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First 3 monthly Sangha meetings held, more scheduled
In the mail
Editorial
Northampton, New York Sanghas help new Boston Sangha
English-Japanese Service Book Available
Reflection and gratitude
Our Own Thoughts.....a place to share our experiences
Information

First 3 monthly Sangha meetings held, more scheduled

How the time has flown, and now Boston Shinshu News is in its second volume! As I think about it, this may be the first time that a newsletter preceded the actual organization it represents. Boston Shinshu Buddhist Sangha began as an idea, and the idea has slowly germinated. About two years ago, when I was searching for a Shin Buddhist sangha in the Boston metro area, I made a call to Rev. Kenjitsu Nakagaki of the New York Buddhist Temple. This call has led to the formation of the Boston sangha of Jodoshinshu Buddhism. At this writing, there have now been three meetings, once per month, at our temporary location, the Sasuga Bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Our search for more permanent quarters has been negotiated, and we will be meeting at the North Prospect Church, right in Porter Square, Cambridge (near Sasuga).

Rev. Ty Unno reports, ìThe monthly Dharma Celebration was held on May 14 with the Rev. Dr. Taitetsu Unno presiding. At the meeting several people expressed their deep appreciation for the formation of the Boston Shinshu Sangha, for they have sorely missed the existence of a Buddhist Temple in the New England area.î

Our deep thanks to all the people who have advised and provided advice, volunteered service, and contributed money. Our next meeting will be on July 17th at the home of Joyce Nishinaga, one of our members who lives in Sudbury, outside of Boston. Rev. Taitetsu Unno, who officiated the Boston Sangha meeting in May, will lead the service. Directions for those travelling to the meeting are enclosed within this newsletter.
 

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Boston Shinshu Buddhist Sangha has published its own Shin Buddhist Chanting Book. In addition, our founder Richard St. Clair has been composing music to poems of Shinran and Honen, which he recently sent to the Monshu of Nishi Honganji (our parent organization) in Japan. He was delighted to receive the following message from his Eminence:

 
ìThank you very much for your letter, chanting books and tape of Shoshinge and Shozomatsu-wasan etc. They are all wonderful and meaningful and are sure to contribute to introducing Shin-Buddhism to [the] western world.  I am glad to know that you have good Dharma-friends, some of them I know very [well]....î
óin Gassho, Ohtani Koshin

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We celebrate the gift of enlightenment offered freely to all beings by Amida Buddha, also known as Amitayus and Amitabha. This is a path called Mahayana or ìGreat Vehicleî Buddhism, and in particular, Jodo-Shinshu, which means the true teaching of the Pure Land way, as laid down by the founder Shinran Shonin (1173-1263) based upon the teaching of Honen Shonin (1132-1212) and the Pure Land teachers of Japan, China and India that preceded them.

Buddhism recognizes four Basic Truths:  Life is suffering, suffering comes through craving, Suffering can be eliminated, and the Dharma is the way to the full elimination of suffering or nirvana (also called enlightenment). The Pure Land, Jodo, is enlightenment itself. As beings caught in delusion and stubborn attachments of all kinds, we are taught through the Dharma about our inability to attain enlightenment by our own efforts. Jodo-Shinshu places complete reliance upon the Buddha, Amida, who was the only Buddha that offered enlightenment to all beings through the agency of trust alone. Amida places no strings on us. If we set aside reliance on our deluded selves and place faith in Amida Buddha, our enlightenment is assured. Trust must be total. Expecting anything to come of our own efforts will only obstruct Amida Buddha from helping us.

Amida Buddha is called the Buddha of Boundless Compassion and Infinite Wisdom, or the Buddha of Eternal Life and Inconceivable Light. To call upon Amida's Name - Namu-Amida-Butsu - with sincerity and singleness of mind is to be given both the gift of  full enlightenment in our next birth and the settled mind of deep assurance and gratitude as we complete this, our last life in the suffering cycle of samsara. This occurs without effort or calculation on our parts. It happens through the extraordinary Original Vow of Amida Buddha, which he made while an ordinary human being countless ages ago. We are not a religion built upon a hierarchy of master-and-disciple. Our single Truth under which we are all equal is the Original Vow of the Buddha, Amida. Ours is a path of trust, not forced belief or superstition; it is a path of quiet grateful surrender, not desperate supplication and ritual; it is a path of trust in one supreme Truth, the Dharma-body, not in a judging and vengeful deity.

Compared with the light of the infinite wisdom of Amida Buddha, we are all foolish deluded beings. Hence, to elevate one or another of us above the rest contradicts our deepest value. We share responsibility toward ourselves and others; we sustain our sangha through free-will acts of gratitude. There is no pressure to join, no pressure to stay.  All are welcome here in an atmosphere of common respect. The Buddha has taught that all beings and all phenomena are interrelated. Buddha Amida's light of compassion shines everywhere on all beings. Once we accept Amida Buddha's offer of enlightenment we will never be forsaken. We do not make pretenses of this gift, nor to we presume upon it. We do not force it on others, nor do we keep it from others. We respect the beliefs and non-beliefs of all persons. Remembering the long hard road that brought us here to shinjin, to this trust in Amida Buddha, we realize that this path is unique for each and every one of us.

NAMO AMIDA BUTSU

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Through a generous seed donation from the Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai founded by Rev. Jehan Numata, Rev. Kenjitsu Nakagaki, minister of the New York Buddhist Temple, is travelling periodically to Boston and offering his experience in forming a Shin sangha in Massachusetts Bay area. ìT.K.î as he is often called (or ìsenseiî), has led the sangha service twice this year, for which we are very grateful. He plans to come to Boston again in September. Further details will appear in the next newsletter.

The Boston group will be the second Jodo-Shinshu sangha in New England, complementing the Northampton Shin Buddhist Sangha in Western Massachusetts under the leadership of Revs. Taitetsu Unno and Alice Unno. Rev. Ty Unno led the sangha service in May.

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English-Japanese Service Book Available

The core of the Shin Buddhist service consisting of Shinran's Shoshinge, Nembutsu-wasan, and the Eko in sheet-music style is now available. The booklet is laid out in simple and clear western music notation, with parallel Japanese (romanized) text. Price $15, includes booklet, demo tape, and shipping. (Canada and Mexico, add $2, other Overseas please add $5). Write to the Editor at the address below, and please make checks payable to Richard St. Clair.

Richard St. Clair


781 Somerville Avenue, no. 2
Somerville, MA 02143 USA

Reflection & gratitude
 

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Our Own Thoughts..... a place to share our experiences

Tough Times

In May of this year I underwent surgery on my neck to correct a ìpinched nerveî. It is why I have not been able to keep up with the newsletter regularly. I missed nearly 3 months of work at my job, and I was literally unable to sit up and work for more than 30 minutes at a time.

Consequently, I was very depressed, barely able to keep my thoughts on the Dharma, at times taking out my depression and anger at the Dharma. But now that I am through the surgery and virtually completely healed, I once again have the luxury of time and good health to reflect upon this situation and what was happening to me.

As a former Dharma teacher said to me, everything is caused by something else: ìThis, therefore that.î By studying the 12-link ìwheel of the Dharmaî, I came face to face with causation itself, and became aware of the impermanence of everything and everyone. It is not a cheerful thing to think about. I would much rather be meditating upon the compassion of Amida Buddha and Shakyamuni Buddhaís wonderful teachings than mourn over the temporary nature of my existence. But impermanence is a fact of life, an inescapable truth.

Going through this elevated degree of suffering in my own particular medical situation I became more appreciative of the teaching of impermanence as a primary truth of the Buddha Dharma. What caused the bone spur in my neck to impact my nerve and cause me such pain? The doctor could not say. Perhaps I was born with it. But it was there, and something caused it. And...thankfully...it was impermanent in a very positive sense of it being corrected by modern medicine. Had I lived in Shinranís or Rennyoís day (or as late as the early half of the 20th century), I could have become an invalid. Should I be thankful for the surgery and its improvement of my albeit impermanent state of health?

There are, I think, two answers to that question. First, yes, I am thankful for the relief of pain by the competent doctors that took my case. But in the grander scale of things, seeing impermanence and the law of cause and effect taught by the Buddha, thankfulness almost seems out of touch with ultimate reality. Should I be thankful to the combination of good and bad karma that caused the suffering and then relieved it? It is hard to answer in the affirmative. But I continue to be thankful just the same.

Thankfulness, after all, is what Shin Buddhism is really about, I think. Gratitude for the compassion and ultimate saving process of what we call Amida Buddha is the opening of the door to us that allows Amida Buddha to transform us, now slowly but later more quickly, into enlightened beings. In a recent book on Buddhism in the USA, one of the Shin ministers writing a chapter characterized the essence of the Nembutsu (Namu Amida Butsu) as, ìThank youî, rather than the more conventional ìI take refugeî. ëThank youí is a welling up in the heart in response to a wonderful gift, while ëI take refugeí indicates more a personal resolve to attain something or be enfolded by a higher power of salvation in the Buddhist sense of the term.

Nevertheless, like Shinran, ìI take refuge in the Buddha of infinite light, the Tathagata of Infinite Life.î And yes, I am grateful as well.
óRichard St. Clair, Editor.
 

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Last modified: 29 January, 1999