BCA Town Hall GoesVirtual, Worldwide

FYI

To view “A Promise Shared,” go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buxB_--PM6A

For information about EverydayBuddhist.org: https://www.everydaybuddhist.org/

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In an unprecedented event, the BCA held a town hall meeting that reached beyond the temples and churches — to households and residents around the world.

The “A Promise Shared” town hall was part of the opening week of the BCA’s National Council Meeting (NCM), and was held on Feb. 23. It was streamed live to all the BCA’s approximately 60 temples, churches, Sanghas and fellowships — and to the Hawaii and Canada kyodans. The BCA’s Bay District, which hosted the virtual NCM, came up with the idea of reaching out to an expanded audience.

Bishop Rev. Marvin Harada shared his insights on the topic of practical Buddhism versus truth level Buddhism, and Rev. Jon Turner, Resident Minister of the Orange County Buddhist Church (OCBC), described the online EverydayBuddhist.org and its outreach efforts, course offerings, growth in developing a global audience, and what participants want and like about it.

“All of our great Buddhist masters and teachers are expressing Buddhism at the truth level,” Rev. Harada said. “But the average person is more interested in Buddhism at a practical level, asking questions like ‘Will Buddhism help me live a happier life?’ ‘Will it help me to ease my stress or anxiety?’ ‘Will it help me to live a more meaningful life?’ 

“So there can be a big gap between the truth level of Buddhism and those who are on the practical level,” he said.

Practical vs. Truth

One example, he said, is the Sunday service.

“Let’s say, as a minister, we give a sermon and we’re trying to talk about Buddhism from a truth level, but people are listening with an interest at the practical level,” he said. “So there’s this disconnect. Ministers get frustrated — ‘How come people aren’t understanding my message?’ — but the members are thinking, ‘How come sensei is so intellectual and how come you can’t bring it down to our level?’”

Rev. Harada said contemporary Buddhist teachers are addressing the issue and listed books by the Dalai Lama, Dan Harris and the renowned late Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh.

Rev. Harada singled out the following books:

• “The Art of Happiness” by the Dalai Lama;

• “10% Happier” by Dan Harris; and

• Several books by Thich Nhat Hanh, including “No Mud, No Lotus,” “No Death, No Fear,” “Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm,” and “Living Buddha, Living Christ.”

Rev. Harada said that “Shin Buddhism or Jodo Shinshu Buddhism is a little behind in presenting the practical level of Shin Buddhism. But first we have to address what Shin Buddhism will not get you. It’s not going to get you a jackpot by saying ‘Namo Amida Butsu.’ But although Shin Buddhism will not get you a million dollars, it could help a person feel like a million dollars.

“Buddhism will not cure cancer, but it can give you the spiritual strength to face or even embrace your cancer by having a positive attitude and facing illness,” he said. “That’s a big part of whether one is actually healed or not. But it’s not going to necessarily cure your cancer if you recite the Nembutsu 1,000 times or something like that. So that is where the practical level of Buddhism and the truth level of Buddhism begin to merge and connect.”

Rev. Harada shared a few remembrances of OCBC Sangha members as exemplifying the truth level of Buddhism.

One was a member who was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer.

“Her demeanor never changed,” he said. “That’s terrible news to receive. You have stage four pancreatic cancer. Now you have to go through chemotherapy and all that, but her demeanor never changed. She maintained this positive attitude, grateful for her life, even though it was tragically cut short.”

Rev. Harada quoted poems he translated by Ayako Suzuki, the wife of a Jodo Shinshu minister, who died of cancer. This poem was written after her diagnosis of cancer. 

“If one awakens to death,

One feels much stronger about life,

Exact opposites melt into one, and

There is an incomprehensible peacefulness.”

And this poem:

“I will become Namo Amida Butsu for my children.

I will become Namo Amida Butsu for my friends and temple members.

When you think of me, please say ‘Namo Amida Butsu,’ and

I will call the Nembutsu in return.”

“She’s saying, ‘When I die, I will become Namo Amida Butsu,” Rev. Harada said. “She doesn’t say, ‘When I die, I will go to the Pure Land.’ She says, ‘I will become Namo Amida Butsu.’ And that truth that she has received and encountered in her life, that truth is here now and it will remain with her family. ‘When you think of me, please say ‘Namo Amida Butsu,’ and I will call the Nembutsu in return.”

Rev. Harada shared another heartfelt poem by another late OCBC Sangha member, Scott Morris.

Morris was not raised as a Buddhist but his wife was a Buddhist, so the family began attending OCBC. Sadly, he was diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, for which there is no cure.

“If you get cancer, there’s some hope for a cure through surgery, radiation and chemotherapy,” Rev. Harada said. “But if you get ALS, the best you can hope for is a slow developing ALS and it’s an illness that begins in your feet and works its way up your body.”

OCBC formed a living through illness support group and Morris attended regularly. At one session, he was particularly sad.

“I’m going to be missing so many things in life,” Rev. Harada recalled Morris saying. “I probably won’t be around for my son’s high school graduation. I’ll never be able to walk my daughter down the aisle on her wedding day.”

Rev. Harada encouraged him to write letters to his children that they would read at those milestones in their lives.

Instead, Morris wrote a poem which he shared at the next month’s support group:

“I have ALS and I am grateful.

I am grateful to retire early to be with my family.

I am grateful I have family and friends that are so supportive and hopeful.

I am grateful I can still walk and get around.

When that is gone, I am grateful I can still use my hands to feed myself.

When that is gone, I am grateful I can still breathe and laugh and feel.

When that is gone, I am grateful I had a wonderful life.

When that is gone, Namuamidabutsu.”

“I put this poem right up there with any of the masters — it’s so profound,” Rev. Harada said. “Scott came to encounter the Nembutsu, not just as a word, but as a profound truth. He encountered it at the truth level. That’s why, even when his physical life is gone, what’s still there is the truth of Namo Amida Butsu.”

He added: “Initially, we might be interested in Buddhism at the practical level, but if we continue on the path, we will encounter it at the truth level.”

Rev. Harada quoted from one of Shinran Shonin’s famous passages that he said expresses the truth level:

“With a foolish being full of blind passions, in this fleeting world — this burning house — all matters without exception are empty and false, totally without truth and sincerity. The Nembutsu alone is true and real.”

— Shinran Shonin, CWS, Page 679

“He’s saying, ‘Everything in our life, our work, our assets, our relationships, everything is false in comparison to the truth of the Nembustu,” Rev. Harada said. “The Nembutsu alone is true and real.”

In conclusion, Rev. Harada said the challenge for future propagation efforts is to bring out the practical side of Shin Buddhism without it becoming  something superficial.

“We don’t want it to be oversimplified,” he said. “Shin Buddhism or Jodo Shinshu Buddhism has this tremendous depth. We have to always have the truth level, but at the same time, we have to bring out the practical level.

“If we cannot communicate this practical level of Shin Buddhism, how can we interest those who are seeking the Dharma and connect with them? Because they’re obviously looking to Buddhism at this practical level. So, that is our challenge as we strive to share our Shin Buddhist teachings with the world to bring out the practical level that leads to the truth level.”

EverydayBuddhist.org

Rev. Turner shared the lessons learned from EverydayBuddhist.org and developing an online platform, which began in September 2017 at the request of Rev. Harada, who wanted a bigger online presence with Buddhist education.

He described the surprising feedback from students who wanted shorter lectures, blogs, live events, videos, as well as quizzes — but not being graded — and bibliographies listing the source materials.

“They weren’t looking for a formal education program,” Rev. Turner said. “They wanted experiences. They wanted contact with other people. They wanted a community. They wanted to be part of a path.”

EverydayBuddhist.org draws from a lot of people who don’t live near a BCA temple or church. 

“They live in Oklahoma or they live in Thailand or they live in Spain,” he said.

He said the aim of the brand is to be authentic yet contemporary, and a subscription model was established. 

Of the participants, Rev. Turner said 40% found it through social media and another 30% discovered it through their current BCA temple or church, as well as through the BCA website.

“We’re just slowly growing, slowly increasing our numbers and propagating the Jodo Shinshu teachings to people in their own homes,” he said.

Rev. Turner said EverydayBuddhist.org has established a temple affiliate program, a partnership between EverydayBuddhist.org and the BCA temples. 

The temples are given a link to the EverydayBuddhist.org website and any student that clicks on that link from the temple website and subscribes will return 10% of the revenue to the temple. To date, there are 12 BCA temples and churches that are part of the affiliate program, and that number is expected to increase.

“I think people have to understand that it’s a lifelong process and that they should be patient,” Rev. Turner said. “Sometimes, people kind of want immediate results from listening, but we have to kind of build up to a foundation of the teachings in our life. And that means listening, coming to service, listening to Dharma talks or maybe taking a class or reading books, talking about it with fellow Sangha members and then all that kind of builds over time. 

“We begin to see it in our everyday life or we might have a life experience that all of a sudden brings it to the forefront,” he said. “Sometimes it’s quite a dramatic kind of experience and sometimes it’s just sort of a gradual process.”