Friday, December 23, 2022

Community of Lions – Sutra Study Class Session 6

In our Dec. 6, 2022 session, we read the first half of the Tan Butsu Ge (aka San Butsu Ge) in Section 5 of the Larger Sutra along with “Re-Enter the Lion” (Shout of Buddha pp. 193-195).

 

I chose the lion piece to reinforce our reading of the earlier lion piece – to show that the awakened person is dynamic, not mostly passive as the stereotype “sage” is depicted. It’s been a couple weeks since that session and after watching Rod Serling’s 1964 television special “Carol for Another Christmas,” I’m reminded that we need to emphasize community more in our study of Buddhist texts. The symbol of the ferocious lion may appeal to rugged individuals, but Akegarasu portrays his lion character as interacting with others and in the last paragraph says, “His eyes shine in all directions, and include all beings, and all are in him.” For Akegarasu encountering Kiyozawa, for Shinran encountering Honen, for Ananda seeing the shining majestic face ko gen gi gi of Shakyamuni, the awakened person is one who respects all beings and is friendly to all. The sage isolated on the mountaintop is not the true lion actively concerned with the liberation of all.

 

 


 [Lion by Chicago needle felting artist Kiyoshi Mino]

 

I’m noticing in the Shin Buddhism Translation Series a trend to use English words that denote “the great man” – the alpha male who is way ahead of the pack, separated far from the rubble of us ordinary folks. At the last session I complained about the use of “superior” and “surpassed” in describing Dharmakara’s character. I would rather use terms that denote someone who has transcended the usual mundane concerns – that they have widened their focus from self-centeredness to acknowledging the lives around them, not that they possess some special god-given talent denied to almost everyone else (who is not male, rich, able-bodied etc.).

 

In this session I pointed out the phrase that I feel Rev. Gyomay Kubose properly translated in his book on Tan Butsu Ge: Mu myō yoku nu, se son yō mu “Stupidity, greed, anger, in the Honored One is eternal – NOT.” Maybe the proper Chinese reading of “eternally not” means “never,” but our temple uses the translation of “Ignorance, greed and anger do not linger in your mind.” This is not only what Rev. Kubose learned from Akegarasu – it’s what he witnessed continuously when he spent time with his teacher who made mistakes like the rest of us out of stupidity, greediness and fury. Rev. Gyoko Saito said one time a man accidentally knocked over an antique vase at Akegarasu’s residence and Akegarasu screamed bloody murder at him. But then in the next moment his rage dissipated and he apologized to the man, realizing a broken vase was trivial compared to being with a fellow seeker on the path. The Larger Sutra would really be a fairy tale if Dharmakara encountered a human being who never made any selfish, short-sighted moves. But just as Rev. Saito described his teacher, the truly awakened one quickly sees his own stupidity, greed and anger and doesn’t hang on to them with justifications.

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Session 5 of Sutra Study Class

 In the November 22 class we went over Section 4 and began Section 5 of the Larger Sutra and the Akegarasu selection was "I and Thou." Here are some notes:

In Section 4 the 53 buddhas leading up to Lokesvararaja are listed. A common part of the buddhas' names is "Light" - such as the first buddha is Dipankara, "the torch light." Light is a common symbol for "wisdom" but in the path of awakening, the wisdom we need is the insight and guidance that leads to liberation from self-attachment.

                                          One of the sun babies from the new Teletubbies show

It is freedom that is the main characteristic of awakening and freedom includes equality because the recognition of all lives as equal signifies freedom from the self imposing judgment on others. So we come to Lokesvararaja - world-freedom-king, that is, "the king who moves freely in the world."

If the laundry list of the 53 buddhas didn't already take you out of our usual linear concept of history, the story Shakyamuni begins in Section 5 lets us know this is "once upon a time" fiction, not a literal description of an actual occurrence. Besides the teacher's made-up name, the student gets one to indicate his journey: Dharmakara, the Dharma storehouse (i.e. potential). I mostly feel it is Shakyamuni giving us his autobiography in disguise, not wanting us to get fixated on his particular life. Most of us grow up feeling like we should be the king of the world - expecting things to be for our benefit in the same way our parents often catered to our wants as children. The story has Dharmakara starting off with a crown on his head looking down on all his subjects but we will see that in his journey, the looking down on others will give way to looking up at all lives with respect from being in a totally bowed down position.

At the end of the "I and Thou" Akegarasu says some people receive the light of the sun and claim it is their light - a metaphor for how wisdom comes to us from a long ago, far away source (through the 53 buddhas et al) but some people like to think it came originally from their own personal teacher. As Prof. Melissa Curley pointed out in Masako Keta's work - in Jodo Shinshu the real teacher works as a window, opening up to let us see the light coming from the long lineage of tradition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFHuHulJ4Xg&t=4s

 

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Sutra Study class notes: September - Nov. 3

 Below are the screenshots from the first four sessions of the Sutra Study class. The full versions are still on Twitter (@NakaiPatti) but these photos show the main points.