With his daughter counting down to midnight, Ven. Kenjo Igarashi gets ready to strike the Sacramento Nichiren Church bell. The bell was struck 108 times as fireworks went off around the neighborhood. Each person attending the service took turns striking the bell.

The bell ringing followed the New Year’s Eve service, and between the New Year’s Eve service and the bell ringing was a meal of buckwheat noodles and tempura.

With the outside temperature in the low 30s, everyone was happy to retreat back into the church after the bell ringing for the New Year’s Day service.

A New Year’s saki toast capped the evening’s activities.

Celebrated the New Year three hours early with the folks at Myoshoji Temple in Charlotte, NC. The short clip above offers a taste of the lengthy bell ringing.

Now I’m off to the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church for the Joya, New Year’s Eve, service followed immediately at midnight by the New Year’s Day service.

Set my computer up in front of my altar and “attended” the Sunday service and Gosho lecture at Myoken-ji in Houston. I recorded the lecture but the sound quality is so bad that it wouldn’t be worthwhile to post. Instead, I’ll post a copy of the New Year’s Gosho here.

New Year’s Gosho

I have received a hundred slabs of steamed rice cake and a basket of fruit. New Year’s Day marks the first day, the first month, the beginning of the year, and the start of spring.1 A person who celebrates this day will accumulate virtue and be loved by all, just as the moon becomes full gradually, moving from west to east,2 and as the sun shines more brightly, traveling from east to west.

First of all, as to the question of where exactly hell and the Buddha exist, one sutra states that hell exists underground, and another sutra says that the Buddha is in the west. Closer examination, however, reveals that both exist in our five-foot body. This must be true because hell is in the heart of a person who inwardly despises his father and disregards his mother. It is like the lotus seed, which contains both blossom and fruit. In the same way, the Buddha dwells within our hearts. For example, flint has the potential to produce fire, and gems have intrinsic value. We ordinary people can see neither our own eyelashes, which are so close, nor the heavens in the distance. Likewise, we do not see that the Buddha exists in our own hearts. You may question how it is that the Buddha can reside within us when our bodies, originating from our parents’ sperm and blood, are the source of the three poisons and the seat of carnal desires. But repeated consideration assures us of the truth of this matter. The pure lotus flower blooms out of the muddy pond, the fragrant sandalwood grows from the soil, the graceful cherry blossoms come forth from trees, the beautiful Yang Kuei-fei was born of a woman of low station, and the moon rises from behind the mountains to shed light on them. Misfortune comes from one’s mouth and ruins one, but fortune comes from one’s heart and makes one worthy of respect.

The sincerity of making offerings to the Lotus Sutra at the beginning of the New Year is like cherry blossoms blooming from trees, a lotus unfolding in a pond, sandalwood leaves unfurling on the Snow Mountains, or the moon beginning to rise. Now Japan, in becoming an enemy of the Lotus Sutra, has invited misfortune from a thousand miles away. In light of this, it is clear that those who now believe in the Lotus Sutra will gather fortune from ten thousand miles away. The shadow is cast by the form, and just as the shadow follows the form, misfortune will befall the country whose people are hostile to the Lotus Sutra. The believers in the Lotus Sutra, on the other hand, are like the sandalwood with its fragrance. I will write you again.

Nichiren

Spent much of the day yesterday helping out with the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church Mochi sale. Specifically, I helped moved the flats of rice from the steamer to the grinders. It was fascinating. Still researching the best ways to cook it. My favorite site so far is The Expat’s Guide to Japan.

Today was billed as a Buddha’s Parinirvana Day service but instead was a year-end Kaji Kito purification service and memorial. The service was followed with a church meeting that continued the discussion started in November about requests from the Nichiren Shu hierarchy in Japan. I will be assisting in drafting a response to send to Japan. In theory this needs to be accomplished before the end of January.

Attended the Myosho-ji online service today and tried out one way of recording the session. With the exception of places where my deskstop takes over the screen momentarily, it works fairly well. The screen capture program Snagit offers a video capture, saving in mp4 format with the option to upload directly to YouTube. Below is the video.

Ryusho Jeffus Shonin also posted this talk on Medium.com. Below is a link to the talk.

Overcome Setbacks

The Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church was founded more than 75 years ago. The church members are honored to have had Ven. Kenjo Igarashi attending to their spiritual needs for 26 years and hope to have him continue to do so for years to come. So you can imagine the reaction when Ven. Kenjo Igarashi told a meeting of church members that new requirements promulgated by the Head Office of Nichiren Shu may force him to resign his position.

On Nov. 4, 2015, the Head Office of Nichiren Shu announced:

As previously announced, according to the Nichiren Shu Bylaw revisions implemented on April 1, 2015, all previous overseas missionary points administered under the district head system are now administered directly by the Head Office of Nichiren Shu and will be known as an “International Propagation Point”. In order to prevent discord between Nichiren Shu policies and international propagation point propagation, the International Section of the Nichiren Shu Head Office has set management regulations for international propagation.

The requirements for incorporation articles and directory of the board of trustees is noncontroversial. What’s troubling Ven. Kenjo Igarashi is the requirement that he, as the Kokusai Fukyoshi of the Sacramento Church, have a contract with the church’s trustees:

Exchange of a written agreement between board of trustees of the international propagation point and the appointed Kokusai Fukyoshi. When a Kokusai Fukyoshi is assigned to more than one international propagation point, agreements must be signed and exchanged by each assigned point.

Complicating this is the fact that Ven. Kenjo Igarashi travels routinely to Chicago and Los Angeles to hold scheduled services for Nichiren Shu followers.

The problem is not so much the idea of a contract but the specific nature of the document requested:

Agreement Conditions
1) Duration
2) Place of Work
3) Duties of Kokusai Fukyoshi
The phrase “An appointed head, assistant or associate Kokusai Fukyoshi must be the religious
leader” must be included in the agreement.
4) Work Hours
5) Work Breaks?
6) Holidays
7) Vacation
8) Salary
9) Salary Payment
10) Leaves of Absence?
11) Termination
12) Confidential Information
13) Agreement Renewal
14) Jurisdiction
15) Consultation

Work hours? Work Breaks? Holidays? Vacation? Ven. Kenjo Igarashi wants nothing to do with this. He became a priest to serve Nichiren Shu followers. He didn’t volunteer to participate in aragyo, a 100-day ascetic practice, five separate times in order to qualify for additional vacation time.

A footnote in the Head Office memorandum suggests the requirements for existing Kokusai Fukyoshi may be less strict:

Regarding the written agreement between the board of trustees and the appointed Kokusai Fukyoshi, please follow the recommended format of this documentation as much as possible. The Head Office understands that there are many cases in an agreement between a temple and Kokusai Fukyoushi. We think the important thing is to exchange a written agreement between the two.

The unanimous consensus of those church members in attendance Sunday was that a way should be found to allow Ven. Kenjo Igarashi to continue to serve the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. The deadline for submitting the required documents is Jan. 30, 2016.

International Propagation Point memo and contract outline

It is always a pleasure to attend Myoshoji services with Ryusho Jeffus Shonin. In fact a large portion of the discussion after the service focused on the value of having trained priests to act as the “good friends” who are necessary to the practice of the Lotus Sutra.

A recording was made of the discussion following the service and if I can get a copy and edit it, I’ll put some of it here. Until then, I’ll just say that I’m very happy to have met so many good friends this year.

Couldn’t resist creating a simple web page with a rain effect and some verses from Chapter 5, The Simile of Herbs.

This is viewed best in Chrome or Firefox. It’s not so good in Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge. Tested on Android phones and tablets and worked as designed.

The web construction inspiration for this comes from Typanus.net Codrops

Attended services online at Myoshoji with Ryusho Jeffus Shonin and a couple of regular sangha members. While I would always rather attend a local service, I really appreciate being able to attend these services.

Following the service, Rev. Ryusho discussed faith and doubt. Next time I’ll remind him to record his talk. I don’t want to put words into his mouth that didn’t come from there so I’ll just talk about my reaction to what he had to say.

In the last year my position on “faith” and in particular what it means to be a Nichiren Buddhist has shifted 180 degrees. For more than 20 years, I believed in a magical power of chanting without hardly any appreciation for what powered the Daimoku and why it was important.

Today I have a much deeper appreciation of the Lotus Sutra and the goal of that sutra:

Śāriputra, know this!
Seeing with the eyes of the Buddha
The living beings of the six regions, I thought:
“They are poor, and devoid of merits and wisdom.
They incessantly suffer because they are taken
To the rough road of birth and death.
They cling to the five desires
Just as a yak loves its tail.
They are occupied with greed and cravings,
And blinded by them.

They do not seek the Buddha who has great power.
They do not seek the Way to eliminate sufferings.
They are deeply attached to wrong views.
They are trying to stop suffering by suffering.”

Chapter 2, Expedients

Eliminating suffering in my life by awakening my inherent enlightenment is the reason for chanting, not getting stuff.

Again from Chapter 2, Expedients:

Know this, Śāriputra!
I once vowed that I would cause
All living beings to become
Exactly as I am.

That old vow of mine
Has now been fulfilled.
I lead all living beings
Into the Way to Buddhahood.