A Way of Seeing – Fall Ohigan, 2002

            Yet another Higan -
                    How joyful I am!
            How wretched!  Namo Amida Butsu
                    Donkon Jaan

    Can you tell what my haiku means?  It’s probably a little too terse to figure out completely.  It’s quite simple, as you will see very shortly, for I am a simple man; too simple sometimes.

    Higan, or Ohigan if you prefer it with the honorific, is observed twice a year, at the time of the spring and fall equinoxes, as you know.  It is a time used by serious Buddhists to study the teachings and examine themselves in their light even more deeply than usual, since the weather is usually at its best, not too hot nor too cold.  I hope that we take advantage of this time to do so, especially those of us who say – to my mind without even trying – the teachings are too difficult.  It is not the teachings that are difficult, but I myself.

    The teachings say that we are living in the illusion that we are independent beings.  The reality is that we are completely dependent on everything around us.  Is that difficult to understand?  It is very difficult to live life in accordance with, but surely it is not difficult to understand.  What is difficult is I myself.

    One meaning of my haiku is simply that as I grow older, I am joyful to reach one more Higan.  Yet I am wretched because, when I began to write this, that was the only thought in my mind – I lived another year; nothing about contemplating the teachings, let alone my self.  Finally, Namo Amida Butsu, because only through the Nembutsu am I enabled to find meaning in life even though, or simply because, I am caught in a delusory self.  I hope you will be a more serious Buddhist and use Ohigan as it was meant to be used.

Gassho,

Donkon Shaku Jaan

Rev. John Doami