Good morning everyone.

 

 I want to thank everyone for attending our 3rd Sunday Dharma school service for the month of May. 

 

 Since last Tuesday, Rev. Bob went to… Golden state Arizona for golfing for 4 days and today he went to Orange county Buddhist church for guest speaking...  He will come back for next Sunday service.

 

Last week, we had one of Rev. Bob’s dearest friends, Rev. Akio Miyaji as our Gotan-ye guest speaker.  He shared both English and Japanese Dharma talks.  They were very good.  And also last Monday night, Rev. Miyaji gave us a wonderful lecture about Buddhism and calligraphy.  It was a very interesting lecture… and about 30 participants enjoyed writing Japanese Calligraphy.

 

 

During the Gotan-ye service, we had Ochigo with 31 students from our 3rd grade Dharma school class.  During the Ochigo, I saw Steven Tanaka who is the son of our former Betsuin president, Mr. Bob Tanaka.  It was amazing to see Steven dressed up in the Ochigo’s Kimono.  I remembered that when I came to Sacramento in 2003, he was only 6 years old.  I have already been here in Sacramento for 3 years…  That is why sometimes I feel that I am getting old…

 

Our Ochigo kids put 2 black dots on their foreheads.  Did you see that?  They are called “Tenjo Mayu”.  I drew the face of an Ochigo.  Please look at my cartoon.  These dots are Tenjo Mayu.  Mayu means eyebrow.  Traditionally, Ochigo kids would shave their eyebrows… and then color their eyebrow cosmetically.  But, you do not have to shave them now…

 

 

 Tenjo means someone who has permission to go up into the altar area.  So, Ochigo can also mean someone who is qualified to learn more about the Buddhist teachings and in being an Ochigo, they are recognized as becoming Buddhist students of the Dharma.

 

Originally, in Japan, 1200 years ago, Japanese nobility groups started to create the Tenjo fashion.  This was during the Heian period in Japan.  In the Heian period, if someone had Tenjo eyebrows it meant that the person was qualified to meet with the emperor.  Very impressive!  So, many people did not have eyebrows.  So, they could look more noble.  Some of your ancestors might have been a noble person, like in this picture.

 

Tenjo Mayu and Ochigo are a part of Japanese culture.  The Buddha Dharma has always accepted many things from the many cultures.  It has become a part of around the world…

 

When we look back on our Buddhist history, it has always been a history of both change and acceptance.  In the time of the Shakyamuni Buddha, many people followed his teachings.  Since most of his followers were farmers, they had to cultivate their fields and work all day to maintain their lives.  So, it was difficult for them to follow the Shakyamuni Buddha’s practice.  After the Shakyamuni Buddha died, Amida’s pure land Buddhism began to spread in India.  It was called Jodo teachings.

 

As the Buddhist teachings spread to countries such as China, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Korea and Japan, the Buddhism accepted even culture and adopted their teachings to each country, so the Dharma could be better understood.  So, that is why there are many kinds of Buddhist teachings.  Some teachings have very hard practices.  Some other teachings would talk of magic and miracles.  Each of them tries to attain perfect peace by their own way…

 

Last week in our Gotan-ye service, Rev. Bob said that our Sacramento Betsuin is the 2nd oldest temple in BCA founded in 1899.  About 100 years ago, many people wanted to have our Jodo Shinshu teaching in the United States.  And so, the Nembutsu Dharma was imported from Japan.   Because of this, our teaching contains much that is culturally Japanese.  But, our Jodo Shinshu teaching is not just for Japanese… it is for everyone who wants to awake a wonderful daily life.

 

Rev. Bob, our ministers’ assistants and I, try always to share right our Jodo Shinshu teaching with everyone.  So, if you have some kind of confusion on our teaching, please do not hesitate to ask anything to us.

 

For our Ochigo kids, now is the time to really start to learn more about our wonderful teachings and we hope they will continue to follow the Dharma path throughout their lives.

 

For all of other Sangha members, please continue to attend Sunday Sangha services from next month in June and enjoy learning more deeply our Jodo Shinshu teaching so that we can share the Amida’s teaching with our friends and family.

 

Now is an exciting time… for now we are beginning to make the change from Japanese Jodo Shinshu teaching to American Jodo Shinshu teaching… the Nembutsu Dharma for people living here in the United States today.  So, let’s continue to learn more about our wonderful Jodo Shinshu teaching together.

 

Gassho

 

 Throughout the centuries, many many people have helped to keep alive our wonderful Jodo Shinshu teaching.  And now is a time to create an understanding of Jodo Shinshu for America.  If we do this, maybe together we can help the world attain perfect peace.