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.

I’m prompted to write this after publishing yesterday’s quote from from The Beginnings of Buddhism, which said in part regarding Nichiren and the other Kamakura period sects:

The ordinary man is not required to perform such research for himself: he need only follow the directions of his religious leader. Indeed, in these sects, theoretical study and speculation are forbidden as hindrances to practical faith. (Page 159-160)

To say “theoretical study and speculation are forbidden” overstates the guidelines of faith set down by Nichiren Shōnin.

Each day, during both my morning and evening services, I recite these words from Nichiren’s Shohō Jissō Shō (Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 4 p.79):

“Strive to carry out the two ways of practice and learning. Without practice and learning, Buddhism will cease to exist.”

And in Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3 , Page 2, Nichiren writes:

What is the best way for Buddhists to express their gratitude for the unfathomable kindness that they have received? Mastering Buddhism completely and to be sagacious is the way. How can anyone guide blind persons across a bridge, if he himself is blind? How can a captain, who does not know the direction of the wind, sail his ship to transport many merchants to a mountain of treasure?

But it is true that theoretical study and speculation can be hindrances to practical faith.

In Ueno-dono Gohenji, A Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 119, Nichiren writes:

Some of my disciples pretend to know the details of doctrines. They are mistaken. The odaimoku, Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, is the essence of the Lotus Sūtra. It is like a human being’s spirit. If any other teachings were to be added to the odaimoku, it would be the cause of great trouble. It would be like the Empress marrying two Emperors, or committing adultery. The teachings of the Lotus Sūtra did not spread far enough during the Ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma. This was because these periods were intended for other sūtras.

We are presently living in the Latter Age of Degeneration. The Lotus Sūtra and other sūtras are no longer efficacious in bringing about enlightenment. Only the odaimoku can accomplish this. This is not my arbitrary opinion. It was so-arranged by the Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures, various Buddhas from all over the universe, and numerous great bodhisattvas from beneath the earth such as Superior Practice Bodhisattva.

It is a serious mistake to mix other teachings with the odaimoku. For example, when the sun rises, we no longer need to use lamps. When it rains, the dew is of no use. A baby does not need any nourishment except for milk. We do not need to add supplements to effective medicine.

Focusing on the odaimoku, Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, as the essence of the Lotus Sūtra does not require that followers remain ignorant of the basic tenets of Buddhism any more than using a magnifying glass to focus the sun’s rays in order to start a fire requires that we know nothing of the sun and the nature of its light.

On Sept. 2, 2018, Ven. Kenjo Igarashi held a followup lesson on Ichinen Sanzen, building upon what he discussed on Aug. 12. The first lesson dealt with the logic; this lesson the character.

“What is our self, our character,” asked Rev. Igarashi. “Where does it come from?”

To set the stage for his lesson, Rev. Igarashi contrasted Western ideas with his own “Oriental” view. (I suppose when a Japanese man describes himself as Oriental it cannot be considered offensive. I’ll stick to Asian in this discussion, however.)

In the west, he explained, a child’s character is molded and shaped by the parents and the immediate environment. It is as if the child is a blank slate or an empty vessel, and character is decoration added from the outside.

In Asia, he explained, “All character comes from the spirit, not from outside.”

Tapping on the chalkboard illustration of Ichinen Sanzen, he said, “That’s why this idea is very important.”

“Our spirit is born in the realm of men and our action is in the realm of men. But also we have Buddha realm, bodhisattva realm,” he said, explaining each person is unique, that our previous life created our current life.

“Perhaps in a previous life our actions were in the realm of asuras or animals, and that’s why we have trouble,” he said. “Or maybe our actions were in the realm of Bodhisattavas or Sravakas and our present life is better.

“Nichiren Shonin said, If you want to know your previous life then look at your present life. If you want to know about your future life, look at your present life.”

“Our character, all our self, comes from our previous life, from our spirit, not just from what happens after we are born,” he stressed. “We cannot make character after we are born through education.”

After the class a young Japanese woman who is new to Nichiren Buddhism asked me whether I agreed with Rev. Igarashi’s comparison of Western and Asian views on character and I said I did.

I feel this is illustrated most clearly by the Western focus on our life as a single event. Nothing happened before therefore only today and tomorrow matter.

The Asian view is nicely illustrated is this quote from the Lotus Sutra in Chapter 25, The Universal Gate of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva:

“A woman who, wishing to have a boy, bows and makes offerings to World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva, will be able to give birth to a boy endowed with merits, virtues and wisdom. [A woman] who, wishing to have a girl, [does the same,] will be able to give birth to a beautiful girl who will be loved and respected by many people because of the roots of virtue which the [newly-born] girl planted in her previous existence.

Underscore a boy endowed with merits, virtues and wisdom and a beautiful girl who will be loved and respected by many people because of the roots of virtue which the [newly-born] girl planted in her previous existence.

I find this view of life so much more appealing than the Western view of a God, loving or vengeful, who controls our fate, or creates a plan for our life or abandons us in the illusion of free will.

The following service included a seven-year memorial prayer for a church member’s deceased relative. Rev. Igarashi used his sermon to explain how Ichinen Sanzen comes to bear on our memorial prayers.

In both of his class lectures on Ichinen Sanzen he explained that these 3000 realms in a single moment are not limited to sentient beings. The entire universe – sentient and insentient – is contained within those 3000 realms.

In his lectures, he used a piece of chalk to illustrate this. Sunday he picked up a pencil.

“This pencil has Ichinen Sanzen, too,” he said. “This pencil can’t act but if I use it to write down something about Buddhism and someone reads what was written and understands Buddhism, this pencil, therefore, makes good actions. If this pencil is used to poke someone in the eye, this pencil’s action is pretty bad. That’s how this pencil has Ichinen Sanzen and bad karma and good karma.”

The deceased relatives can be likened to the pencil. When they die they lose the ability to act on their own behalf.

“This is like the pencil,” he said. “It cannot do anything. But we can pray and pass on our merit. Eventually that spirit will gain our benefit of chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo and reciting the Lotus Sutra.

“That’s why we perform memorial services for deceased people.”