You Know You Are a Generational Japanese American Buddhist When…

· Your obaachan’s house smells like osenko

· The first thing you do when you go to your obaachan’s house is to Gassho in front of the Obutsudan

· You’re not sure if that church goes by “church” or “temple”

· You thought it was called an Ojuzu, but now it’s called an Onenju

· Three Treasures started with “I put my faith in” …

One of my goals in Shodo, has been to earn that “Black Belt” rank. I worked quickly through my kyu rankings, had

a slight pause during the COVID-19 pandemic and picked up the pace again when we started having classes regularly again. To me, the shodan rank is like the prize at the end of a long, hard journey.

I think most of us will think of family and friends as things we are grateful for, but as I thought more deeply, my list got longer and longer. Soon my list started to become complex and abstract and unexplainable.  To me, this is what is meant by gratitude beyond words. Our Shin Buddhist practice gives us a simple tool to express that gratitude by just saying Namo Amida Butsu.

I recently started taking Shodo classes again and have learned so much more about the Art of Shodo and its connection to Buddhism. Shodo is literally translated as the “way of writing” or the “writing path”.

Finally, I got into a taxi. The driver was a friendly man, who was a little hard to understand because he was wearing a mask and had a thick accent. He tells me he’s from Pakistan and talks the entire cab ride. I just sat in the back, listening and nodding my head and answered with a few “mm-hmms” and “oh wows”. He tells me that his country is changing and that “Greed and Ego destroy the whole world”. Wow, this man understands Buddhism!