Gan ni shi ku doku        I vow that the virtue of this truth

Byō dō se is-sai            Be given equally to all.

Dō ho’n bo dai shin       May they awaken the bodhi mind

Ō jō an rak-koku            And realize both peace and joy. 

This verse is called the Ekōku or Directing Virtue to All Beings. When we chant, we close with this passage. It can be thought of in two ways. The first as a personal wish or practice. But at a deeper level, we can think of it as the wish of ultimate reality itself. All of us are embedded and embraced within the infinite. This is much like waves whose essence is no different than the ocean itself. We usually live our lives on the surface, judging others when we are all share in this oneness. A oneness that is our birthright, not something that has to be earned. This is true for all beings “just as we are.”

The month of June is recognized as Pride Month.  On June 28, 1969, the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club located in Greenwich Village in New York City.  “On the one-year anniversary of these riots on June 28, 1970, thousands of people marched in the streets of Manhattan from the Stonewall Inn to Central Park in what was then called ‘Christopher Street Liberation Day,’ America’s first gay pride parade. The parade’s official chant was: ‘Say it loud, gay is proud.’”

Buddhism teaches us acceptance and compassion both for others and ourselves. These teachings are not meant as abstract theories but as lived experiences as expressed here by one of an our OCBC Sangha members.

            “Once we are able to find acceptance, it becomes clearer to see how to find appreciation for what is. It is learning this concept from a young age that I believe helped me to eventually find acceptance in my sexuality. As for compassion, when we think of compassion in Buddhism, we often think of showing compassion to others and teachings like Dana come to mind. But it was through learning to have compassion towards others that helped me to learn how to show compassion for myself.”

A Sangha is a place to practice Buddhism with one another.  The more diversity and differences the more of a chance we have to learn from one another and develop a community of harmony.

This reminds me of a famous Zen story. You can clean potatoes one at a time.  For a hundred potatoes this can take a very long time.  And you may throw out the ones that don’t fit what an ideal potato looks like.  But there is another approach.  You take the hundred potatoes and put them all into a vat of water and stir them around. They will bump and scrape into one another. The more irregular the potatoes the better. And within a very short period of time all the potatoes will come out of the water smooth and clean.  The Buddhist Sangha is this tub of potatoes, each cleaning off one another effortlessly, removing all of our judgements and opinions.

This is the responsibility of the Sangha, to support everyone in their practice. This is stated very well in the following from this same Sangha member.

            “I think it is our responsibility as a Sangha to help take some burden off of these members of the community by being clear and explicit that our Temples accept and value their queer identity. No Temple should need to have members of the queer community as part of the Sangha in order for them to vocalize that. And we should not cast this off as a “non-issue” by implying that our Temples are already, and always have been, accepting no matter what. I would like anyone else in the Sangha who makes the brave decision to come out to know ahead of time that they are accepted. We can do this through the outreach efforts we do, through statements of support on our website or during service or through smaller efforts like inclusive language in all Temples’ publications. I think a rainbow wisteria and flag in the Hondo are great ways to be intentionally visible about the Temple’s support of the community.”      

Namuamidabutsu, Rev Jon Turner