Buddhist Thoughts is the SLC Buddhist Temple newsletter which is mailed to Temple members each month. Here we provide excerpts from archival Buddhist Thoughts.

2000 June

On the Back of Dragonflies
by J.K. Hirano

Tonbo ni noote haru baru to
Ojodo kara no okyaku sama
ichinen buri no okyaku sama.

(Riding on dragonflies.
Our once a year guests are coming from the Pure Land.)

Tonbo yo tonbo aka tonbo
Mukaebi taite machimashoo
Chochin tomoshite mukae massho...

(Dragonfly, dragonfly, red dragonfly,
Lighting the bonfires and paper lanterns,
let's greet our guests....)

Obon no Uta (Song of Obon)

We all have difficulties in this life. I recently read that in Japan last year, there were over 33,000 suicides. In another letter I received, it stated that there were over 2,000 missing children last year. As horrendous as all this may seem. When we hear such statistics, we are able to distance them from ourselves. Suicides and the inexplicable loss of children is usually something that happens to other people. This is the nature of most of our human compassion. It is too difficult and incomprehensible to face these horrendous facts. It is much easier to place them as events that happen somewhere else.

Although death and loss are happening on a daily basis, all around us. When we personally experience the death of a loved one. Our world is transformed, it is one of the most difficult of life's difficulties. In Buddhism it is called Aibetsu riku. (The suffering of separation from loved ones.) When we lose a loved one, it feels as though a part of us has died with them. We are all interconnected, so when a loved one dies, a piece of us goes with them. It is more painful then I can describe in writing. It is something that can only be experienced. Those who do not know what I am talking about are either ignorant or the luckiest people on earth. Yet, in that same vein of logic, that a piece of me dies when my loved one dies, a piece of that loved one remains alive, as I live. Obon is a time to recognize the continuing relationship we have with the dead.

I don't like the idea of bringing closure to unpleasant aspects of our lives. It stinks of pop pseudo psychology. I also don't believe Buddhism and psychology or psychotherapy are the same. Buddhism embraces those who don't fit into the norm, just as much as we embrace those that do. Psychology and psychotherapy try to place us in the norm. Sorry for the side note, there is an important function to psychology and therapy. It's just not the same as Buddhism. Anyway, I don't want to close off the past. I don't want to put an end to the experience of the death of my friends and loved ones. I want to feel them in my lives. I want to awaken my mind to their continuing presence in who and what I am. Don't tell me I need closure. I don't want to forget them and I don't think I will ever get over the pain of losing them. However, as I live with that knowledge, through time, I will learn from the pain and if I remain open, my awareness will allow me to see how they remain a part of my life. This is Obon!

I dance with the dead. They are not ephemeral spirits and globs of ectoplasm swirling about as I dance. The song I began this article with is often sang at many temples during Obon. It is a dreadful song and only adds fuel to excluding most songs from our Buddhist services. It also offends my sensiblility in regard to my relationship with my deceased loved ones. My friends and family are not coming back to visit me just once a year on Obon. And to top it off, riding on the back of dragonflies, particularly red dragonflies. HOW STUPID DO YOU THINK WE ARE! No matter how quaint the imagery, it is a stupid and dangerous notion. How lonely, once a year! My dead family and friends are with me every day. The Pure Land touches my life each and every day, I interact through Namo Amida Butsu. They do not haunt me. They comfort me. I continue to learn from them everyday of my life. As I interact with the world of the living, the dead interact along with me. Although I interact with them on a regular basis. Obon is an opportunity for me once a year, to openly acknowledge, their place in my life.

Our Obon is a wonderful community event. However, it is even more important that we understand the significance for Obon. It is not about dressing up Japanesey or playing up to our Japanese Buddhist heritage. It is not just for the young. It is not just for women. The old should have more dead to dance with then the young. Men have just as many dead friends as women. Do only Japanese die? No Obon is a time for all of us to dance with the dead. What a wonderful time to celebrate their continuing existence in my life. As I dance, I can see my Mom, my Bachan, my dear friends, all continuing to embrace and support me, within the wondrous compassion of Namo Amida Butsu. Please don't hold back, join us, not the hundreds but the thousands of myriads of dancers, alive and dead, who make us who we are. Shall we Dance?! Namo Amida Butsu.

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