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| Our Next Shin Buddhist Service on April 20, will include |
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| 80th Hanamatsuri Flower Festival Service |
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Birthday of Siddhartha Gautama
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| Bishop Marvin Harada |
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Click HERE for Homyo information
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Together, we will create the flower Garden of Lumbini where Siddhartha Gautama was born 2,588 years ago
Sunday, April 20
9:45 AM: Zen Shin Sangha today: During our silent meditation will create our own Garden of Lumbini. Young children truly enjoy this meditation and as always, are encouraged to participate. The flowers we add to our 2025 Lumbini garden will be the focus of this meditation. All flowers supplied but if you wish, please bring your own.
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10:30 AM: Shin Buddhist Service: Rev. Anita Tokuzen Kazarian
- Cleveland Buddhist Temple 80th observance of Hanamatsuri Flower Festival, Birth of Siddhartha Gautama.
- April Memorial Service: Expressing gratitude to our ancestors who passed away in the month of April.
- Bishop Marvin Harada will perform the special Kieshiki Ceremony for those who have applied to receive their own Buddhist Name, Homyo.
- This ceremony was last performed in Cleveland 14 years ago.
Questions? Contact Rev. Anita
Following the Service:
- As all things are impermanent, we will remember, with joy, the 2025 Garden of Lumbini we created and its relevance to our lives today. We then will remove all the flowers to take home. Please bring a little bag to carry them home, if you wish.
- Following coffee and birthday cake, we will discuss a short reading from River of Fire, River of Water – Ch. 37 – When A Person Dies. Handouts of text provided.
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Dhammapada
Dhammapada, a collection of verses of Shakyamuni Buddha
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Section of a Coping Rail, c. 150 BCE India, Madhya Pradesh, Bharhut, Shunga period (187-75 BCE) Cleveland Museum of Art
XX: The Path 273
Of paths, the eightfold is best.
Of truths, the four sayings.
Of qualities, dispassion.
Of two-footed beings,
the one with the eyes to see.
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When the Buddha stayed at his monastery in Jetavana, there was a monk with a questionable past in constant fear of his life. If the wind rustled the leaves of the tree, or a shrill bird call rang through the forest, the monk shrieked and quickly hid under the nearest table. Soon, his constant trepidation began to affect the other monks. Not wanting to be infected with similar fears, the group of monks had just begun discussing the problem when the Buddha entered the room. Hearing all about the jittery monk, the Buddha gently suggested, “Don’t be angry with this brother, monks. Once before, long ago in another lifetime, he carried this same dread in his heart. And just like long ago, with our help he will slowly learn to leave these fears behind.” Then the Buddha recounted this tale of long ago.
Once upon a time, many years past, the Former Buddha lived as a Tree-Sprite in the jungled foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. And in those days, there lived a great white and beautiful elephant in a nearby city. The king gave over the care of his rare elephant to the Royal animal trainers, hoping that she would learn to perform tricks. Sadly though, and unbeknownst to the king, they treated her cruelly.
Chained and shackled to a large post, she was held prisoner. They insistently barked commands at her. If she disobeyed her trainers or needed to rest, they prodded and poked her belly with sharp rods and lashed her legs with stinging whips.
Finally, they wounded her one too many times. Anguished, she fought against her shackles until they broke. With her immense strength she ploughed through wide brick walls and escaped her compound. The trainers scattered and ran for their lives. The great elephant fled as fast as she could, deep and far into the hills. She ran and ran until she was very far from civilization. And still she kept running. The men who were later sent to recapture her found not a trace and eventually gave up their search.
Months passed, and although people had forgotten about the elephant, the elephant had not forgotten people. She was terrified of being caught again. When the long, lush meadow grass rustled in the night wind, she would startle from her sleep and stampede through the trees, bellowing in fright. Up mountainsides she clambered, down valleys she ran and ran, never at peace.
In constant dread she lived as though she were still tied to her old training post. And in time the great elephant grew deathly thin and weak from exhaustion.
Now in these same mountains lived the Buddha as a Tree-Sprite. Many times he had watched the agitated elephant pace back-and-forth, back and forth beneath his tree. But now he saw that the elephant would die without some help. Luckily this chance came soon. It was a scorching summer afternoon, and the great elephant needed relief and rest in the tree’s shade, directly below him. The little Sprite quietly slipped into the lowest fork of the tree, appearing very much like leaf-dappled sunshine. The elephant noticed him, and before she could run away in alarm, the Sprite whispered in her ear:
Do you fear the wind
That only blows the leaves away?
So much fear held in your heart
Will waste thee all away!
The elephant heard the Sprite’s quiet words and found them soothing. It was a new feeling. She didn’t run. Looking up at the tiny Sprite among the leaves, the great elephant wondered if she did have anything to be afraid of anymore. After all, here was the smallest creature of the forest telling the biggest not to be afraid! Could it be that she had simply gotten used to being fearful, and maybe there was a very different way to be?
So bit by bit the elephant relearned how to enjoy her life in the mountains. Little by little she was able to sleep through the common night sounds of the forest. The dark moonless nights no longer scared her: instead, she beheld a glittering, star-filled sky. She sought out the company of other creatures, frolicked and played. Thanks to the kindness of the Tree-Sprite, the great elephant became strong and healthy and lived very happily ever after.
And so the Buddha concluded this lesson with the monks. From that day on they treated the restless monk carefully, with kindness and compassion, until finally; his last fear was well gone.
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Oscar’s world view, you have to admit, is limited. The farthest he can see, his horizon, may just be the brick wall at the end of the alley. But like Oscar, where we are is what determines the limits of our own horizon. Like radio waves, our vision requires a straight line, a “line of sight.” We can’t see around a curve, we can’t see around the corner. This is what we know, what is in our line of sight. This is where we start.
On April 20th we will celebrate Siddhartha Gautama’s birthday at the Cleveland Buddhist Temple. During our silent morning meditation, together, we will decorate a beautiful Garden of Lumbini with colorful flowers. Later, we will pour sweet tea over the baby Siddhartha’s shoulder to celebrate Hanamatsuri, the Flower Festival.
Just for a moment, imagine if Siddhartha never walked out the palace doors to see what was around that corner. Or if he did, was just curious and returned to the palace to get away from the “mess” he found out there. After all, he had all the luxuries life could provide. It was the equivalent of having unlimited social media platforms, unlimited screen time, pizza/wings delivery, or anything he craved, day or night. Siddhartha had command power to have what he wanted, when he wanted.
Instead, after three trips outside the palace, he saw there was illness, saw there was old age and saw there was death. We do not have to have genius IQ to ask the question why there is illness, old age and death. It is normal. And like Siddhartha who left the palace for the 4th and final time, we also took that step outside our own palace walls to understand the “why.”
Those of us, either converts to Buddhism or “nightstand” Buddhists, looked but did not find satisfactory explanations to this question of “why” in the faiths we were raised in. Many of us stumbled into Buddhism and caught only a whiff of an answer. This was enough to explore the universal teachings, open to all without exception; without conditions; without rules and without judgements.
Now Oscar the Grouch may not want to leave his palace walls. He may be satisfied just as he is and that is OK. Many of us don’t want to step into the unknown. If we can’t see beyond the brick wall, around the corner at the end of the alley, it’s OK. But many of us experience dukkha (suffering/dissatisfaction/anxiety, etc.) in this sahā world (this world where we endure dukkha) and know it does not have to be this way.
We first become ‘nightstand Buddhists’ where we read and study Buddhism in privacy within our palace walls. As our understanding of the teachings grows, we realize, like Siddhartha, we have to walk outside those walls to experience the Three Jewels; the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha.
It is only when we take the action to walk around that corner, to change our line of sight to a new view, one impossible to see from where we were, that we find the light. This light, in Shin Buddhism is Amida Buddha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, of Immeasurable Light. We can equate light with being able to see. We can equate being able to see with finding a level of peace, or calm even if not full enlightenment.
And how does this happen? Our path is not the monastic path of monks and nuns of the many Buddhist traditions. Our path is the everyday life of family, work, bills, uncertainty of the bigger questions of the environment, of political and economic brinksmanship, children’s report cards, the price of eggs and health issues. Ours is the sahā world where we not only have to navigate but also have to find the energy and willingness to put our Buddhist teachings to the test to see if they really work.
Many people think Buddhists accept things as they are. But if we look at Siddhartha we see there was thoughtful courage to make a life changing decision to leave the palace. After becoming a Buddha, an enlightened one, he again had a choice. Live his life quietly or share what he awoke to with others. Each choice was deliberate and once made was put into action. The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Noble Path was just the beginning of his teachings. The Buddha didn’t change people. The Buddha made it possible for people to hear the Dharma, and then, if they chose, change themselves.
And what is this change? It is different for each of us. We hear the Dharma the Buddha shared with us in the Sangha. This 3rd Jewel, the Sangha, plays a critical role. While we are not part of a monastic community we have our lay Sangha in this non-monastic world. It may be in a community center, in a church, in a home, or any place we gather to hear the Dharma. We come together once a month. And we each hear the teachings at our own pace. And one day hear something no one else hears and suddenly, we wake up to a reality into which we can relax and breathe more easily. The chances of our own “aha” moment taking place increase within a Sangha because we hear the teachings talked about by different voices and suddenly a word or phrase resonates. This is the teaching of Interconnectedness.
Oscar the Grouch can be as happy or unhappy as he wishes by not turning that corner. That is his choice and we respect that. We, on the other hand, have already left the palace walls and turned that corner. Our line of sight now includes the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha as our journey on the White Path leads us away from dukkha of this sahā world. May all beings find peace.
Namo Amida Butsu
Namo Amida Butsu
Namo Amida Butsu
Rev. Anita
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Thoughts on the New Year
(2019)
Rev. Bryan Masashi Siebuhr
Happy New Year everyone with best wishes to you and your family for 2019. Thank you for your support on behalf of myself and my family during 2018; your continued support is deeply appreciated.
Reflecting on the world events and my own life during 2018 has led me to the realization that my self-delusion, rather than lessening, has grown in addition to more deeply experiencing Shinran Shonin's words that this life is truly nothing more than dream and illusion, where everything is false and untrue.
If at some time throughout this year you have experienced sorrow over your existence, financial problems, health issues, frustrated hopes and wishes, or more than one, or all of these things, know that these experiences have great meaning. This meaning is a cause through which one turns away from our preoccupation with our mundane existence in this ocean of suffering and sorrow we call life. Most importantly it causes us to awaken to the constant calling of all-embracing compassion which has been constantly calling to our hard ego without regard for its refusal to hear, and in so doing, transforms this hard ego into true realization and true gratitude. This form of gratitude does not originate from our ego self; rather, it is that which comes about of itself, the awakening to the workings of true and real life.
Within our lifespan, perhaps the greatest illusion that we cling to is that life has continuity when in fact, we live from moment to moment, one moment being 1/60 of a second. With the arising of 1/60 of a second is birth, at the passing of that same 1/60 of a second is death. If you truly believe this, then all the petty things you must deal with in life will shrink in importance.
In this world, there is nothing to which we can cling with the exception of that which is reality, truth, eternal life, infinite wisdom, and all-embracing compassion; that which is referred to, not as an invisible friend or some higher spirit, rather the qualities we refer to as “Amida Buddha.”
If in 2019, we deeply realize the illusory nature of life, and should we meet the causes and conditions that bring about awakening to our own delusions, then how should we proceed? We should move forward, ignoring the pleas of others with differing beliefs, understandings and thinking, and instead of believing in self-power, we should move forward and simply hear the call of all-embracing compassion. Thus, our awakening to the Pure Land Way is immediate once through great-naturalness, we realize without doubt our enlightenment is so assured; there will be no falling back.
My best to all. Happy New Year.
In Gassho,
Rev. Bryan Masashi Siebuhr
Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin
Reprint in gratitude: Rev. Bryan Masashi Siebuhr, 2019
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October 9 - 11, 2025
Center for Buddhist Education
MAP Seminar
Jodo Shinshu Center, Berkeley CA
This in person training session is hosted by the BCA’s Center for Buddhist Education and is open to all BCA Minister Assistants both certified and non-certified. The BCA encourages all Minister Assistants to participate in continuing education. The sessions will cover basic Jodo Shinshu teachings, chanting, Onaijin etiquette as well as other topics. This is a great opportunity to learn from other BCA ministers and to build relationships with MAs from different temples.
Participating in the Minister Assistant Program (MAP) is available at all levels. The third Jewel in Buddhism is the Sangha. It is the Sangha that helps us understand and supports us as we put the teachings to the test on our Shin Buddhist Path. All who attend often are already engaged in our Sangha or would like to be. By exploring this next step you can deepen your understanding at a level and pace of your choice.
Please email Rev. Anita to set up a time to explore if participating in the Minister Assistant Program is for you
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