Dharma Talk by Dr.Reeves - Sukhavarti

"Sukhavarti"
October 21, 2001

"Basic Buddhism," usually refers to basic Buddhist doctrines, such as the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the Six Practices, and so on. Dr. Gene Reeves, International Advisor to the IBC, however, suggested seven things which seem to be beyond or before such basic Buddhist teachings. His talk this week was entitled "Sukhavarti."

1. Living with suffering
Buddhism begins with suffering, with the experience of suffering, in ourselves and in others. As the first concept of the Four Noble Truths, it is the state of suffering. What is important is feeling the suffering of others, not just some truth or idea about it, but the reality of real suffering. In Buddhism, this truth begins with a story, Shakyamuni left from his comfort place in his palace and met sick, old age and death. What he got from that was experience of other people's suffering. He understood the suffering not in an intellectual way but felt a kind of sympathy for the suffering of other living beings.

2. Living skillfully
The Lotus Sutra's One Buddha-vehicle of skillful means is a way to overcome suffering. It is to live by helping others with skill and intelligence.

3. Living wisely-intelligently
The Bodhisattva way involves helping others with intelligence, insight and understanding. Traditionally this is called "wisdom."

4. Living compassionately
Buddhism proposes a way of behaving and way of life--a life of compassion. Compassion is not primarily an idea, nor is it primarily a part of meditation practice, it is first of all a matter of how we live own lives in relation to other people.

5. Living imaginatively or creatively
Life is a kind of one way ticket. We can not predict our future exactly, therefore Buddhism calls us to challenge and adventure, and to living imaginatively and creatively.

6. Universal Buddha of Buddha Nature
Buddhism, especially the Lotus Sutra, talks of embodying the Buddha in own lives, thereby fulfilling our own Buddha nature.

7. Sukhavarti
Sukhavarti is usually translated into Japanese as "gokuraku." "Goku" means utmost or extreme, and "raku" means happiness or bliss, with overtones of comfort. In Pure Land Buddhism, it is called as "the Pure land," the land of Amida Buddha located in the West.

Buddhism is not about the elimination of suffering. As we see, babies are born crying and, while we hope to die calmly, life is filled with loss and suffering. This is why Buddhist organizations should be about the business of creating happiness of all. Buddhism, however, is, not only for individuals but also for the world, it embodies a global vision. "World peace" is a contemporary term for speaking about the Buddhist notion of Sukhavarti.

Throughout the Lotus Sutra, all are encouraged to develop the Buddha nature that they have in themselves by living the life of a bodhisattva. It summarizes Bodhisattva practices as being two things: transforming individuals into bodhisattvas and purifying Buddha lands.

This world is Shakyamuni's land, not Amida's. As the Buddha said in Chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra, "I am the father of this world," he chose this world for himself. This is why enlightened bodhisattvas understand themselves to be transforming this world into a pure land in the tradition of pure land Buddhism.

Dr. Reeves then told a couple of stories found in the Lotus Sutra.

"The Treasure in the Robe" in Chapter 8 is a story about a poor man who one day visited his friend. They drank together and had an enjoyable time. Then the poor man fell asleep in the friend's house. The rich friend took an extremely valuable jewel and sewed it into the poor man's robe in order to help him. In the morning the rich friend went off to work without saying anything to his sleeping friend. Later, the poor man woke up and left the house.

Years later, the two met accidentally in another town. The rich friend saw that his poor friend was still wearing a tattered robe and said to him:

"Wanting you to be in comfort and able to satisfy the five desires , a long time ago?, I sewed a precious jewel into the lining of your robe. It should still be there. In your ignorance you are slaving and worrying to keep yourself alive. How dumb! Go and exchange that jewel for whatever you need. Then you can be free to have whatever you want, and be free from all poverty and want."

After hearing parable, the monks who were in the assembly said to the Buddha as;

"…World-honored One, now we understand that we are really bodhisattvas, assured of attaining supreme awakening. For this we are filled with joy…" This story tells us what the Buddha is trying to do. It is to make us happy and joyous.

Then Dr. Reeves told the story of "The Fantastic Castle" in Chapter 7. It also provides an image of the Buddha's skillful means in guiding human beings to be happy. He concluded his talk by referring to the "Twelve similes" in Chapter 23, "Former Lives of Medicine King."

May all those who are thirsty find cool, clear water.
May those who are cold find a warm fire.
May those who are naked find clothing.
May those who are without leadership find a lead.
May children find their mothers.
May those who need a ferry find a boat.
May those who are sick find a doctor.
May those who are in the dark find a lamp.
May those who are poor find riches.
May those who in need of one find a ruler.
May those who want to trade find the sea.
May those who are in dark find the light.

All of these are images of happiness, of being satisfied and of being rewarded in life. That is what Buddhism is finally about. What is basic to Buddhism finally is the goal of happiness. In Sanskrit this is called "Sukhavarti," which is the goal of happiness, of well-being, even of "salvation" for all.It is a goal which:

always stands before us, never completed
never requires doctrines, but benefits enormously from them
always recognizes our utter interdependence
never requires obedience, but loves faithfulness
always seeks the best that is possible from what is given to us
never requires more of us than we can give
always balances fantastic vision with rootedness in the world
never insists on more than we can do.

"Are your ailments and troubles few? Is your daily life and practice going smoothly? ... Are the affairs of the
world tolerable? Are the living beings easy to save? Are they not excessively greedy, angry, foolish, jealous
and arrogant? .... Don't they have wrong views and inadequate goodness? Are they not unrestrained in their
five emotions?"

Dr. Reeves concluded this talk by suggesting four things Buddhists can do now in response to this tragedy.

First of all, we can express sympathy-sympathy for the victims, their friends and loved ones; sympathy for those who have worked so hard to rescue or treat or comfort victims; and sympathy, too, for those who are now and will suffer from acts of vengeful retaliation.

Second, we can reflect on what contributed to the Tuesday's tragedy. We might ask ourselves, for example, whether by blindly supporting American policies on the Middle East Japan has also contributed to Tuesday's tragedy?

Third, we need to work to spread the dharma. Too few Buddhist voices are being heard in America today. Buddhism is becoming more and more popular in the West, but this week I haven't heard a single Buddhist voice on American television or radio.

Finally, we might cooperate with those who seek peace. Many Christians, Muslims, and Jews are, in a sense, practicing Buddha-dharma without knowing it. Through a variety of international agencies we can try to support them, encourage them in many ways. The same Bible that says, "an eye for an eye" also says, "turn the other cheek." We need to join the peacemakers of every religious tradition, promoting interfaith cooperation and encouraging them to work together to build a more peaceful world.

"Bodhisattva" means one who seeks to be enlightened by working for others. But another meaning of "bodhisattva" is one from whom we can learn, just as Shakyamuni learned from Devadatta. May Tuesday's tragedy be Tuesday's bodhisattva for all of us?

Dharma Talk by Dr. Reeves - Kosei-kai

"Kosei-kai"
September 23, 2001

Dr. Gene Reeves, International Advisor to the IBC, started his Dharma talk with some comments on Ms. Akiko Mori's testimony, saying: "The Buddha always gives you new challenges and opportunities as a gift through which you'll grow and be a stronger person in the Bodhisattva Way. Your speech shows a good example of how the Buddha is a part of your life."

Then he gave a talk entitled "Kosei-kai," referring to some significant implications involved in this term.

Let's start with "kai" which means association. This common Japanese word is very important in the sense that this organization is not just temple Buddhism but a Buddhist association or community, a kind of congregational Buddhism.

"Rissho" comes from Nichiren's writing, Rissho Ankoku Ron (立正安国論), and so the word reminds us of Nichiren and our debt to him. "Ritsu (立)" is to establish and "sho (正)" is the truth or right. So, the term "Rissho" means to establish the true Dharma. "Kosei (佼成)" also consists of two characters. The second one, "sei," means to become or perfect or create or even transform, while the first one, "ko," signifies associations or relationships of human beings. "Ko-sei" together, therefore, means a development of relationships among human beings.

In short, Rissho Kosei-kai is an association for the purpose of establishing the true Dharma through working on or developing association between human beings. People here are learning to develop themselves through relationships with other people.

Interestingly, Buddhism was not founded in India as a natural community determined by birth. Buddhism created a new kind of community, the community of monks and nuns, and a large number of people chose to join this voluntary association, rejecting their natural communities of family and village.

Today we have a similar kind of situation. After the Second World War, the traditional extended family system began to break down for several reasons. In Japan and around the world, people began moving to cities where the physical size of housing made it more difficult to maintain extended families. City life also made it unnecessary to have a lot of children to help with the work on farms. Also, while having lots of kids once worked as a kind of social security system to prepare for old age, in which you were usually taken care of by your children, with improved health systems, fewer people die while young. More and more, children could live longer than their parents. We also have social security systems and pension schemes, making it unnecessary in old age to depend on children as much as before. Besides, the transportation system facilitated this tendency. After the war everyone was beginning to live in suburbs and drive cars. How many kids can you put in a car? All these rapid changes in the social structure created much less need to have big families.

In place of traditional village life as a community, people began to look for other forms of "kosei" or social association. That's one of the reasons why Rissho Kosei-kai grew so rapidly into a huge organization in just fifteen years or so from 1950 to 1965. This organization satisfied the needs of people who wanted to grow together within a large family-like system.

Then Dr. Reeves discussed a community described in the Lotus Sutra.

There isn't much discussion of community in the Lotus Sutra In the parables you often have fathers and sons, but no wives or mothers are around. The father-son relationship is very common, but there is not much discussion about communities or other relationships between the monks.

But there is an exception, which comes almost at the end of the Lotus Sutra. It's the wonderful story in Chapter 27 about a king called Wonderfully Adorned.

In that story the Buddha tells the assembly that long ago there was a Buddha who taught the Lotus Sutra named Wisdom Blessed by the King of Constellations called the Sound of Thunder in the Clouds. In his realm was a king named Wonderfully Adorned and a queen, Pure Virtue, with two sons, Pure Treasury and Pure Eyes. The sons had already gained great magical powers by following the bodhisattva way.

Seeing such magic, the King was impressed and wanted to know who had taught the sons. They replied that it was the Buddha Wisdom Blessed, and the father indicated his desire to go with them to the Buddha. Then they went back to their mother and begged her to allow them to leave the family and follow the Buddha. The father, mother and two sons went to visit the Buddha, accompanied by various attendants, and the whole family together became members of the Buddha's Sangha.

This story is interesting because a whole family entered the Buddhist community. It's a kind of integration of two kinds of communities, one natural and one voluntary. And it also shows a kind of Buddhist respect for the integrity of a family. The four of them respected each other. It's a nice little story of people respecting and helping each other, supporting each other, encouraging each other. And the result of it is that the whole family became a part of a larger Sangha.

The King and Queen took off valuable necklaces and placed them over the Buddha. Then the necklaces flew up into the sky and were transformed into a platform. This scene implies that even a small gift given to the Buddha can become a very great thing. I like the analogy to the Donate-One-Meal Campaign, where people's small donation can be multiplied into something quite wonderful.

Then the Buddha announced to everyone that this King Wonderfully Adorned was going to become a Buddha named Sal-Tree King.

Following this, the King renounced ordinary life and under that Buddha, with his wife and two sons, practiced the Buddha Way according to the Lotus Sutra for eighty-four thousand years. Following contemplation, the former king went to the Buddha up in the sky to praise his sons for being his teachers. Almost everywhere else in the Sutra, it's always the older Buddha or Buddha-figure who is the teacher. But here we have a very nice example of children teaching their parents. We should all be open to learning from people we don't expect to learn from. We shouldn't assume that we're only going to learn from our teachers. You can learn from your own children.

This is a kind of nice lesson. The magic the sons used is a symbol of the transformed power of the Dharma. Their magical powers are an indication that by following the Buddha, they not only have learned some teachings, they have incorporated them into their lives. The ability to do all these things is a symbol of a fact that their whole life had been changed. And they in turn transform the life of their father by putting on a great magical show.

The family members respected and helped each other despite differences. Notice that in this story the family value isn't merely conservative, as so many would like us to believe. In this story it's just the opposite--the family members give support to each other for their transformation, for their change.

My hope is that this IBC will become a kind of "kosei," not merely for protecting and serving the Dharma, but for finding new ways for the Dharma to be embodied both in our lives and in the world. We are creating here a kind of experimental "kosei," for the purpose of doing some transformation for the sake of the Dharma. I hope that pretty soon all of you, all of us, like the sons of King Wonderfully Adorned, will be able to walk on water.

"Are your ailments and troubles few? Is your daily life and practice going smoothly? ... Are the affairs of the
world tolerable? Are the living beings easy to save? Are they not excessively greedy, angry, foolish, jealous
and arrogant? .... Don't they have wrong views and inadequate goodness? Are they not unrestrained in their
five emotions?"

Dr. Reeves concluded this talk by suggesting four things Buddhists can do now in response to this tragedy.

First of all, we can express sympathy-sympathy for the victims, their friends and loved ones; sympathy for those who have worked so hard to rescue or treat or comfort victims; and sympathy, too, for those who are now and will suffer from acts of vengeful retaliation.

Second, we can reflect on what contributed to the Tuesday's tragedy. We might ask ourselves, for example, whether by blindly supporting American policies on the Middle East Japan has also contributed to Tuesday's tragedy?

Third, we need to work to spread the dharma. Too few Buddhist voices are being heard in America today. Buddhism is becoming more and more popular in the West, but this week I haven't heard a single Buddhist voice on American television or radio.

Finally, we might cooperate with those who seek peace. Many Christians, Muslims, and Jews are, in a sense, practicing Buddha-dharma without knowing it. Through a variety of international agencies we can try to support them, encourage them in many ways. The same Bible that says, "an eye for an eye" also says, "turn the other cheek." We need to join the peacemakers of every religious tradition, promoting interfaith cooperation and encouraging them to work together to build a more peaceful world.

"Bodhisattva" means one who seeks to be enlightened by working for others. But another meaning of "bodhisattva" is one from whom we can learn, just as Shakyamuni learned from Devadatta. May Tuesday's tragedy be Tuesday's bodhisattva for all of us?

Dharma Talk by Dr.Reeves - Tuesday's Devadatta

"Tuesday's Devadatta"
September 16, 2001

The magnitude of what happened in the United States on Tuesday, September 11, is beyond imagination. Nearly five thousand people are still missing, more than ten thousand were injured and hundreds of thousands were directlyeffected. We do not yet know the exact number of victims.

He asked us to think of children returning home to no parents, parents going to bed knowing their children are probably dead, wives and husbands returning home to no spouse, friends dead, friends missing, friends in grief.

The dead are not only Americans but people of more than 30 countries. All of us are related to these people in a variety ways. Some of us will discover in incoming weeks that people who have been close to us died in this tragic incident.

Our response was predictable-disbelief, shock, grief, fear, sadness, anger, even hatred. All are forms of suffering.

Most Americans, at least, now feel more vulnerable, no longer safe, feel as though their home is no long a place of safety. Although Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese in 1941, it is in Hawaii, felt to be a long way from the mainland, the United States has not been attacked for nearly two centuries.

Deep in human, or Western, nature there seems to be a need for revenge, retaliation, striking back, inflicting pain and punishment on those who have offended or wronged us. This is usually called "justice." In America, the "criminal justice system" is for the purpose of punishing criminals, as a way of getting even.

It is likely, however, that Tuesday's terrorists believed deeply that they were working for justice, giving their own lives for what they believed to be justice. One of the saddest things to see on television news was of some people in Palestine cheering the attacks on the World Trade Center Buildings and Pentagon. What was in their experience that led them to such a reaction to the killing of thousands of innocent people?

Now, others want to punish Arabs, or even Muslims, everywhere as potential "terrorists," and bomb the extremely poor country and people of Afghanistan into oblivion. Too often this is the nature of "justice." An eye for an eye, says the Bible. Justice looks back to correct wrongs or get even by inflicting punishment. These days, religious people all over the world are being encouraged to subscribe to Western notions of the "justice."

This is not, however, the Buddhist way. Buddhists are asked, even in the midst of enormous suffering, to look back in order better to understand causes and conditions giving rise to suffering. They have to ask not only who, but why?

But Buddhists are also asked to try to look forward-asking for, seeking for, a way ahead, a better world and a world of peace. Not to right the wrong, but to create the good.

This creates both a challenge and a problem for Buddhists. The problem is, how can there be peace in a world in which so many seek justice through punishment and retaliation, people who have no interest in causes or reasons, only in striking back? It is clear that Buddhists have an enormous healing ministry to perform.

Dr. Reeves next reminded us of the story of "Devadatta" in Chapter 12 of the Lotus Sutra.

Devadatta, the cousin of Shakyamuni, was known throughout Buddhism as the embodiment of evil, almost as a kind of devil. He tried to kill Shakyamuni at least three times and later tried to split the community of monks.

In the Lotus Sutra, however, Devadatta is thanked for teaching Shakyamuni. The beginning of the chapter is a story about a former life of the Buddha. Shakyamuni was once a king who learned the dharma from a wise man who was Devadatta in a former life. Because of Devadatta the king could become enlightened and became the Buddha. Thanking him, Shakyamuni announced that in a future age Devadatta too would become a Buddha.

It is impossible now for us to be thankful for Tuesday's devastation, the tragedy and loss is too great, but we can learn from it. We might learn that violence produces more violence. Retaliation does not cut the chain of violent retribution. We might learn that we should look into the causes and conditions creating the attitudes which enable someone to kill thousands of innocent people, along with oneself. The terrorists obviously were not pursuing their own selfish interests or desires. They apparently thought they were doing justice. If we are to work to create a better future we need to understand their motivation.

We Americans might learn that great profits from arms sales to Israel and others may not be so profitable after all. Selling weapons has been a big business for the United States.

However optimistic we may have been, we should have learned that the way to peace is a long and difficult one. Maybe Wonderful Voice Bodhisattva (妙音菩薩) in Chapter 24 of the Lotus Sutra was correct when he asked Shakyamuni Buddha about people of this world:

"Are your ailments and troubles few? Is your daily life and practice going smoothly? ... Are the affairs of the
world tolerable? Are the living beings easy to save? Are they not excessively greedy, angry, foolish, jealous
and arrogant? .... Don't they have wrong views and inadequate goodness? Are they not unrestrained in their
five emotions?"

Dr. Reeves concluded this talk by suggesting four things Buddhists can do now in response to this tragedy.

First of all, we can express sympathy-sympathy for the victims, their friends and loved ones; sympathy for those who have worked so hard to rescue or treat or comfort victims; and sympathy, too, for those who are now and will suffer from acts of vengeful retaliation.

Second, we can reflect on what contributed to the Tuesday's tragedy. We might ask ourselves, for example, whether by blindly supporting American policies on the Middle East Japan has also contributed to Tuesday's tragedy?

Third, we need to work to spread the dharma. Too few Buddhist voices are being heard in America today. Buddhism is becoming more and more popular in the West, but this week I haven't heard a single Buddhist voice on American television or radio.

Finally, we might cooperate with those who seek peace. Many Christians, Muslims, and Jews are, in a sense, practicing Buddha-dharma without knowing it. Through a variety of international agencies we can try to support them, encourage them in many ways. The same Bible that says, "an eye for an eye" also says, "turn the other cheek." We need to join the peacemakers of every religious tradition, promoting interfaith cooperation and encouraging them to work together to build a more peaceful world.

"Bodhisattva" means one who seeks to be enlightened by working for others. But another meaning of "bodhisattva" is one from whom we can learn, just as Shakyamuni learned from Devadatta. May Tuesday's tragedy be Tuesday's bodhisattva for all of us?