Do Not Forget!

K. Ken Fujimoto

There is a lot of energy and excitement for the upcoming Earth Day service and activities to be held on May 3. This is a good thing to see. To have people excited and discussing how to better interact with their environment is a good and important thing. We need everyone to realize that due to the interdependent nature of life, we must look beyond our current place and time. We also need to see how we must make our world a pleasant place to be, not only for ourselves, but for all forms of life. This must not be just for us now, but for all time.

This reality is something that has been important throughout the history of Buddhism. We only need to look at the vows of the Bodhisattva Dharmakara in establishing the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss with its inclusion of the purity of water, sound and air and the harmony of all life to see this. The inclusion of the means to receive life in that land stresses the importance of this concept. These vows were made and fulfilled by that Bodhisattva in becoming Amida Buddha.

However (by now many of you who have gotten used to my articles were probably expecting a “however”) as important as this activity is and as much energy and excitement that it has generated, we must not forget the major service for this month, Gotan-e, the celebration of the life of Shinran Shonin. Shinran dedicated his life to the spread of this teaching of Amida Buddha and of the Pure Land. We need to remember that it is this teaching that makes our Earth Day event special and unique in comparison to other activities being held to observe Earth Day by other groups.

Shinran taught us about Amida, the Buddha of Infinite Life and Unbounded Light. Most people know that the imagery of light and life point to wisdom and compassion. However, they also point to the reality of being unbounded by time (life) and space (light). Amida’s working is not limited by time or space. This is pointing out the reality that our lives are affected by people, things and events while we affect them at the same time. This is something that transcends time and space meaning that it is not limited to the now, but that this now was created by the actions of people and events in the past and will affect people, events and all other forms of life in the future as well. Our interaction with all life will affect us not only in the immediate now, but throughout and beyond our lives.

As Jodo Shinshu Buddhists, with the teaching of the Pure Land and the emphasis of that teaching and life being beyond time and space, the balance and interdependence with our environment, both physical and mental/spiritual, is tantamount. We need to recognize the issues facing us today as being important and we need to learn how to continuously strive to make things better because it is an enormous and endless task. Some may say that we have to do so, “in spite of,” it being an enormous task, but this is not our Jodo Shinshu way. We recognize the enormity and if we do not start, who will?

We must not forget that this teaching has been pointing the reality of interdependence to us for ages of myriads of kalpas and learning more about this teaching and taking the insights given to us by those teachings to learn about ourselves and how deeply we are affected by our world and its condition will give us an even greater appreciation for what we have and use.

This appreciation and how it is manifest is another expression of the Nembutsu. We must learn more about the teachings at every opportunity to make it a real part of our lives. This enables us to see the working of the other-power. To do this is to live in the world of the Nembutsu. We must strive to live in that world collectively and individually. This must become an expression of our life and our gratitude for being able to have that life. This is reason we have our temple and the reason we exist as a Sangha.