Good morning everyone.

 I want to thank everyone for attending our first Sunday Dharma school service for the month of April.  Since Friday afternoon and for most of last month, we have had rain, rain and more rain…  I work inside of our Betsuin everyday.  So, I have no problem on rainy days.

 But it will be a nice change to see sunny blue skies again.

 On March 21, I talked about “What does Namo Amida Butsu mean?”  I hope most of you remember the meaning of Namo Amida Butsu.  If you missed coming to church on that day, it is no problem.  Nowadays you can watch our Dharma talks on the Internet. 

But I am a little scared… having my talks recorded on the Internet… because, when someone records my talk on a video, I have to make sure that my tie is ok.  My hair style is ok.  I double check to make sure my face is shaved and my teeth are clean.  I have to make sure that my Black Kesa is even and in the right position.

 And most importantly, I have to make sure that my talk hits the point… Oh, I have to think about many many things... because my video talks may now be kept for over 100 years in our church archives.

 Videos today recorded with digital technology.  The digital movies never lose their color and quality.  So, after I die, still people may watch my talk on their computers and may still correct my English pronunciation.

 Technology is amazing.

 Last Sunday, on March 26, I shared a story about the organ player at the San Fernando Buddhist temple.  I talked about how the “San Fernando Sangha members learned to become more compassionate.  They realized that instead of criticizing and saying we should replace the organist, they worked together to help her”.  I really appreciated them.  They also gave me a nice story to share with our Betsuin Sangha members last week.

 Today, I want to talk about incense and incense burning.  Do you know how many kinds of incense we use?  There is the small fragrant wood pieces, we use for Oshoko, incense offering.  There is the stick incense for keeping incense burning continuously and fine powdered incense, we use for special services in our Jodo Shinshu tradition.

 Do you know why we do Oshoko, incense burning?  Incense burning already existed in the era of the Shakyamuni Buddha in India…

 In India, the weather is humid and hot even more than Japan.  So, it is easy for everyone to perspire.  In the old days, Indian people like people everywhere did not have homes with shower rooms to wash their bodies.  So, when they tried to smell better without washing with water, they would to burn incense in rooms with many people and even put powdered incense on their cloths.

 During the time of Shakyamuni Buddha, incense burning was one of their traditional practices.

 In our Jodo shinshu Buddhism, our incense burning is not to hide bad smells or to create a magical miracle.  Our incense burning is just to show our respect and appreciation for Amida’s teaching and to remind ourselves to have a sincere heart in front of the altar.  Our teaching is not statue worship.  So, it is of no use praying for something in front of the Amida’s statue.

 There are 3 incense burners in our Main Hondo.  Inside of the incense burners we have lots of white ashes left from the incense that we have burned.

 One day, I cleaned up our incense burners.  2 of the incense burners are smaller than the main big one.  The smaller burners can easily be filled with white ashes after a month of many services and they were almost full.  So, I had to reduce the amount of white ashes from those burners. 

 I scooped the white ashes from the burners into a paper cup, but I could not throw it away.

Before I became a minister, I gave no thought to the white ashes, because once the incense burned… it has no use…

But now, I feel that the ash in our incense burners is not just white ashes.  I feel the white ashes contain many memories and feelings of the people who came here to Oshoko… memories and feelings like… pleasure, happiness, sadness and even anger.

Some people may do Oshoko with pleasure and happiness, when they get married or when they get a baby although I do not have a baby yet.  At our wedding ceremonies, Rev. Bob may say “do you take this woman as your wife?”  “Do you take this man as your husband?”  Then the bride and the groom will oshoko.  I know that it is one of the happiest occasions in our lives.

Some people may also do Oshoko with sadness, when they lose someone they love…  At funeral services, families remember someone they have lost…  During the chanting, they will oshoko with tears… in their eyes…

Some people, I think especially, young people may sometimes even do Oshoko with anger.  They may think, “why… do I have to attend the services just because my mom and my dad said, “you should go.”  Isn’t it right?

I feel every Oshoko is special and if the white ashes could… they would tell us many stories.

It may be easy to say “just throw it away.”  If I think the white ashes have no meaning, then the ashes are just garbage.  But if I think the ashes have meaning, they become my Dharma teacher…

In our Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, everyone and everything can be our teachers to realize more about our wonderful Buddhist teachings; we only need to think deeply about something and someone. 

Next week, we have our Hanamatsuri service.  Rev. Kobata is going to be our guest speaker.  So, Rev. Bob and I have no duties next Sunday. 

We just smile and enjoy the day

Today, I may do oshoko with pleasure because, we will have a wonderful guest speaker next Sunday.

Gassho

It may be easy to say “just throw it away.”  If we think the white ashes have no meaning, then the ashes are just garbage.  But if we think the ashes have meaning, they become our Dharma teacher…