Attended Sunday service at 祥栄山円教寺 Shoeizan Enkyoji Buddhist Temple of Rochester (website, Facebook). This was my second Sunday service. I also attended Tuesday and Thursday evening Shodaigyo services and Dharma meetings.
One of the most interesting aspects of the Rochester Sangha is the youthful enthusiasm that permeates all of its activities. To underscore this we had a toddler and his infant sister attend. And these are just two of the congregation’s latest additions. Shami Kanyu 観涌 Kroll has a newborn and another lay leader recently learned he will soon be a father. The temple has plans to provide a nursery in the adjacent Jisso-Kai Dojo.
In Sacramento I’m one of the younger members at 66 years of age. It’s inspiring to see so many people with so much life ahead of them embracing the teachings of Nichiren and the Lotus Sutra.
I’ve created a temporary traveling altar in the basement of my father-in-law’s house on a work table next to the furnace using Omandala and Kishimojin amulets that I purchased from Ryusho Jeffus back in 2016. These normally are displayed on my home altar.
I’m told my chanting softly permeates the first-floor living areas, just loud enough to be heard but not so loud that it intrudes. I imagine it something like the smell of breakfast in the morning spreading around the house.
Attended the regular Sunday service at Shoeizan Enkyoji Buddhist Temple of Rochester. This is, I believe, the sixth different Nichiren Shu service I’ve attended. That counts online services performed by Ryusho Jeffus and Ryuoh Faulconer, Seattle, San Jose and, of course, Sacramento. All have been recognizable as belonging to Nichiren Shu and each possesses a different flavor, a different combination of spices.
Rochester is led by Shami Kanyu 観涌 Kroll, the founder and acting minister of 祥栄山円教寺 Shoeizan Enkyoji Buddhist Temple. The enthusiasm that Kanyu adds to the Daimoku during the service is the sort of spice that lifts the spirits of the diner (both person and place) and lingers afterward in a warm glow. The service in Rochester was also my first where Shomyo, the Nichiren Shu hymms, were sung by the whole congregation. This I enjoyed greatly. I also liked the Four Great Vows, in which Kanyu recited in Shindoku (or is it Japanese? I get confused) and the congregation responded in English.
I’m scheduled to be in the Rochester area through the end of January so I’ll have at least one more Sunday and perhaps a Tuesday or Thursday evening Shodaigyo practice as well.
Attended my first Myoshoji Temple online service of the New Year today with Nichiren Shu practitioners from Tennessee, North Carolina and London, England. I’m fortunate to have a Nichiren Shu temple within driving distance of my house, but when there are no services at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church I enjoy the opportunity to practice with Ryusho Jeffus Shonin in Syracuse, New York.
No one with an Internet connection is far from a Nichiren Shu sangha. The Myoshoji Temple calendar lists the services and explains how to connect using the Zoom.us video conferencing software.
This was my third New Year’s service at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. If you don’t normally do much for New Year’s, this is a great tradition to adopt. The year-end service begins at 11pm. After that there’s a quick bite to eat, and then at midnight the church bell is rung 108 times to symbolize the extinguishing of the 108 earthly desires. Following the bell ringing, the New Year’s Day service is held. During this service Ven. Kenjo Igarashi offers purification blessings for all of the members’ home altars.
Last year I had a memorial service for my father and mother. This year I had a memorial service for my stepmother. Today I’m 66 years old and I still haven’t let go of the fact that my parents divorced when I was 9 years old and my father remarried and remained happily married until his death. Ann Hughes wasn’t an evil stepmother. Far from it. She just wasn’t my mother. With the memorial service I honor her place with my father and let go of my resentment. I’ve added a photo of my father and Ann to my side altar where I honor my ancestors.
Today I begin reprinting “A Phrase A Day,” a small book of 31 quotes from Nichiren’s writing paired with explanatory text from Nichiren Shu priests in America in 1986. You can download a PDF copy of the book here.
When first introduced to Nichiren Shonin and the Lotus Sutra and Namu-Myoho-Renge-Kyo, I wondered why such a wonderful teaching was so little-known in America. Now, many many years later, I realize my puzzlement was really naivete exacerbated by my life experiences as a Caucasian male child of Protestant Christians, economically comfortable if not rich, secure in the knowledge that the system will protect my rights.
That was certainly not the experience of the five families of Japanese immigrants and the children of immigrants who formed the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church in 1931 at the height of the Japanese nationalism that eventually led to the War in the Pacific. The Gohonzon Mandala that hangs behind the statue of Nichiren on the altar most likely came from Kokuchūkai (Pillar of the Nation), a Nichirenist ultranationalist group connected to Tanaka Chigaku.
In the 1930s there was no Nichiren Buddhism without Japanese heritage. When World War II came and all of the Japanese in Sacramento were rounded up and shipped to distant camps, there were no church members left behind.
In 1986, when “A Phrase A Day” was published by the Nichiren Shu Overseas Propagation Promotion Association, the focus of propagation remained the descendants of Japanese immigrants.
Rev. Shingaku Oikawa, president of the Nichiren Shu Overseas Propagation Promotion Association, writes in the Preface:
I established Myokakuji Betsuin Temple, a Nichiren Buddhist temple, in San Jose, California, U.S.A. five years ago. At that time, I made several trips to the U.S.A. visiting various Buddhist temples in America, including non-Nichiren temples, in order to grasp the real situation of their activities. I was greatly impressed to see generally beautiful temple buildings in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other cities with ministers engaged in active missionary work. I learned, however, that they had one problem in common: a generation change in membership. Young members hardly understand Japanese. Consequently, more and more of them stay away from Buddhist temples, where Japanese is the means of communication and propagation. Aged, non-English speaking ministers are incapable of attracting young members. As the first- and second-generation members die, there are hardly any young members ready to take their place.
The ropes binding Nichiren Buddhism to Japanese culture and heritage have loosened over the years. In 2015, as part of a reorganization of Nichiren Shu propagation efforts, the headquarters in Tokyo issue guidelines that specified that propagation points (e.g. churches) must “have an open propagation policy towards any person regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation.”
While the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church still celebrates its Japanese heritage with Japanese Food Bazaars and Mochi sales, this Caucasian child of Protestant Christians has never felt in any way less a member of the church. I was welcomed warmly on the first day I attended services, as have other non-Japanese newcomers.
The limit on Nichiren Buddhism’s propagation in 1931 and even in 1986 has been if not removed at least made less limiting. Nichiren Buddhism today is not lessened by its expansion regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation. Nichiren Buddhism today embraces all of the Eternal Shakyamuni’s children. This surely is the ultimate goal of Nichiren Shonin.
Before beginning, Ven. Kenjo Igarashi lit incense and then cleansed his hands in the smoke. After moving the statue of Nichiren he cleansed a large calligraphy brush with the incense smoke and proceeded to dust the statue.The annual cleaning of the altar includes dusting the inside of the Butsudan.
Here’s a video that includes 125 Mandala Gohonzons inscribed by Nichiren Shonin.
Flowers offered for the Dec. 17, 2017, service at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church.Ven. Kenjo Igarashi performed a Bodhi Day service commemorating Prince Siddharha’s becoming the Buddha followed by the monthly Kaji Kito purification and concluding with a memorial service for a relative of a church member. Wasn’t surprising at all that the topic of his lecture was year-end cleaning.
When Rev. Igarashi first became a minister his master would constantly tell him just clean up — clean up the temple, clean up the altar, clean up everything first. That’s how you practice. Chanting the sutra is very important but cleaning the temple, cleaning the altar and cleaning everything is the first practice. That’s why all the time I just clean up everywhere.
When Rev. Igarashi first arrived in Sacramento, it was a tradition that male members of the church would get together monthly to clean the grounds around the temple. But they just complained and complained, and so, little by little, Rev. Igarashi took over the gardening and cleanup of the grounds by himself. One day, long after the tradition of having men clean the grounds was abandoned, a church member commented to Rev. Igarashi that the church had a pretty good gardener and a pretty good janitor.
“So that’s why I’m a pretty good janitor or a gardener than a good minister,” he said, laughing. “That’s alright. It’s just my practice is to clean up everything.”
This isn’t just trash, he explained. It’s a treasure mountain. There is a lot of treasure to be found in cleaning up. That’s why practicing and cleanup is very important.
“Now I am giving you purification — kaji kito. I’m cleaning up your mind and your spirit too, not just the temple,” he said. “I clean up your spirit and mind all the time.”
Rev. Igarashi then told the story of Ksudrapanthaka, one of the Buddha’s disciples. Ksudrapanthaka had joined with his brother, but unlike his brother Ksudrapanthaka just couldn’t remember anything he was taught. Not even the simplest verse. Eventually his brother grew angry and told Ksudrapanthaka to get out of the sangha. Sakyamuni found Ksudrapanthaka outside the monk’s quarters crying and asked him what was wrong. Ksudrapanthaka explained he couldn’t remember anything.
Sakyamuni gave Ksudrapanthaka a broom and told him to just remember “This is broom” as he cleaned up the temple. Ksudrapanthaka cleaned and chanted “This is broom” finally he remembered and developed strong faith. (See this explanation of Ksudrapanthaka’s realization.)
Rev. Igarashi also offered a little Japanese side note explaining why eating Japanese ginger is considered to make you forgetful. It turns out that when Ksudrapanthaka was buried Japanese ginger sprouted atop the grave.
As the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan explains in a Facebook post:
We have a saying in Japan, “You become forgetful if you eat myoga (Japanese ginger).” Do you know why? … A long time ago, one of the Buddha’s disciples was so virtuous that he became enlightened but, at the same time, he was extremely forgetful. Often, he even forgot his own name, so he hung a nameplate around his neck, but he was never able to remember his name for his entire life. After his death, the unknown plant that sprouted from his grave was given the name “myoga,” which means “bearing a name.”
Rev. Igarashi encouraged everyone, “At the end of this year, please clean up your spirit and clean up everything.”
