UCLA Students Learn About Jodo Shinshu in US

San Fernando Rev. Dr. Jean-Paul Contreras deGuzman Teaches Buddhism in and Beyond the Classroom

FYI

To learn more, please visit the following links:

Buddhist Churches of America Collection at UCLA:

https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8v412d7/admin/

Young Buddhist Editorial:

https://www.youngbuddhisteditorial.com/

Bonbu Stories:

https://bonbustories.art/ 

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Buddhism in the United States is often shrouded in misconceptions and misunderstandings, with Asian American Buddhists often stereotyped or outright erased in popular discourse. 

As Funie Hsu wrote in the Winter 2016 issue of Lion’s Roar: “Asian and Asian American Buddhist practices have often been dismissed as superstitious, inauthentic (yet authentically exotic!) forms of Buddhism.” 

To remedy these errors, this past academic year, several UCLA students had the opportunity to learn about the sheer richness of Buddhism through both its historical developments and contemporary landscape. What follows is a reflection on building the spaces for that learning to occur and gratitude for all the lives who made it happen.

Last spring, I taught a class that focused on the history and contemporary experiences of American Buddhists through the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, class and power. In addition to reading “Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists,” by Institute of Buddhist Studies (IBS) alumna Chenxing Han, along with other scholarly works, students were immersed in the world of American Jodo Shinshu. 

Opportunities for experiential learning give students the tools to create an enduring understanding of complex materials that readings and lectures can not. 

So, I am extremely grateful that Rev. Ko’e Umezu, the Assistant Minister of the West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple, generously opened her temple doors to my class. 

Umezu Sensei curated a wonderful set of documents from temple archives that explained the evolution of Buddhism from ancient India to medieval Japan to the nearby Sawtelle Japantown, and in doing so, emphasized the historic and enduring role women and young people played in temple life. 

As our class grappled with stereotypes of Buddhists as solely male monastics, her storytelling brought to life a history most students had never encountered. 

Students also explored the Hondo and asked thoughtful questions about everything from altar ornaments to the symbolism behind rituals like oshoko. 

Students then had the opportunity to dive even deeper into the history of our organization and individual temples through examining the BCA’s expansive archival collection that is housed at UCLA’s Library Special Collections. 

Through the diligent efforts of the BCA Archives and Preservation Committee and countless other stewards of our collective history, the BCA collection is now accessible to the public and the wealth of its contents did not disappoint. 

Thanks to Dr. Jesse Drian, a distinguished Buddhist Studies scholar at UCLA’s Library who works closely with the BCA collection, students were able to explore a variety of sources that Dr. Drian located for us. 

One group was captivated by the detailed correspondence between the office of the Bishop of the Buddhist Mission of North America (BCA’s predecessor) and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the lead up to the forced removal and mass incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans in 1942. They were taken by the BMNA’s emphasis on the loyalty of Japanese Americans and the curt responses of the president’s office. 

Other students got to explore various pieces of ephemera including shimmering, decades-old wagesas that commemorated a variety of occasions. Meanwhile, their peers were a little confused by a scrapbook of otherwise mundane black-and-white photos that seemed to capture a vacation, when in fact it was a record of the U.S. tour of the towering Shinshu Otani-ha (Higashi Honganji) priest and philosopher Haya Akegerasu.

Another group reveled in all of the issues of the Berkeley Bussei from the 1950s and 1960s. They commented, to use their language, on how “emo” (i.e., sensitive, emotional or philosophical) the writers were, a history recently captured in IBS President Dr. Scott Mitchell’s new book, “The Making of American Buddhism.” 

Looking at additional Japanese American newspapers from the time, other students were surprised at how “savage” (i.e., fierce or unafraid to speak truth to power) some Nisei feminist writers were. All in all, students came to grasp just how active and engaged Shin Buddhists have been for generations. Though these activities may have given students an opportunity to understand Jodo Shinshu with their minds, they ended our time together by experiencing Buddhism with their hearts. 

This past academic year was marked by immense turmoil across college campuses due to the genocide in Gaza, and UCLA was not spared. Classes were sometimes canceled or had to pivot to Zoom with little warning. Because my class was housed in an interdisciplinary ethnic studies-influenced program that instills a sense of social justice in its courses, many students were active participants in the encampments and faced violence and harm first hand. Due to the volatility, other students had to return home at the request of their parents. 

Our teachings around interdependence, compassion and gratitude were timely, if not necessary, as students encountered so much suffering. 

To close the class, Rev. Devon Matsumoto and Hannah KC Mukai, two of the founders of the Young Buddhist Editorial, organized a participatory “acknowledgement circle.” Students got to experience Jodo Shinshu rituals, such as chanting “Sanbujo” and “Amida Kyo,” as entry points that encouraged them to reflect deeply on themselves and those they carried with them in a time of such pain on campus and around the world. 

Rev. Matsumoto gave students the option to bring in a personal object that they later contributed to an altar and used to reflect on resilience. 

As one student expressed their gratitude: “This talking circle was extremely impactful. The open, kind and empathetic environment that you helped to foster on our last day of class will be in my memories for a long time — all of us as students were encouraged to be empowered by our own vulnerability. We owe it to you.”

Just as that chaotic quarter came to a close, summer session began and I was excited once again to incorporate contemporary American Jodo Shinshu into the classroom.  

I taught an Asian American history class in which themes of ancestors, remembrance and the significance of artists as the writers of history were prominent. How fortuitous it was that the class coincided with the Bonbu Stories’ tour across Obon celebrations to debut “Lantern Song,” composed and choreographed for the 125th anniversary of the BCA. 

Sydney Shiroyama and Miko Shudo spoke to my class about the origins of Bonbu Stories and how they have used music and dance as storytelling. They led students in dancing to “Lantern Song,” which they thought was an unexpected part of taking a history class and prompted them to reflect on their ancestors in a different way.   

Just like the previous experiences, learning about the history and spirituality that informed “Lantern Song” left students understanding that Buddhism in America is not simply an ancient set of religious practices, or an intellectual mind game, or exotic superstitions, or even a passing trend, but rather a living, breathing system of awakening to one’s true self and true reality itself.

Taken together, I am left immensely grateful for all of the individuals across time and space who made these learning opportunities possible. As a Buddhist — and as a historian — I am always humbled by moments to witness the truth of interdependence. My students experienced the legacies of countless ancestors through sitting in quiet awe at the West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple or through the pieces of the past left behind and gathered tenderly in the BCA Collection or reflection in the acknowledgment circle or swaying to the beat of “Lantern Song.” 

Moreover, how thankful I am that my karmic path brought me to Jodo Shinshu and encounter good Dharma friends — activists, artists, ministers and more — who, as conduits of the Great Compassion, have guided me. Though my goal was never to proselytize my students, I sincerely hope that I succeeded in giving them a fuller, nuanced, and more authentic understanding of what Buddhism is. 

Namo Amida Butsu!

Rev. Jean-Paul R. Contreras deGuzman, Ph.D., a Minister’s Assistant at the San Fernando Valley Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, is a Lecturer in the Race and Indigeneity Cluster & Asian American Studies Department at the University of California, Los Angeles.