Good morning
everyone. How are you?
Today is the last
Recently, many
members asked me. “When does Michiko come?”
I said “she will
come on June 2nd”. So, she will be here in only 4 days.
And one member
asked me “You will have wife soon. Now, you have to buy a house”. Then I
screamed “HOUSE?? You know how much that will cost? If I try to get a house
now, I will have a hundred years of payment!”
But
maybe someday…
Do you know that tomorrow
is Memorial Day? So, we will have cemetery services at the odd fellows,
Sacramento Memorial and
Do many of you visit
the Cemetery or the Nokotsudo on Memorial Day?
Sometimes we call
a cemetery service “Hakamairi” or “Gosenzomairi”.
Today I want to talk about Gosenzo. Do you
know the meaning of Gosenzo? It means someone who has already passed away within
your family. In English, it is like an ancestor… but it does not matter if the
person who was younger or older than you when they passed away.
Some of you might have lost a younger
sibling or cousin. Many might have lost your great grand parents, grand parents;
and some of you may have already lost your parents. All of them are your
Gosenzo.
In Buddhism, we
respect and appreciate our Gosenzo.
When we were
children, our eldest Gosenzo might have fed us and played with us and we may
have many good memories of them.
Maybe some of you
took care of your younger Gosenzo. Maybe you might have watched them when they
were babies or maybe you helped them study. They also brought joy and happiness
into your lives.
In remembering our Gosenzo, we have to
realize we cannot exist today without all the efforts of our Gosenzo. We forget
so easily and sometimes we think that…oh I can live by myself. Everyone can
live by themselves.
But it is not right. I can live only by
other people’s help. Also, you can only live by the help of others too.
All of our Gosenzo continue to teach us “It
is important to live every precious day as a full life. We cannot measure our
lifetime… When we consider our Gosenzo, we really realize that life is precious
and we cannot know how long it will be…
On Memorial Day,
our Gosenzo gives us a chance to think and remember again how precious life is.
We have to remember and appreciate our
Gosenzo as long as we live.
If you can please
clean up the head stones and put a flower on your Gosenzo’s
graves in appreciation for all they have done.
Next Sunday is no service here at the Betsuin.
So, we will meet again at the Dharma school picnic on June 12th!
Gassho