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Volume I, Number 2 Summer 1998
| Hello! And welcome to the second issue of
Boston Shinshu News. The positive response from Shin Buddhists from Japan across North America and to Europe is very heart-warming! Shin Buddhism in America is a century old. Until recent decades it was associated almost exclusively with the culture and descendents of its land of origin, Japan. But lately there has been a surge of interest on a much broader ethnic base worldwide. This is not because Shin Buddhism is being cleverly marketed, but because The Path rings true, and the teachings of Shin Buddhism are being made more widely available. People are starved for spiritual truth, yet - in this desperately competitive world - even the most thoughtful of people rankle at the obsession with sin in traditional religions when faced with a world whose human population has quintupled in a mere century and which stands on the brink of ecological ruin. Shin Buddhism is the quiet Call of Amida Buddha from within each of us, enabling us to admit to our pathetic failings as individuals without the crippling guilt of self-power preoccupation to impede and distract our search for viable and practical solutions to thepressing challenges of life today. May we all grow in the Nembutsu! -- Richard St. Clair, Editor. |
Guest Article: OBON AND FAMILY VALUES
By Rev. Alfred Bloom
| [NOTE: We are pleased to present the following article on the
Japanese Obon festival by Rev. Bloom, author of many books on Shin Buddhism including his landmark work, Shinran's Gospel of Pure Grace. A new book in his honor, Engaged Shin Buddhism (Wisdom Ocean Books) was published this year. Rev. Bloom has written and lectured widely on Shin Buddhism for over three decades.] |
The Obon festival is among the world's most colorful religious and cultural observances. It was instituted as a special celebration in Japan by Prince Shotoku to be held in the Lunar 7th month, 15th day (now our July 15) in commemoration of the ancestors.
The concentric circles of gaily dressed dancers, young and old, rotating around the yagura to the rhythmic beat of the taiko drum and the melody of the ondo music, depicts harmony in the family and community. Everyone moving their arms in graceful gestures, waving their fans in symbolic action, and stepping sinuously one after the other suggest the dynamic teaching of the Flower Garland Sutra that One is All and All is One.
While the Buddhist principle of Universal Harmony seems unrealistic in our fragmented and divided society and world, it is an ideal which challenges us and beckons us in our daily life, and especially so at Obon time. The Mogallana story, which forms the basis of Obon observance, dramatizes for us our indebtedness and obligations to our forebears through spiritual reflection. Mogallana, an ancient Buddhist monk, as a result of his meditations and spiritual insight, received a vision of his mother suffering in the hell of hungry spirits. Moved by his mother's suffering, he consulted with the Buddha and sought a way to release her.
Modern people cannot easily appreciate this ancient story which highlights the mother's selfishness and the violent form of punishment which she was condemned to endure for centuries. Nevertheless, the underlying theme is the son's devotion, concern and compassion for his mother. Consequently, the story reinforces contemporary interest in family values, not simply as political or social reaction to the corruption of society, but as the positive principle that promotes a healthy society and community.
Shin Buddhism, while maintaining family values, also goes beyond the boundaries of the biological family. Shinran said that he never said Nembutsu (the recitation of the name of Amida Buddha) once out of filial piety. He went on to say that in the flow of endless time, we have all been mother, father, brother and sister to each other. He transcended the traditional Confucian biological emphasis on family to the family of humanity common to East-Asian cultures. Those who are closest to us may have a claim on our sentiments and duty. However, according to Shinran, we must never forget our relationship to the whole world of interdependent beings, nor that family values represent a spiritual relationship which promotes not only the harmony of our natural family, but also our community and the world.
As we reflect on the deeper meaning of the Obon festival, let us renew our dedication to the inclusive and universal values of Buddhism which makes the world and all beings our spiritual family.
(Our thanks to Rev. Bloom for the foregoing article. -- Editor)
| [NOTE: My wife, Janice, and I are 'Yard Sale' enthusiasts - we love to go to rummage sales given by people in their front or back yard. Last summer we came across a large one-house yard sale with many books, CDs and VCR tapes, but not much of anything either of us wanted until I came across a hand-made booklet of haiku poems. Being a haiku enthusiast I couldn't resist and asked to buy it. I think I paid a quarter! Inside, however, I found a 1981 newsletter called The Free Center Review, published by the Center of Oriental Studies in New York City and edited by John Brzostoski. The entire issue, the size of Boston Shinshu News, was devoted to a review of an exhibit on the famous Japanese Buddhist temple, Horyu-Ji (Temple of the Exalted Law) given at the Japan House Gallery in New York. On every page of The Free Center Review, I saw the words "Namu Amida Butsu" leaping out at me! This was no routine newsletter. Since this newsletter is untraceable and uncopyrighted, I am delighted to present its text in full for your interest. How amazing and many are the ways the Name of Amida Buddha comes into the minds of people and changes their lives! -- The Editor.] |
"NAMU AMIDA BUTSU
"To begin to praise the serenely exalted art objects in the Horyu-Ji exhibition at Japan House Gallery, we must focus upon points that go to infinity. Japan Society, in its 75th year, is one of those points. Great Praise must go to it. Its staff, like a group of apsaras (celestial musicians) must join the parent organization for these words of congratulation. Then come, (only in the sense of linear sentence structure, not importance) the Japanese themselves, government, historians, and monks. Some are alive now. Some are gone, but they will live forever. The ancient builders, artists, patrons, saints, and nobility get our praises, which are so weak compared to that which they have accomplished. Prince Shotoku Taishi (574-622 AD), shown in the exhibition as images of Namu Butsu, a child reciting mantras, of koyo, showing filial devotion, or of sessho, as young regent, was a prime mover in the rooting of Buddhism in Japan. As a consequence, he must receive our gratitude for this opportunity to view this early Buddhist art from Japan, as well.
"NAMU AMIDA BUTSU
"But it is the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who have made all of this possible. Without their enlightenment, without their wish to save others, there would be nothing to see.
"NAMU AMIDA BUTSU
"Throughout the history of Buddhism, there have been various degrees of difficulty on the paths to Salvation. Words of the Buddha are important. They are sometimes spoken, sometimes memorized, sometimes sung or chanted. They are found in the Sutras and elsewhere. But the Buddha's silence, his gestures in mudras, with hands and fingers, and his existence in the visual arts are equal to scriptures.
"NAMU AMIDA BUTSU
"Horyu-Ji is a three dimensional evocation of the Buddha's realization. Which Buddha? All of them, but certainly Siddhartha Gautama, the teacher known as Shakyamuni, Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, and Maitreya, the Buddha of the future. We cannot have the temple complex in New York City, but we have its spirit. It is amazing that we have been so privileged. The art objects reveal themselves as this living spiritual essence. We can bask in their light, whether sculptures taken from altars in Japan, painted lotus flower screens, masks, ornaments, or the Lotus Sutra painted on a fan!
"NAMU AMIDA BUTSU
"What is seen is other worldly. Yet, at the same time, it is this world of ours. The one we live in. Buddhism is in many ways asking the impossible: perfect yourself to the ultimate perfection. But then it shows us how reasonable this is, by displaying and plunging us into ways toward such perfection, with joy along the path as well! For instance, the Jizo sculpture, through artistic means, including transferal of positive and negative spaces, becomes apparently hollow, pulling us in to experience, not vicariously but directly, that taste of understanding and compassion which usually is attained through prayer and meditation. Elsewhere, the artists do this through line and color, causing us to enter the space of the art. Thus, a special emptiness is all about us, but this voidness of Buddhism is solid, substantial, more real than cement and steel.
"NAMU AMIDA BUTSU
"There is a gem shown repeatedly in this exhibition. There is a mind, a feeling, which is generated also. These both are one, something called the Wishfulfilling Jewel, a jewel-like vision, a gem-like consciousness, which reveals that all that is actual.
"AUM MANI PADME HUM is that mantra which refers to it directly. (Hail the jewel is in the lotus!) This says that this mode of mind is with us always, if we will only perceive it. The only thing necessary to see it, is beauty. As the great monk Kukai said, "When you see Beauty, you see Buddha." And that perception is the jewel and the lotus which itself is beauty and Buddhahood. Since that part of us which is a Buddha-seed can see thus, the Buddhas keep coming, even today through art. To see a Buddha is the Ultimate Scripture, the simplest and widest path, the Mahayana itself. So if we practice seeing beauty, we can utilize the resulting state of mind to achieve Nirvana, or at least, to attain Sukha (bliss).
"NAMU AMIDA BUTSU MAHA MYO KYO
"The Great every growing Wondrous Now! It is that place wherein we all can grasp reality. The art of Horyu-Ji helps us to do this.
"NAMU AMIDA BUTSU
"Certainly the Infinite Light of Amitabha Buddha has come down from his Western Paradise and Sukhavati is now in New York City.
"NAMU AMIDA BUTSU
"NAMU AMIDA BUTSU"
[John Brzostoski, NYC, 1981]
Shin Buddhist Talking Books Now Available
| Several books on Shin Buddhism
are now available in the form of 'talking books.' These include TANNISHO (translated with commentary by Taitetsu Unno), three books by Revs. Ruth Tabrah and Shoji Matsumoto: AJATASATRU - THE STORY OF WHO WE ARE; SHIN SUTRAS TO LIVE BY; and THE NATURAL WAY OF SHIN BUDDHISM. Other books are now in preparation. These books are being distributed through the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii. For price and ordering instructions write to Rev. Alfred Bloom, Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii, 1727 Pali Highway, Honolulu, HI 96813 or email to albloom@aloha.net. |
| Boston Shinshu News
acknowledges with deep gratitude the generous gifts of money, postage, and taping materials from the following people: Ann Cuccia, Alameda, CA Ardith Oakes, Mesa, AZ Revs. Taitetsu and Alice Unno and the Northampton, Massachusetts Shin Buddhist Sangha. |
Our Own Thoughts .....a place to share our experiences
An Unforgettable Experience
This month, on August 11, 1998, I had the great pleasure of seeing a project of mine come to fruition - the premiere performance of a set of songs which I composed in the 'modern classical style' upon some of the wasan of Shinran Shonin. There are three main collections - Jodo Wasan (Poems on the Pure Land), Koso Wasan (Poems on the Patriarchs), and Shozomatsu Wasan (Poems on the Age of Declining Dharma). These are all available in beautiful modern English translation by the Ryukoku University Translation Series and copies are still available through the Bookstore of the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii in Honolulu. The advantage of this translation is not only the English, but the kanji-kana characters of Japanese and their transliteration into 'Romaji,' that is, by using the so-called 'Roman' alphabet common to all West and South European languages.
I chose 16 of the Shozomatsu Wasan to set to music - in particular, the series which Shinran called "The Confession and Lamentation of Gutoku [Shinran]." Gutoku was the nickname he gave himself, meaning "foolish bald-headed one." Accepting the dispensation of Amida Buddha's Vow means accepting our inability to attain nirvana by our own contrivance or effort as well as acknowledging the unsurpassed wisdom and compassion of Amida Buddha, the brightest of bright lights of buddhas everywhere. Called the "easy path," it is actually, as the Pure Land sutras point out, "the hardest to understand." Yet part of our 'understanding' of the easy path is understanding that we cannot understand it, that we are bonbu or "people of ordinary minds." This, I believe, is part of what Shinran meant in the Tannisho by "non-reason is true reason" (one of many ways of translating this). It also throws wide open the Pure Land Way to everyone, regardless of our condition, station in life, or personal attributes.
A major center of music education in the Boston area is the Longy School of Music, which has a degree program as well as a public education and a la carte system for those who simply want to study music. This in turn allows for a fluid relationship with the general community that a conservatory or university finds difficult. The Longy School became the venue for the premiere of my Shinran songs, which I named "The Lamentations of Shinran," with an obvious reference to the "Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah" of the Hebrew Bible (or Christian "Old Testament"). Shinran was a "voice crying in the wilderness," a wilderness of spiritual ignorance and indulgence in petitionary, superstitious practices through cults of all kinds (and "Buddhisms" of all kinds). The poems of Shinran which I selected are a scathing criticism of these distractive practices which Shinran condemned as an obstruction to the working of the great compassion of Amida Buddha. In a period much like Shinran's, we today see a proliferation of cults and occultism, sects old and new, and all sorts of new-age' 'remedies' that present themselves as 'spiritual.' Thus, I felt that these 16 poems represent a wake-up call to Buddhists, and to the general community of humankind.
This Spring, I was asked by the Janus Ensemble, a group of solo singers and instrumentalists, if I could provide them with a musical selection for their Summer 1998 concert series. Instead of reaching into my pile of old music, I was struck with an impulse to set Shinran to music, the first time I had attempted this. In less than 2 weeks, I turned out all 16 songs, driven on by the opportunity to make Shinran vividly available to western ears and minds. I worked very hard rehearsing with the two singers and the 'string quartet' which accompanied them (a string quartet is a traditional Western classical music ensemble consisting of two violins, a viola, and a cello).
I am happy to report that the first performance was a resounding success! The nearly 30 minutes of music was prefaced by a short talk which the ensemble persuaded me to give on my music and what it meant to me. Afterwards there were questions such as "Is Shin Buddhism Shinto?" Fortunately, I also provided printed program notes and the entire text - in the Romanji and English (the music is in Japanese), which notes gave a brief overview of Shin Buddhism and cited recent books by Taitetsu Unno and D.T. Suzuki. It warmed my heart to feel that my music had served as a way for Amida Buddha's Name to enter into the culture and consciousness of Boston. I am currently preparing an English chanting edition of Shinran's Shoshinge and the Nembutsu-Wasan. I will announce its completion at a later date. Namu Amida Butsu.
--Richard St. Clair, Editor
As dew drips |
--Issa
(from Stephen Addiss,
A Haiku Menagerie,
New York, 1994: p. 45)
* * *
Without severing evil passions |
--Zuiken Inagaki
(from Anjin: Zuiken's Sayings,
translated & edited by Zuio H. Inagaki,
Kyoto: 1988, p. 10)
* * *
"The Buddha of Immeasurable Life has 84,000 prominent features;
each feature has 84,000 secondary attributes;
each secondary attribute sends forth 84,000 rays of light;
each ray of light shines out over the worlds of the ten quarters;
and those sentient beings who are mindful of that Buddha
are embraced by that light, never to be abandoned."
--Adapted from The Sutra of Contemplation
on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life,
Ryukoku University Translation Series,
Kyoto, 1984, p. 59
Boston Shinshu News is a publication of the Boston Shinshu Buddhist Sangha, in the Jodo-shinshu lineage of Shinran Shonin.
Please address inquiries, submissions, and requests to be put on the mailing list to:
Richard St. Clair
Editor, Boston Shinshu News
781 Somerville Ave., no. 2
Somerville, MA 02143 USA
(email: shin02143@AOL.com)