Orange County Buddhist Church
Orange County Buddhist Church
Last Sunday I talked about the classic movie, “The Wizard of Oz”, and related its story to Buddhism. Many years ago I wrote a similar article, but this time I would like to write if from a slightly different perspective.
Of course, we all have seen “The Wizard of Oz”, and it is one of my all time favorite movies. Dorothy, getting stuck in a tornado, hits her head and wakes up to find herself in an altogether different world, the land of Oz. She is lost, and seeks to find her way back home. She is instructed by the Good Witch of the East to follow the yellow brick road, to meet the Wizard of Oz, who could surely help her get home.
Although Dorothy is lost, once she is instructed to follow the yellow brick road, her journey home has begun. She is not lost anymore. She has been given a direction on her journey home.
It is scary to be lost. If you have ever been lost before, it can become a panic stricken situation. To be lost in the woods, not knowing which way is out, can be petrifying. To drive in a strange city, to lose your way and find yourself in a rough part of town can also be scary.
Sometimes we are lost and we don’t even know it or want to admit it. Men never get lost. That’s why men never ask for directions. I can remember driving around looking for a place that I swear I knew, only to drive around and around aimlessly. Gail would ask, “Why don’t you stop and ask someone?” I would respond that I was sure it was just right around here ---somewhere. Finally, I would have to swallow my pride and admit I didn’t know where I was. As soon as I stopped to get directions we were on our way to our destination.
Buddhism gives us many metaphors in imparting the teachings to us. One of the metaphors to describe the unenlightened life is the metaphor of being lost. The unenlightened life of delusion, is to be like a lost soul in the forest, wandering about aimlessly, not knowing the way out. Buddhism gives us direction, a way out of our ignorance, our delusion, out of the world of samsara.
We have to ask ourselves, what is the direction of my life? Where is my life headed? What is the focus of my life?
You might think that you have some kind of direction of your life right now, but ask yourself if that direction is a true and lasting one. For example, your main focus or direction of your life might be your career. You are focused and are headed in the direction of your career, climbing the ladder within the company. But what happens to your focus or direction if you lose your job, or someday when you retire. Many people whose lives have been their work cannot cope with retirement. The whole meaning of their life was work, so when work is gone, then one’s meaning in life is gone as well.
What if your direction of life is to find a spouse, a husband or wife. Finally you find the person of your dreams, and you begin to have a blissful marriage. What do you if one day your spouse says he (or she) is leaving you for someone else, or you are separated from your beloved spouse by death. The direction of your life is gone.
For many parents with children, the focus, the direction of their life is raising their children. Especially for mothers, during the child-rearing years, they give their children the utmost of care and nurturing. During the infant stage, mothers wake up two or three times during the night for feedings. Later, there is the constant shuttling to school, piano lessons, soccer practice, and scout meetings. What does a mother do, however, when her children are all grown up and raised? If the focus, the direction of the mother’s life has been raising her children, then when her children are raised, it can leave a huge void, an emptiness in her life. I know of some mothers who actually have had depression and psychological disorders when their children were raised and left home. If the total focus, direction of your life is gone, then what do you do? What direction do you go in?
Our work, our marriages, our families, are all vitally important to our lives. We give everything of ourselves to succeed in our work, marriage, and family life. They are the main focus, the main direction of our life. However, we must understand that they are not the ultimate, lasting direction of life. Events can take away that focus, that direction from our life. Once one of those directions are gone, then we find ourselves lost, wandering about in the forest of life. What should I do now? What meaning is there in life now? Temporarily we might go to Las Vegas, or on a cruise to make ourselves feel better, but it is only a temporary reprieve from a deeper emptiness, void in our life.
Buddhism gives us the ultimate, true direction in life. Once we turn our lives towards the teachings, towards truth, towards enlightenment, we will never be lost, we will never lack meaning or purpose in life.
If we lose our job, or retire, we always have something to do, we can listen to the Dharma, we can reflect on the teachings.
If we lose our spouse, we are not alone, because we have discovered a path that is filled with fellow travelers also seeking the truth.
If our children grow up and leave home, we still have meaning and purpose in life. Now, instead of raising one’s children, it is time for us to be raised, to be nurtured, by the heart of the Buddha.
Even if one’s health begins to fail, and you can no longer play golf, or work in the yard, you still have direction, meaning in your life. Kaneko, Daiei, a great minister and scholar in Japan, spent the last two years of his life bed-ridden. He expressed how those years taught him so much about life and true gratitude.
To follow the path of Buddhism, to follow the path of the Nembutsu, is to have a direction for your life. By having a direction for your life, you will never be lost, you will never lack meaning or purpose in life. You will never feel totally alone, nor feel emptiness in your heart or mind. Who is there that would not want such a direction of one’s life? That is why the message of Buddhism is so universal, so important to all people of all time.
May we discover the true direction of our life, the path of the Buddha-Dharma.
Gassho,
Rev. Marvin Harada
