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

Aloha!  My name is Jikyo Miyoshi.   I came to Hawaii one year and four months ago from Kyoto, Japan, and I arrived in Hilo this past May 24th.  I miss Kyoto a little.

As you all know, Bon season has come, so it is a busy season for all temples.  All of you must be looking forward to dancing around the yagura with the brightly lit chochin.  Let us enjoy this festival of dancing.

Japan’s Bon season is different from Hawaii’s. In Japan, priests go to members’ homes to perform Bon services.  Therefore, priests are always on the move by bus, train, or on foot.  Many ride mopeds up and down along the streets.  I have been one of them.  Whenever priests encounter each other, we try to bow to each other silently, even while wearing helmets on mopeds. After bowing, I’ve often wondered where they came from and where they lived.  Then I realized that because Kyoto has many mother temples of various Buddhist sects, the city was overcrowded by priests during Bon season.

Would you believe that summer in Kyoto is hotter and muggier than in Hawaii? I thought it would be hotter in Hawaii than in Kyoto because Hawaii was tropical.  But after a little over a year, I’ve discovered that summer is more comfortable in Hawaii.  During Bon season, few Kyoto people walk along the streets.  They stay in cool, comfortable air-conditioned buildings.  Therefore, since Bon season is during the summer, priests are the only ones walking outdoors.  For me, arriving and entering a member’s home seemed as if I was in the Pure Land because the A-C made it cool and comfortable. Family members would say, “You must be hot, so please rest for a while.”  However, because I had many other houses to visit, I couldn’t rest for very long, and I felt very sad to leave the cool home to go out to hell again.

I have experienced uncomfortably hot and muggy summers in Kyoto, so now that I have experienced summers in Hawaii, I can again truly feel happiness. If I had never had awful Kyoto summers, I would not know this kind of genuine happiness.  Thus, like everyone, if I’d never suffered, I could not feel genuinely happy.

“Pure Land” translated into Japanese is “Gokuraku-Jodo.”  Japanese people often say, “Gokuraku, gokuraku” when they go from an uncomfortable situation to a comfortable one, like entering an air-conditioned home after walking outside during a Kyoto summer.  It expresses a feeling of extreme happiness. I think a similar expression must come from your mouths too, when you feel extremely happy, especially after experiencing a difficult situation. This kind of momentary happiness is not true Gokuraku.

In “O-Jyo Yo-shu,” Master Genshin says that in human life, suffering and happiness are cyclical.  When we are enjoying something, we think we are done with the suffering and even try to forget it!  But happiness is never separated from suffering. We can truly experience happiness only because we have experienced suffering. When we free ourselves from this cycle, we have attained Gokuraku.

We seek answers in Buddha’s Teachings for questions like “What is my life?  Why must I suffer?  How can I find genuine happiness?”

In trying to live, we also try to overcome suffering. We feel happiness as we overcome each moment of suffering, for only through the suffering we know true happiness.  Let us rise above and beyond this cycle of suffering and happiness so that we can truly reach Gokuraku. Let us remember this Teaching during this Bon season as we dance with happiness.

In Gassho,
Jikyo Miyoshi

Visit our downloads section to get the complete issue.