Orange County Buddhist Church
Orange County Buddhist Church
We just finished a most exhausting and draining election of a new president. I found that politics is one of the most divisive things to talk about to people. I was having a friendly conversation with one member of our temple, when out of the blue he asked me whom I was going to vote for. When I answered he responded very bluntly by saying, “Sensei, I thought you were a smart guy. How can you vote for him?!” He was half-kidding and half serious. I took it in the same manner. Soon we were debating politics and the election.
Politics creates boundaries. Buddhism breaks down boundaries. One of the qualities of the light of Amida, the light of the Dharma, is that it is an unbounded light. This means that the light has no boundaries. The light of Amida doesn’t say, “I am going to shine only on America, and not on any other country.” The light of Amida has no boundaries. It shines on America. It shines on Iraq. It shines on Israel. It shines on the PLO. It shines over the rich, the poor, the good, the evil. It shines over men and women, young and old. It has no boundaries to confine it.
I once read that astronauts who go into outer space all have a similar experience. They say that to go into outer space and to look at our earth from outer space is a most amazing, awakening experience. From outer space, looking back on our small, little planet, all borders of countries disappear. You can’t see the border between Israel and the PLO from outer space. All borders between countries disappear, and only one, small, fragile planet remains. Out of this vast and infinite universe that we are a part of, we happen to live on one tiny little planet, that revolves around one particular sun amongst billions of stars. How can we afford to fight or to have wars over borders and boundaries on this one little planet within this vast universe? Truly, astronauts receive a most valuable experience flying into outer space, to see our earth from afar.
To touch the light of Amida means to receive the same quality as that light. To touch the light of Amida, means that a person’s life becomes unbounded, a person’s heart and mind becomes unbounded.
Rev. Haya Akegarasu expresses this heart and mind beautifully in the following poem about flowers:
The World of the Flowers
Such a solemn
world of flowers!
Such a spectacle, this rich world
Of the flowers! All beings are living
Brightness fulfilled with brightness
On the earth, under the heavens.
There is no
gap between matter and man,
Between sentient and non-sentient being:
All are living, all are dancing –
Trees and grasses speak, the land sings,
Slate and pebbles are whispering,
Dust and trash are shouting.
When our real
mind’s eye opens this world of flowers,
All beings shine, music echoes through mountains
And oceans. One’s world becomes
The world of millions. The individual becomes
The human race. Society becomes
The individual –
Billions of mirrors all reflecting each other.
There is death and life,
There is no death or life,
There is
changing life, there is unchanging life,
There is Nirvana, there is Samsara.
Clouds change into multitudinous forms.
Water changes form as it wishes
By taking the shape of its container.
Flowers change color, moment by moment.
Such a vivid world! Such a bright I!
Flowers shining out of love, flowers
Reflecting all lives.
I was born out
of these flowers,
I gave birth to these flowers.
I have no beginning and no ending,
I am bottomless and limitless,
As also I am infinitesimal dust.
The loftiest I, the deepest I,
I embrace all, I am embraced by all,
I sit in the petals of the flower
I ride the clouds
I ride the waves
I dance with love.
This flower shines forth
Plants are singing, minerals dancing,
Gods conversing with men, animals
Meeting with Buddhas.
I become man and embrace all women,
I become woman and embrace all men,
I am love
I am the flower.
All beings shine, out of their uniqueness;
All melt into the oneness of colors.
I am one, I am many. Only one moment, only
One unique place, only the unique I.
Beside me there is nothing:
I dance, appearing in all.
Excerpts from
“The World of the Flowers”
p. 187-89
Shout of Buddha
Rev. Akegarasu expresses this great, unbounded heart and mind that is one with the flowers, that is one with the trees, that is one with all beings.
In the secular world, we divide and make distinctions. Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, them and us, the distinctions can go on and on. Buddhism opens up the world beyond distinctions, beyond boundaries. Our world today is in deep need of this kind of teaching, of this kind of heart and mind. Only through seeing the world beyond boundaries do we have the chance of living as one planet, as one earth.
Namuamidabutsu,
Rev. Marvin Harada
