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Ecumenism

I have been avidly playing the game Fire Emblem: Three Houses since fall of last year. Yes, the game is that good. But also the game makes you think about things too, including religion. One of my favorite characters in the game, is the leader of the Golden Deer House, Claude von Riegan (also mentioned here and here), voiced in English by Joe Zieja. Claude’s background is unusual for the game’s…

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Basic Japanese Particles, Part 2

In our last episode, we talked about some basic, fundamental particles used in the Japanese language. Today, we’ll cover some other, essential particles: “ni” に, “de” で, “yo” よ, and “ne” ね. The first two are often required for parts of speech, but the second two are often used to provide “flavor” or “nuance” to conversation. All of them are frequently used, and necessary to speak Japanese…

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Celebrating the Buddha's Birthday

Next week, according to the solar calendar, is the Buddha’s birthday. Many communities observe this holiday using the lunar calendar, and different communities use different lunar calendars, so the dates will vary quite a bit. I use the Japanese-Buddhist calendar which in turn uses the Western calendar since the 19th century, thus April 8th.1 But I digress. How does one celebrate the Buddha’s…

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Chanting the "Jigage": Chapter Sixteen of the Lotus Sutra

The Lotus Sutra, one of the most important sutras of Mahayana Buddhism, is the size of an epic novel, and thus much too large to recite cover to cover. Even reciting a single chapter can be daunting because each chapter contains a large narrative section, and one or more verse sections that recap the narrative. For this reason, certain verse sections have become popular for chanting because they…

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Chanting the "Hobenpon", Chapter Two of the Lotus Sutra

The Lotus Sutra, one of the most important sutras of Mahayana Buddhism, is the size of an epic novel, and thus much too large to recite cover to cover. Even reciting a single chapter can be daunting because each chapter contains a large narrative section, and one or more verse sections that recap the narrative. For this reason, certain verse sections have become popular for chanting because they…

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Enjoying This Moment

This was a neat dialogue between two of the characters in Fire Emblem: Three Houses that I wanted to post here.1 It’s very Buddhist in my opinion. Or as Leonard Nimoy said before his passing… I am one of those people who likes to take lots of photos of scenery on my phone, but I admit whenever I do this, the photos just aren’t the same as the original experience. I never could fully explain…

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Concentration, or Lack Thereof

This is me, most of the time. I am the sort of person who is bad with names. I recently met some new neighbors, and they told me their names, and I made a point of remembering those names, but 5 minutes later, I had already forgotten one of them. In the early Buddhist sutras, the Buddha described the mind as a monkey flitting from branch to branch: Just as a monkey, swinging through a forest…

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The Onin War

After a couple recent posts, I realized that I had never covered a very weird, disastrous war in Japanese history: the Ōnin War (応仁の乱, Ōnin no Ran) from 1467 to 1477. The Onin War is something most Westerners would not be familiar with, but it had a devastating impact to Japan that can still be felt today in Kyoto. The war spanned 10 years, but was almost entirely fought within and around the…

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Cherry Blossoms at the University of Washington

I’ve been talking a lot about heavy, often historical subjects lately, but today I just wanted to share something more local. Every year, my family and I go to see the cherry blossoms at the local University of Washington. This is part of a popular Japanese tradition called ohanami (お花見) or “flower viewing”. Ever since our children were little babies, my wife and I never fail to go to the…

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The Five Mountains System in Medieval Japan

In a recent post I talked about how Zen imported from Song-Dynasty China found patronage with the elite samurai families of the city of Kamakura. Sometimes this was due to the cultural prestige of Zen among “country bumpkin samurai”, but also the new Zen monastic community drew sincere students as well, helping it take root. Zen still had a very small presence, compared to other Buddhist…

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Emma: King of the Dead

My son is at the age where is he is obsessed with Dragon Ball,1 so we watch some of the episodes together on Crunchyroll. Source: https://dragonball.fandom.com/wiki/King_Yemma?file=KingYemmaNV01 Dragon Ball is a fun series because it blends a lot of Japanese-Chinese mythology, especially the early series, into a futuristic storyline. Goku is obviously based off of the famous legend of the…

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Liturgy on White Ashes

A while back, I mentioned a well-known liturgy called the Letter on White Ashes (白骨の章, hakkotsu no shō). It is letter that is often read aloud in the Jodo Shinshu tradition, and was originally composed by the 8th head (monshu, 門主) of the order, Rennyo (蓮如, 1415–1499) to a follower. Some quick backstory about Rennyo first though. A portrait of Rennyo, courtesy of ブレイズマン, Public domain, via…

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A Pinch of Austerity

Anyone who’s ever followed a religious path, regardless of religion, will know that there’s usually some kind of rules, restrictions or prohibition about how to live one’s life. Some people approach this as “Eager Beavers” and dive head-first, others hate the idea of rules imposed on their own life and rebel. Others find some kind of middle-ground. For Buddhism though, The Buddha treated the…

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The Three Sacred Treasures of Japan

A few months ago, I touched on Japanese mythology and how it relates to the current Imperial family, but something I didn’t really cover were the three sacred treasures or Sanshu no Jingi (三種の神器). These three treasures were said to be have been passed down to the first emperor of the Imperial family by their divine ancestor, Ninigi-no-mikoto. Some of these treasures are related to kami I…

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Updates Post-Surgery

Hi all, Just some quick updates. It’s day 8 for me since getting out of the hospital, and it’s been a tough recovery. My body is healing well enough, but the healing process has taken a lot of my energy, and because I was in the hospital for so long eating a liquid diet, I’ve had to readjust to eating normal food again. I tend to sleep a lot more than before, and don’t have my old stamina yet.…

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Mending and Retreat

Hi all, In addition to bout of COVID I was dealing with, I ended up in the emergency room due to pancreatitis, a problem related to my gall bladder. It has been a long, long week at the hospital, recovering and prepping to have my gall bladder removed. I am thankfully home now, minus a gall bladder, but my energy level is very low. Between the surgery, hospital stay and covid my body is…

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The Great Compassion Dharani

Another dharani I was reading about lately is the Great Compassion Dharani, also known as the Nīlakaṇṭha Dhāraṇī, or in Japanese Buddhism the daihishin darani (大悲心陀羅尼), also known more simply as the daihishu (大悲咒), among other names. According to Wikipedia, this is one of widely recited dharani across the Buddhist tradition, and has undergone various changes over time, with a couple extant…