Orange County Buddhist Church  

     Thanks.  Thank you.  Thanks a million.  Thank you very much.  I can’t thank you enough.  Namo Amida Butsu.

     You’re welcome.  It was nothing.  Think nothing of it.  It was my pleasure.  Namo Amida Butsu.

     What I could do and maybe even should do is simply to have those first two paragraphs be my whole essay and have you wonder about it.  However, it is more likely that, after a momentary thought like, “What the heck is this?” you’ll just dismiss it and go on.  Or you might think that the rest of the essay was somehow deleted or left out in error. Therefore, so this won’t be a complete exercise in futility, let’s consider it together.

     The first paragraph contains several expressions of gratitude, and the second, several expressions of acknowledgement.  What can we say about them beyond that?  Among other things, we can say that they are all learned responses.  That is, we must be taught to use them; they are not natural responses.  If you are a parent, you must surely have memories of saying over and over to your child, “What do you say?”  Or, “Say thank you,” or words to that effect, whenever s/he was given something.

     You may recall the joke I repeated from Jay Leno.  He was at a supermarket and noticed that the cashier did not say thank you to the customers before him, so he asked the cashier, “Don’t you thank your customers?”  The cashier answered, “It’s printed on your receipt.”

There is obviously no recognition by the cashier that his job depends solely on the customer!  In Buddhist terminology, he does not recognize pratitya samutpada, dependent co-origination.  On the one hand, a Buddhist does not neglect to express his thanks; on the other, he does not expect to be thanked.  This is an example of true recognition of mutual dependence.  Yet, although we may understand this, we do not always act accordingly.  If someone neglects to say thank you when we give him something, especially if it cost a lot, we usually get upset, even if we do not say anything.  We’re thinking, “Aren’t you going to thank me?” but we usually do not say it out loud.  Sometimes, though, it irks us so much that we do!  On the other hand, sometimes we ourselves forget to say thank you!  In this case, it’s better late than never.

We need to learn to express our gratitude, to say simply, thank you, whenever we receive something meant to please us, whether it is tangible or otherwise, like a smile.  You can say thank you with a smile in return.  Like other things we learn, sometimes we express our gratitude inappropriately or inadequately or, even, when we don’t mean it, but it is nearly always better to express it than not.  It’s a good habit to have, in other words.

If by now, you haven’t seen where this is all leading, let me say that Thanksgiving Day is not just a day to eat turkey or ham.  Use at least the five or ten minutes it takes to read this essay to give thought to all that enable you to be alive and well and living wherever you are, and let 2001 be the year you give thanks with as much sincerity as you can.  And if by chance you say Namo Amida Butsu, give thought to that Name that enables you to see yourself as you really are and entrusts you with no doubt.

Gassho,
Donkon Jaan, Rev. John Doami

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