Rimban George Matsubayashi  |  Reverend Abe  |  Reverend Usuki  |  Reverend Briones

OUR EITAIKYO SERVICE
BY RIMBAN GEORGE MATSUBAYASHI
JIHO NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 2002

Every year Eitaikyo Services are held during the month of November at various Buddhist temples and organizations.

Eitaikyo literally means “perpetual sutra.” It is a shortened way of referring to “chanting sutras in perpetuity” (eitai dokkyo), which, in turn, is short for “service in which we chant sutras in perpetuity to honor those who have left this world before us.”

This service allows us to express gratitude towards those to whom we were indebted while they were in this world, and also to praise the Buddha’s virtue. It is an opportunity for us to hear the dharma endlessly into the future.

Actually, the history of the Eitaikyo Service is not very clear. Within our Hongwanji organization, the oldest reference to it is considered to be a record by the 14th Monshu Spiritual Leader, Master Jakyunyo (1662 -1725), in which he wrote: “Seventeenth day of the first month: On this day began dokkyo (chanting of sutras) every month.”

Eitaikyo Services have been conducted by our Hongwanji organization ever since.

There are two types of Eitaikyo Services. A “special Eitaikyo” (betsu-eitai) service and a “general Eitaikyo” (so-eitaikyo) service, to which a service referred to as “Eitaikyo (Service) for those without personal ties” (muen-eitai) is added.

A “special Eitaikyo” service is held every year by relatives and friends of an individual on the day of the month during which he or she passed away.

A “general Eitaikyo” service is conducted once a year on a specific date for the hundreds and thousands of people whose names are recorded in the Eitaikyo ledgers maintained at each temple. Here at our Los Angeles Betsuin Buddhist Temple, we conduct a General Eitaikyo Service every year for the over fifteen hundred people listed in our Eitaikyo ledger.

An Eitaikyo Service for those without personal ties is conducted in memory of those without children or grandchildren to request such a service. At our Los Angeles Betsuin Buddhist Temple, this service is conducted during July as part of our Obon Service.

Eitaikyo Services are conducted as long as a temple exists. The funds to conduct the General Eitaikyo Service come from donations made when an individual’s name is added to the Eitaikyo ledger. That is what has allowed this service to be conducted without interruption since the establishment of our temple, and will continue to be conducted as long as it exists.

The desire of all those who request this Eitaikyo Service is that we -- who are presently in this world solely because of the sacred life of our predecessors -- awaken to and live while “praising the Buddha’s virtue and listening to the dharma” (buttoku sandan, buppo chomon). This refers to accepting the Buddha’s sacred virtue in our minds and hearts and listening to the Buddha’s earnest vow that he established solely for our benefit.

The Buddha’s “earnest vow” is: “Please place your entire being in this Hand of Great Compassion, and leave all your concerns with me. I promise that all who hear and accept this vow will be born in the Pure Land of Truth where you will live within ‘immeasurable light’ (wisdom) and ‘immeasurable life’ (compassion). If you are not born there, then may I not become Amida Buddha.”

That is how Namo Amida Butsu came into being. Amida Buddha exists because the conditions for our birth in the Pure Land have now been brought to fruition. That’s how we joyously receive the fulfillment of Amida Buddha’s sacred vow that was established solely for our benefit, and how we are enabled to live within the Nembutsu of Namo Amida Butsu.

The founder of our Jodo Shinshu teaching, the Venerable Master Shinran, wrote that when we receive shinjin, we transcend birth and death, and that we receive the same immeasurable life as Amida Buddha. Specifically, in the Chapter on Faith of his “Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Attainment.” (Kyogyoshinsho), he wrote, “Great shinjin is the divine power that allows us to live in perpetuity and not die.” Because we have a body made of flesh and blood, and because we live within the physical circumstances that we do, however, we can never prevent our life in this world from coming to an end. That is what we “ignorant beings filled with base passions” (bombu) refer to as “birth in the Pure Land” (ojo). In everyday language, the Japanese have taken this sacred term, “birth in the Pure Land,” to refer to dying because we can no longer remain in this world if we are allowed to go to that world of the Pure Land.

The Venerable Master Shinran, however, taught us that when the phrase, “birth in the Pure Land” is used in association with Amida Buddha’s sacred vow, it does not refer to death and dying, but rather to a life that does not have death associated with it.

This is how the myokonin (person enlightened within the Jodo Shinshu teaching) names Saichi understood this matter:

How blessed I am!
I am allowed to go without dying!
I am allowed to go while living! 
Where?
Why to the Pure Land, of course,
Namo Amida Butsu.

For Saichi, the Pure Land was where, rather than dying, he went to be born and to live.

Again,

Saichi breathed his last
And had a funeral conducted
But he remains in this world as
Namo Amida Butsu.
Saichi as Amida
And Amida as Saichi.

As expressed here, Amida Buddha’s “immeasurable light” and “immeasurable life” became one with Saichi’s life within Namo Amida Butsu. That is the joy Saichi received which he expressed so simply and artlessly above. This is not an emotional feeling that soon passes but rather, a deeply-felt absolute assurance that he carried his entire life.

That’s what accepting Amida Buddha’s “boundless wisdom and compassion” is, and what “the ‘doer’ of shinjin is equal to Amida Buddha” means. That’s what taking joy in the awareness of being allowed to live in perpetuity refers to. This awareness and joy is not limited to, or ends with just myself. Rather, it is the joy of, “Accepting this teaching from Amida Buddha and letting others hear of it also...” It is the joy that exists today and will exist tomorrow endlessly into the future.

The time for us to celebrate Eitaikyo is, again, approaching. Let us deeply accept the “immeasurable life” that each of us, individually, have been blessed with and celebrate the Buddha’s virtue.

Our Los Angeles Betsuin Buddhist Temple will conduct its annual General Eitaikyo Service on the two days of November 16th (Saturday) at 1:30 PM and 17th (Sunday) at 10 AM and 1:30 PM. Our speaker will be Reverend Tesshi Aoyama of the San Diego Buddhist Temple. I hope to see all of you then.

gassho

Back to:  Top  |  Rimban George Matsubayashi  |  Reverend Abe  |  Reverend Usuki  |  Reverend Briones

THE NEMBUTSU
BY REV. FUMIAKI USUKI
JIHO NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 2002

"When I say the Nembutsu, who is saying the Nembutsu?"

On the surface, it may seem that it is due to our own will, our own efforts, that we say most things. Certainly, when we attend services or before we begin a meal at our temples here in the United States, it is common for us to repeat Namo Amida Butsu three times, in response to the minister’s intonation of it. Japanese visitors are often surprised at this custom. People who are in the habit of visiting Shin Buddhist temples in Japan are used to saying the Nembutsu un-prompted at certain prescribed times, such as upon taking their seat in front of the Honzon, or at the end of chanting. The loudness and number of times the Nembutsu is said varies, but in any case, it is a personal intonation rather than a group recitation.
Either way, we could say that recitations of the Name in this way come of our own design and self-power. In other sects of Buddhism, such as Tendai-shu and Jodo-shu, the Nembutsu is also recited as a form of Buddhist practice. However, saying the Nembutsu has a different meaning for Jodo Shin Buddhists. Have you ever wondered why we sometimes hear people, especially elderly people, spontaneously uttering Namo Amida Butsu? If you visit our mother temple in Japan, you may hear people saying it as they walk around the grounds, or some will call out the Name while listening to dharma talks. What causes them to do this? Do they hope to gain some merit by saying the Name? Or is it some other force that makes the words of the Nembutsu issue from their lips?

Shinran Shonin teaches us that both entrusting oneself to the promise of the Primal Vow and the saying of the Name, Namo Amida Butsu, are given to us by the Buddha. They arise as a result of Amida Buddha’s activity and great practice and unfold in us as we come to entrust ourselves to the Vow. 

In one of Shinran’s letters, he points out, The Nembutsu of Amida’s Primal vow is not our practice, it is not our good; it is simply keeping the Name of the Buddha. (CWS 555). 

Since it is Amida’s practice, it embodies all the good acts and possesses all the roots of virtue that allowed him to fulfill his forty-eight vows. In other words, we do not say the Nembutsu to accord with the Vow in order to attain enlightenment. When it arises in us spontaneously, it is the voice of Amida calling to us to awaken to Truth. 

When we are asked to recite the Nembutsu at services and so on, we are cultivating an aspect of our spiritual practice. Otherwise, we might not have the opportunity to feel at home with the words, "Namo Amida Butsu." We often learn that these words mean something like, "I take refuge in the Buddha of Infinite Life and Light." 

In fact, Shinran explains to us that entrusting ourselves to the Vow and saying the Name are one. In another letter, he states:

… there is no Nembutsu separate from shinjin, nor is the one moment of shinjin separate from the one moment of Nembutsu. The reason is that the practice of Nembutsu is to say it perhaps once, perhaps ten times, on hearing and realizing that birth into the Pure Land is attained by saying the Name fulfilled in the Primal Vow. To hear this Vow and be completely without doubt is the one moment of shinjin. Thus, although shinjin and Nembutsu are two, since shinjin is to hear and not doubt that you are saved by only a single pronouncing, which is the fulfillment of practice, there is no shinjin separate from Nembutsu; this is the teaching I have received. You should know further that there can be no Nembutsu separate from shinjin. Both should be understood to be Amida’s Vow. Nembutsu and shinjin on our part are themselves the manifestations of
the Vow. (CWS 538).

Thus, saying the Nembutsu is Amida’s practice and not our own calculated practice. The question is, how do we come to receive it? We must hear the dharma again and again, until we internalize it and it becomes part of us. It is then that the true and real mind of the Buddha can unfold in us. At that moment, the Name manifests itself spontaneously, not only vocally, but also in our hearts and in our minds. This spontaneous and natural activity of compassion is called jinen honi, "being made to become so of itself" through the working of formless true reality and not through one’s own design. Amida Buddha is the medium through which we gain this awakening. When I say the Nembutsu, my voice has become one with Amida.

Namo Amida Butsu

Rev. Usuki

Back to:  Top  |  Rimban George Matsubayashi  |  Reverend Abe  |  Reverend Usuki  |  Reverend Briones

OSEIBO
BY REV. WILLILAM BRIONES
JIHO NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 2002

An offering is not a True Offering if after the act there are feelings of regret or of self-praise: a True offering is one that is given with pleasure, forgetting oneself as the giver, the one who receives it and the gift itself.
True Offering springs spontaneously from one's pure compassionate heart with no thought of any return, wishing only to enter into a life of Enlightenment together.

The preceding verse comes from the Dhammapada, words spoken by Shakaymuni Buddha over 2500 years ago. It is a reminder for us that a true gift is given from the heart, and helps us recognize and practice our natural interconnectedness with humankind.

With the Thanksgiving holiday ahead of us and no sooner than the turkey left overs are put into Tupperware, the Christmas decorations go up and Christmas sales begin …and while as Buddhist we don’t celebrate Christmas, many of us do get caught up into the holiday season of gift-giving.

However, within the Japanese tradition, gifts of thanks are given to those who have helped or assisted us in the past year. The practice is called Oseibo …. The literal meaning is "honorific-end-year" in other words "end of the year gift". This is indeed a most beautiful way to end the year and begin a new one. 
Oseibo in a way is a form of dana…. one of the six paramitas of Buddhism. Dana a word from Sanskrit can be translated into donation or charity. Dana was one of the six kinds of practices by which a bodhisattva attained Buddhahood. 

Historically, from the time of Shakyamuni Buddha, it has been a tradition within the Buddhist community to support those who taught the dharma with food, clothing and/or monetary donations. Because these dharma teachers were truly revered, these offerings were given freely, the monks never asked for this. For the Buddhist community it was understood that this practice of giving was the basis of spiritual practice. 
As a remnant of this belief, today we’ve come to the realization that our teachers encompasses everyone who touch our life’s daily. Family, friends, the mailman, the trash collector, the paper boy, and of course, our teachers and ministers. 

When we give selflessly to those who have helped us through out the year, it gives us an opportunity to reflect upon what is really important to us. When we have benefitted from the teachings, or even from friendship and services rendered, we may give a present, or some monetary donation to help support them. 
I’m not purporting to know a lot about Japanese tradition and culture, so I can’t really say how Oseibo came about. Whether it’s origins is Buddhist or cultural, I haven’t a clue. I suspect, as with so many other rich Japanese traditions, it is a combination of both.

Dana, is a reflection of our spiritual life. And as we endeavor this practice through oseibo, we become aware of what is truly important in our lives, and we discover that true happiness arises from the selfless act of giving.

As we see the close of 2002, may we look back in gratitude. This gratitude is an important part of our life through which we may experience a renewed closeness with ourselves and all of those around us. We come to realize that life gives generously to us therefore we naturally reciprocate and give generously back to life. 

Namo Amida Butsu

Back to:  Top  |  Rimban George Matsubayashi  |  Reverend Abe  |  Reverend Usuki  |  Reverend Briones

Copyright © 2003  by Nishi Hongwanji L.A.