November 2024

Nembutsu Seminar in Maui

“How do we "read while departing from discrimination/self-calculation"? It

means that instead of reading the sutras, we allow the sutras to read us.”

The Late Rev. Jitsuen Kakehashi, Kangaku Scholar

Last month, I had the honor of being invited to Maui for the Nembutsu Seminar, hosted by the Maui Hongwanji Council at Kahului Hongwanji. My good friend in the nembutsu, Rev. Ai Hironaka, extended the invitation after he and his family were welcomed to Sacramento by the Betsuin in March of this year. It was wonderful to meet and engage with fellow nembutsu

practitioners in Maui, but delivering four lectures over six hours in two days was quite a lot of talking for me!

During my visit, Hironaka Sensei took me to Lahaina. It was heartbreaking to see what was once a vibrant place, filled with laughter, now left in devastation. As I gazed at the ruins, the nembutsu naturally came out from my lips. I turned to Hironaka Sensei and asked, “What do you think? What does this nembutsu mean? Why did it arise from me as I witnessed this

heartbreaking scene?” He replied, “Amida Buddha is always by our side, calling to us, ‘Your sorrow is my sorrow,’ and embracing us in our grief.” I thought it was a beautiful response. While it is we who recite the nembutsu, when we trace its origin, we find it is the mind of Amida Buddha, through the Primal Vow, that causes us to recite it.

At the seminar, I shared a few passages from the late Rev. Jitsuen Kakehashi, which I recently translated from Japanese into English. The words I quoted at the beginning were ones I found in Kakehashi Sensei's teachings. I believe they are crucial for living a life grounded in Buddhism.

We often try to fit Buddhist teachings into the "box" of our own knowledge and understanding. But being a Buddhist doesn’t mean picking and choosing the teachings that are convenient for us. Rather, we immerse ourselves in the "soup" of the Dharma, coming to understand who we truly are through the teachings. This is what Kakehashi Sensei meant when he said, "Instead of reading the sutras, we allow the sutras to read us." When I read those words, I thought of a CT scan. 

Once in my twenties, I experienced severe stomach pain. I assumed the pain would pass within a day, but it persisted for several days. Eventually, I went to the hospital, where the doctor explained that they would need to use CT scan to scan my body and see what was going on inside. After undergoing a CT scan, I was diagnosed with diverticulitis. As a result, I couldn’t eat or drink for about a week and had to rely on an IV drip. Initially, I had self-diagnosed that my stomach pain would soon go away, but the CT scan revealed the real issue. 

This experience is similar to how we live our lives. Our understanding is limited, yet we often believe that whatever fits within the "box" of our own knowledge is all that exists. But the sutras, the Buddha’s teachings, offer us a perspective that reveals who we truly are, showing us the nature of our afflictions. It is through this understanding of our afflictions that we come to appreciate Amida Buddha’s vow to embrace and never abandon us.

Gassho,

Rev. Yuki