I started attending Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church services in January 2015. Every New Year after that – 2016 through 2020 – I attended the services held to usher out the old year – Joya (End of Year) Service – and bring in the new – Shinnen (New Year) Service. At the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church these are held on either side of midnight. At the stroke of midnight, the church bell is rung 108 times to purge church members’ 108 earthly desires .
That familiar ritual was another of the many things taken away by COVID-19.
Instead, I found myself seated next to my altar in front of my computer making do with the Zoom sessions from the Nichiren Buddhist Kannon Temple of Nevada.
Rev. Shoda Kanai holds his end of year service in the morning since Las Vegas at midnight is party central and not a place you want to be driving around after midnight. I’m not particularly fond of driving home from the Sacramento church after midnight but at least all of the major roads are open.
Yesterday morning I attended Rev. Shoda Kanai’s end of year service, which included the ringing of his temple bell.
I was fascinated with the 108 division of the worldly desires offered by Rev. Shoda Kanai.
The six senses each have three subdivisions – pleasant, painful, neutral or like, dislike, indifference – making 18 desires.
Those 18 kinds have two categories – pure, unpure or internal, external – making 36 desires.
The 36 have three other categories – past, present, future – which brings us to the 108 total.
This morning I celebrated the New Year by burning special incense that displays Namu Myoho Renge Kyo Minobu San after it burns.
The incense is available online but the shipping from Singapore is exorbitant. I’m down to my last four sticks of this and looking for resupply.
After my morning service I set my laptop computer up next to my altar and attended Rev. Shoda Kanai’s New Year Purification Ceremony.
Next Sunday I’ll be back in Las Vegas (virtually) for Rev. Shoda Kanai’s monthly purification service which he holds the first Sunday of each month throughout the year.
Zoom is not IRL, but it helps. I’m looking forward to getting my vaccination and the eventual end of this COVID-19 nightmare.
Correction: Yesterday’s post about Rev. Shoda Kanai’s discussion of kanji characters misstated the character for “me” or “I.” I only had half of the character. I’ve fixed my error.