Orange County Buddhist Church
Orange County Buddhist Church
RETURNING TO THE CITY OF DHARMA-NATURE
A baby sized o-juzu for a small hand, a red tiny wagesa for a girl baby, and blue one for a boy baby. All the baby items are so cute and pretty.
We recently welcomed many newborn babies at the Hatsumairi ceremony. The Hatsumairi literally means “visit a temple for the first time” (“hatsu” means “for the first time”, “(o)-mairi” means “to visit or come to a temple for a service”). Those babies were brought by their parents to the OCBC for the first time to say hello to Amida Buddha and Master Shinran Shonin. Did you hear the healthy baby voices?
There were twelve babies including 7 girl babies and 5 boy babies. They are all healthy and happy babies accompanied by their parents, grandmothers, grandfathers, brothers and sisters, and friends. We wish they will grow peacefully and healthy.
I think that those parents gave a great present to their baby, to give them the first opportunity to come forward to the Buddha and receive the o-juzu and wagesa, which signifies being a Shin Buddhist. When we see a newborn baby, we all smile, don’t we? Babies and small children somehow have a special power to soften our adult minds and spread calmness. We see a precious life living inside of the babies, continued on from their parents and ancestors. Their lives and our lives are all living in the Buddha’s Life and Great Vow.
We read The Three Treasures at the Sunday service, “Hard it is to be born into human life. Now we are living it.” It is an amazing fact that we were born as a human. Through many karmic conditions, we were made a precious human life, and born in this world.
The first line 「帰命無量寿如来」(pronounced ki-myō-mu-ryō-ju-nyo-rai) of the Shōshinge (Jp. 正信偈) is well-known among Shin Buddhists. 「帰命」pronounced “kimyō” literally means “to return to life”. Actually it means that we return to the Buddha’s Life. “Return?” We would think the term “return” is used for the action to go back to the place where you came from. Does it mean that we all came from the Buddha’s Life? Yes, exactly. Furthermore, the potential to become the Buddha could be initiated by encountering the Buddha-Dharma in this present life. Shinran Shonin used the phrase “returning to the city of dharma-nature” (Jp. hosshō no miyako ni kaeru, 法性のみやこに帰る). The city of dharma-nature is the place where our real self should reside.
Once we awaken to our precious life and Buddha nature, our perspective toward our life completely changes, and a new world will open up for us. We can imagine a frog living deep at the bottom of a well that finally sees the big blue sky after climbing up the well. It would be a huge surprise for the frog to realize that such a big world does exist. The frog finally experiences a more complete truth in the present life. Soon the frog cannot keep this discovery within himself, but rather he wants to tell other frogs about the existence of the huge blue sky.
Professor Takamaro Shigaraki, a contemporary Shin Buddhist scholar says that the mind that aspires for Buddhahood and the mind to save sentient beings are not separate minds. But rather they happen at the same time just like two sides of the same coin. Once we are struck by the truth of the Buddha-Dharma, we cannot help taking our friends to OCBC in order to share the Buddha-Dharma. This is the way of sharing happiness with others.
As those newborn babies and small children grow up, I wish the OCBC will become their true home, where they can appreciate the Buddha-Dharma and meet real friends. It was my wish when putting a small o-juzu to each baby’s tiny wrist.
Namo Amida Butsu,
Rev. Mutsumi Wondra
June 2008
