I am writing
this newsletter article on August 15th while the persons from Fire
Alarm Inspection Company are inspecting the alarm system of SNI Toronto Centre.
By doing maintenance like that, we can use this Centre without worrying about the
fire or other problems.
In order for us
to have Seicho-No-Ie activities, it is good to have our own Training Centres.
Thanks to our predecessors, we have two Centres in Canada, one in Toronto and
the other in Vancouver. On May 25th SNI Vancouver Centre celebrates its
39th year anniversary and on August 25th SNI Toronto new
building celebrates its 15th year anniversary. Seicho-No-Ie calls
these centers as “Life’s Purification Centre” (Inochi no Yuniwa in Japanese.) In the Divine Message of Life’s purification
Centre, it is written as follows:
“Life’s Purification Center’ means a place of
purification wherein the Truth is manifested. The word “Truth” means to remove
all delusions. Since man is a child of God, when his True Image is manifested,
there is no disease, no trouble, no death, no misfortune of any kind. …
(Message from the Spirit of the Lord
on March 14, 1932)
So, it is
important to remove all delusions. On August 15th, in Japan, it is
also the commemorative day for the Urabon Memorial Service. The story of this
memorial service is based on Maudgalyayana (Mokuren Sonjya in Japanese) and his
mother. Maudgalyayana was known as one of the Shakyamuni Buddha’s disciple. One
day, while Maudgalyayana was meditating, he saw his deceased mother suffering
in hell.
He decided to
visit his mother in hell. Since his mother could not eat anything, he decided
to give her some food. However, when she tried to eat, the food became fire and
she could not eat it. So, Maudgalyayana visited Shakyamuni and asked his advice.
Shakyamuni suggested that Maudgalyayana offered food to sangha, the community
of ordained Buddhist monks or nuns. As soon as he offered food to them, his
mother was liberated from her suffering. Because he was so happy he expressed
his joy by dancing. This is how the so called Bon-odori or "Bon
dance" started.
By
this story, we know the importance of memorializing our ancestors with offerings.
Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi explained the importance of the offerings as follows.
At first Rev. Masaharu Taniguchi explained that in Shintoism the offering means
to offer our gratitude to God. Then, he explains the meaning of offering in
Buddhism as follows.
In Buddhism, there is “a ceremony of feeding the hungry spirits”
(segaki) when food and the Holy Sutra recitation are offered to the spirits
during Ullambana (a Buddhist festival observed during the summer with the
purpose of saving spirits.) However, it is not the material food that the spirits
actually eat. The spiritual world is a world of thought and the spirits live
with thoughts as their food. It is not the magnitude or amount of the offering
but it is the thought waves of the person who makes the offering that are broadcasted
to the spiritual world and the desire feeling of giving. In other words, the
feelings of love become the driving force and are sent to the spiritual world, in
the form of the offerings who were triggered by thoughts.
(“Truth of life
Magazine” July 2012, pp. 22-23 / From Shinpan Jinsei wo Shihai suru Senzo Kuyo,”
Ancestral Memorial Service That Controls Your Life, New Edition,” pp. 17-29).
The original meaning of Urabon or Obon can be found on Wikipedia as follows:
Obon is a shortened form of Ullambana (Japanese: 于蘭盆會 or 盂蘭盆會, urabon'e). It is in Sanskrit for "hanging upside down"
and implies great suffering.[2]
So,
what is the meaning of hanging upside down? At first I thought it was how
Moluren’s mother was, hanged in hell, but later when I read the real meaning of
hanging upside down, what came to my mind, was the idea of “Delusion.” Also, as
many of you know, in the Holy Sutra Nectarean Shower of Holy Doctrines, it is
written about delusion as follows.
Delusion exists
because we imagine that what is nonexistent exists.
(Holy Sutra “Nectarean Shower of Holy
Doctrines” p. 34)
Then,
how can we remove all these delusions, the state of “hanging upside down” by
ourselves? As I quoted at the beginning of this article, it is important to
know the Truth. And we can learn the Truth at the Life’s Purification Center.
By
the way, in Seicho-No-Ie we have Hozo Shrine Urabon Memorial Service for three
days every year at the Seicho-No-Ie Uji Temple in Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture; every
year they will be held from August 17 to 19.
The Hozo Shrine Main Festival, the Memorial Tower for Neglected Souls of
Aborted Children throughout Japan Festival and other festivals will be held and
conducted by Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi, having him as the Chief Priest. Mrs.
Junko Taniguchi will be also present. We had already announced about it to the SNI
members in Toronto and Vancouver in the end of June. So, you have probably
already submitted the application forms. Those forms were already sent to Uji
temple in Japan and the memorial tablets for your ancestors will be prepared
and their names called and the Sutras read to them during the memorial service.
At Uji Temple,
the SNI priests read the Holy Sutras to the ancestors, more than 150,000
people, about 4,000 times a year until the tablets are burned in the following year
during the Urabon Memorial Service. So those spirits memorialized at Uji temple
receive the Spiritual Offerings or Truth as spiritual blessings. Therefore, let
us all express our gratitude to our ancestors by memorializing them.
Thank you very
much.
August 15th,
2013.
Yoshiharu Taka
Chief of Toronto
Missionary Area
Resident
Ordained Minister in Canada
