Cleveland Buddhist Temple Newsletter - Volume 5, Issue 22


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June 1, 2024

Volume 5, Issue 22

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Our Next Shin Buddhist Service

Sunday, June 16

Sunday, June 16

9:45 AM: Zen Shin Sangha: Give yourself a moment of contemplation and self-reflection by quiet sitting, guided mediation, and sutra chanting. We sit to calm our mind and body in order to focus on the present moment revealing our profound connection to all beings. All levels, including beginners/families welcome.

10:30 AM: Shin Buddhist Service: Rev. Anita Tokuzen Kazarian

Shin Buddhist Sangha Gathering and Service: Rev. Anita Tokuzen Kazarian
June Memorial Service: Expressing gratitude to our ancestors who passed away in the month of June.

Following the Service:

Following coffee and cake we will discuss a short reading from The Wisdom Of No Escape by Pema Chödrön. No Such Thing as a True Story - Handouts of text provided.

Dhammapada
Dhammapada, a collection of verses of Shakyamuni Buddha

Assembly of Buddhist Deities, 1846

Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392-1910)

Cleveland Museum of Art

XV: Happy 206 - 208

It’s good to see Noble Ones.

Happy their company – always

Through not seeing fools

constantly, constantly

one would be happy.

For, living with a full,

one grieves a long time.

Painful is communion with fools,

as with an enemy –

always.

Happy is communion

with the enlightened,

as with a gathering of kin.

So;

the enlightened man –

discerning, learned,

enduring, dutiful, noble,

intelligent, a man of integrity:

follow him

– one of this sort –

as the moon, the path

of the zodiac stars.

Rev. Tanis Moore is the resident sensei at the Manitoba Buddhist Temple in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She became interested in Jodo Shinshu Buddhism in 1999, when attending a mediation service. In 2013, she became a Lay Minister and started the Correspondence Course, then enrolling in Tokudo classes. Rev. Tanis was ordained a Tokudo Minister of the Hongwanji-ha in 2019. When asked about a favorite reading, Rev. Tanis shared “The Words of the Buddha” reprinted below. She says “I feel the world is helped by the teachings of the Buddha, and the acceptance of us to 'come as you are' of the Jodo Shinshu Dharma."

Welcome back to the Cleveland Buddhist Temple Rev. Tanis!

THE WORDS OF THE BUDDHA

By a Minister’s Wife (Bonmori)

from the Ishikawa Prefecture, 19th Century

You are just right for you.

Your face, your body, your name, your height,

They are all just right for you.

Your poverty or your wealth, your parents

Your children, your son, your daughter-in-law

Your grandchildren, they are all just right for you.

Your happiness, and unhappiness, your joys,

And your sorrows, too, are just right for you.

The life you have led

Is neither bad nor good,

It is simply just right for you.

Whether you go to hell, or to the Pure Land,

The place you go to is just right for you.

There is no need to praise or denigrate yourself,

If there is no above, there is no below.

Even the day you die is just right for you.

In your life with the Buddha,

How can there be something that is not just right?

When we receive the understanding, “all of this had been good.”

The unshakable mind of the Nembutsu opens for us.

Translator unknown.

IN A RELIGIOUSLY PLURAL WORLD

Pure Land Buddhism traditionally emphasizes the way of life each era. That is to say, the teaching of Amida Buddha’s Primal Vow must be translated into the emerging context of each new age. We see this process and the writings of Shinran Shonin… Shinran’s successors have also striven to interpret the teachings for their times… Even in Japan at present, the concrete expressions of Buddhist truth… Need to be translated and adapted to the contemporary context.

Ōtani Kōshin, 24^th Monshu Emeritus

Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha

Rennyo Shonin (1415-1499)

If Rennyo is one of the most revered figures in Japan’s religious history, he is equally among the most controversial. His genius is reflected in the fact that, through religious symbols, expressions of his piety have been amenable to universalization to an extraordinary degree within the context of the Japanese intellectual and religious tradition as a whole. For this reason, the truth of Amida’s Vow-mind has been manifested in history for ordinary men and women seeking to live authentically in Japanese society over the past 500 years and, more recently, in the West.

With Shinran’s teaching as inspiration and Kakunyo’s vision for the Honganji as framework, Rennyo was able to construct a clearly defined, vital religious body. While it is obvious that without Shinran, Rennyo would not have appeared on the stage of Japanese history, it is also fair to say that without Rennyo’s translation of Shinran’s expressions of piety into generic terms, the memory of Shinran might have faded from Japanese religious consciousness. In this event, Shinran would have been in the position of other pious nembutsu devotees of the early Kamakura period whose names remain unrecorded in the annals of history. We do well to keep in mind, then, that the contributions of these two religious leaders are, in the final analysis, inseparable, and that polarization of their thought and piety is to be avoided.

Excerpt in gratitude: Minor L. Rogers and Ann T. Rogers, Rennyo: The Second Founder of Shin Buddhism. Asian Humanities Press, 1991. www.jainpub.com

Photo by Oliver Roos on Unsplash

Supervising Minister: Rev. Ron Miyamura

Resident Tokudo Minister: Rev. Anita Tokuzen Kazarian

rev.anita.cbt@outlook.com

Buddha Post is published by the Cleveland Buddhist Temple, 21600 Shaker Blvd, Shaker Heights, OH 44122

The Cleveland Buddhist Temple is an affiliate of the Buddhist Churches of America, founded in 1899:

https://www.buddhistchurchesofamerica.org/

Web and Newsletter Design: Stuart "Kodo" Ott KodoDojo@clevelandbuddhisttemple.org

Cleveland Buddhist Temple

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