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

2001 May

Transformation and Impermance
by J.K. Hirano

Many things occur in human lives. But, whatever difficulties or sadness that we may have experienced, if we can look upon our lives as being rare and wondrous events, then we will truly have lived. If we are able to realize this realm of gratitude, in which we are able to live-and die-in gassho, then what else could we need? Why were we born into this world? What will become of us after we die? These are things that we will never understand. How foolish it would be for us to live our lives burdened by such thoughts, for they are vain and fruitless, the stuff of our ignorant minds. What a source of anxiety it would be if we had to wait until the moment of death to know whether or not the Buddha would really come to welcome us to the Pure Land. The life of nembutsu is one in which we live our lives together with the Buddha, so that we are constantly protected by the Buddha. No matter what troubles might occur and no matter what incidents might arise, we are protected by the Tathagata and are given the wisdom and power to overcome them all.

Bearer of the Light, Jitsuen Kakehashi  

This is the time of year when we can truly appreciate the idea of transformation and impermanence in our lives. All around us, it is as if the Earth itself calls us to wake up and see true and real life. The flowers bursting forth out of the fallen leaves of autumn. Unless you are a much more conscientious gardener than I and have racked all the leaves from the previous year. Life is born out of the debris of the death that winter brings. The green grasses of Spring, stretch forth from the yellow sod. The Earth understands that in life there is death and life again.

However, we seem to live in a world where permanence is stressed. We try to hold onto our youth, forgetting the knowledge that our age has given us. In our lives we are stressed out by the natural changes to our physical conditions. Shakyamuni Buddha proclaimed that birth, sickness, old age and death were the natural conditions of our lives. If we only focus and hold on to these four sufferings as problems, rather than natural occurrences, we may actually be wasting that which we are so fearful of losing, life itself.

Critics of Buddhism often point to the first noble truth of "Life is suffering" as proof that our teachings are negative and pessimistic. This is an extremely shallow understanding of this truth. While this first truth points out the fact that in Life there is suffering, the other three truths point out a way to alleviate these sufferings. The last truth of the eightfold path, holds that right views and thoughts are essential to alleviate these sufferings.

All of us would like to live a life without sickness. However, I believe this is a unattainable wish, and there is so much we learn from our sickness. As for old age, I find that the older I become, the more I appreciate all that is in my life and as a result of this, that which has come before, are experiences I appreciate all the more. In the passage I began this month's article with, Kakehashi Sensei says, "Many things occur in human lives. But, whatever difficulties or sadness that we may have experienced, if we can look upon our lives as being rare and wondrous events, then we will truly have lived. If we are able to realize this realm of gratitude, in which we are able to live-and die-in gassho, then what else could we need?" This realm of gratitude is the life of Nembutsu. Accepting our lives as it is and appreciating all that it has given us.

When I think of moments in my lives that I cherish. An example of one such moment, was a time when Kacie and Taylor crawled into bed with Cheryl and I. All of us laughing and enjoying being together as a family. If that moment had stopped there, would I have been able to truly enjoy it? In enjoying my new conversations with Taylor as she starts to talk in understandable sentences, isn't it in knowing that these moments are fleeting as my baby becomes a little girl, that I can really appreciate what I have been given? It is the impermanence of these times, moving forward, that I am allowed to appreciate this life I have been given. Shakyamuni Buddha said, "Do not vainly lament, but wonder at the law of transiency...... Do not cherish the unworthy desire that the changeable might become unchanging. Break the bonds of worldly passions and drive them away as you would a viper."

It is because of the moving life force, that I am allowed to appreciate my life. In Japanese there is a word Shoji. It consists of the characters for life and death. It expresses the knowledge that both are one. As something lives, it dies at the same time, moment after moment. Our life is Shoji.

The other day, playing with bubbles with my children, we laughed and enjoyed the beauty of the bubbles. They glowed in the light as they flittered along the wind. Isn't the beauty of these bubbles in their fragile nature, their impermanence? Isn't the beauty of our lives and this life force, in knowing that we are all impermanent? As our lives are transformed moment after moment, living and dying, always embraced in the compassion of Amida Buddha. Let us try not to hold onto that which cannot be held onto. Life and death are one. As the Earth itself teaches us this lesson of birth and death, living and dying, let us live in the realm of gratitude. Appreciating both as essential aspects of who and what we are. This is the life of Nembutsu, Namo Amida Butsu.

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