Dharma Talk by Dr.Reeves - New Year's Hopes

"New Year's Hopes"
January 13, 2002

Dr. Gene Reeves, International Advisor to the IBC, gave a talk entitled "New Year's Hopes." First, he spoke about a New Year's ceremony held at a Unitarian Church in Ohio.

Some years ago I was the minister of a Unitarian Church in the city of Dayton. In that church we used to have a unique New Year's celebration. The first part of the celebration was a funeral for the previous year. Participants brought something symbolic of things that had occurred in the previous year that they wanted to get rid of or put behind them, and they put these symbolic things into a coffin at the front of the room. Some people remembered things in the world at large, like the tragedy that happened last September in New York, others brought things eminding them of something that had happened in the city, other things reminiscent of things that had happened in their personal lives. Some shared the meaning of what they were putting in the coffin the congregation. Others kept them secret.

A similar idea of putting unpleasant things behind can be found in Buddhism. In many Buddhist temples in places of Chinese culture, we find that one of the common activities is exorcism. Somebody who has some kind of evil or bad spirit in them comes to the temple, and an exorcist helps them to get rid of an evil spirit which is bothering them. It is a kind of putting bad things behind. In Japan, I also notice that the expression "cutting karma" reflects a kind of putting something behind.

Our relationship to the past is always a kind of interesting mixture of keeping good memories and putting bad behind. It does not mean you can completely get rid of the bad things in your past, because the memories are always there, but it does mean that we have this kind of mixed relationship to the past, of both gratitude and regret.

Buddhists sometimes talk about cutting karma and putting things behind us. However what seems to me to be much more important in the Buddhist tradition is encouraging us to look at the past as a way of understanding the present. There is an enormous amount of emphasis in the whole Buddhist tradition on what we call causality, on causes and conditions, innen. It insists that if we want to understand our present problems or our present joys, we have to analyze and look to the past. This is strongly emphasized in Buddhism.

The term for causes and conditions has several meanings in the Lotus Sutra. It sometimes refers to a kind of the philosophical notion of causes and conditions, which is the literal translation. It is also used to mean stories about previous lives, which is also a way of explaining the present by the past. At the very beginning of the Sutra, in the Chapter 1, Manjushuri tells a story about a previous time and previous lives of himself (as Wonderful Light) and Maitreya (as Fame Seeker), when there was another Buddha (Sun and Moon Light), in order to explain the present miracles -- the omens, especially, the ray of light from Shakyamuni Buddha.

This means that if we understand what has happened before, we can understand, to some extent, what is going on now.

When the Lotus Sutra tells stories of previous lives, it is not putting the past behind. It is to keep, and understand or explain something in the past for the purpose of understanding the present. One of remarkable things in the Lotus Sutra as religious literature is its emphasis on the positive acceptance of the past as something for which we should be grateful, even when such things seem primarily negative.

The Devadatta story is a good example. The Buddha wanted to explain why he was going to announce that Devadatta would become a Buddha. He might have said, because Devadatta has Buddha nature, but that term was not available. He tells a story. "Once upon a time there was a sage, Devadatta in a former life, and I was a king in that life, and the sage guided me." The story is a way of saying that a good past lives within the present Devadatta.

When we look at the structure of the Lotus Sutra, we will find that one of the central messages is that everyone has the power and potential of becoming Buddha. As it says, "everyone has…," I think the people who compiled the Lotus Sutra wanted to say that everyone really means "we." We can all accept the abstract idea that everyone has this power, but it is hard to believe that "I" do. To make this point stronger, it says "everyone," including Devadatta who had been thought as an embodiment of evil.

Throughout the Lotus Sutra we can find expressions saying, "He will be able to become Buddha because he planted good roots or seeds somewhere in the past…." These phrases tell us that if we do good things, we can be assured that they will have good consequences. Of course, the opposite is also true, even going to a hell. But the Lotus Sutra does not say much about this. It emphasizes, "Do good and you will get good results." Instead of trying to frighten you out of doing bad things, it encourages you to do good things.

In the church in Dayton, the first half part of New Year's celebration was a funeral at the end of which pallbearers took the coffin away. Then the second part begun as a ceremony welcoming the New Year. In this part, people danced and looked forward to the New Year with hope. We tried to find ways to express our hopes for the New Year.

Rev. Reeves then gave a Buddhist perspective on hope.

A central message in the whole Buddhist tradition is to give us hope. Buddhism promises that your life and our lives can be better in the future. At the beginning of the Chapter 3, Shariputra, a shravaka who had heard the Buddha preach in the previous chapter, was filled with ecstatic joy. He realized that he too was in fact a bodhisattva, one who was becoming a Buddha. He had thought that assurance of becoming a Buddha did not apply to him. But in the story in chapter 3, he was promised by Buddha that he to would become Buddha. He was given a kind of hope, and a kind of taste of awakening and enlightenment. The Lotus Sutra is filled with such assurances. It teaches us that we can do better and invites us to imagine ourselves doing better.

But this hope is sometimes misunderstood. It should not be understood as a kind of prediction or forecast, like a weather report. Nor is like Old Testament prophecy, which is always a kind of bad news of punishments to come. The Lotus Sutra does not emphasis punishment. That is not the point. The point is to hold out promise of becoming a Buddha.

Hope is not a matter of certainty but a kind of assurance. You have the power and the potential to do wonderful things and to be bodhisattvas and to become Buddhas. But there is nothing guaranteed about this. What is guaranteed is that you can practice the teachings. You can develop even liberate or free your Buddha nature and your ability to help others. You can be bodhisattva just as Shakyamuni Buddha himself was a bodhisattva. You can discover the Buddha nature in others - in your son or daughter, your husband or wife. You can discover the Buddha nature in your boss or in the person who sweeps the floor,
in your friends and in your enemies. You can see a Buddha in anyone.

My hope for 2002 is that all of us see countless, innumerable, unlimited numbers of Buddhas, as many as the sands of the Ganges!


We should know, Reeves concluded, that this place is the place of awakened practice!

"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?