Orange County Buddhist Church
Orange County Buddhist Church
Listen To The Dharma With Your Feet
I am writing this article as I sit at the San Jose airport waiting for my plane back to Orange County. I have just attended the funeral service for Rev. Masanori Ohata, a recently retired BCA minister who served over 40 years and sadly died of brain cancer less than a year after he retired.
My good friend, Rev. David Matsumoto, gave the English sermon at Rev. Ohata’s service. Rev. Matsumoto served with Rev. Ohata at the Stockton temple for six years. It was his first assignment and Rev. Ohata was a wonderful “mentor” for Rev. Matsumoto.
In Rev. Matsumoto’s sermon, he shared something that he learned from Rev. Ohata that Sensei had written in a BCA book of sermons by ministers. In that essay, Rev. Ohata wrote that we have to listen to the Dharma with our “feet.”
This is a most striking expression that I would like to reflect on and share with all of you. We listen to the Dharma with our feet. What does this mean?
Normally we think we listen to the Dharma with our ears. How is it possible to listen to the Dharma with our feet?
What Rev. Ohata was trying to say in that expression, is that it takes our feet, our legs, to carry us to the temple to be able to listen to the Dharma through our ears and our hearts. The most important part of listening is going on your own two feet and being at the temple or church to listen.
I think this is a wonderful important message.
Over the years I have had many conversations with a variety of people, both Buddhist and Non-Buddhist, who don’t regularly attend a church or temple and their excuse was that they feel it is more important to live it (meaning their religion), everyday, rather than taking the time to go to a church or temple. Such people even say this with great pride, bordering on arrogance, as if to say they don’t really need religion because they “live it” everyday. My question is, “Have they really listened to the teachings/Dharma/religion such that they can make that kind of statement, that they truly “live it” everyday?
The only way we can become the kind of person who “lives it everyday” is to attend the temple, listen to sermons, attend study classes, read books and reflect deeply, such that the teachings become immersed into our life. To put it another way, our life becomes immersed with the teachings.
That is why Rev. Ohata’s statement and teaching is so important and true. We listen with our feet. Unless we physically go on our own two feet to listen to the Dharma, it is very hard to really listen.
At OCBC, we try to create many opportunities for people to listen to the Dharma. Our BEC classes on Buddhism and Jodo Shinshu, our meditation services twice a week, our Sunday services and adult discussions are all opportunities to listen with our feet.
From listening to the Dharma at the temple, we learn how to listen to the Dharma anywhere. We learn that the Dharma is all around us, if we have the eyes to see it and the ears to hear it. We learn that we could be in a bar, in a gym, driving in our car, or sitting next to someone on the plane, and they all could be opportunities to listen to the Dharma. But unless we go out with our own two feet and listen at the temple, we will not learn how to listen from the world around us.
I was so grateful to be able to pay my respects to Rev. Ohata and to attend his service, so that I could hear this wonderful and important teaching. May we all listen to the Dharma diligently through our “feet.”
Namuamidabutsu, Rev. Marvin Harada
