Gotan-e “Gathering to Celebrate the Founders Birthday”

“The Buddha’s Wisdom, is like  a  torch on a moonless night.  But do not weep that your Wisdom Eye cannot  see it.   Our life  is  like a ship on the Great Ocean of Birth and Death.  Do not worry about your evil Karma.  Because Amida’s Vow is limitless, how easy my heavy karma is to bear.  Because the Buddha’s Wisdom is boundless, He embraces even those discarded by others.”    Shinran

We find ourselves in a life of uncertainty, life is more precarious than ever before.  Our health, our jobs, our economy and peace of mind are all in jeopardy.   Thankfully because of Shinran Shonin whose birthday we celebrate this month, we are able to receive the teaching of namoamidabutsu.   And through this teaching of namoamidabutsu, we shall be able to live a life where we shall be totally satisfied with what we call the self.  It is to know and experience all that we have taken for granted or never noticed.

This is what is called True Compassion.  True Compassion is manifested in those causes and conditions and together those causes and conditions form a very natural rhythm that identifies and embraces your life.  This is Amida Buddha.

The very focus of True Compassion is you and I.  To be specific, True Compassion is meant to alleviate our blind passions.  Blind passions are that part of us that rejects naturalness, or the Dharma, or another way of saying life and things just as they are. Blind passion is our ego. It is that part of us that keeps telling me that, I should be something else, that life should be another way.

We all have that side of ourselves, the side of self that says, “I should be like…...I wish I had……..I want life to be…….”.    Blind passions are always telling us to be something different to see the world differently.  Shinran points out to us to be true and real to the self.  Amida accepts us in this natural state.  You and I are just right for this moment, for this world that we find ourselves in.  It is to know and experience the very power of truth…or namoamidabutsu.  It is to integrate totally, those causes and conditions.  We shall determine our next moment and that moment shall be just right for you, and for me.

We do not have to be something else, or something different.  It is to know and experience the power of namoamidabutsu.  It is to live the joy of Amida’s great Compassionate heart.  To know and experience this life as being just right for you, just right for me, and to accept this world just as it is, is to live a life of True Compassion.

Next month we celebrate the birth of our founder Shinran Shonin, we are truly grateful that we have such an excellent teaching that embraces us, just as we are. 

Namoamidabutsu,

Rev. Hosei Shinseki