Manual
Reverend Koho Takata
I had an opportunity to share the Buddha-Dharma on the occasion of West Kauai Hongwanji Gotan-e service. I shared about what is the true and real benefit and what is perfect peace which I also shared with you at one of Sunday family services and through my article in June, 2004. I also emphasized having a mind of seeking the teachings during my sharing, because this is your religion. As I always keep encouraging you, if you are a Buddhist, you need to know what Buddhism is. If you are a follower of Shinran Shonin, you should know what the teachings are. If your religion is Jodo Shinshu, you should know what kind of teachings it is.
After the sharing, I have indirectly received an interesting comment from one of members of West Kauai Hongwanji. The comment was that if you would like members to reply to the questions such as what is Buddhism, etc., minister should write those answers so that members are able to answer them. What do you think about this comment? When I heard this comment, I felt that I was very sorry for him what he had been listening to the teachings until today.
"Each of you has come to see me, crossing the borders of more than ten provinces at the risk of your life, solely with the intent of asking about the path to birth in the land of bliss. But if you imagine in me some special knowledge of a path to birth other than the Nembutsu or of scriptural writings that teach it, you are greatly mistaken. If that is the case, since there are many eminent scholars in the southern capital of Nara or on Mount Hiei to the north, you would do better to meet with them and inquire fully about the essential for birth." (The Collected Works of Shinran, P. 662)
When I heard the comment for the first time, this saying of Shinran Shonin naturally came to my mind. Although the time, situation, and background is different, I would like to keep holding what Shinran Shonin wanted to say in my mind. I hope you would do the same. In any rate, many people expect that minister prepares answers such as what is Buddhism, what is the difference between Buddhism and Christianity, etc. available for you. However, if you really would like to know about it, why don’t you seek the teachings by yourself? Then, share with your minister and Sangha members. However, if you would like to have those answers as your handy manual to reply when someone ask you, it is totally meaningless. If you need the manual to reply to the questions, visit the Buddhist scholars. You will not need both the temple and the minister. I am not here to give you such a manual.
The teachings are for you and not for someone else. If you truly listen to the teachings, your appreciation to the teachings naturally comes to you and those answers are available for you to reply through your own religious experiences and not through a manual. It comes from beyond those self-calculation, reason, logic, theory, etc. Listening to the teachings does not mean that you listen in your head as your knowledge. It means with your whole body and senses. In case of our religion, answer is not all same. Depend on the person and situation, appreciation to the teachings will be different. This is why it is said that Buddhism has 84,000 teachings. There is no correct or wrong answer. The answer will not be only one, certainly not a manual.
There is a story of "A Nude King". A king buys clothes made of jewels by a swindler. He tells the king only the wise and good people can see the clothes, but ignorant and bad people cannot see the clothes. The king can not see the clothes which bought from the swindler at all. However, the king was pretending to be able to see the clothes so that others do not think that he is ignorant and bad person. He pretends to dress the clothes which dose not actually exists. The king is nude, naturally. Then, he asks to his servants whether they can see the clothes or not. They reply to the king to be able to see the clothes which the king is wearing. Then, the king parades the street. However, as he is not wearing the clothes at all, nobody praise the king’s clothes.
If you are the king of this story, what do you do? Like the king, do you pretend to be a good and wise person by wearing nonexisting clothes, or do you refuse to buy the nonexisting clothes?
Many people misunderstand by donating money to the temple, helping the temple activity, participating the community activity, and so forth, they think that they are good Buddhists and they can return to the Pure Land after their lives end. However, such "good deeds" are not the condition for one to return to the Pure Land. It is just pretending as Buddhists like a good and wise king. If each of you continues to hold the state of NO-DHARMA in your life and those people keep taking a leadership in the temple, Hongwanji Kyodan certainly will not exist in the future. The temple is a place to listen to the teachings of the Buddha. As Shakyamuni Buddha preached at the moment of his death as "Make of yourself a light. Rely upon yourself; do not depend on anyone else", let us always live in the truth of the Dharma and in the practice of the Dharma.
I am truly grateful for the interesting comment for reminding me of importance of realizing my true human nature and further listening to the teachings of the Buddha in my daily life as the basis of true and real life. Let us seriously consider what is the Dharma.
"When you first seek the teaching, you think you are far away from it. But the teaching has already come to you; you are immediately your true self." (Dogen)