Dr. Brook Ziporyn's lecture - Buddhism and Ecology

"Buddhism and Ecology"
Saturday evening, May 24, 2008

Video, 60 mins
(apologies for the unflattering(?) still capture! - its the software's random choice)

Audio, 60 mins, download mp3



You can also read Dr.Ziporyn's Lecture notes (Japanese and English)

Dharma talk by Dr.Ziporyn - Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra

Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra - Dwelling in the Great Vehicle
by Dr. Brook Ziporyn, 2008-05-18 at IBC

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Dharma talk by Dr.Ziporyn - Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra

"Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra, The ultimate reality of all things"
2008-05-11 at IBC (30mins)

Audio 30mins (recording quality is not so great, sorry! )

Dharma talk by Mrs.Yasuyo Suzuki “Application of Right View to Life”

Audio 20mins

IBC Sunday service on May 4, 2008

Good morning, friends. I appreciate having this opportunity given by the Buddha.

I’ll talk about “Right View” from the Eightfold Path, focusing on its practical application to my own life.

Right View is the first practice of the Eightfold Path which teaches us how to live our daily lives rightly based on the Buddha’s wisdom. And this doctrine consists of the eight practices starting with “Right View.”


As for the meaning of the word “right”, Founder Niwano explains it in this way.

The word “right” means to be in accord with the truth or to match the truth.

So, when our way of looking at things is in accord with the universal truth, in harmony with the truth, we can say the view is right.

In contrast, if we look at things from a narrow egoistic viewpoint, we cannot see the real state of things, and our judgments or thoughts will not consist with the universal truth.


In reality, we often bring our own notions, preconceptions, experiences, personal bias and fixed ideas to our decisions and thoughts.

When we see things with such a self-centered mind, we are likely to fall into mistaken ideas that are not in accord with the truth or are even directly opposed to the truth.


So, if we want to see and understand the real state of things, we need to get rid of our self-centered mind such as egoistic viewpoint or prejudice or preconceived ideas, and we need to look at things as they are with a clear mind because our judgments are easily influenced by those delusions.


Recently I had an experience through which I reflected on my self-centered, distorted viewpoint.

About two months ago, I was interested in my weight control.

One day when I was with my 5 year-old granddaughter, I got on the scale to check my weight. When I was standing on the scale, she said, “It’s useless to weigh yourself that way.” (“Sonna fuuni hakattatte damedayo” in Japanese.)


At first, when I heard her saying “It’s useless to weigh yourself that way”, I suspected that she meant “You cannot lose your weight just by stepping on the scale and weighing yourself that way.”

This assumption of my own made me feel a little uncomfortable. At least I was not happy when I heard her words.


Then I noticed that my assumption might be mistaken and ridiculous because she even didn’t know that I wanted to lose my weight. So I was curious to know why she made that comment.

I asked her, “Why do you think that it’s useless for me to weigh myself this way?”

Can you guess her answer? Putting yourself in her age, what do you think she was thinking?


She said, “You must take off all your clothes when you weigh yourself on the scale.”

(“Hakaru toki wa hadakanbo ni narundayo.” in Japanese.)

I said, “I see.” She lives upstairs as a member of an independent family, and I guess perhaps she weighs herself after or before taking a bath.

For her, it’s only natural that she has no clothes on when weighing herself on the scale. And, from her own experience and knowledge, she gave me this warning.

I was relieved to hear her answer. And her answer was, of course, scientifically correct.


Because of my distorted view, I misunderstood what she said.


While preparing for this Dharma talk, I found one more important thing I should learn from this interaction with her. I think my reply to her, “I see” was not so appropriate or not sufficient. Why was my reply not sufficient? She taught me the correct way of weighing oneself from her experience and knowledge, which, she must have thought, was useful and helpful for me. Her words came out of her kindness. Her kindness made her say these words.


They were seemingly blunt words. But, if I had heard those words without any prejudice, or if I had heard them with the ears of the Buddha, I would have been able to catch her words as the expression of her Buddha nature.

I should have found her shining Buddha nature in her words more quickly and clearly and let her know of the Buddha nature in herself so that she could consciously develop it more. To her kindness, what words should I have given to her?


Yes, I should have said to her, “Thank you for teaching me.”

By being given thankful words, we, especially children, usually feel pleasure of being helpful to others and are encouraged to do more. Because of my misunderstanding, I missed a chance for education. But through my failure I learned something important, so nothing is useless in the Dharma world.


Our delusions such as preconceptions, bias and inferiority complex often prevent us from seeing things as they are and hearing words as they are.

In human relations, when we are put into such a situation as we cannot accept someone’s words or feel uncomfortable, one of the effective ways to solve the problem is to ask the person about it and know the real intention of those words before jumping to a hasty self-centered conclusion full of delusions.


In my case, I asked her why she said so, and I got the true meaning of her words. I was able to understand her more correctly.

Asking is an attitude of a learner. And I hope to be a lifetime learner or as Founder Niwano mentioned, a lifetime beginner in seeking the Buddha Way. Here and now is the place of awakening to Buddhahood.


Let me share another example from which I reflected on my lack of flexibility in seeing things. I learned that one picture could produce a wide variety of interpretations and associations, depending on the person who sees it.


In my thirties, I was the leader of the young wives’ group in my local church. Several times a year, we had “Home Education” seminars for young mothers and gave them chances to learn how to raise their children based on the Buddha’s teachings.


. We organized a steering committee and shared the roles in order to attract as many young mothers as possible to the seminar. One of the committee members, Ms. A was in charge of designing the information flyer of this seminar.

She made a draft and showed it to me. The moment I saw it, I was surprised to see the illustrations she drew. They were “Teruteru-bozu.”


(This is a real Teruteru-bozu. Teruteru-bozu or a fine weather doll, is a very simple doll made of white paper or cloth. This doll is popularly believed to have a magic power to bring fine weather. Children hang it from the eaves or on the outside of the window on the previous day of an important event like their school excursion or sports day.)


When I saw the draft with the Teruteru-bozu in it, I had a feeling of rejection and thought in my mind, “Using Teruteru-bozu in the flyer can be a sign of bad luck. It gives an impression that it will rain on the day of the seminar. Anyway I don’t want to use the flyer which has something associated with rain. I’d prefer her inserting the picture of the smiling sun, for example.”


There was a reason for my refusal.

Any event planned for young mothers who have small children is seriously influenced by the weather. They tend to avoid going out with their children on rainy days. So, if we are blessed with fine weather on the day of an event, we can say it’s already more than half successful.


I said to Ms. A, “The text part is very good. But this Teruteru-bozu is out of the question. It seems to suggest that there will be rain on the event day. “

After hearing my opinion, she looked dissatisfied and disobedient. She said, ”I showed this draft to one of the members, who said, ‘Oh, they’re cute.’”

I thought, “How stubborn she is! Why doesn’t she understand this simple thing?”


But then, I decided to listen to what she was thinking about the Teruteru-bozu because I felt that my image and her image of Teruteru-bozu seemed to be different from each other.


She said, “Before a big event like a school excursion or trip, we make Teruteru-bozu with our prayer for the next day’s fine weather, don’t we? First, this picture expresses my strong prayer for fine weather by using Teruteru-bozu. And please look at these Teruteru-bozu dolls. They are not just ordinary Teruteru-bozu. They are a mother and her children going together to the seminar. I tried to make the flyer have an atmosphere of the home education seminar and also to give a friendly impression to non-RKK members.”


While listening to her explanation, I looked at the flyer more carefully. Yes, they were mother and four children, one on her back and three on her sides. It was a heart-warming illustration and also made me feel their strength of thinking nothing of rain.


My original fixed image of the Teruteru-bozu in the rain was a sad and miserable one symbolizing failure and an unanswered prayer.

But I noticed that the same Teruteru-bozu picture, if expressed differently, could give people different images, messages and associations, perhaps innumerable interpretations were possible depending on each person’s background and sensitivity.

I first rejected the picture as soon as I saw it just because they were Teruteru-bozu.


I was not sensitive enough to perceive her deep prayer for fine weather and the strength in the face of rain.

After I listened to her thoughts and aims with which she drew the picture, the same picture appealed to me with a different impression and meaning. So I decided to adopt the flyer. I said, “OK. They are cute. Let’s use this picture. Thank you.”

By asking for her explanation, I got a deeper understanding of the picture. There was much more to it than I saw it first.


Do you want to know how the weather was on that day? It was May 22 more than 20 years ago. The weather forecast said that the rain from the previous night would continue until noon. But the forecast proved wrong. Early in the morning, it stopped raining.


In the morning, Ms. A called me in a cheerful voice and said, “Ms. Suzuki, it’s cleared up.” And we were very happy.

My lesson from this experience is that we should free ourselves from fixed ideas and open ourselves to any unfamiliar concept if we want to see things as the Buddha does. It’s a condition to practice “Right View.”


Incidentally, when we make a decision as a group, I think the majority decision rule in democracy is the best possible way because it can reflect as many people’s opinions as possible. This fair system is human wisdom. In the same way, I agree with Bentham’s phrase, “It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.”


Speaking of rain and preparation for an event, I learned something important from this year’s Hanamatsuri too. As some of you may remember, the weather was unstable on Sunday April 13.

The weather forecast said that it would rain only in the morning but actually a light rain continued falling though it sometimes stopped.

According to our original plan, we were supposed to have a social time in the garden

as usual, but because of the continuing rain we changed our plan and held it in the Kosei Library’s Audio-Visual Hall.

This change could be called a blessing given by the Buddha because it was very cold outside like a day in winter.

The inside of the Library Hall was warm and comfortable. The hall was big enough to hold all of us. We enjoyed socializing and felt a sense of unity more strongly.

Besides, when moving from the Worship Hall to the Library Hall, the rain stopped.

So we moved very smoothly without using our umbrellas. I felt we were protected by the Buddha in that way.


But there is one thing which could be avoided if I had had courage to face and accept

any situation by believing it as an opportunity given by the Buddha for our spiritual improvement. It has something to do with rain.

I remember, when preparing for the Hanamatsuri information flyer, Ms. Ichihashi proposed to me. “How about inserting the information that in case of rain a social time is to be held in the Kosei Library Hall?”


But I turned down her proposal because I was afraid that such a statement would invite bad luck, thinking about the doctrine of Three Thousand Realms in One Mind.

For your reference, IBC’s Hanamatsuri had been blessed with fine weather since it started in 2001 until last year. We had the first rainy Hanamatsuri this year.


So, like all the past flyers, this year’s flyer has no statement about the case of rain. (showing a flyer)


I’m not sure, but there might have been some people who didn’t know whether the social time would be held or not in case of rain. Anyway this flyer was not sufficient in that it didn’t cover all the necessary information. This lack of information might have caused misunderstanding to some people and discouraged someone from attending on a rainy day, though I hope not.


What was lacking was my belief in the Buddha

I was lacking in the belief that rain or shine the Buddha is always protecting us, as shown in Chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra “I am always thinking: How can I lead all the living to enter the supreme way and quickly perfect their Buddha-bodies?


Fears and unnecessary worries sometimes prevent us from making a right decision with a clear mind. What I learned is the importance of making all humanly possible preparations with a calm, clear mind for the event participants and then leaving the rest, I mean, something beyond human capacity, to the Buddha.


The Buddha has given me various opportunities through which I’ve learned how to apply the virtue of Right View to my life. For example, first, “to ask with humility about what I cannot understand”, even a small child can be my teacher. Second, “to free myself from delusions such as self-centered interpretations, fixed ideas, inferiority complex, and unnecessary fears.” Third, “to have a firm faith in the Buddha.”

Right View is the way with which the Buddha sees us. I’ll keep walking the Bodhisattva way following the Buddha. Thank you for your kind attention.