2014年08月02日
Sermons at the funeral of Mr. Honda
玄誠邃実居士 Gensei Suijitsu Koji
Bhikku of deep truth that comes from Sincerity and Profound Thought
In the last part of the parting verse I read to see him off to the stream of life…
I read a poem which basically meant
Green grass covering the vast field
Withers and sprouts every year
The field fire doesn’t terminate its life
As the spring wind starts to blow, they come back again
Where is Minoru san going? What will he look like?
To this question, Buddha is known to have responded with silence.
Regarding this, there is one Zen riddle called Koan from Chinese tradition which goes:
What did your face look like before your parents were born?
Where were you? What did you look like?
Or this can be rephrased as
What will the face of the grandchild of your grandchild look like?
Where are they? What do they look like?
We can not answer.
Nonetheless, when the time comes and all the conditions are met.
Here you are. You can see your own face in the mirror and even touch it.
You are the manifestation of that very mystery.
When the time comes and all the conditions are met. There will be the face of the grand child of your grand child.
Where is Minoru san going? What does he look like?
It is not possible to draw the face in a blank piece of paper.
But it doesn’t mean the paper stays blank.
You will see it when you see it.
We will all see it when we see it.
This is like a trip to a foreign country you never visited before.
When I was in Canada, I had a chance to have this conversation with a priest from Anglican church.
He once told me a story of a 8 years old boy who was going to die from cancer.
He had been sick since soon after his birth so he already knew he was going to die.
One time, this boy asked my friend.
“What does God look like?” “So when I go to heaven I can find him.”
My friend, instead of telling him what god is, asked the boy.
“What do you think he looks like?”
Then he gave the boy a blank piece of paper and a pencil.
A few days later, he was told by the boy’s mother that the boy drew the picture.
If you are asked to draw a picture of the next life, the picture of the world you are entering and people you would meet.
What would you draw?
This boy drew a picture of an old man with a long white beard smiling.
He didn’t have to tell the boy what God was or how he looked.
It was all in his mind clearly.
Some time later, the boy passed away. The family told him that he passed away peacefully.
The boy’s mother gave the picture he drew to my friend.
He then learned later from one of the psychotherapists who were taking care of dying children that they almost always draw themselves in the picture whether consciously or subconsciously.
So, half believing it, my friend tried to find the boy in the picture, which took him a few days. He finally found the boy near the old man’s face. He found a small flower with a smiling face.
This big journey of life cannot be defined from a perspective of right or wrong… just like you cannot draw a right face of the grandchild of your grand child.
Still, Buddhism teaches us.
We ourselves are responsible for our own happiness.
We create our own heaven.
We are the architects of our own fate.
Let us be bold and try to draw a picture in this blank piece of paper.
Let us all hope that Mr. Honda will rest peacefully in the wonderful world that we can best depict and let his peaceful world be yours as well by living right through it.
Finally, let’s thank him for his wonderful family, his children and grandchildren, the greatest wonder and miracle he drew in his blank sheet of paper called “life”.
Bhikku of deep truth that comes from Sincerity and Profound Thought
In the last part of the parting verse I read to see him off to the stream of life…
I read a poem which basically meant
Green grass covering the vast field
Withers and sprouts every year
The field fire doesn’t terminate its life
As the spring wind starts to blow, they come back again
Where is Minoru san going? What will he look like?
To this question, Buddha is known to have responded with silence.
Regarding this, there is one Zen riddle called Koan from Chinese tradition which goes:
What did your face look like before your parents were born?
Where were you? What did you look like?
Or this can be rephrased as
What will the face of the grandchild of your grandchild look like?
Where are they? What do they look like?
We can not answer.
Nonetheless, when the time comes and all the conditions are met.
Here you are. You can see your own face in the mirror and even touch it.
You are the manifestation of that very mystery.
When the time comes and all the conditions are met. There will be the face of the grand child of your grand child.
Where is Minoru san going? What does he look like?
It is not possible to draw the face in a blank piece of paper.
But it doesn’t mean the paper stays blank.
You will see it when you see it.
We will all see it when we see it.
This is like a trip to a foreign country you never visited before.
When I was in Canada, I had a chance to have this conversation with a priest from Anglican church.
He once told me a story of a 8 years old boy who was going to die from cancer.
He had been sick since soon after his birth so he already knew he was going to die.
One time, this boy asked my friend.
“What does God look like?” “So when I go to heaven I can find him.”
My friend, instead of telling him what god is, asked the boy.
“What do you think he looks like?”
Then he gave the boy a blank piece of paper and a pencil.
A few days later, he was told by the boy’s mother that the boy drew the picture.
If you are asked to draw a picture of the next life, the picture of the world you are entering and people you would meet.
What would you draw?
This boy drew a picture of an old man with a long white beard smiling.
He didn’t have to tell the boy what God was or how he looked.
It was all in his mind clearly.
Some time later, the boy passed away. The family told him that he passed away peacefully.
The boy’s mother gave the picture he drew to my friend.
He then learned later from one of the psychotherapists who were taking care of dying children that they almost always draw themselves in the picture whether consciously or subconsciously.
So, half believing it, my friend tried to find the boy in the picture, which took him a few days. He finally found the boy near the old man’s face. He found a small flower with a smiling face.
This big journey of life cannot be defined from a perspective of right or wrong… just like you cannot draw a right face of the grandchild of your grand child.
Still, Buddhism teaches us.
We ourselves are responsible for our own happiness.
We create our own heaven.
We are the architects of our own fate.
Let us be bold and try to draw a picture in this blank piece of paper.
Let us all hope that Mr. Honda will rest peacefully in the wonderful world that we can best depict and let his peaceful world be yours as well by living right through it.
Finally, let’s thank him for his wonderful family, his children and grandchildren, the greatest wonder and miracle he drew in his blank sheet of paper called “life”.
Posted by Gyokei Yokoyama at 20:45