Why do we remember what we remember and forget other experiences and thoughts? I’m not sure of the answer to that, but when I saw this cartoon it reminded of one truth of memories: we’ll never forget when the “dogs ate our 6th birthday party birthday cake.”
What role do memories, good or bad, play in our decision to explore Shin Buddhism? Our Cleveland Buddhist Temple (CBT) Sangha is made up of those new to Buddhism, those who have converted to Buddhism and those who are incorporating some Buddhist teachings into religions they were born and raised in.
Our Sangha is unique from most others (60 temples) in the Buddhist Churches of America (BCA) family of Shin Buddhist temples. We no longer have the financial support of heritage Japanese Americans to ensure the continuation of the CBT. It no longer serves as a community gathering place for immigrants and children of immigrants from Japan. And yet, the CBT continues. We had our 79th
anniversary this year.
Why does it continue? What does it offer that keeps it going?
We each bring memories of our religious life, family life and our cultural heritage with us. We don’t leave them at the Hondo entrance. We come as we are, warts and all. We also bring something else. We bring an empty space, like a link that is missing in a chain. We’ve looked many places for that link, the one that will make sense of what life, my life, is all about. Even the smallest missing link makes the whole incomplete, unable to be what it is supposed to be. Sometimes that search takes us to unhealthy places, places we think will ease the pain, but they never do. And sometimes we hear about a place where we learn the tools, the teachings, to find that little link.
At our March service the question of ‘Why are you here?” was asked but not answered. Why do we give up our Sunday morning once a month to share a service in an unfamiliar language with radical new ideas with others, whose only connection to us is that each of us is missing that link? I believe we do this because we know a truth when we see it, the truth of reality Buddhism has pulled aside the curtain to reveal. We see its truth, we understand its truth but it is the putting this truth into practice that is not so easy.
Our memories are powerful, they reinforce our way of seeing and behaving and responding to this sahā world (mundane world). We fall back to our default settings of habit knowing we are doing it. And Shin Buddhism, Amida Buddha, tells us this is OK. The ancient sutras reassure us we are embraced just as we are. So then what changes? The “what” that changes as we travel this path as a Sangha is that as we hear the teachings and manage to put bits into our way of living in this world. We understand its power and we do begin being the person we want to be.
We do change; we must change because a fundamental teaching is impermanence. What then changes is the direction or the quality of that change as we hear the teachings. Knowing we are embraced, never to be let go of, removes pressure, removes judgement, removes fear. We may come as we are and still be embraced. Over time, the depth of this truth becomes clearer as the winds of wisdom begin to push away clouds of self-doubt. May the creation of new memories of the teachings become useful to us living in this sahā world. May they remind us that leaving an unattended birthday cake with unattended family dogs makes only the dogs happy.
In Gassho,
Rev. Anita
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