Editor's Note - This is an excerpt from the January 2005 issue of the Buddhist Wheel

HONPA HONGWANJI

Kyoto, Japan

New Year’s Greeting

“Immeasurable Light and Life.” I send you my greetings at the beginning of the New Year.

May we all live every precious moment of life with the Nembutsu. In thinking about the world today, all the gloomy topics like the Iraqi war, civil wars, famine, the spreading of AIDS, and the deterioration of public security, come to mind. It was not only during the 9.11 attack in which many innocent lives were taken. I wonder how the situation is around you. In the last year, Japan was tormented by typhoons, floods, and earthquakes, and it also seems that people’s hearts have seriously become cold and insensitive.

Buddhism starts with the fact that life is filled with suffering. This view does not seem to be popular in present-day Japan because some people find it to be somber. However, any positive feeling or bravery, which seemingly may be gained by concealing what one does not like, is simply a camouflage and will only deepen our confusion. Genuine hope and strength cannot be gained except by accepting one’s suffering.

Even if the world around you may be inhumane, sometimes you may feel or remember the kindness or warm eyes of people. The first people that come to mind may be your parents or grandparents, but it can also be someone whom you have met for the first time or other things such as animals and plants. If you can realize the working of Amida Tathagata’s compassionate heart beyond them, you can follow the way of living in which you accept yourself as well as the lives of others and support each other.

Let us live each day to the utmost, with joy and an appreciation of life.

January 1, 2005

OHTANI Koshin
Monshu
Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha

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