The First Woman of Buddhism
We celebrate the Buddha’s birth at Hanamatsuri. He was born Prince Siddhartha on April 8, about 2,500 years ago. But tragically, his mother, Queen Maya, died on April 15, one week after his birth. Likely due to complications from childbirth. His father King Suddhodana was a warrior who was now a single father. Fortunately, Queen Maya had a loving sister named Pajapati, the Buddha’s aunt.
Survey Says …
Many of you will recognize this story as the Blind Men and the Elephant Parable. It is a Parable that is explained in texts from Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism as well as many modern interpretations. I thought that this modern interpretation was applicable to our current state of receiving information that we accept as truth. With easy access to the Internet, news spreads at the speed of light or the click of a mouse.
Finding Buddhism in Shodo (Japanese Calligraphy)
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”.
Running Hot & Cold
As they say, “everybody complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it.” Well, I am one of those people who foolishly tried to do something about it. I would like to share a personal story of my own foolish battles with the weather.
Becoming a Truth Seeker
Seeking the truth about myself is different from pursuing happiness and avoiding unhappiness. If I’m happy or unhappy I tend to view these mental states as absolutes. However, these impressions are not inevitable or absolute. They are projections based on the judgments I make about people and events. By approaching Buddhism at the truth-level, I begin to transform this limited view.
“How” To Find Your Way
Many of us focus only on the destination of insight and awakening. We yearn for teachings and texts, a new set of beliefs. But these teachings, texts and beliefs need to be performed with our bodies not merely comprehended by our minds. We must embody them. They must be self-actualized.
Five Ways to Love Buddhism
I have been thinking this over recently and perhaps these Five Love Languages can also be applied to how we approach Buddhism. Each of us needs to find the best way to connect with the teachings and make them meaningful within our everyday lives. Like so …
Finding the Dharma (Part 2)
As I took a deep dive into Buddhism and began to consider myself a practitioner, I learned those photos of me alone with my children were not reminders of what I didn’t have. Rather, they are the evidence that I have continued to live fully in each moment, witnessing many milestones with my family, experiencing the highs and lows of a human existence. Not everyone is so lucky.
Life in the First Noble Truth
No matter what school of thought, all schools of Buddhism have the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Path. Don’t worry, I am not going to go through each one. I am just going to talk about the First Noble Truth.
Bodhisattva Taxi Driver
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!
Finding the Dharma (Part 1)
There was a time in my life when a simple back-to-school photo would have had me ugly crying in the shower at night from the shame of not having their father there to share in the moment. For days, weeks, months, and even years after my husband unexpectedly passed away, whenever I would show up to places with intact families and the kind of normalcy I would never have again, I felt irreparably broken. I struggled to understand why the universe had dealt me these cards.
In the Rain, You Get Wet
I realized from this story that just being in a Sangha and showing up for services is enough to immerse myself within the teachings. It is not so much what we learn in an academic way but rather what we realize the teachings within our bodies and intuit them with our minds. It takes no real effort. It is as easy and natural as getting wet as we walk in the rain.
A Buddhist Carol
The present. The Now. This is where we want to be, this is where we want to live. As Marley’s ghost revealed to Scrooge, "I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it link by link, yard by yard: I girded it on my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.". Marley was referring to chains that he formed by greed, anger, and delusion. On another path of free will, we can also form a chain of generosity, forgiveness, and understanding.
Rennyo, the Shin Buddhist Superhero!
There are many Superheroes – Captain America, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Superman, you name it. Rennyo (1415–1499), the 8th generation abbot from our founder, Shinran, is a Shin Buddhist superhero. We can only wonder what would Rennyo think if he were alive today?
Sitting With Amida (Part 3)
Once I was confident that Amida Buddha wasn’t a god, but rather a symbol of our human aspirations, I thought about the role of feelings in our spiritual pursuits. In the Everyday Buddhist 13-A course, Reverend Jon Turner used songs as an example to help us wrap our minds around Amida Buddha. He explained that in a song, it isn’t so much what the lyrics say, but the way the music makes us feel.
Our Life of Okagesama
Rev. Marvin Harada, Bishop of Buddhist Churches of America, discusses all the shadows, behind the scenes, that make our everyday lives possible.
I Can’t Believe It’s Not Buddha
Promoting the importance of a quote by attributing to the Buddha is quite common. Bodhipaksa explains the process in this way, “When quotations are anonymous or by people who are no longer well known, it is common for them to be reassigned to more famous figures … I predict that in the distant future all quotes from our era will be attributed to Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein – and of course the Buddha.”
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The Dharma of a Turkey Sandwich
Gratitude is one of the most important cornerstones of a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist life. As Rev. Kenji Akahoshi pointed out in a dharma talk a few years ago, other traditions ask “please,” whereas we say, “thank you.” When life is going great it’s easy to be grateful, but when life is filled with precarity and uncertainty, where the grounds upon which we live shift so rapidly, sometimes it can be easy to forget about all that we receive. What’s worse can often be the feeling of forcing yourself to be grateful. And so, I’d like to share with you a story about how genuine gratitude often springs forth when you least expect it.
Finding Amida (Part 2)
How amazing that each of these scholars and Buddhist leaders passed down teachings that eventually found me-- a white, Catholic drop-out bumbling her way through life in American suburbia? This proved to me that modern Shin Buddhism in the United States is not fossilized at all. It is dynamic and interconnected and incredibly relevant to anyone who is open to listening.