Seattle Koyasan Buddhist Temple
シアトル高野山
Seattle Koyasan Buddhist Temple 1518 S Washington St Seattle, WA 98144
(206) 325-8811
https://seattlekoyasan.com/
Happy New Year!
We couldn’t be naïve to believe everything is going to be alright, considering the ongoing situation of the world. So, today let me introduce a Kukai’s words that could be the guiding principle of the year:
“Observing every sentient being in the universe, I see myself in each of them.” Kukai (774-835)
Hello, myself in you. If you exist in each other, you lose any reason to hurt anybody. This is where compassion comes from in Buddhism. No one tells you to be compassionate, but you naturally become compassionate, realizing everyone is someone like you.
The key is the great tolerance. “Great” in a Buddhist context means limitless. We need a limitless tolerance to climb up and down steep mountains and valleys in somebody’s mind scape. Kukai is doing so. The meaning is embodied in “Dogyo Ninin / 同行二人”, a motto written on a bamboo hat you wear during the Shikoku 88 Temples Pilgrimage.
This is the Year of the Dragon. Let us keep being a grassroots peacemaker or a bodhisattva by functioning our heart as flexibly as we can like a dragon spiraling forward.
Ven. Taijo Imanaka Seattle Koyasan Buddhist Temple
