It is natural for us to
want to spend time remembering those who have gone before us. The funeral for our loved one was too close
to the time of death to be much of anything other than soaked with sadness at
their passing. The “celebration of life”
that has become popular in the US attempts to honor the person’s entire life,
but frequently does so at the expense of recognizing the passage and
inevitability of death.
Our Shin Buddhist
memorial services offer us a framework on which to meditate and reflect on our
cherished memories of the deceased as well as to bring those reflections home
to the Buddha’s central teaching on impermanency of life in all forms—including
our own changing existence. As we
remember all that the deceased did for us and others in their lifetime, we
experience gratitude for them and for all those who have made our lives
possible.
The memorial services
give us the opportunity to listen to the dharma and to express our gratitude to
Amida Buddha. Amida Buddha is our
personal symbol the historical person of Shakyamuni—the Buddha—and also the
universal Buddhahood that is with and within all of us.
Although our monthly
newsletter reminds us of the memorial years for our past temple members,
nowhere are the lessons of memorializing the deceased more important or
celebrated for us than during January’s Ho-Onko service. The founder of our tradition and our primary
teacher, Shinran Shonin died on January 16, 1262. The translation for Ho-onko is “return of
gratitude” (ho-on) and “clarify the
meaning of” (ko). Although we keep track of our personal
memorials for temple members, Shinran Shonin’s annual memorial service stands
in for all of us, still-living or long-departed—and has done so for over 750
years.
Our teacher, Shinran,
lived in a time of great disunity and violence, a time mirrored in our
experiences today. He sought a way to
attain peace that would be available to everyone, not only those who could
leave their family for a monastic life of strict practices and study. And, although it sometimes doesn’t look this
way to new members who listen to our chants in Japanese and hear words like naijin, o-shoku and even ho-onko,
Shinran’s way was not just for Japanese and their descendants. He tried for 20 years to find peace through
his monatic practice, but eventually returned to the world, married, had
children—and uncovered the way of life—the Nembutsu
way—that all of us live today.
There are thousands of
books and articles in English and in Japanese that attempt to describe this
life of Nembutsu. It can be made very
complicated and not feel like a way of life available to everybody at all. Or it can be understood very simply: oneness.
We are “one” in the Nembutsu, one with Shinran Shonin and with our
beloved dead because our ego self melts and our hearts and minds become one
with all life, past, present and future.
We say Namu Amida Butsu—I take
refuge in Amida Buddha—and that is our ticket into a world of oneness that
exists without time or the edges of egos and distinctions of persons.
It is a beautiful way of
life. But, truthfully, we forget how
beautiful it is. We are not surrounded
here with the annual customs Reverend Bishop Umezu remembers so vividly growing
up in a small town in Japan, full of observant Shin Buddhists. We need Ho-Onko once a year to come together
as a sangha to retrace Shinran’s footsteps into the world of Nembutsu and to
resolve to dedicate ourselves anew in the service of each other.
Our Ho-onko service follows
the general pattern of our Sunday services, but like those services in the
Bishop’s childhood, we bring in a special speaker (s/he only gives one Dharma
talk, however!) who will enlighten us further on Shinran’s teachings. Our hymn (gatha)
will be one written by Shinran himself, and we will chant the Shoshinge, which is the mighty
compilation of the great masters’ teachings that stand as the foundations that
Shinran followed and taught to us.
Shinran walked before
us. We follow his footsteps and those
who came before him and remember all those footsteps today.
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