Orange County Buddhist Church
Orange County Buddhist Church
A Lesson On Peace From Honen's Father
One of the great Buddhist Masters in the history of Japanese Buddhism, was Honen (1133-1212). Honen is especially significant for all of us in the Shin Buddhist tradition because Honen was Shinran's teacher. It was through Honen that Shinran was able to meet the profound truth of the Dharma. Buddhism came alive for the first time when Shinran saw it manifest in a living person, in his teacher Honen.
In this month's article, I would like to discuss and reflect on the great lesson on peace that we can learn from the life of Honen, largely from the wisdom of Honen's father.
Honen's father was a high ranking government official at a time of political instability. An attacker came to try to kill Honen's father, wounding him very seriously. Honen and his mother hid during the attack and were not injured or killed.
Honen's father, knowing he would not survive, called his son to his side, and left him with a dying request.
"Do not take revenge on the man who attacked me. If you take revenge and kill that man, then his son will want to take revenge and will someday kill your son, and the killing will go on endlessly for generations. The only way to stop such senseless violence is to become a Buddhist monk. Find the way to save both me and my attacker."
With his father's dying request, Honen entered the Buddhist priesthood and became one of the foremost monks in Japanese Buddhism. Honen was a brilliant monk and is said to have read all of the sutras, which are about 100 volumes, five times in his lifetime. That is like reading the whole set of Encyclopedia Brittanica maybe 20 times.
There is a profound message in Honen's father's dying wish that the whole world can learn from. His father must've already been a devout Buddhist for him to leave his son with that kind of request. Normally, a person might say in anger in his dying moments, "Get that guy that did this to me! No matter what!" But instead, Honen's father encouraged him to find the path of peace instead of revenge.
Anger and revenge only lead to more violence and conflict. How true it is that killing and violence can go on for generations and generations. Look at the confict in the Middle East between Israel and the PLO. Centuries of conflict, centuries of killing. Northern Ireland is yet another example of conflict that spans generations.
Didn't our country react in the same manner? After the terrorist attack on 9-11, our knee jerk reaction was that we had to strike back at someone. Saddam Hussein and Iraq were the recipients of our anger and revenge. Now, instead of trying to establish peace, we might have stirred the fire of anger and revenge in countless others, who will someday find ways to vent their anger and strike back.
Honen's father's dying wish from centuries ago is a most important lesson for the whole world today. It is not just the war in Iraq either. It applies to gang wars in LA, where one gang has to retaliate and take revenge on another gang. It applies to office politics where someone wants to take revenge on the fellow worker who "stabbed him in the back" on a business deal. It applies to one's own family when conflicts arise between parents and children, between siblings, between husbands and wives. "Getting even" with someone only leads to more conflict, violence, and suffering down the road. A simple misunderstanding can escalate to a physical confrontation, severed relations, or divorce.
Honen's father asked his son to find the way to save, "both himself and his attacker." Discovering the way of peace, the way of the Dharma, is the path for saving both the victim and the attacker.
Our world today most desperately needs to learn this lesson from Honen's father. World leaders need to learn this lesson. Gang leaders need to learn this lesson. Business leaders need to learn this lesson. Husbands and wives need to learn this lesson. Parents and children need to learn this lesson. It has implications for each and every one of us, because we have all been angered, hurt, or mistreated by someone. The easy thing to do is to lash back, to get even, to take revenge. That is what man has done throughout the history of mankind. Look where it's gotten us, -- wars, conflicts, tragedies.
Buddhism offers us another path. It is not the easy path, but it is the difficult path. But it is the path that must be discovered, that must be traveled. It is not the most popular path, but in time more and more people will discover this path. In time more and more people will find the peace, wisdom, and light that this path offers. I hope we can all discover this path in time to save both ourselves, and our attackers.
Namuamidabutsu,
Rev. Marvin Harada
March 2007
