Rev. Henry’s Message

As autumn arrives, bringing with it cooler temperatures in the morning and evening, our family has been welcoming a long-anticipated return to fulltime in-person learning at school.  After a year and a half of staying home together every day, we are once again each heading off in our own direction on weekday mornings.  For our two older sons, who are in 2^nd and 5^th grades, it is back to elementary school and the routine of morning drop-offs, lunchtime recess on the playground, and hands-on work with Montessori materials in the classroom.

Our youngest son Tokuma had just turned one-year-old at the start of the pandemic and was just beginning to walk and say simple words at that time.  Now he is off to preschool and has entered a whole new world of spending time away from his parents and brothers, and playing in a group with other children his own age.  He began the preschool experience with a summer camp that was also attended by our middle son Shoma, who had attended that same preschool himself when he was younger.  This summer Shoma returned as a senpai, the oldest child in the group, and enjoyed helping the teachers provide care and guidance for the younger students. 

In East Asian Buddhism, Obon is traditionally understood to be the time once a year when loved ones who have departed this world for another destination in the cycle of birth and death, or samsara, return here to be with their families.  The next birth is traditionally believed to occur sometime during the 49-day period after death.  With this understanding, it is customary to avoid holding the Hatsubon service during the 49-day period of mourning, because in principle, the loved one may not yet have departed to another birth from which they would return at Obon.  If the Obon observance happens to fall during the 49-day period of mourning, Hatsubon is observed the following year.

However, in the Jodo Shinshu tradition it is taught that all beings who encounter the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha are completely liberated from samsara and realize birth in the Pure Land at the very moment of death.  From the Pure Land, they return as bodhisattvas to freely guide all beings to awakening moment to moment throughout the year, not just during Obon.  So, in the Jodo Shinshu tradition, Obon is time to reflect in gratitude on the power of Amida Buddha’s Primal Vow to liberate all beings from suffering.  Our departed loved ones are present guiding us each day of our lives, but we observe Obon as a special occasion to reflect and express our gratitude.

As we come to the end of this extraordinary school year, my family and I are looking forward to celebrating what we hope will be the conclusion of our misadventure with pandemic homeschooling.  With much of our sons’ learning having taken place on the computer during this past school year, one of our greatest challenges has been staying on task with so many tempting distractions just a click away on the internet. 

In my complaints about this website or that YouTube Channel that I catch my sons looking at while they are supposed to be working on their online math programs, I find myself saying things like, “What is this junk you’re watching?”  Listening to myself speak, I hear echoes of my father’s comments on my own television viewing choices when I was in elementary school and he came home from work to find me camped out in front of the television during my daily latchkey kid binge on afterschool sitcom reruns.  

It seems that as each generation matures, it finds itself criticizing the distractions of the younger generation.  It feels to me like we live in a uniquely distracted time at the present, with various devices and internet sites vying for our attention from moment to moment throughout the day. 

As Spring arrives, we find ourselves once again preparing to welcome the Spring Equinox with an online Ohigan Service via Zoom on Sunday, March 21, 2021.  We have now completed one full cycle of the seasons living under the necessary restrictions to limit the spread of Covid-19 in our community.  Cautious optimism is in the air as more and more of our family members and friends are receiving the Covid-19 vaccine and new infections seem to be on the decline.  Even though the shore of post-pandemic life appears to be coming into clearer view, we are still very much at sea in the ocean of this coronavirus. 

While finding my way in life in the time of Covid-19 feels like sailing on uncharted waters, pausing to reflect on the long arc of history, I find that epidemic disease has always been part of human life.  We can look to the wisdom of previous generations to find the compass of truth that will illuminate our journey across the ocean of birth and death to arrive at the Other Shore. 

In 1919, there was a growing community of Japanese Buddhists working on farms around the town of Guadalupe on California’s Central Coast.  Many of these intrepid Issei lived in camps near the fields with few comforts and amenities. As families began to take shape with young children, it became clear that these camps did not provide a suitable environment for children to grow and receive an education.  Responding to the urgent needs of one family and then another, the local Buddhist minister Rev. Issei Matsuura and his wife Mrs. Shinobu Matsuura opened the doors of the temple and began taking in children one by one until they found themselves caring for over twenty children in what became the Guadalupe Children’s Home.

In the Buddhist traditions of Japan, February is the month in which we observe our Nirvana Day Service, a remembrance of Sakyamuni Buddha’s parinirvana, the day he drew his final breath in this world and entered into the lasting peace of tranquility.  Our observance of Nirvana Day is an occasion to remember the truth that death is a gate through which all who are born into this human life will one day pass.  The fact that the enlightened Buddha himself was not exempt from passing through the gate of death shows us that the goal of the Buddha’s teachings is not to attain immortality.  Sakyamuni Buddha taught clearly with his own life the impermanence of this human existence.

The Buddhadharma shows us the way to make the most of this human life, so that we can meet the moment of death with peace and clarity of mind.  It was around this time last year that we first heard of a new coronavirus that had arrived here on the West Coast.  In this past year we have had powerful reminders of the preciousness of this human life.  I ask myself, have I awakened to the settled mind of one who is destined for birth in the realm of peace and bliss?

I spend most of my days chasing after the things that I think I need to be happy.  As this Covid-19 pandemic began to spread, I was chasing after toilet paper and hand sanitizer.  Lately, I’ve been scrambling to find a new bike for my oldest son, who has outgrown the one we bought for him a couple years ago.