NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID Los Angeles, CA Permit No. 24616 The Way Vol. 63, No. 8 October 2011 Theme: TEMPLE SCHEDULE October 29 9:00am NAD Joint Retreat 30 10:00am Sunday (Discussion Group) 30 11:00am DS Halloween November 6 10:00am Kaikyo-ki/Shotsuki 13 10:00am Family 19 6:00pm Hoonko Gathering 20 10:00am Hoonko/Thanksgiving 27 10:00am Sunday Discussion Group Hoonko Gathering Saturday, November 19, 2011 6:00pm Hoonko/Thanksgiving Sunday, November 20, 2011 10:00am Shinran Shonin, a Buddhist monk in the 13th century in Japan, has been regarded as the founder of Jodo Shinshu. He wrote many writings to expound his teacher, Honen Shonin s teaching, and revived the essence of the original messages of Sakyamuni Buddha. Nowadays, Shinran Shonin is considered to be one of the greatest Buddhist teachers in history. Even though he was a great figure in history, he led an ordinary life just like the rest of us. And most notably, he was the first Buddhist monk who was publicly married to a woman. (Even though there were many Buddhist monks who were married at that time, it was still considered to be a taboo.) He spent most of his life with one woman Eshin, although it is not clear whether or not he married another woman before he met Eshin. According to research, Shinran and Eshin first met each other when they were learning in Honen Shonin s sangha after Shinran left the Buddhist monastery on Mt. Hiei. Eshin is also considered to be a student Shinran and Eshin Rev. Tomoyuki Hasegawa of Honen Shonin s. A few years later, the government cracked down on Honen Shonin s sangha, and Shinran Shonin was stripped of his monkhood, given a secular name, and sent into exile in the Echigo province, more than 270 miles away from Kyoto. Eshin followed him to the place of exile where they started a life of an ordinary married couple, which had a long list of things to be done such as cultivating fields, raising children, and doing household chores. As we experience everyday, family life is not just a bowl of cherries. There are many times of happiness and laughter in family life but it also comes with some troubles. Sometimes there can be disagreements, arguments, and quarrels between a husband and wife. Shinran and Eshin must have gone through such problems in their everyday lives. Also, both Shinran and Eshin were from noble families. They had never experienced ordinary life before they were exiled. Especially Eshin must have never done household duties like washing dishes, washing clothes, and taking care of ba- (Please see SHINRAN, page 3)
Page 2 Betsuin News E-Mail info@hhbt-la.org Chief Administrator, Bishop Ko Yasuhara visits Los Angeles The Chief Administrator of the entire Shinshu Otani-ha (Higashi Honganji) denomination, Bishop Ko Yasuhara visited our North America District from September 14 th through the 19 th. Accompanying him was Rev. Muryo Nakanishi, Assistant Director of the Department of Organizational Affairs that includes the International office. Bishop Yasuhara visited the West Covina and Newport Beach temples during the week and had meetings with their Boards of Directors to inform them of changes made to the Overseas Bylaws. The Betsuin hosted a welcome dinner in their honor on Saturday, September 17 at the Miyako Hotel. Over 50 members from the Betsuin, West Covina, Newport Beach, and Berkeley attended. On Sunday, September 18 th, he presented a special commendation (Please see YASUHARA, page 3) Autumn Ohigan The Autumn Ohigan was held on September 18 th, with a special message by Bishop Ko Yasuhara, Chief Administrator of the Shinshu Otani-ha. A translation of his talk was delivered by Rev. Tomoyuki Hasegawa. Our Autumn Ohigan also included an award ceremony for the Late Bishop Horyu Ito, honoring the overseas work he did on behalf of Higashi Honganji in Los Angeles. The presentation was followed by a short message by Bishop Noriaki Ito on behalf of the North America District. Thank you to Bishop Ko Yasuhara for his enlightening words for this special service. Thank you to Mrs. Makiko Nakasone for chairing service and Toban 1 for providing a delicious curry lunch. We appreciate your support of this year s Autumn Ohigan. Kaikyo-ki & Shotsuki Memorial The Kaikyo-ki Memorial is a special service to honor the departed ministers of Higashi Honganji. It will take place in conjunction with the November Shotsuki held on November 6 th at 10:00am. Please join us in expressing our gratitude to all of the ministers who have served at our Betsuin over the years. Hoonko HOONKO is the memorial service for Shinran Shonin, the founder of our Jodo Shinshu denomination. The literal meaning of HOONKO is a gathering to repay a debt of gratitude. It is, therefore, an occasion to express our appreciation for having been given this opportunity to encounter the Buddha s teaching. According to Higashi Honganji tradition, the memorial date of Shinran Shonin is November 28, 1262. At our temple, HOONKO s (Please see HOONKO, page 3) BABY ANNOUNCEMENTS To Parents Shannon & Catalina, a New Baby Boy Corey Susumu Kamimura Born on August 30, 2011 D*d To Parents Bryan & Chiemi a New Baby Girl Amelia Marika Yamami Born on September 2, 2011 CONGRATULATIONS! Welcome Rev. Bansaka! Hello, everyone. My name is Takafumi Bansaka. I have been assigned as the treasurer of the North America District Office to succeed Rev. Ryoko Osa. I was born on April 24, 1984 (27 years old). My hometown is Horonobe, a town that is located close to Wakkanai, the city on the northern tip of Hokkaido, Japan. It is a very small town with a population of about 2,000. Dairy farming is flourishing there and most of the members of my home temple are dairy farmers. I had lived in the town until finishing high school and moved to Kyoto to enter Otani University, where I majored in Shinshu Studies. After I graduated from the university, I started working at the Honzan of Higashi Honganji. Since July 2011, I have been given an opportunity to work in the North America District. Before starting my assignment, I hadn t had any overseas experience at all, so I was a little nervous when I arrived in the United States, but the staff (Please see BANSAKA, page 5)
(SHINRAN, con t. from page 1) bies because women of nobility never needed to do such chores, so she must have learned the hard way how to do household duties. Furthermore, they had to associate with people who had little education and had to do whatever they had to do just to make a living. Those people were considered to be in the lower socioeconomic class at that time, and the community life must have been a new experience for the couple. I believe Shinran and Eshin had gone through many more troubles in their married life than we experience today. Although their life in exile might have sometimes been very difficult, the experiences must have helped them develop the viewpoint of ordinary people. And through the problems and difficulties they encountered in their daily life, they were able to deepen their appreciation for Amida Buddha s wisdom and compassion. When Shinran Shonin was seeking awakening at the Buddhist monastery on Mt. Hiei, he was frustrated with the orthodox Buddhist teachings at the time because they weren t open to ordinary people (including himself) whose karmic evil was deep and blind passions abound. Then he decided to leave the monastery after the 20 years of vigorous study and finally met the teachings of Honen Shonin, which were truly open to anybody, even to people who suffered from his or her karmic evil. Meeting with Honen Shonin s teachings was like meeting with the true essence of Buddhism for Shinran Shonin. After his exile, he learned to live his Master s teachings through his life with Eshin. Shinran Shonin s viewpoint as an ordinary being made the Buddha s teaching relevant to any of us. As Buddhists, Shinran Shonin and Eshin respected and regarded each other as an embodiment of Bodhisattva. The meaning of the word respect in a Buddhist sense is seeing people as potential buddhas. We describe our fellow followers as the word On Dobo On Dogyo, which means to respect fellow followers as potential buddhas. But we all know that it is not always easy. Through the awareness as an ordinary being whose mind is filled with anger, greed, and ignorance, we can be awakened to the working of Amida. Shinran Shonin and Eshin, and tens of thousands of Shinshu followers paved this path of awakening. No one is excluded from this path because the path is paved on the most solid foundation, which is the realization of true human nature. In one of his works, Shinran Shonin states as follows: When we entrust ourselves to the Tathagata s Primal Vow, we, who are like bits of tile and pebbles, are turned into gold. Peddlers and hunters, who are like stones and tiles and pebbles, are grasped and never abandoned by the Tathagata s light. Know that this comes about solely through true shinjin. We speak of the light that grasps because we are taken into the heart of the Buddha of unhindered light; thus, shinjin is said to be diamond-like. (Collected Works of Shinran, Volume 1) Page 3 Our deepest condolences to the family and relatives of Mrs. Misae Yokoi (85) July 18, 2011 Mr. Edward Omori (64) July 19, 2011 Mrs. Yaeko Owaki (85) August 20, 2011 Ms. Betty Ayako Matsui-Kinoshita (84) August 23, 2011 Mr. Peter Yoshikatsu Mayeda (66) August 23, 2011 Mr. Kisaburo Kodama (88) September 8, 2011 Mr. Ken Fukumoto (68) September 9, 2011 Mrs. Mutsumi Sue Sakamoto (96) September 15, 2011 Namu Amida Butsu (YASUHARA, con t. from page 2) given to those who made outstanding contributions to overseas missionary work to the late Bishop/Rinban Horyu Ito. The ceremony was planned to be held in May at the 11 th Dobo Convention that was canceled due to the tragedy that occurred on March 11 th in Japan. The former Rinban was conferred the title of GON DAISŌJŌ, said to be the highest title that can be received by a minister of our denomination. He was honored along with the late Rev. Chokei Otani, brother of the previous Abbot, Kocho Otani, who spent over 40 years in missionary work in the South America District. Bishop Yasuhara delivered a wonderful and inspirational Dharma talk referring to the late Rinban s contributions. Following the service, Bishop Yasuhara and Rev. Nakanishi met with our Board of Directors to explain the changes to the Bylaws and to talk about our future plans. It is a rare occasion for the Chief Administrator to visit our district. We were most honored that he was able to be here to join us for our Autumn Ohigan.
Page 4 The Buddha Within, the Buddha Without Greg Elliot, Sangha Contributor The other day, two Jehovah s Witnesses came to the door. It was the first such visit since we ve moved to this house. Like most of us, I suppose, I ve had this encounter a few times over the years: two earnest young men in white shirts and ties stand at the door and politely refuse to take no for an answer. Whenever it happens, I wonder: do they have a system? Do they need to hear no a certain number of times before they leave? Are there code words they re looking for? Once, when I was home sick and simply not in the mood, I told the polite young man I was not well, but he ignored that. I finally explained that I was going to throw up on his shoes if I didn t close the door and lie back down. He was still reluctant to leave. This most recent visit, however, was different. Two women stood on my doorstep. The younger of the two, the one who did nearly all the talking, was good looking, well dressed. No white shirt and tie for her. Her companion was older, matronly, more plainly dressed, wearing orthopedic shoes. It seemed a bold, if calculated, move. The younger one was, again, polite but persistent. Her companion, who stood a step or two behind her, was there, I assumed, to act as bodyguard for the younger one. Okay, perhaps bodyguard is too strong a word. Chaperone? The matron bolstered the younger one s argument with a well-placed bible verse or two, but otherwise let her younger companion do all the talking. I kept repeating my mantra, I m happy with the religion I have now. Eventually it worked, and they moved on. I was relieved, but a tad worried something I d never felt for the young men in white shirts and ties. It was a hot day. The matron had looked tired. Had looked, in fact, like she would enjoy nothing better than a chance to sit down, rest those feet of hers, and have a glass of cold water. It wasn t thirty seconds after they d left that a thought occurred to me: shouldn t the Buddhist in me, the compassionate one in me, have offered them exactly that? A chance to get out of the sun, sit for a minute, and have a cold glass of water? Of course doing this would have given them more than a foot in the door, it would no doubt have prolonged the discussion for far longer than I would have liked. It might even have triggered a subscription to The Watchtower in my mailbox. But shouldn t I have done it anyway? At the following Tannisho class, we read an essay from Dr. Nobuo Haneda of Berkeley s The Maida Center of Buddhism. In the essay, titled Two Definitions of Buddhism, Dr. Haneda talks about studying Buddhism vs. experiencing Buddhism. He writes that the first is an objective and academic way of appreciating the Buddha s teaching, while the second is a subjective and experiential way to understand Buddhism. As he puts it, the first is like collecting recipes, while the second is more like actually cooking and eating. Haneda puts it another way: the first Buddhism is like learning about love by reading romantic novels; the second is like actually loving someone. Is that what happened to me while standing at the door with the two Jehovah s Witnesses? Had I been a Buddhist in theory, but not in practice? It s not, after all, like they would have moved in or anything. At least, I don t think so. Dr. Haneda writes in his essay that it s fine for us to study that first version of Buddhism, as long as we don t forget that our goal is to embrace that second version to live not only as a student of Buddha s teachings, but to experience life as a Buddhist. To do otherwise, Haneda tells us, is to mistake reading about love for actually loving. In the same essay, Haneda writes about the difference between learning intellectually that we are all ignorant and understanding our ignorance on a deeply personal level: When we subjectively understand it, we are humbled, he writes. He goes on to make the same point about impermanence: we can accept intellectually that everything (Please see BUDDHA, page 5) Dr. Nobuo Haneda to Speak at North America District Event Dr. Nobuo Haneda of the Maida Center of Buddhism in Berkeley will be the guest speaker of the upcoming North America District Retreat, the opening event of the 8 th Series Retreat program scheduled to be held on Saturday, October 29 th from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm. The theme for this series is Finding Sakyamuni and Shinran in Everyday Life. All temple members are invited to participate. The cost to cover lunch will be $12.00. Dr. Haneda is one of the most popular and engaging speakers on the subject of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. Please contact the temple office for reservations and for more information. F The Eastern Buddhist Society http://web.otani.ac.jp/ebs/index.html ebs@otani.ac.jp Fax: +81-(0)75-431-4400 Subsciribe to The Eastern Buddhist An biannual journal devoted to an open and critical study of Buddhism in all of its aspects, published by The Eastern Buddhist Society Otani University, Japan Annual subscription rate $25.00 Single issue per copy $12.50 Shipping fee included Visit our website for more details SUBMISSION DEADLINE! Submissions for are due the 15th of each month for the following month s issue. Articles and announcements for our December Issue are due November 15th, 2011. Submissions may be subject to printing restrictions and staff approval. Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you!
Page 5 (BUDDHA, cont. from page 4) around us is in a state of change, or we can realize that everything within us our bodies, our minds is also in a state of change. The true Buddhist, Haneda writes, is a person who discovers impermanence in the self. Haneda brings this point home when he writes about the two types of spiritual growth. One is like a snake shedding its skin: only the outside changes. The other is like a cicada shedding its shell, going from a nymph crawling on the ground to a creature that can spread its green wings and fly. Like those cicadas, it s only when we allow Buddhist teachings to change us, only when we see how all that learning relates directly to our own lives, that we can truly be reborn. I still wonder what would have happened had I invited those two women in. Would they have stopped by again? Signed me to a contract? Given me the keys to the local Jehovah s Witnesses temple? I ll never know. But for me to have made the offer would have been a way to live as a Buddhist, instead of simply talking like one. (BANSAKA, cont. from page 2) and members of the Betsuin are so kind that I feel at home here now. The office of the North America District and my apartment are located in the building of the Betsuin, so I ll have plenty of opportunities to see you all such as at morning services or Sunday services. I m studying English now. Though I might not be able to communicate very well, I m trying very hard, so please don t hesitate to speak to me in English. I m still having trouble adjusting myself to the new life here and I might sometimes cause you inconveniences. But I will work as hard as I can. Thank you very much. visit our website at www.hhbt-la.org and like us on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/hhbt.la (HOONKO, cont. from page 2) are observed on the third weekend of November. This year, we will have our Hoonko Gathering, an English-speaking discussion on Saturday, November 19 at 6:00pm with speaker Rev. Nobuko Miyoshi and our Hoonko on Sunday, November 20 at 10:00am. Our guest speaker for the Hoonko will be Rev. Kenjun Kawawata in English and Rev. Takafumi Bansaka in Japanese. We hope that you can join us for this special annual observance. Green Tip Help us save paper and postage by requesting your newsletter online! You can go GREEN by emailing us in the temple office and requesting EMAIL ONLY for future issues of and other temple mailers. EMAIL US at info@hhbt-la.org You can also visit us on the WEB at www.hhbt-la.org Our newsletter and other flyers are also available on our website.