Hiya, How are you? Over here the rainy season is gradually giving way to the full blast of summer. Roshi has been back again in the temple for a couple of days and then flown off to Okinawa, the tropical southern islands of Japan, where some of his supporters are building a new temple. So I’m still looking after things here. Back before the war, this temple owned some rice fields and the rental income kept things running here. In 1945, the land reform movement took away all temple lands and re-distributed them and this temple was closed.
As there’s no regular source of income, I’ve been teaching yoga and English at a few places nearby. Perhaps my favourite is Saiho-ji, a temple about an hour north of here in the old samurai town of Gujo Hachiman. Tada Sensei, the priest, is part of an unbroken family who have cared for the temple for over four hundred years. He already has his two young sons trained up to take over after him, and so it goes on. Japanese Buddhism has many forms and I’ve been lucky enough to experience quite a range (remind me to tell you about the holy mountain I climbed recently that’s never yet been stepped on by a woman, and at the top they dangle you by the heels over a two-hundred foot precipice) but one form that seems particularly benign is the Shin school that Saiho-ji belongs to. They place their trust in a Buddha called Amida who, it is recorded, made a vow that he would not enter the bliss of Buddhahood unless anyone who called his name could share it with him after death. The Shin teachers contrasted the path of Zen, which they called the way of the sages, with their easy way which anyone could enter – all you have to do is call Amida’s name once and you will after you die join him in his pure land. It doesn’t matter if your smart or stupid, healthy or sick or even good or evil. Whatever you have done his vow extends even to you.
You can imagine the impact this sense of salvation has on the present circumstances of people and that perhaps is really the point. You only have to really open yourself once to the underlying compassion in the universe and you can never again be as someone who hasn’t. And also with this teaching there is no downside – it’s not like you go to hell if you don’t call on Amida’s name. The offering is one of pure love. So Saiho-ji has a kindergarten attached to the temple and every week I go up there and teach some yoga and English to the kids (and some adults) and they are very happy to support our temple even though we come from a different school. It’s fascinating for me to be around these children who are brought up with this sense of acceptance and salvation from their earliest days. I must say, the results are impressive and the kids are almost without exception, well-adjusted, delightful and kind.
There’s more but it’ll have to be later. Wishing you a delightful day and a clear and strong sense of that underlying compassion in whatever form is truest for you.
Cheers Daizan