Attended online services at Myosho-ji, Wonderful Voice Buddhist Temple, Charlotte, NC. The service included the eye-opening ceremony for an Omandala to be presented to Brandon, a member of the Charlotte temple who lives in Indiana.

Following the service Brandon thanked Ryusho Shonin and expressed his deep appreciation for the opportunity to attend the Charlotte services regularly. I felt guilty that I only attend Charlotte services when there are no services at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. I suppose I should be happy with my good fortune, but today I felt greedy in comparison to those who don’t have a local sangha.

On the morning of April 28, 1253, Nichiren Shonin chanted Namu Myoho Renge Kyo to the rising sun, setting the stage for the restoration of devotion to the Lotus Sutra and the Eternal Buddha as the Buddhist practice best suited for the Latter Days of the Dharma. Out of this effort grew the Nichiren Shu tradition that continues today.

Today’s service at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church celebrated Kaishu-e, the founding of Nichiren Shu.

As an aside, we also learned today that it was on April 28, 1968, that Ven. Kenjo Igarashi took his original vows to become a priest.

And about this fixation of mine on flowers. For more than 25 years I practiced a variety of Nichiren Buddhism that shuns statues and allows only greens, no flowers, on altars. Having both the joy of flowers and the physical representation of the objects of devotion has proved to be one of my favorite aspects of Nichiren Shu practice. With the constant references to offerings of flowers in the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren’s promotion of statues as objects of devotion, it seems so unnatural to have ever not had flowers and statues on my altar.

Traveled to San Jose to attend the Hanamatsuri service at Myokakuji Betsuin. The flower festival celebrating the birth of Sakyamuni is one of my favorite services and this year, as coincidence would have it, I was able to see two different versions of the tradition.

Recited during the ceremony:

The Coming of the Buddha
(From Chapter II Expedients)

The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to open [the gate to] the insight of the Buddha, and to cause them to purify themselves. They appear in the worlds in order to show the insight of the Buddha to all living beings. They appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to obtain the insight of the Buddha. They appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to enter the Way to the insight of the Buddha. Sariputra! This is the one great purpose for which the Buddhas appear in the worlds.

Last week in Sacramento

Today was Hanamatsuri, the flower festival service honoring the birth of Sakyamuni Buddha. The beautiful flower arrangement covering the statue of the baby Sakyamuni was done by Ven. Kenjo Igarashi using flowers grown on the grounds of the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church.

According to tradition, when Sakyamuni was born he immediately walked seven steps and declared, “I alone am honored in heaven and on earth” as he pointed up with one hand and down with the other to indicate he would unite heaven and earth.

Rev. Igarashi’s sermon covered why it is important to make good causes, using the tale of a selfish junior priest as a lesson in the cause and effect consequences of being greedy.

Following the service, everyone was invited for “refreshments” – sushi rice, pasta salad (I’m sure there is a Japanese term for that dish but I don’t know it), barbecue chicken and three different dessert cakes.

Making the gathering even more enjoyable was the welcome provided to two guests who were attending services for the first time.

The latter part of the seventh fascicle of the Commentary on the Great Sun Buddha Sutra, which both Grand Masters Kobo and Dengyo saw, reads: “It is needless to say that reciting sutras earnestly in the Tendai Sect is namely the perfect and sudden way of breathing meditation.”

Hasshu Imoku-sho, Writings of Nichiren Shonin, Doctrine 2

Each of Sakyamuni’s countless sutras is a river flowing into the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, the all encompassing ocean of the Buddha’s teaching. Each chant of Namu-Myoho-Renge-Kyo recites not only the Lotus Sutra but all of the Buddha’s sutras.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, Namu Myoho Renge Kyo – the perfect and sudden way of breathing meditation.

Today’s Daily Dharma contains this advice:

The thoughts we have are mostly words, and the words are about the things we want. Words can help us make sense of the world around us, especially the words the Buddha uses to teach us. But words can also confuse us when we mistake our expectations for the reality of the world. When the Buddha calls us to become Bodhisattvas, to realize that our happiness is linked to that of all beings, his words open a part of our mind with which we are not familiar. He asks us to set aside the habits we have learned from this world of conflict and see his world in a new way.

As someone who made a career of words and the arrangement of words to communicate ideas, such a reminder of the power of the Buddha’s words is particularly compelling.

This advice from the Daily Dharma echoes the English translation of the Verses for Opening the Sutra that I recite each day:

The most excellent teaching of the Great Vehicle is very difficult to understand. I shall be able to approach enlightenment when I see, hear or touch this sutra. Expounded is the Buddha’s truth. Expounding is the Buddha’s essence. The letters composing this sutra are the Buddha’s manifestation.

One word wraps all of my thoughts in the same way the Odaimoku encompasses the ocean of the Buddha’s teaching. That word in my mind is “faith.”

Today was the Spring Ohigan ceremony. Church members were encouraged to write the names of deceased ancestors on a slip of paper and give it to the priest. During the service, the priest said a prayer for each of the ancestors, citing their names individually.

From Wikipedia:

Ohigan is a Buddhist holiday exclusively celebrated in Japan during both the Spring and Autumnal Equinox. It is observed by nearly every Buddhist sect in Japan. The tradition extends from mild weather that occurs during the time of equinoxes, though the origin of the holiday dates from Emperor Shōmu in the 8th century. People who normally worked in the fields had more leisure time to evaluate their own practices, and to make a renewed effort to follow Buddhism. Today, special services are usually observed in Japanese Buddhist temples, and Japanese temples abroad, based on the particular Buddhist tradition or sect.

The etymology of Ohigan means “the other or that shore of Sanzu River”, which is a common euphemism used in Buddhist literature to refer to Enlightenment. One crosses from this shore of ignorance and suffering to the other shore of Enlightenment and peace.

At the end of the service, Ven. Kenjo Igarashi explained that Ohigan, beyond the prayers for ancestors, is a reminder of the Six Paramitas that Nichiren’s followers practice. He then explained the six. Rather than attempt to paraphrase what he said I’m going to reprint an explanation from Rev. Ryuei McCormick‘s book Lotus Seeds:

The awakened qualities which we develop through our practice are known as the Six Perfections (in Sanskrit, paramitas). The Six Perfections enable us to do the work of a bodhisattva. They are generosity, discipline, patience, energy, meditation, and wisdom.

These Six Perfections are a restatement of the Eightfold Path.

The real difference between the Six Perfections and the Eightfold Path is the addition of generosity and patience, although these are implied by right intentions. By including these two perfections as separate items, it makes explicit the fact that we are not really following the Eightfold Path unless we are generous and patient with others. In this way, the Six Perfections underscore the compassionate dimension that is integral to Mahayana Buddhism.

Kanjin Cederman Shonin chief priest of Enkyo-ji in Seattle joined Ryusho Jeffus and others from Myosho-ji, Wonderful Voice Buddhist Temple, in Charlotte, NC, as a guest speaker. Kanjin Cederman shared some of his thoughts about ‘Organic Buddhism’ and how it is in accord with the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. He also shared a little about his life as well as his training as a Buddhist including his time before Nichiren Shu.