by Haruo » Wed Mar 23, 2011 12:27 pm
This past Sunday, I got up early and headed out to the 10:30 am service of the (), the local betsuin (something between parish temple and cathedral) of the (), the oldest Buddhist organization in the USA. I have been aware of this congregation and its building since childhood, as it plays a central role in , a Japanese community event associated with , and there are occasional connections between it and Japanese Baptist, a church with which I have had a longstanding relationship, but I'm pretty sure I'd never been inside its sanctuary (or other rooms). I was afraid I might have to sit uncomfortably (I'm getting creaky and am out of practice!) on tatami, but it turned out they didn't even require shoe removal, though we were admonished to shake the dust from our sandals (;-)) before entering.
The overwhelming sense I had was of how similar the place and the people were to JBC, and how similar the doctrine (as far as I could understand it) was to a pro-eternal-security brand of American evangelical protestantism, apart from the substitution of the Amitabhya (Buddha) for Jesus. It was the Higan service (equinox), so there was some focusing on the changing seasons, and of course there was mention of the recent catastrophic seismic events in Japan. I gave ten bucks to their earthquake relief fund.
We sat in padded pews, and sang gathas (hymns) in English and Japanese to a piano accompaniment. The Rinban minister (senior pastor) is a white guy named Don Castro, and the guest preacher was an older Japanese man who is the pastor of the temple in Lethbridge, Alberta. He spoke on "When two become one in the gassho". I stayed for the Japanese service, then headed downstairs for coffee and donuts and an effort to find out how to buy a service book (I gather they don't want the unenlightened to own them). I missed the English dharma talk, because it coincided with the Japanese service, but hopefully next week I'll make it for that, as Mrs H and I are hoping to attend their festival this Sunday. Failing that, I'll go back on April 10 for the Buddha's Birthday service.
I absconded with one of their service books, and it was probably wrong of me to do so. But I just had to try out some of the other gathas, and show the "organ music" section to our organist at Fremont, and copy the pentatonic chant notation.
One odd thing: I always think of Buddha as Gautama, or maybe Siddhartha, in India, maybe half a millennium before Christmas. But the Amida Buddha that the Jodo Shinshu folks praise and trust with their passage across the river to the True Pure Land turns out to have lived several centuries before Gautama, apparently in a different star system.
Anyhow, next Sunday we're hoping to go to , our local LCMS parish (worship 9:30 AM), and then go into town for the Buddhist church festival.
Haruo = Leland Bryant Ross
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