000 people attended.

A question attending stories about the afterlife in Buddhism, such as this legend or about the Pure Land, is whether they’re to be taken literally. There’s no question that some people do take them literally, based on the authority of scripture or tradition. Yet, generally speaking, Buddhist teachers interpret the levels of birth psychologically, as representing attitudes or character traits of people in this life. The question of afterlife itself may not be addressed.

The Pure Land, which transcends these levels and the process of transmigration associated with them, is assumed by people to be a world of peace and joy where we’ll be united with our loved ones. While often presented literally and used to console families at funeral services, according to Buddhist philosophy, it’s the spiritual realm of “birth of no-birth”, Nirvana, an inconceivable dimension characterized by perfect freedom. The graphic representations of the Pure Land are upaya, compassionate means, depicting the sphere where we become Buddha and work for the salvation of all beings. The central issue is becoming Buddha, not enjoying repose with loved ones as an extension of life in this world.

Consideration of Bon observance opens up many aspects of Buddhism for further reflection. I’ll be addressing them in future blogs.

Thank you for visiting.

Gassho _/\_ Al Bloom

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p.s. As always, feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think.

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