Editor's Note - This is an excerpt from the November 2007 issue of the Buddhist Wheel

My recent readings have included several dharma talks which sustain my own personal journey as a dharma seeker, while engaging in my daily life as a minister. The dharma insights and experiences of others often stimulate further reflections and appreciation of the many causes and conditions which enhance and enrich our life in the Nembutsu. Meaningful dharma talks affirm this inconceivable life we live and move our heart with gratitude in an inexpressible spiritual way. They also make this moment full, joyful, and illuminating. Here are two dharma talks for your reflection, illumination, and, hopefully, appreciation. 

The first dharma talk is one by the present BCA Bishop, Socho Koshin Ogui, while serving as the resident minister at the Cleveland Buddhist Temple.  This was written in the Cleveland Buddhist Temple Newsletter on April 28, 1996.

When I returned from my trip, I turned my answering machine and heard four calls from the same person which took up quite a bit of tape. The message was "Jesus is the only savior. Believe in him and you'll be saved.  Love him and you'll be loved. Anyone who does not believe in him will go to hell..." What do you say about this message? I don't know why but I then recalled meeting with my mother on my recent trip to Japan. I hadn't seen her for five years.  As soon as I opened the door to the house where I was born, there she was standing right in front of me. She didn't say anything much, but she held my hand and with tears in her eyes, she said, "You came home!"  Isn't that nice, to be welcomed without any justification, whether I believe in her or not, or love her or not. I realized that I was always living in her love. I am grateful. Namu Amida Butsu.

The living power of Namu Amida Butsu lies in the very moment when we awaken to its all-encompassing wisdom and compassion. It is quietly present in our life since time past, but often relegated to the shadow of our conventional conscious life.  Yet, when karmic conditions ripen beyond our control and we walk through the gate of shinjin/faith, the Buddha welcomes us unconditionally just as Ogui Socho's mother welcomed him. No threats. No intimidation. Come forth simply as we are. How  inexplicable! No words are necessary, but gratitude expressed as Namu Amida Butsu often emerges. "When the moment of saying nembutsu (namu amida butsu) arises from within, we immediately share in the benefit of being grasped by Amida, never to be abandoned." (Tannisho).

The next dharma talk is by Rev. Zenku Smyers, given at an Obon special service.

We have an old saying in Japan, which compares our human destiny to a delicate cherry blossom.  The cherry tree in full bloom is simply beautiful. But when the time comes the cherry blossoms are blown away by the wind. Some of them are gone with the first spring wind, while others have the destiny to stay in bloom a while longer.  Yet, by and by, the very last cherry blossom will also be blown away.

Our lives are much the same.  Every Buddhist knows that we are born, grow older, someday will die.  But, one is now sorrowful about it. We know that is the way things are. Like the beautiful cherry blossom that blooms for a while, and then is blown away by the wind, our lives too will bloom for a while and then end.  But our lives, like the lives of the cherry blossoms, are not forgotten. What is beautiful in them lives on.

Impermanence is the reality that transforms our life of birth-and-death into an opportunity to discover what is lasting and indestructible. The timeless realization of the living Buddha only occurs in our life struggles of birth-and-death. The Buddha or Buddhahood we seek after death is simply a figment of our imagination and fears; an illusion; a ghost; an illusive concept. The meeting of the living Buddha is always in the here and now.  The beauty of this discovery occurs the awakening moment of shinjin/faith which nurtures humility, kindness, compassion, and deep understanding. This lasting beauty is manifest as Namu-Amida-Butsu prevailing in our life and in the life of others.

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