Balancing Sutras and Service Duties
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AI Suggested Keywords:
The talk focuses on the challenges and responsibilities of practicing and teaching Buddhism both in the West and Japan. It emphasizes the importance of studying sutras despite the vast number, highlighting daily efforts to balance study with interpersonal duties like performing memorial services. This reflects a complex dynamic between personal practice and communal responsibilities.
- 84,000 Sutras: This reference underscores the extensive and diverse nature of Buddhist teachings that require continual study, highlighting the commitment to understanding and practicing Buddhism.
- References to Japan: Discusses the traditional expectation in Japan of performing memorial services, illustrating the differences in religious practice and community engagement between cultures.
- Zazen Practice: Mentions the difficulty of maintaining regular meditation practice (Zazen) due to the demanding schedule of temple duties, illustrating a tension between spiritual practice and administrative responsibilities.
- Challenges of Teaching: Explores the internal conflict and doubt about qualifications to teach, reflective of broader concerns regarding the authenticity and effectiveness of transmitting Zen teachings.
AI Suggested Title: Balancing Sutras and Service Duties
Side: A
Additional Text: Inter. w/ Kat. Sensei #3, Side A only
Side: B
Additional Text: Inter. w/ Kat. Sensei Contd
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Yeah, they have to see anyway, everything, being compassionate to the situation, to the situation of students and group and you know, but quickly speaking what is best way of carrying out this important, you know, the point which I have to do, it's nothing to do for me, but doing practice, you know, present on the street, seriously, with students, practicing and on the other hand, studying Buddhism.
[01:23]
You mean studying Buddhism in books? Yes, books, because there are many books, many things, many sutras, we have to do many sutras in Buddhism. It is said that there are 84,000 sutras. 84,000 different sutras? Actually, it's impossible, it's very difficult to finish reading all of them. You have to continue to study Buddhism through the book, without your practice.
[02:35]
Do you study out of books every day? Yeah, as much as possible every day, sometimes I go every day. My effort is made to study every day. Your practice as a teacher here is very different, it seems to me, from what your practice as a Zen priest would be in Japan. Very different. Did you have the idea that you would be here, that you would be doing what you are doing now? If I was at my temple, it wouldn't have been necessary to study Buddhism through the book,
[03:37]
not so much, because the Japanese people have a tradition, a custom, to perform memorials, memorial service, and so on. That's all, you know. So even though I have a chance to give a lecture, if I speak on Buddhism, some aspects of Buddhism, logically, I don't understand. It's impossible. Even here, or in Japan? In Japan, too, yeah. You wouldn't be doing Zazen if you were... Sometimes it's pretty difficult to practice Dalai Lama every day, because I'm very busy,
[04:47]
to take care of the business of the temple in Japan. What kind of business? Every morning I have to go down to the village to visit door-to-door the temple for memorial days of the family's death. The most average, I have to visit more than three families every morning to chant, to perform memorial services. Not for so long. There are people who perform in their homes. Tomoe-san would like you to come home for lunch, before the gas goes off.
[05:54]
Gas? Gas. The gas has to go off for some reason this afternoon, in the kitchen. So she would like you to come home for lunch right away, please. Please. I'm sorry. I feel, oh, I don't want to teach anymore. Something like that. But this is just my idea. I come from some place. Well, I've heard you say the Tathagatara number times, you hate to lecture. Yes, when I reflect upon myself seriously, are you qualified to teach the people? I've never heard you say, I hate to do something, I hate to give Doku-san, I hate to talk to the students.
[06:59]
Don't worry about it. Do you think you'll stay in this country? Yes, I do. So you think at some point you'll give up the temple in Japan? No. The problem is, I can't have, I can't have, I can't still, I can't yet, I've found the successor of my temple, who is taking care of. Who's taking care of it now? Nobody? Next to the priest, who lives, who lives next to my village. I've been taking care of, I was taking care of my temple for a certain period, now I rest. That's what I was asking you when you came in. You go to visit, you said, like three families every morning, when you work at your temple.
[08:07]
And you perform memorial services in their homes? Yes. Just as you were saying, when you were a child, the priest would come to your house? Yes. Well, let's let it rest at this now. Sensei, maybe, I don't think I'm going to do anything with this, and between the time that you are at Takahara, maybe we can come back, maybe after I've gotten all this together, I can...
[08:44]
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