When Rev. Igarashi has a big funeral service he invites me to help. Ten minutes before the start of the service I light the candles on the altar and light the charcoal for the powdered incense offering. Then, two minutes before the scheduled start, I strike the church bell, starting slowly and then progressively faster and then progressively slower until I conclude with two quick strikes.

Today’s service was for Masanao Okamoto, the husband of Fusako. Mr. Okamoto is a former president of the church board. His wife is very active in the church. The two met in the Tule Lake internment camp during World War II and were married in 1947. The couple had been married 71 years when Mr. Okamoto died.

The photo above captures Rev. Igarashi in quiet contemplation prior to the service in a small room adjacent to the altar.

Each time I help out at a funeral, Rev. Igarashi tells me the same thing. He doesn’t like funerals. In the 30 years he has been the chief priest at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church he’s done a lot of funerals. More and more often now the services are for men and women whom he has worked with for many years.

When I joined Nichiren Shoshu in 1989 I was given The Liturgy of Nichiren Shoshu booklet. Each day that I practiced I recited the silent prayer:

I pray to erase my negative karma created by my own past causes and to fulfill my wishes in this life and in the future.

And it was this focus on “my wishes” that eventually caused me to stumble and re-evaluate exactly what I thought was the purpose of a Buddhist Practice.

Recently I took up The Bodhicaryāvatāra, Śāntideva’s Guide to the Buddhist Path to Awakening. In the introduction by Kate Crosby and Andrew Skilton is an explanation of Mahāyāna Buddhism from the Bodhipathapradīpa (Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment) by Atiśa (982-1054). Atiśa’s explanation underscores just how superficial is a practice focused on “my wishes.”

Atiśa speaks of three ‘scopes,’ three aspirations which one might have when engaging in spiritual practice. The first and lowest aspiration is that of a person whose goal is purely within the realm of unenlightenment — religion for wealth, fame, or even a favorable future rebirth. This aspiration — if they were honest the aspiration of so many people — is not particularly Buddhist, although at least in its higher concern with future rebirths it is somewhat better than having no spiritual aspiration whatsoever. …

According to Atiśa the second and middling aspiration is that of one who turns his or her back on all concern with future pleasures and future rebirths (with their invariable attendant sufferings) and aims for freedom. The hallmark of this aspiration is renunciation, and the goal is enlightenment, understood as freedom from suffering and rebirth. …

In following this second middling scope the practitioner can attain freedom from rebirth, enlightenment. Such a person is called an arhat, a Worthy One. The goal is held to be a difficult one requiring intensive practice and great insight which will fuel the letting go, the deep renunciation which leads to freedom. Perhaps this was the main concern of serious Buddhist practitioners in the immediate centuries after the death of the Buddha. Yet from the Mahāyāna perspective, no matter how many of their fellows follow it, this is not the highest goal and its aspiration is not the supreme aspiration. There is something higher than simply attaining enlightenment, the state of an arhat, and that is the state of a Buddha himself. What characterizes a Buddha, the Mahāyāna urges, is not just great insight, supreme wisdom, but his (or sometimes her) immense compassion as well. Compassion for others is missing in the description of the second scope which leads to the enlightenment of the arhat. Atiśa adds that those of the third and highest scope wish in every way — even by means of their own sufferings — for the complete destruction of all the sufferings of others. In fact, so long as someone else is suffering the Mahāyāna practitioner cannot attain peace. Superior to the arhat is the bodhisattva, one who vows to attain perfect Buddhahood, the perfection of insight and compassion, for the benefit of all.

No, I’m not suggesting switching to Tibetan Buddhism. I believe that knowing the foundations of Buddhism is essential to knowing the Lotus Sūtra. As Nichiren wrote in Ichidai Shōgyō Tai-i, Outline of All the Holy Teachings of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 81:

The reason for my commentaries on the Four Teachings (Tripitaka, Common, Distinct, and Perfect) and the Four Periods (Flower Garland, Agama, Expanded, and Wisdom) is to help others learn what the Lotus Sūtra is. For one cannot correctly understand the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra without learning the pre-Lotus Sūtras, although one may study the pre-Lotus Sūtras without learning about other Sūtras.

In support of this, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai stated in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, “When attempting to spread various sūtras other than the Lotus Sūtra, the essential part of the teaching will not be lost even if a doctrinal analysis of all the teachings of the Buddha is not rendered. When attempting to spread the Lotus Sūtra, however, the essence of the teaching may be lost if a doctrinal analysis is not made.” It is preached in the Lotus Sūtra (chapter 2, “Expedients”), “Although the Buddhas expound various teachings, it is for the purpose of leading the people into the world of the One Buddha Vehicle.” “Various teachings” here refer to all the pre-Lotus Sūtras. “For the purpose of leading the people into the world of the One Buddha Vehicle” means to expound all the scriptures of Buddhism to reveal the Lotus Sūtra.

Got on Amtrak in Sacramento and took a ride to Oakland to attend the Nichiren Shu service and lecture put on my Rev. Ryuei McCormick. I’m writing this on the train ride back to Sacramento.

I met Ryuei McCormick back when I first switched to Nichiren Shu in 2015. I would attend Sunday services at Myokakuji Betsuin in San Jose occasionally. At the time, Ryuei McCormick was an assistant priest. Now he has his own Sangha in Oakland.

Ryuei McCormick is a scholar monk. Not sure he would agree with me, but that is how I describe his depth of understanding of the foundations of Buddhism. He has written a number of books. Among the ones I have here are Lotus Seeds: The Essence of Nichiren Shu Buddhism, Lotus World: An Illustrated Guide to the Gohonzon, and Lotus in a Sea of Flames, a biography of Nichiren Shonin.

I would take the long drive to San Jose more for his lectures than the actual service. Today’s hour-long lecture following the traditional Nichiren Shu service made me wish it were easier to attend his Oakland sangha events.

The journey isn’t the problem — easy Amtrak to Oakland, half-mile walk and return. Problem is really the conflicting service schedules between Sacramento and Oakland.

Successfully made it from Churchville, NY, to Sacramento, CA, with stops in:

The last mobile altar. (See previous altars here and here.) Of all the places we’ve stayed on this trip, this is the low point. Strongly recommend against staying at the Ramada by Wyndham in Salt Lake City on 1659 West North Temple.

The wife has decided to skip our planned stay in Reno and drive back to Sacramento tomorrow. We’ll save more than $100, which will almost cover what we spent at The Emporium on Bridger in Rock Springs, Wyoming.

While I’ve sometimes considered my wife’s antique shopping on this trip less than helpful, I must admit that I’m really glad I tagged along on this venture.

Here are the two useless novelties that I just couldn’t live without.

The Kitten, which is made of assorted metal parts such as springs, horse shoes, nails and assorted odds and ends, was part of a collection of metal works by a local artist. I didn’t get the name.

The Hedgehog, however, I found out later is a Vintage Hedgehog Ashtray Set of 6 Nesting Ashtrays Metal Walter Bosse Style Mid Century.

Having fun with the variety of lamps on the desks in our hotel rooms. (See Portage, Indiana)

Performed a quiet morning service while the wife slept. We are traveling from Churchville, NY, to Sacramento. We spent the first night in Portage, Indiana. Today we’re traveling to Lincoln, Nebraska.

Les Miserable Indiana sunset

Enjoyed attending Sunday’s Shodaigo service at Shoeizan Enkyoji Buddhist Temple of Rochester.

Last week, Shami Kanyu Kroll commented on my great fortune to have opportunities to practice at home and my home away from home. It is my great fortune, indeed.

Tomorrow, the wife and I leave for Sacramento. We are driving a 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer that belonged to my wife’s parents. Even with the trip across the country, the car will have less than 40,000 miles on it when we give it to our son in Sacramento.

Held a burial service of sorts for my wife’s parents, Richard (April 28 2018) and Mary (April 15, 2016) Buchin. My wife, Mary, and her brother, Robert, each read poems. For my part, I lit two sticks of incense and inserted them in the dirt in front of the cremains. Before reciting the Jiga-Ge verses, I read this excerpt from Nichiren’s Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I,
Pages 56-57:

“As you read and recite the ‘jiga-ge’ verse, you produce 510 golden characters. Each of these characters transforms itself to be the sun, which in turn changes to Śākyamuni Buddha, who emits the rays of bright light shining through the earth, the three evil realms (hell, realm of hungry spirits and that of beasts), the Hell of Incessant Suffering, and to all the directions in the north, south, east, and west. They shine upward to the ‘Heaven of neither Thought nor Non-Thought’ at the top of the realm of non-form looking everywhere for the souls of the departed.”

After completing the Jiga-Ge verses, I chanted Namu-Myoho-Renge Kyo three times.

My wife’s mother was Japanese. She meet and married Richard Buchin in Tokyo in 1950. He was in the Army; she worked as a translator. Neither were Buddhists or particularly religious. Still, one of my favorite aspect of my Buddhist practice is the opportunity to transfer merit to the departed.

I have a traditional memorial tablet for my wife’s mother and a somewhat nontraditional memorial for her father.