Orange County Buddhist Church
Orange County Buddhist Church
Another year, another graduation. Or commencement, depending on your point of view. Of course, like nearly everything, or maybe everything, it is both. In a sense, every graduation is a commencement. Every ending is a beginning. Even death; but let us leave that to Amida Nyorai.
If you are a student fortunate enough to be graduating, you will be commencing another endeavor, whether it be further schooling or, again if you are fortunate enough, fulltime work of some sort. If all the causes and conditions fall into place, as it were, you will be able to work at something for which you have some training, whether it be at the university level, trade school, some specialty schooling, apprenticeship, part-time work you did while going to school, or whatever.
In some ways, I envy you; in other ways, I am glad I have had the chances to live my life as I have. Most of all, I think, I am glad to have met the people I have throughout my short span of 68 years, both those who have made my life a wonderful one and those who have made it miserable. If I were a realized Buddhist, I would say, especially those who made it miserable, for it is not really they who have made it miserable, but myself. What has made me miserable at those junctures in my life is my clinging to a nonexistent self. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I have never been that enlightened. On the other hand, had I not encountered Amida That Comes From Suchness, I would not have graduated and commenced into a meaningful life filled with joy and, at times still, suffering. Just as it makes a difference to know why my plane is delayed, even if there is little or nothing we can do about it, it does make a difference knowing why I suffer, even if there is little or nothing we can do about it other than to change our way of seeing. And just as infrequently as we are told why a plane is delayed, even more infrequently do we take heed of Amida’s opening our eyes to our innermost selves.
Whether you are graduating formally, consider that each day, even each moment if you are able to see that, is a graduation and a commencement. I hope that we will all come to see that the final graduation is a commencement of Amida’s great practice.
Gassho,
Donkon Jaan (Rev. John Doami)
