Orange County Buddhist Church
Orange County Buddhist Church
A WAY OF SEEING (Power[less])
Power of other –
Not power of an other,
Nor of the other.
Unless you were out of the country, you are aware of the power outage that hit Los Angeles County in September. It might also have struck other areas of Southern California, but if they did, they did not enter my field of vision, so to speak, as self-centered as I am. Further, since our home was in one of the scattered areas hit in Cerritos, we were without lights, radio and TV. And hot water, with all that entails. Cold showers, for instance, although they were quite bracing. Fortunately, the outage lasted only 33 hours or so; fortunately, because some people suffered for four days or more.
In order to find relief from the heat, we went to a movie on one day and to the Cerritos Library the following day. Not so surprisingly, both places were crowded. That was the week of high-90s heat, so if your power was out, you had no air conditioning.
One of the things that event made me think of was, power we might be able to do without, but suppose it had been a major earthquake. We usually have two 24-bottle packs of water for emergency purposes, which is more vital to our existence than is power. We usually drink one pack and buy another one when we’re almost finished, so that we always have at least two packs available. However, my usual procrastination took over, and the only bottled water we had were the two or three in our cars, hardly enough to tide us over an emergency. (I still have not bought more.)
You might remember and, I hope, think about, the Buddhist definition of ignorance: Ignorance is knowing something to be the case, and not acting in accord with that knowledge. In the above example, knowing I should be prepared for the inevitable major earthquake, yet not really doing anything to prepare is ignorance. It is not just water that will be needed, but first aid materials (more, if you are trained in their use), flashlights, and so on.
In the end, I am being ignorant of dependent, or conditioned, co-arising, and of karma (my procrastination).
You might be wondering what the “haiku” that began this essay has to do with all this. If pressed for an answer, I would have to admit that it’s a stretch to connect them.
On the other hand, the power outage did make me think of Amida, although absolutely not in the sense that Amida had anything whatsoever to do with the outage. Then again, it could be said that the outage occurred within Amida. No, not within, nor yet without (as in outside of). Amida is both other and power, but not electrical power, although it could be. Amida’s power is that which awakens us to our blind ignorance, to our insatiable desire. In that awakening, too, is both the realization and acceptance of our true reality as we are and, at the same time, the realization and acceptance of Amida as other power which enables my ultimate enlightenment and oneness with Amida.
Gassho,
Donkon Jaan
Rev. John Doami
October 2007
