Tag: Salt Lake Buddhist Fellowship

Attend to All & Each: A Dharma Talk

Posted on by Christopher in amida buddha, Bright Dawn, Bright Dawn Buddhism, Uncategorized

Dharma Talk
Salt Lake Buddhist Fellowship
Christopher Kakuyo Sensei
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As I develop the content for our Certified Dharma Teacher course, I’ve been reflecting on what makes our fellowship unique. While many of us find inspiration in the Pure Land tradition and its teachers, we are not Shin Buddhists or any other traditional Pure Land Buddhist Sangha—nor do we claim to be. The Dobokai Movement within Shin Buddhism has significantly influenced us, yet we remain a trans-sectarian community rather than a Pure Land sangha. So, what exactly are we?

We are a fellowship of seekers exploring the Way of the Buddha. Together, we find meaning in the symbols and myths of the Pure Land. This is particularly true for the mythopoetic and archetypal figure of Buddha Amida, who represents boundless light and life. Amida embraces everything and everyone just as they are, reflecting the heart of the phrase “come as you are.”

I also want to address those who lean more toward a secular perspective—our differences may not be as significant as they seem. In many meaningful ways, science and poetry, religion, and philosophy are not at odds with each other; they are simply different languages we use to explore what it means to be human. For today’s dharma talk,
I want to start with a poem I wrote that we recite each Sunday before our chanting. Here is the poem:

Come as you are
Is the call of Buddha
Just as you are
Namu Amida Butsu
Is the invitation we give
To ourselves
To others
To all Living Beings
To the totality of our lives, just as we are.
So come, come as you are,
Attend to all and each
Namu Amida Butsu
Stop torturing yourself
With all those made-up stories
Of who you think you are
and aren’t, regardless
of who you are or
are not
Regardless
Of what you have done or
left undone
and enter the gate of boundless compassion
Namu Amida Butsu.

My writing of this poem aims to convey the significance of Namu Amida Butsu — or the nembutsu — for us and our community. I am attempting to take something from a very different place and time, Medieval Japan, and infuse its meaning and healing power in a way that resonates with our lives today.

Like much of art, poetry serves as a form of translation, an effort to articulate the inexpressible, something that transcends concept and language but exists in the heartbeat, pulse, and breath.

Over the past few months, we have explored some of the teachings contained in these verses. We will revisit them repeatedly from various perspectives at different times. Just as an open field or a hidden canyon reveals its secrets to those willing to be still in changing light, so too do the teachings of the Buddha. We examine the same teachings through the evolving context of our lives, uncovering new truths. As Gyomay Kubose Sensei has said, “truth is forever revealing itself in all forms and phases of life.”

Today I want to focus mainly on one verse from the poem,

So come as you are,
Attend to all and each
Namu Amida Butsu.

Let’s focus on the idea of “Attending to all and each.” I want to discuss this theme today.

At the heart of these words lies the essence of what we do after accepting Amida’s invitation, which we can translate as “come as we are.” We must tend to ourselves as part of the whole and recognize others as part of that whole. This is a fundamental teaching of Buddhism: spiritual friendships are essential to our journey. The refuge of the sangha, which is the third jewel of Buddhism, encompasses this entire path. We rely on one another to awaken.

One aspect that draws me to the traditional story of Amida Buddha, the archetypal figure of boundless compassion, is the theme of interdependence.

The mythic Amida Buddha makes a series of vows at the beginning of his bodhisattva career to help all beings attain supreme enlightenment. His compassion is so vast that he pledges not to achieve enlightenment and become a Buddha if even one living being does not awaken.

I cherish this story because it beautifully illustrates how we are all interconnected. To put it plainly: our awakening is dependent on one another. Amida Buddha’s enlightenment depends on our awakening. We need each other to truly wake up.

To further express this idea, I want to share a poem by Saichi, a myokonin from the Shin tradition. Myokonin were often uneducated and straightforward individuals who could convey profound spiritual truths through their words. Saichi, a carver of wooden shoes and a poet, refers to Amida Buddha as Namu Amidabutsu, and for him, there was no distinction between the two names. This poem captures the essence of our discussion.

I’m so happy, I’m so-o happy,
I’m so happy, I’m so-o happy.
Namu Amidabutsu , Namu Amidabutsu,
Namuamidabu comes to Saichi’s rescue,
Saichi rescues Namuamidabu.
That’s something else, don’t you think?

I love how Saichi and Amida rescue one another – there is no hierarchy – only interdependence. The natural outflow of this understanding of interdependence is the attending to all and each. As Emerson has written, “All are needed by each one.” So what does it mean to attend to one another and ourselves?

The English word attend comes from the 14th-century French entendre—to pay attention to stretch toward something or someone, take care of, attend, and be present with or for. At the heart of attending and tending is attention—presence.

The reciprocal invitation to “come as we are” must be more than words. When we respond to the call of Namu Amida Butsu, we extend that same invitation to ourselves, others, and our entire lives, just as they are. We demonstrate our commitment to this invitation through our presence, by showing the courage to engage repeatedly in our lives and in the lives of others. We must be willing to reveal our front and back sides, listening deeply to ourselves and others without judgment. Through this simple act, we support one another.

By accepting this reciprocal invitation and showing up, we express our aspiration to pay attention to what life is right now, in the present moment, rather than wasting energy on how life should be. By embracing all aspects of our lives as they are—including our wounds, which interact with one another—and being there for one another, we can discover the Buddha in our everyday existence. This includes attending to our joy, love, and the aspiration for healing and wholeness, as well as recognizing the many ways these elements manifest. By accepting the invitation to come just as we are, we support another person just as they are. We attend to each other amidst the ever-changing and uniquely intricate process of becoming who we are.

What makes this possible? Something about the way we hold space, the acceptance and compassion we have longed for, unfolds the intricate layers of who we believe we are. These simple words—” come as you are”—carry profound meaning. When we accept this invitation, we experience an opening, a softening of boundaries, and a natural freedom that comes from learning to let go of shame and the belief that we need to be someone other than ourselves to be loved.

This opening, this attentiveness and care for one another, reflects the essence of who we are—our innate Buddha-nature, which emerges from the phrase “come as you are – Namu Amida Butsu.” Here lies the healing energy of nembutsu. In this welcoming space, revealed by the invitation, we find the opportunity to become ourselves in each moment—an awakening, a ripening.

As the poet Rilke expressed,

“All becoming has needed me.”
My looking ripens things, and they
come toward me to meet and be met.”

Our attention, intention, and presence are essential for growth and transformation. They enable us to meet one another as we truly are, rather than through the distorted lens of societal narratives and borrowed stories that have shaped our identities.

So why do we need the Buddha’s invitation to “come as you are”? Many of us seek this reassurance; we need the Buddhas to tell us that it’s okay to be ignorant, wounded, and beautifully imperfect. It is amidst our ordinariness that we find our awakening. As Koyo Kubose Sensei writes, “Every spiritual journey begins in the dark.” In responding to this call, we can release all the narratives about who we are or are not, who we believe we should be, and the burdens of our past actions or inactions.

At the core of everything is this invitation; in a practical sense, anything can serve as a teacher, a bodhisattva. Even darkness and challenges can become Buddhas, guiding us toward awakening. Our complicated lives can also be gifts that lead to enlightenment. We have heard the call, and our initial steps may be tentative and prolonged. The first step is to accept, nurture, and embrace our lives just as they are. However, this acceptance is not passive; it is the opposite.

This form of acceptance does not excuse apathy, nihilism, or harmful behavior. It does not justify an abuser’s actions. Instead, it may involve a heart-wrenching realization that my partner is abusive and that I need to leave, or that I am a perpetrator and need to seek help.

The hardest part is accepting our wounded selves. Whatever we are running from inside needs our attention, intention, and presence; it longs for our compassion. This invitation creates a space where I can nurture my darker and wounded sides, knowing that I am embraced and will never be abandoned just as I am. Because of this understanding, we can finally address what needs attention and begin to embrace our inner wholeness.

Carl Jung once said, “I would rather be whole than good.” This sentiment embodies what it means to reach the Pure Land. We do not go to the Pure Land because we are good; rather, we go because we are whole—whole in the compassion of Amida Buddha. The Pure Land represents all of us gathering in an open field, a place beyond the concepts of good and evil, as described in one of Rumi’s poems. The Pure Land exists beyond these judgments.

As D.T. Suzuki wrote,

“As far as Amida is concerned, he is all love; there is no thought in him of punishing anybody. Such discriminative judgments do not exist within him. He is like the sun in this respect, shining on both the unjust and the just. A sinner comes to the Pure Land with all their sins, or rather, they leave them behind in the world where they belong. When they arrive in the Pure Land, they stand in their nakedness, free from sinful burdens. Karma does not pursue them into the Pure Land.”

When we attend to ourselves and others, we take the journey into all the places we have hidden our suffering and woundedness from view and bring it as an offering to the Buddhas. This tending to one another is not so much a needing someone to go with you or of you needing to go with someone, but it is the knowledge that someone is there, without judgment, waiting for you to return with open arms.

This acceptance leads us toward wholeness, healing, and awakening. As Gyomay Kubose Sensei has taught, acceptance is transcendence; it grants us freedom. This journey toward acceptance is our pilgrimage. I resonate with the words of Philip Chircop:

“On our pilgrimage toward wholeness, in a gentle act of hospitality, we are challenged and invited to name and welcome all the bruised and broken pieces of our marvelous and beautiful story. In the process, we gradually integrate all the different voices within us that compete for attention, learning to love from the unity of voices that we are.”

However, I want to add a word of caution. Many of us were raised, intentionally or unintentionally, to be caretakers. As caretakers, we must be vigilant because we often have a tendency to prioritize others’ feelings while neglecting our own. As Dr. Margaret Paul teaches, avoiding our feelings is a way of avoiding responsibility for them, as we attempt to fill the void of our self-abandonment.

Coming as we are is the first step on our pilgrimage toward wholeness; it is the invitation from Buddha and all Buddhas. By responding to the call of Namu Amida Butsu—come as we are—we begin to cultivate our attention and capacity for presence. Namu Amida Butsu is a call to be truly alive.

At times, I find myself on autopilot, forgetting that I am living a life. This is where regular meditation practice proves beneficial. Cultivating our intention and capacity to be present helps us avoid living merely on the surface of things. As essayist Maria Popova has written, to fully experience life’s journey, we must befriend our attention. Befriending our attention requires intention. However, simple attention is not sufficient. Much of our habitual attention often does not focus on what truly needs healing. Typically, our default attention is not intentional but rather habitual and unconscious, serving a narrative we tell ourselves.

In his book *Naikan*, Gregg Kretch writes: “How often is our attention wasted on judging, criticizing, and correcting others while we neglect to examine and learn from our own lives?” We often use our attention to justify or validate our own narratives. The type of attention we are discussing is intentional, self-reflective, honest, humble, and straightforward—yet not self-centered or self-absorbed. Kretch further states: “Our attention is our life. Shifting our attention opens us to reality and reveals what has always been there.” The process of shifting our habitual attention toward intention and presence is at the core of what we mean by attending and tending. A crucial aspect of this is developing the capacity to hold space within paradox.

Andrew McAlister explores this concept in one of his essays, discussing the coexistence of our woundedness, shame, and self-loathing alongside our essential goodness. Embracing ourselves as we are allows us to hold both of these experiences at the same time.
He writes,

“Something deep in us says we are not good, that we don’t deserve to be good. And yet, the more we practice attending to the depths of us, the more our already given goodness is lavished upon us.
As attention on the mantra (ours would be namu Amida butsu (added)) is deepened, clarified, and focused (thanks to a regular practice) the paradox that woundedness and essential goodness experienced together becomes, over time, resolved.”

This quote reminds me of these lines,

So stop torturing yourself
with all those made-up stories
of who you think you are
and are not, regardless of who
you are or are not, regardless
of what you have done
or have left undone
and enter the gate of boundless compassion.

Come as you are is an invitation for us to tend the garden of our hearts in the refuge of the dharma and the sangha and the boundless compassion of Amida Buddha.

I appreciate this from Jack Kornfield,

“You have in you the seeds of great compassion, the seeds of wisdom and care for others. Meditation then is not to make some special experience, but it is to learn how to tend the garden of the heart and to water the seeds of kindness and presence in your own heart.” 

Namu Amida Butsu.

Let us attend to each other
to our lives.
to all of life,
as it is, as you are
Right here
Right now.
I find such great joy in this.

I want to close with this poem from Saichi.

How fine!
The whole world and vastness of space is Buddha!
And I am in it–

“Namu-Amida-Butsu!”
“

Vesak Day – 2018 Dharma Talk

Posted on by Christopher in amida buddha, Bright Dawn Buddhism, Bright Dawn Way Of Oneness, Buddhism, dharma glimpse, dharma talks, salt lake buddhist, salt lake city buddhist fellowship, Uncategorized

by Kakuyo Sensei,

I would like to welcome everyone to our Hanamatsuri festival today, which is also called Vesak day – where Buddhist of many traditions celebrate the Buddhas appearance into the world – but not just his appearance –

The Buddha was once asked: Are you a god?” “No,” he replied. “Are you a reincarnation of god?” “No,” he replied. “Are you a wizard, then?” “No.” “Well, are you just a man?” “No.” “So what are you?” They asked, being very perplexed at answers. The Buddha simply replied: “I am awake.”

Today we are not only celebrating his birth but also celebrating his awakening and not just his awakening but also his passing away – indeed we are celebrating the whole life of the man we call Buddha – the awakened one.

Together we celebrate the amazing birth of the Buddha, and we are also celebrating our own miraculous birth – the very fact that we are alive is a precious gift – in a meaningful way Vesak day is also a celebration of our miraculous birth -we celebrate the fact of being alive – We celebrate knowing that the Buddha’s birth, and our birth and our awakenings are mutually dependent.

Some may wonder why we celebrate when we do – And I don’t think that it is by accident that Vesak is in the spring – I love the spring –

So -in our front yard is this stick of a peach tree – We planted it late in the season last year, and I was wondering just a week ago if it was even alive, just standing there in its naked stick-ness and then on Wednesday Linnea pointed out its new shy dress of flowers!  Then after that, I started noticing all the flowering trees at the end of our street – how did I not notice them before –

Now no one has any idea of when Shakyamuni was actually born– April or August is unimportant – Vesak is celebrated during Spring allowing nature to be a teacher – to be a poet – During Spring the natural world awakens from its winter sleeping – and the Buddha coming into the world is like the world waking up – many of us understand this, we who were sleepwalking before we found the teachings of the Buddha –  the first exuberant blossoms of spring waking from within the peach tree remind  us of the possibility of our awakening.

This day is also a day to reflect on the miracle of birth itself – we are grateful for the birth of the Buddha and our precious birth – Each of our individual  lives are utterly unique and unrepeatable, and today we can reflect on this fact how precious life is and not just a life to endure, but through the Buddha’s example and teaching  – an “awakened” life be lived in gratitude and joy.

In the Buddhist tradition, our human birth is seen as precious, more valuable than any treasure.   In the Chiggala Sutra, the Buddha speaks of the chances of being born a human being. Those chances, he observes, are infinitesimally small. They are comparable to those of a blind tortoise swimming in an ocean as large as the planet, where an ox’s yoke is afloat on the waves. Every one hundred years, the tortoise surfaces. The chances of being born human are no better than those of the tortoise surfacing with his head in the yoke. Human birth is extremely rare and therefore most precious.

So to put into modern terms instead of an Ox Yoke, let’s say a life preserver – so what are the chances –that our turtle could do just that? Actually, someone has figured that one out – a Dr.  Ali Banazir took the size of all the oceans and the size of the opening of a life preserver and calculated the odds and calculate that they would be about 1 in 7 trillion – and this scenario the ocean is still as glass and there are no winds blowing our life preserver.

Dr. Benazir did not stop there. He wondered about each of us; what were the odds of just our parent’s meeting (I will post the math on our FB page).  To be concise, he found that the odds of your parents just meeting was 1 / 20,000.  Talking to one another is another 1 in 10 and wanting to talk again is also 1 in 10. So the probability of them liking each other enough to have children is about 1 in 400 million – not stopping there, the chance that one sperm carrying ½ of your DNA and that one egg carrying the other half meeting and go to full term…that number is 1 in 400 quadrillions!  But hold on – if we go back in time to all of your ancestors which are about 150,000 generations all with about the same odds that you had to be born – the number works out to be about the 400 Quadrillion number raised to the 150,000 power – that number is a ten followed by 2,640,000 zeros. Think about that for a moment.  All that has happened for us to be here- and we complain about traffic or our neighbor, we worry needlessly about this or that – we try hard to seem special.  You already are. Ten followed by 2,600.00 zeros!

From this simple example of probability, we can see the Buddha’s teachings of interdependence, of all the causes and conditions that have conspired to make you and I – we can see from this what a rare and wonderful gift our births are.  When this really sinks in then we may even ask ourselves the same question Mary Oliver asks in her poem

“The Summer Day,” when she writes,

“what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?”

Vesak Day is a good day to ask ourselves this very question –  “what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?”

Rev. Shelley Fisher of the Reno Buddhist Temple has written:

“Realizing this we can see that our birth is truly a rare and wonderful gift. We have a deep obligation to live this life in mindfulness and Joy and compassion.

So what has finding the dharma mean to you and your life?

All of the events that we contemplate on Vesak day – the Buddha’s birth, awakening, and death all of these events are linked to the Buddha’s message, they are all connected to the result of Shakyamuni Buddha’s search to know himself, and by so doing know each of us.  Tara Brach writes that we learn from each of these events that   “We each have the potential to realize and live from an awakened heart and mind.”  –

And when this happens; we all become Buddha, when we are awakened to our own Buddha nature.

We all become Buddhas – a good question could be what does that mean in an everyday sense?  I want to share a quote that I shared at our last Vesak celebration. That gives us one possible answer that might just ring true for you.  It was written by one of the head priests at the Stone Creek Zen Center = Dojin – she writes the following,

“And today is as good a day as any to deeply thank this person for what he brought to the world. But, today of all days is also a great day to really think about what a Buddha is because what a Buddha is, is not limited to one person.  What Buddha really is, is a moment whenever great wisdom and compassion come together in this world in a thought, or action, in-kind word, a moment of selfless generosity, and helps to free up this world. That’s what Buddha is. What Buddha showing up in this world really is, is when any one of us, or anyone else in this world suddenly remembers how precious we are, and how important all the beings and things around us are, and how we are all so closely connected, and we act or speak or even think from that place.”

 

Washing the Buddha

We are now going to participate in the washing of the Buddha – a tradition practiced on Hanamatsuri – on Vesak day for over a thousand years by Buddhists all over the world. Those who would like to are welcome – there is no expectation that you do. We wash the baby Buddha as a welcoming into our lives and as a representation of the washing away the dust from our eyes, washing away our ignorance to reveal our innate Buddha-nature to give birth to the Buddha within each of us – and to turn our hearts to all sentient beings.

 How to wash the Buddha

How is it done?  First, we approach the table and bow. Then we take the ladle and pour the water over the Buddha three times – representing the washing away of all that which obscures our awareness of our innate Buddha-nature. The first time we say to ourselves, May I eliminate harmful thoughts – the second, may I practice kindness to all beings – and then lastly, may I help awaken all living beings.  Then bow and silently say Namu Amida Butsu.

I will ring the bell three times once – after the last ring you may stand a walk slowly to the table with the water and the Infant Buddha and begin – the rest of us will recite THE Hanamatsuri Aspiration handed out earlier –

Ring the bell three times

Closing

I want to close with the words of Rev Fisher again,

“We celebrate the Buddha’s birthday today.  We remember to be grateful for all that he has taught us – grateful to be born human – this wonderful unrepeatable life, grateful for showing us that we are all connected to each other, grateful to know that we all are born with Buddha nature, and grateful for Amida’s Vow reaching out to all of us, no matter how troubled, no matter how happy – that we may find Joy in life.

 

Namu Amida Butsu.

On Unskillful Means: Cultivating Ignorance

Posted on by Christopher in Buddhism, Buddhist practice, dharma talks, salt lake buddhist, salt lake city buddhist fellowship, Uncategorized

The cause of all pain and suffering is ignorance.
Gautama Buddha

I have been thinking of this lately. About how many of us suffer but we do not know why we suffer, we are ignorant to the real causes and conditions of our suffering.  I have also been thinking of a different kind of ignorance.   It’s funny the things that bring other things more in focus. It was the simple reflection on the sound of the word itself. Mouthing out the word slow, by its syllables, I realized a simple thing, the word Ignore is at the heart of ignorance.

The word ignorance in English is passive, “a lack of knowledge, information or experience.” This kind of ignorance refers more to how we don’t realize our reality is not reality, or that there is no abiding self.  We are ignorant to the inherent emptiness of all things. This kind of ignorance can be as simple as never having heard of the Four Ennobling truths, or a guy name Siddhartha.   But the ignorance I have been thinking of the more active form which takes its energy from the verb; to ignore. This is different from the other ignorance since this ignorance is not passive. One who ignores is one who, “refuse to take notice of or acknowledge; to disregard intentionally.” This active ignorance is different from cultivating a not knowing mindset,  which can be a powerful practice of freeing ourselves of fixed ideas. It is a kind of active, ego preserving ignorance that I have been thinking about.  I was thinking of this because of something I read recently in a book titled, Awakening from the Daydream by David Nichtern, a book about the Buddhist Wheel of life.

In the Buddhist Wheel of life there are the six realms of existence at the hub of the wheel is ignorance; both passive and active.  The more active ignorance is the core aspect, the core mindset found in the Animal realm.  As Chogyam Trungpa’s writes, “The animal realm is associated wit stupidity: that is preferring to play deaf and dumb, preferring to follow the rules of available games rather than re-define them. ” Here we are “ignore” information that would require us to change. We do that alot.  Trungpa goes on to say, [we] completely ignore such possibilities. If somebody attacks you or challenges your clumsiness, your unskilled way of handling a situation, you find a way of justifying yourself, find rational to keep your self-respect. You are not concerned with being truthful as long as your deception can be maintained in front of others.

This is an active ignorance.  But this type of cultivation doesn’t just happen in the animal realm of being but, according to Nichtern,  is also found in the other realms, especially when looked at through the lens of our everyday experience. How does ignorance play out even when we find ourselves in what could be considered one of the god realms? Let’s look at it from an everyday mindset perspective.
For us Westerners, it could be said we live in both of the god realms, we are dancing between them from moment to moment, generation to generation. Most of the things we want we can go to the story a select from 12 different kinds and get immediate satisfaction. We live at a level of wealth and prosperity that most of the world can only dream of. We consider all of this not a gift but a “right”, I have earned this. Traditionally, those in the god realm find themselves there because of good karma and from a small perspective we could think that they have “earned” the right to be there. We do that.  Many Americans see our country, or “way of life” as proof of our social virtue, as if we are somehow special and “exceptional” and deserve our prosperity. And that is not just socially constructed but has seeped into religious thinking, think of the popularity of the “gospel of prosperity” taught in some churches. Far from the homeless, communalist, and agitator that was Jesus.

Being in a god realm frame of mind, we like it, we want to stay in it, we want to freely enjoy it, we don’t want to think of consequences, or it ending, of how it affects others, etc. As Nichtern writes,

“we have to cultivate a certain kind of ignorance, actively ignoring any aspect of our experience that is unsettling or disruptive in mood. “

This is very true when we are faced with our impact on the planet as westerners. It is also true that the cost has been more felt by the poorer nations where we get the raw materials from. Those is the god realm mindset, “cultivate ignorance” by denying global warming, by buying cheap products and ignore the fact that they are produced by child labor or that the children making our jeans work in dangerous and toxic environments. This is also true in the Jealous god realm mindset, where we want what the ‘gods of finance” have and we don’t care if we have to get rich on the backs of others so we can live the high life, live in the realm of the gods above us. We cultivate an ignorance of the other and the suffering, anything that can get in our way of achievement. Maybe the election of 2016 was symptom of living in the jealous god realm too long. Some forms of Ignorance are not passive but active. We want we have and don’t want to lose it. That being said, how are you in your own life cultivating ignorance?  I think in a real way, the reason we are trapped in the endless wandering of samsara is because we are continually cultivating the opposite of  awareness. Each time we turn aways from the teachings that sing to us everyday, when we refuse to see ourselves reflected in the faces of others, when we refuse to open up, or accept things as they are, when we feed every self-justification and machination to get or keep that insubstantial thing that is desperately hoped will give final satisfaction and security, we cultivate ignorance and perpetuate our suffering.

As I look at my life, I realize how much I have cultivated ignorance. I have ignored things that looked me straight in face, and were so close I could feel their breath on my skin…a failing marriage, smoking, a drinking problem, childhood wounding, the fact that what I was doing was re-wounding myself and others. This was true when I spent days or years in the mindset of the Animal realm, I chose not to see but to seek after the distraction of sex or alcohol. Sometimes I think my television watching and Facebook scrolling is how I still cultivate ignorance. Doing so has only given me a first class ticket to spend sometime in the arid environs of the Hungry Ghost realm, or subway ticket to the cold and hot Hell realms of the world’s injustice perpetrated against me. Even with all the Buddhas that were always there waiting for me,  I chose darkness over light, I cultivated ignorance, gloried in it.  But the compassionate light of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas found me. It was the clanking of the six ringed staff (representing the six realms) of Jizo that finally woke me up. …. and still, at times I find myself cultivating ignorance. I don’t want to do this anymore.  As Dogen taught, I am going to seek to know myself to forget myself to be awakened by a myriad of things.

Now my aspiration, my vow is to be like Haya Akegarasu, to dispel ignorance by heeding what he wrote in Shout of Buddha,

“Don’t pass by things you don’t understand as though you didn’t see them at all…. want to see everything.. want to see through the bottom of things,…want to touch everything, to taste everything, to transcend, to enlighten, to embrace everything.”

Yes! I want to embrace everything. Let us free ourselves of ignorance by opening our eyes, our minds and our hearts to everything, having the courage to look into the heart of life, to look into the darkness, to look into the light and not turn away from any of it, to no longer cultivate ignorance and by not doing so wake up.

Boundless: The SLBF Newsletter

Posted on by Christopher in Buddhism, buddhist fellowship, Buddhist practice, nembutsu, salt lake buddhist, salt lake city buddhist fellowship, Shin Buddhism, The Pureland, Uncategorized

Read our latest newsletter by clicking on the Buddha.

Featuring:  An essay by Jennifer Munson on finding her way to the Salt Lake Buddhist Fellowship. Elesha Morris gives us a guided meditation for grounding and gratitude, Myoshin looks at writing haiku as Buddhist practice, plus Buddhist spoken word, and teachings from  Koyo Kubose.

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The Grace of Oneness

Posted on by Christopher in amida buddha, Bright Dawn Buddhism, Bright Dawn Lay Ministry, Bright Dawn Way Of Oneness, Buddhism, buddhist fellowship, Buddhist practice, dharma talks, NASBA, Pure Land, Refuge, salt lake buddhist, salt lake city buddhist fellowship, Shin Buddhism, The Pureland, Uncategorized

“ This realization of oneness. It involves the highest type of communication and respect.  IF your life is realized in the this sense…you would see that the whole world supports you.  You exist because others; everything supports your life.  This totality, this oneness evokes a gratitude and a great joy beyond explanation.” Gyomay Kubose

 

We live a life immersed in grace;  the grace of being supported by all things at all times. We are supported by the solar system, by the sun that continually lights our world and drives the processes that help the earth to give us air to breath, water to drink and food to eat, that helps us to see, We are supported by the smallest things, to the largest. We are supported by microbes and bees that help create the food we eat, and by all the trees that help us breathe.   The bees give us grace every day, the trees give us grace, and there is also the grace given by our ancestors down through long passages of time; so much grace given that is still within in us now.  We are all interdependent and existent in this very moment.  In the midst of our diversity and interdependence we can come to direct realization of Oneness and by doing so we can communicate our respect and gratitude for them, for all of life, for all the gifts which in oneness we have received  and which are unmerited.

 

For me, namu amida butsu is an expression of this oneness and grace, an expression of Buddha-nature.  The Oneness that Gyomay Sensei is writing about in the above quote, is for me personified as Amida Buddha.  Because of Oneness I exist and therefore I exist because of namu amida butsu. This is how I understand the idea among some teachers, that  the nembutsu is simply an expression of gratitude for all that Amida Buddha has done for us. My practice of chanting the nembutsu is a form of the highest form of  communication and respect. Through this practice I cultivate a recognition / realization of Oneness, and all that Oneness does for me every day, and this brings forth the fruit and joy of gratitude.

 

This has tied into something that I have been thinking about  and that is gratitude, gratitude as a form of awakening.  A few years ago I had an experience in the midst of great suffering, where something shifted and I was overwhelmed with an intense gratitude for everything I had experienced and everyone I have ever known, even for just a moment.  I spent hours going through my email list sending out heart felt thank yous to everyone on. I think even companies whose email list I was part of even got a thank you and I am sure a few who received the emails, shook their heads. I called friends, I reached out to as many as I could to share my gratitude for their very existence.   In this space of gratitude, I wept and I laughed.  It was confusing at first because of the amount of tears that fell.  I remember thinking why am crying so hard?  I am  not sad so why am I crying? I realized that for me this is how deep and profound gratitude expresses itself.  Later on, this experience also helped to me realize that for many years I had seen “love” as the highest emotion, the goal of religious practice.  I have had experiences of profound love for all things,  where I loved even the street sign that I was standing under, and yet that night I experienced something even more expansive and sublime than “love”;  I experienced an unbounded gratitude. Writing this now and remembering what it was like, the lines from last week’s report are even more profound  “ We should always be ready to die, able to say, “thank you for everything”.  In some ways, that is what I experienced that night, the “thank you for everything” and remembering it helps me to understand what Gyomay Sensei was teaching.

 

I like what Jeff Wilson,  a Jodo Shin minister has written,  “in Shin Buddhism our main focus is the practice of gratitude. We practice simply to give thanks for what we have received. It’s a small shift in one’s perspective, but when pursued, it can be transformative.”  This came home to me the other night when I was holding my little boy in my arms, he was cuddled against my chest and I was just feeling him breathe and thinking how much I loved him and I just repeated thank you, thank you, thank you and the love I was feeling already, expanded exponentially and was enfolded into an ever expanding gratitude.  I think the cultivation of  gratitude is an important practice because it acts as a catalyst that can expand positive states of consciousness. Cultivating gratitude, by recognizing  and by expressing it, manifests more gratitude and deepens our awareness of Oneness.

 

Namu amida butsu

Namu amida butsu

Namu amida butsu

 

May it be so.

Our Chant and What it Means.

Posted on by Christopher in amida buddha, Buddhism, buddhist fellowship, Buddhist practice, dharma talks, NASBA, nembutsu, salt lake buddhist, salt lake city buddhist fellowship, Uncategorized
We chant a version of the nembutsu which means to keep remember the Buddha.  Here is the chant that we do  every Sunday as a part of our practice and a brief explanation of what it represent? Here it is.
Namu Amitabhaya
Buddhaya
Dharmaya
Shanghaya
Namu Amitabhaya
Buddhaya
Dharmaya
Shanghaya
Namu Namu Amitbhaya
Namu Namu Amitbhaya
The chant traditionally uses Namo which means Homage to, we use the less traditional “namu” which means “to bow” and can also be loosely translated as “to become.” as to become Amitabhaya Buddha who is a Trans-Historical Buddha of Boundless Compassion accepting everyone just as they are, a Buddha of absolute grace. The chant is an aspiration to become like Amitabha Buddha and to demonstrate boundless compassion for all beings. Namu Amida Butsu means I follow/return back to Amida Buddha it is also there to remind us that Amitabha Buddha is there to help us realize our Buddha-Nature and all the Buddhas sing for our awakening.
On a more practical level, we say Namu Amida Butsu, especially after become aware of doing something that reveals our foolishness, lack of compassion, our greed and anger. For me it means, each moment of awareness is a moment to begin again, that I always have a “blank slate” to begin again even right after doing something foolish.  This opens a boundless space of practice and self-compassion, until we come to realize the path of pure surrender.
 I like this straight forward take on reciting Namu Amida Butsu.   Shinran (1173–1263) taught that for most of us, the pursuit of enlightenment is a futile, ego-driven exercise, and that thanks to tariki, or “other power,” or the personification of “Buddha-Nature” within Amida Buddha, we come to understand that we are already enlightened. “We should chant the Nembutsu out of gratitude, because we realize that we are already home home and we’re grateful.
For those of a more traditional or formal perspective here is a link.

We are all Refugees.

Posted on by Christopher in Buddhism, buddhist fellowship, dharma talks, Refuge, salt lake buddhist, salt lake city buddhist fellowship, Uncategorized

Lately the world seems on fire, with mass shootings, mass migrations and terrorist attacks.  People are more polarized of late, cultural shifts, deep old wounds are festering and all of these are changing the landscape, the earth seems to be moving under their feet and many are taking refuge in nationalism, bigotry and fear.  The rawness and depth of this really hit home with me, especially when the little refugee boy washed up on the beaches of Turkey.  I have a boy about this age…the image haunted me for days.  What would make a father put his child at risk like that.  A picture of the city his family left was published with the caption, “this is why you put your children on a boat.”  The city the boy was from was destroyed; a city of skeletons, torn and broken homes, some burning, desolate and abandoned streets, the same streets that had heard laughter and music, the buzz and honk of rush hour, bird song and the heart beats of lover, now was a city of the dead, with only the sound of distant mortars, more a mausoleum of lost hopes, and dreams.  Looking at the picture I was reminded of the words of the Buddha, “The world is burning.”   And it is not just from war torn areas, there are refugees everywhere, there are spiritual refugees, spiritually homeless who have homes, spiritually friendless who have friends, those who know where they are at is not “right” that something is missing. It seems we are all looking for refuge, looking for a spiritual home.

Thinking of the small child dead on the beach, I wondered if that was my child, where could I find refuge from the pain, disappointment and impermanence of it all.  Refuge is a condition of being safe or sheltered from pursuit, danger, or trouble, it’s a coming home. But we don’t have to experience the horror that the family from Syrian experienced to ask for or seek refuge.  I have come to realize that as spiritual refugees many of us have wandered through self-help books, careers, relationships, materialism and addictions to find some home, some sort of refuge but only to be disappointed. The Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa explains that anyone who ‘goes for refuge’ must therefore be a ‘refugee’, so that as Buddhists we are ‘refugees from conditioned existence.”

As I have keep going on our journey I have found it, and it has always been waiting for me in the Buddha, the Dharma and the sangha, it was like coming home. I think this makes sense since we go to refuge saraṇa-gamana which in Pali could be translated as “coming home” we come home to the Buddha, the Dharma and the sangha.

It is my hope that faced with such suffering as the refugees from Syria, I could still find my refuge by taking refuge in the Buddha, in the fact of his Awakening: and the three jewels, placing trust that he actually awakened to the truth, that he did so by cultivating qualities that we too can cultivate. That through my understanding of impermanence and the compassion of the Buddha, that awakening can be my ultimate refuge.”

May it be so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be Your Own Guru?

Posted on by Christopher in Buddhism, buddhist fellowship, Buddhist practice, salt lake buddhist, salt lake city, salt lake city buddhist fellowship, Uncategorized

from a  Blog post by Jaffe Cole

I have always wondered about this quote from the Pali Cannon, a famous quote by the Buddha, used by many a rugged american individualist, those mindfulness practicers that follow a more “up by your bootstraps”  kind of Buddhism.  I like the context in which Jaffe Cole puts the quote.

” A common cliche we often hear today is to follow nobody but yourself. We are our own gurus, our own masters. We don’t need teachers or anybody to show us the way. We are the Way!

This advice is often bolstered with this (in)famous quote from the Buddha:

Therefore, Ānanda, be islands unto yourselves, refuges unto yourselves, seeking no external refuge…

Modern lingo pegs it as “Be your own refuge”. Or something like that. But let’s quote the whole text, which comes from the Buddha’s Mahaparinibbana Sutta:

Therefore, Ānanda, be islands unto yourselves, refuges unto yourselves, seeking no external refuge; with the Dhamma as your island, the Dhamma as your refuge, seeking no other refuge.

The Buddha actually advocates taking the dhamma as our refuge. The dhamma includes the sangha (and the Buddha), so rather than this quote pointing to a arrogant attitude of “I know what’s best for me”, it rather points to a modest accepting of the Triple Gem as the guiding light in our lives. The Buddha never intended for everybody to just go out and read a few books and then make up their own paths, which is what “spirituality” primarily consists of today.

Moreover, consider the context in which this sutta was spoken. Was he preaching to locals in a village? Was this shouted from the proverbial rooftops? Obviously not. He was speaking to his most advanced and dearest disciples, almost all of who were already arahants themselves. In other words, this is not advice that the Buddha would dish out to “worldlings” like us. He might tell us to take the dhamma as a refuge, but I can guarantee he would not tell us to be our own gurus and that we should follow whatever we “feel is right.”

We all follow somebody or something, whether we recognize it or not. We often overestimate our own spiritual attainments. A good sign to know if this is the case to ask yourself how well you’re doing spiritually. If you consider yourself advanced, this is an indication that the opposite is true. Almost none of the saints of any religion have considered themselves advanced. In fact, the contrary is true. Whether Catholic, Buddhist, Hindu, or Muslim — the great spiritual teachers had guides and followed the precepts of their religions until their ends. Furthermore, they were often disillusioned with their own lack of attainments, complaining of sins committed or hearts still unpurified.

We all follow something or somebody. If we think we’re beyond following, then this simply means that we’re following our own feelings and whims, which are unreliable, unstable, and prone to be manipulated by the world.

see original below.

https://purelandway.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/be-your-own-guru/

Faith In Awakening

Posted on by Christopher in Uncategorized

I have heard some say that there is no faith in Buddhism, that Buddhism is a completely rational philosophy.  I think many times when we hear this we need to take a step back.  Buddhism does not ask for the blind faith of many religions, at the same time faith is an integral part of practice. In the Pure Land tradition this is embraced.  Here is a good meditation on the role of faith and practice. Enjoy.

from Tricycle Magazine –  Thanissaro Bhikkhu

THE BUDDHA NEVER PLACED unconditional demands on anyone’s faith. For people from a culture where the dominant religions do make such demands, this is one of Buddhism’s most attractive features. It’s especially appealing to those who—in reaction to the demands of organized religion—embrace the view of scientific empiricism that nothing deserves our trust unless it can be measured against physical data. In this light, the Buddha’s famous instructions to the Kalamas are often read as an invitation to believe, or not, whatever we like.

Don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, “This contemplative is our teacher.” When you know for yourselves that “these mental qualities are skillful; these mental qualities are blameless; these mental qualities are praised by the wise; these mental qualities, when adopted and carried out, lead to welfare and to happiness”—then you should enter and remain in them. (Anguttara Nikaya 3.65)

Pointing to this passage, many modern writers have gone so far as to say that faith has no place in the Buddhist tradition, that the proper Buddhist attitude is one of skepticism. But even though the Buddha recommends tolerance and a healthy skepticism toward matters of faith, he also notes a conditional imperative: if you sincerely want to put an end to suffering (that’s the condition) you should take certain things on faith, as working hypotheses, and then test them by following his path of practice. The advice to the Kalamas, in fact, contains the crucial caveat that you must take into account what wise people value.

This caveat gives balance to the Buddha’s advice: just as you shouldn’t give unreserved trust to outside authority, you can’t give unreserved trust to your own logic and feelings if they go against experience and the genuine wisdom of others. As other early discourses make clear, wise people can be recognized by their words and behavior as measured against standards set by the Buddha and his awakened disciples. The proper attitude toward those who meet these standards is faith:

For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher’s message and lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this: “The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I.” (Majjhima Nikaya 70)

Repeatedly the Buddha stated that faith in a teacher is what leads you to learn from that teacher. Faith in the Buddha’s own awakening is a requisite strength for anyone else who wants to attain awakening. As it fosters persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment, this faith can take you all the way to the deathless.

So there’s a tension in the Buddha’s recommendations about faith and empiricism. Few Asian Buddhists I know find the tension uncomfortable, but Western Buddhists—raised in a culture where religion and faith have long been at war with science and empiricism—find it very disconcerting. In my discussions with them, they often try to resolve it in the same ways in which, historically, the tension between Christian faith and scientific empiricism has been resolved in our own culture. Three general positions stand out because they are both common and clearly Western. Consciously or not, they attempt to understand the Buddha’s position on faith and empiricism in a way that can be easily mapped onto the modern Western battle lines between religion and science.

The first interpretation has its roots in the side of Western culture that totally rejects the legitimacy of faith. In this view, the Buddha embodies the Victorian ideal of the heroic agnostic, one who eschewed the childish consolations of faith in favor of a purely scientific method for strengthening one’s own mind. Because his method focused entirely on the present moment, questions of past and future were totally irrelevant to his message. Thus any references to faith in such issues as past karma, future rebirth, or an unconditioned happiness separate from the the senses are later interpolations in the texts, which Buddhist agnostics, following the Buddha’s example, should do their best to reject. The second interpretation has roots in the side of Western culture that has rejected either the specifics of Christian faith or the authority of any organized religion, but has appreciated faith as an essential requirement for mental health. This view presents the Buddha as a hero from the Romantic era, appreciating the subjective value of faith in establishing a sense of wholeness within and interconnectedness without, regardless of what the object of that faith might be. In other words, it doesn’t matter where faith is directed, as long as it’s deeply felt and personally nourishing. Faith in the Buddha’s awakening, in this view, means simply believing that he found what worked for himself, which carries no implications for what will work for you. If you find the teaching on karma and rebirth comforting, fine: believe it. If not, don’t. What’s important is that you relate to your faith in a way that’s emotionally healing, nourishing, and empowering.

read the complete article at 

http://www.tricycle.com/feature/faith-awakening

IN SHIN ‘LISTENING IS BECOMING AWAKENED’ (TAITETSU UNNO)

Posted on by Christopher in amida buddha, nembutsu, Shin Buddhism, The Pureland

‘Even Dewdrops Fall’ – An Interview with Taitetsu Unno’, in:Tricycle, Summer 1995

Tricycle: Can you talk a little bit about how you understand surrender in Buddhist practice?

Taitetsu Unno: In the first place, surrender is a Western religious category. In Buddhism, surrender is at the core of giving up the ego-self; but we don’t use a special term for it, because the whole thrust of Buddhist life revolves around surrender, giving up the ego.

Here there is a cultural difference—I can use the example of the martial arts. In this country, martial arts are described as “self-defense.” In the martial arts in East Asia, the aim is to train oneself to such an extent that there is no “self” to defend. That’s very hard for people to understand. I find the same problem in American Buddhism. For example, recently I read an article in which an American Zen Buddhist described visiting Japan, and I realized that American Buddhism is “psychotherapeutic” Buddhism, whereas in Japan, Buddhism is “faith” Buddhism. The core of faith is surrender, the giving up of the small-minded ego-self.

Tricycle: But how can we learn to surrender the ego-self voluntarily?

Taitetsu Unno: In the Shin Buddhist tradition, as we listen to the teaching we are made to realize that we can never surrender ourselves. Resistance comes from the deepest center of our karmic selves. That’s why the Buddha Amida’s compassion says, “Tai, you don’t have to surrender.” When I hear that, when I understand that I can’t do it because it’s not my nature—that it’s like saying, “Fly to the sky”—then I realize that I don’t have to surrender, yet, naturally and spontaneously, the surrender takes place by virtue of true compassion. This is “other-power” working through “self-power.” But this requires a tremendous struggle. As long as I think I can do it myself, it’s not going to work.

Tricycle: But how can we learn to let go like that more often? I know I can get there in unusual circumstances, but not ordinarily.

Taitetsu Unno: In Shin, the Pure Land tradition, it comes down to listening to the teaching. There is no meditative practice as such. Listening is becoming awakened. I have my own views of things, and Buddhism presents its views. Gradually, my views are displaced by the views that enlightened Buddhist teachers have cultivated for 2,500 years.

Tricycle: Do you think that American Buddhists overemphasize meditation?

Taitetsu Unno: Yes and no. The temple of modern life requires moments of silent meditation, but that’s not the goal of Buddhism. We were in Japan for six months recently, and while there I was reading articles and essays written by Buddhist laypeople and monks. The very distinguished abbot of a huge Zen monastery wrote this little article that said, “In Zen, there are only three things. First, cleaning. Second, chanting. And third, devotion. That’s all.” Many Americans go to Zen hoping to get enlightened, but they don’t want to do the cleaning. It’s very demanding and rigorous. You get up at 3:00 A.M.—and you not only sweep the floor, but you have to mop it. On your knees, you know? And then you have to chant, for an hour in the morning and an hour at night. You can understand why a bright young American boy would say, “What am I wasting my time for? I want to get enlightened.” But enlightenment can be manifested only in the daily chores of cleaning and sweeping and polishing—and chanting and devotion.

Tricycle: And the teaching.

Taitetsu Unno: Oh yes. Some people like to meditate and physically they’re able to, but some people can’t because of health reasons or life situations such as family obligations, economic problems, and so on. That doesn’t make them less of a person or less of a Buddhist, you know?