2008 September Bulletin - West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple

West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple September 2008
Jeff Wilson
Since 2002, I’ve been conducting
a research study at
the Ekoji temple in Richmond,
Virginia. This isn’t
the Ekoji in northern Virginia
that some of you may
have heard about. Rev. Tsuji,
the former bishop of the
BCA, started both Ekojis but the Richmond
temple is not really a Jodo Shinshu temple. Rather,
it is multi-denominational, with five different
kinds of Buddhist groups meeting under
one roof. One of them is a Pure Land group
which includes some Shin elements, such as
Juseige, but it is not a full-fledged Jodo Shinshu
group. The others are Zen, Tibetan, Vipassana
(a type of Theravada), and a quasi-Zen
meditation group.
I was fascinated when I first heard about all of
this activity going on in one temple. This is a
very unusual situation: in Japan and elsewhere,
usually only one type of Buddhism would be
found in each temple. For example, when we
visit Hongwanji in Kyoto, we don’t expect to find
a group practicing Tibetan tantra or people
organized to do Zen meditation. This group in
Richmond developed because people in America
don’t have access to the same sort of resources
that people in Asia do: even though Buddhism
has been here over 100 years, in many parts of
the country it is still new and unusual, and
different kinds of Buddhism have to stick together
in order to gather enough people and
funds for a temple.
Trying to practice Buddhism in a new place like
Richmond presents many challenges. At the
same time, there are some advantages too. Because
they have so many kinds of Buddhism in
the same temple, they are able to learn about
many different Dharma paths. Often, people
start with one group, and they don’t know much
about other kinds of Buddhism. They may have
bad ideas about unfamiliar types of Buddhism:
for example, if they practice Zen they may think
that Pure Land is a useless sort of Buddhism, or
if they practice Tibetan they may think Zen is a
deviation from the Buddha’s teachings. If they
were isolated, it would be easy for them to think
only about their particular sect and disparage
other kinds of Buddhism out of ignorance. But
because they are all together, eventually they
begin to learn about each other. People from the
Zen group sometimes visit the Pure Land group
3
and learn about it, and people from the Tibetan
group sometimes participate in the Vipassana
group. Also, they meet together several times
per year, such as at Buddha’s Birthday (Hanamatsuri).
Then they can practice together as one
Sangha and appreciate the richness of the
Dharma.
Even though they interact with each other, most
people have chosen the path that suits them
best and spend the majority of their time on one
practice, be it nembutsu, zazen, or something
else. They may blend their practices a little, but
they still remain true to one school of Buddhism.
Thus they find ways to go deeply into one practice
while also learning about others and coming
to appreciate the variety within Buddhism. This
is the sort of advantage that Americans have in
Buddhism. Even if we are dedicated to one path,
we have the opportunity to learn about others
and discover how people in many parts of the
world live the Buddha’s teachings. We don’t
have to live in Richmond in order to experience
it. Los Angeles is the most diverse city for Buddhism
on the planet (it’s true!), and we can find
many other kinds of Buddhist practice going on.
Sometimes there are other kinds of Buddhism
right around us and we don’t know it: I remember
dancing at Obon at the Betsuin, and there
were not only people from the many Shin temples
in Southern California, but also Zen Buddhists,
Shingon Buddhists, Nichiren Buddhists,
and people connected to Tibetan, Burmese, and
other kinds of Buddhism. Perhaps we don’t
have the same sort of advantages that people in
Japan do, but at the same time we also have
some unique opportunities that we can be
thankful for.
Jeff sends his “Hello!” to everyone at WLA
and encloses a recent photo of his son, Tai.