Orange County Buddhist Church

Finding Peace in a Chaotic World

    The events of September 11, 2001, have literally thrown the entire world into an unsettling and disturbing time.  Thousands of lives have been lost.  Great buildings have been toppled.  Air travel has been altered, perhaps forever.  Subsequently, people have lost jobs.  Businesses will close.  There is unrest, fear, and anxiety wondering what awful event might happen next.  Will there be a bio-chemical attack next, or horrors if it could be a nuclear attack.

    How can we find peace in such a chaotic situation?  How can we live without fear or anxiety?  How can we have a meaningful life if it can be destroyed in an instant?

    Throughout the history of mankind, it is at those times of suffering and chaos, that great religious thinkers have arisen in response to the suffering of their fellow man.  Shinran Shonin, the founder of Shin Buddhism, lived in a very chaotic time in Japan.  It was during the Kamakura Period of Japanese history.  Government was unstable, there was famine and disease.

    In the city of Kyoto, there runs a river called the Kamo River.  Presently it is a beautiful part of the city, and it is lined with nice restaurants and drinking places.  However, during Shinran’s time, disease once spread through the city, killing thousands of people.  The Kamo River was lined with the corpses of the dead.  Of course they did not have the medicines and antibiotics to fight disease, and an epidemic could wipe out literally thousands of people.

    My teacher in Japan, Professor Takamaro Shigaraki, grew up having tuberculosis.  Tuberculosis was a fatal illness in those prewar days.  It was communicable, and there was no cure.  He was told that he probably wouldn’t live to be twenty years old.  At a young age he lost his mother to tuberculosis, in addition to siblings.

    Shinran too lost his mother, and later his father seems to have disappeared, leaving Shinran as an orphan, to be raised by the Buddhist monks.

    However, despite the turbulent times and life that Shinran had, in one of his writings he says the following words:  “Spread the Buddha-Dharma, and make the world at peace.”  Yo no naka annon nare, Buppo hiromare. 

    No matter how turbulent or chaotic the world might be, Shinran found the greatest peace, the greatest comfort, the greatest meaning in the Buddha-Dharma, in the Nembutsu, Namuamidabutsu.  The world could be tumbling down all around you, but if you had the truth of the Nembutsu deep within your heart and mind, there was an indestructible solace, a peace, a tranquility that could not be shattered.

    Shigaraki-Sensei once in one of his lectures, talked about how life was in those prewar days.  In those days, when someone died, the family had to actually go out and gather the firewood used for the cremation of the body.  He said that it was such a painful thing to do, to gather the firewood that would burn the body of your loved one.  But despite living with such pain and tragedy, what became clearer and clearer for Sensei in his life, was the profound truth of the Nembutsu.

    As we now face our own turbulent time, our own unsettling world of violence and tragedy, it is an opportunity for us to find real peace, real truth.  When we find that peace within our hearts, it begins to radiate to the world around us.  It is in that manner that we can bring about real peace in the world.

    I know of one person who became a Buddhist simply from seeing someone live a radiant and peaceful life.

    This person worked in a nursing home, and couldn’t help but be impressed by one particular elderly Japanese woman.  This woman was the most wonderful resident of the nursing home.  She was so humble, peaceful, and warm.  The non-Buddhist person asked the family, why is your mother that way?  What makes her such a peaceful person?  The family responded, “We think it is because of her Buddhist background.”

    The person working in the nursing home was so struck by the fact that Buddhism could make someone so radiant and peaceful that she began to inquire about Buddhism, and found herself at a Shin Buddhist temple.  From there she entered deeply into Buddhism herself.

    Once there was a discussion at a certain Buddhist temple.  In that discussion, one woman expressed her opinion quite strongly, saying, “Buddhists are too passive!  Buddhists should more actively be working for world peace!”

    The minister leading that discussion, then calmly asked that woman, “But may I ask you, can you truly say you have peace in your own heart?  Unless you have peace in your heart and mind, how can you preach it to others?”

    The woman lowered her head and could not reply.

    We all seek world peace.  We all want to live in a world free of violence and hatred, war and strife.  The one thing that we can do is to find peace and truth in our own life.  When we are peaceful, then our family will be peaceful.  When our family is peaceful, our neighborhood is peaceful.  When our neighborhood is peaceful, our city is peaceful.  When our city is peaceful, our state and country, and the world too, becomes peaceful.

    There is a story from a Buddhist sutra that goes as follows:  Once there was a great forest in which there lived many animals.  All of the animals loved the forest.  The forest was their home.  One day, however, the forest caught fire.  All of the animals worked feverishly to put out the fire.  After all, the forest was their home.  Without the forest, where could they live?  However, despite their efforts, the fire grew and grew.  Finally, the great lion, the leader of the animals, called out to everyone, “Run for safety!  We cannot put out the fire!”

    The animals fled to a safe area, and watched in sadness as the fire continued to burn.

     They noticed, however, that a little bird continued to fight the fire.  This little bird would fly to a nearby pond, drop down into the water, wet its body, and then fly over the forest fire flapping its wings dropping a few droplets of water over the fire.  Back and forth, back and forth the little bird worked.

    The other animals called to the bird, “Are you crazy?  It is dangerous.  How do you expect to put out the fire that way?”

    Finally, the little bird stopped for a short rest and came by the animals.  The little bird said, “The question for me is not, can I put out the fire.  The question for me is, what can I do?  This is all that I can do.  I am only doing what I can do.”  And with that the bird returned to fighting the forest fire.

    We now face a forest fire of chaos and unrest.  What can we do like the little bird that fights the forest fire?  I think the one thing we can do is what we have always done.  To listen to the teachings, to become a person of true peace, to meet the Nembutsu as a real truth in life – that is what we can do.

    May we find real peace and comfort in the Buddha-Dharma, in the Nembutsu, and may our peaceful life become the drops of water from the wings of the little bird that puts out a great forest fire, because that is all that I can do.

Namuamidabutsu,
Rev. Marvin Harada