Attended the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church service on April 9. In a addition to the regular service, 35-day prayers were said for a member of one of the church’s founding families. This was also the one-year anniversary for my wife’s mother’s death and memorial prayers were said for her. My wife and son both attended.
During Ven. Kenjo Igarashi‘s sermon, he told the story of a modern-day priest in Japan who was publically bemoaning that his temple didn’t have enough members to make it financially viable. Financial viability has been something of a personal concern for me as a member of the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church because a bunch of church maintenance needs have all come due at the same time.
Rev. Igarashi said he read a newspaper article by the priest. Priests in Japan, he explained, have a difficult time, especially in the rural areas where young church members have moved to cities leaving fewer people to care for the church. Rev. Igarashi admitted he couldn’t relate to the troubles of a minister’s life in Japan because he has been preaching in America “for a very long time.” (He left Japan for training in Los Angeles in the 1970s, moved to San Francisco for a period and took over the duties in Sacramento in 1986.)
The priest in Japan was bemoaning that with fewer than a thousand members it is very hard to maintain the church. In reading this, Rev. Igarashi thought about our church. “How many people support the church? Only 20 or 30 people do. So if we were in Japan, it would already [have closed.]”
Rev. Igarashi pointed out that the priest in Japan was not of the Nichiren faith. The priest was finding it very hard to manage with only 100 members, surviving on memorial and funeral services. The priest said he needed a minimum of 300 members.
“This idea is completely different for me because church business is not like ordinary business, about making money,” Rev. Igarashi said. “Most important is faith. We have Nichiren Buddhism faith. Only Nichiren Buddhism faith support temples, not money. If only money supports this church [it would have already closed.] But everyone who attends this church has firm faith and that is why faith maintains our church.”
For Rev. Igarashi, the plight of the priest in Japan is completely foreign.
“Nichiren Shonin gave me this place for my practicing, the chanting and preaching, everything. Nichiren Shonin gave me this place. Therefore, I have to support this temple until I retire. But if I retire I would worry about this church. Some minister told me, ‘Rev. Igarashi do not worry. If you retire you do not care about your church.’ But I’m not [like that] because Nichiren Shonin gave me this place for my practicing.”
Rev. Igarashi underlined that he considers himself a member of the church as well.
Bottom line: “Only religious piety supports our church and keeps up our church and spread Nichiren Buddhism and try to save other people not by ourselves. If you understand the meaning of Nichiren Buddhism, you have to try to teach other people and save their spirit too.”
The effort to save other people, to act beyond one’s one happiness, is the true Nichiren Buddhism, he said.
“If members want to practice Nichiren Buddhism and try to study Nichiren Buddhism and the Lotus Sutra, then we can keep our church,” he said. “Only religious piety support our church, not only money.”