May their music touch the heart of all beings

While visiting at Clearwater, Folodia, for attending the wedding ceremony of Chika and Rev. Nick, I saw three grils playing viloline on a street for fundrasing for the earthquake/tsunami disaster in Japan. Thank you all for your coniuted prayers and support. May their beautiful music touch the heart of all beings and we all become one.

Cultivating the Buddhist Heart Symposium

A symposium I am now working on is just a week ahead.
This symposium offers the opportunity to share and discuss the Buddhist approach to live in peace and fulfillment in our everyday lives, and also to find the way to connect inner peace and external peace in today's world.

I am very grateful to all the support we have received for this event.I hope you can join this symposium. It is free, but the space is limited so please register on line.
The details are below.

Symposium

"Finding Peace and Fulfillment in a Changing World”

- Cultivating the Buddhist Heart –

In commemoration of the publication of Rev. Nichiko Niwano’s latest book,

“Cultivating the Buddhist Heart”

Date: October 18th, Saturday, 2008
Time: 2 p. m. to 4:30 p. m., followed by refreshments
Place: Doheny Beach Room, Student Center at UC Irvine

Moderator:
Dr. Gene Reeves (Special Minister for the International Buddhist Congregation, Tokyo, Visiting Professor at the University of Peking, Beijing)

Speakers:
1) Dr. Ruben Habito (Professor of World Religions and Spirituality, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas)
“Inner Peace and Global Peace: Cultivating Compassion in a Wounded World”

2) Dr. Miriam Levering (Professor of Religious Studies and Asian Studies, University of Tennessee, Knoxville)
"Impermanence is Everyday: the Thought and Guidance of Nichiko Niwano."

3) Dr. Michio Shinozaki (President, Rissho Kosei-kai Gakurin Seminary, Tokyo)
“Buddhist Visions of Peace in Today’s World: Rev. Nikkyo Niwano’s Vision for Peace

Sponsor: The Buddhist Center - Rissho Kosei-kai International of North America
Co-sponsors:
University of California, Irvine, Office of the Vice Chancellor Student Affairs
Spiritual Alliance at UC Irvine (SAUCI)
Buddhist Association at UC Irvine

Admission: free Everyone is welcome.
Please make reservation by online or contact the RKINA office (949-336-4430).
For the location and parking at the UCI Student Center, please visit; www.studentcenter.uci.edu/information

Mizutani

Mother's Day, 5/11/2008

Today is the Mother's day and I called my mother living in Japan and expressed my gratitude to her on the phone.

Since the end of last year, she became very weak. I visited my mother last month and was very much shocked because of her big change. She was very skinny, not able to walk now, and was not able to think very well. She has been developing dementia gradually. She needs to wear diapers all the time.

I had been appreciative for my mother's healthy senior life, but this experience was beyond my understanding about how aging affects the life of even my most important person. I could not stop crying when I was pushing her wheelchair . I was sad. At that time, I saw a light. I realized that because of this situation I am able to do something for my mother. She has done so much for me in my whole life. It is my turn now.

Thank you Mom for everything you have given me in your whole life.

"There are 1 billion mothers for 1 billion pepole, but my mother is the best mother in the world. " (Japanese poet: Haya Akegarasu)

Gassho

Shoko Mizuatni

Opening of the Buddhist Center - RKINA on 4/8/08

I am grateful today that I am positing a story in this blog after long time.

The Buddhist Center - RKINA (Rissho Kosei-kai International of North America) was iaugurated on April 8th, the birthday of Shakyamuni Buddha, in the city of Irvine, Orange County, CA.. I would like to share with you a vow I made at the enshrinement service of the Buddhist Center.

[Vow at the Enshrinement Ceremony ]

Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni, Founder Niwano, and President Niwano,
I would like to express my sincere gratitude for all your teachings, support, guidance, and your presence at each and every moment.
Today is the birthday of Shakyamuni Buddha. On this joyful day, we have enshrined the image of the Buddha, here at the Buddhist Center -RKINA. I am filled with great joy and gratitude.

I hear you profoundly proclaiming to us,“Now I entrust it to you. Do you receive and keep, read and recite, and proclaim this Law abroad that all living beings universally may hear and know it.”　(Chapter 22, “ The Final Commission”, the Threefold Lotus Sutra)

We all here respond in unison, “Yes, we receive and keep, read and recite, and share the Lotus Sutra teaching, the guidance of Founder Niwano, the spirit of Ekayana Buddhism, with all people here in this country.

From the enlightened eyes, we are able to feel and see your work at every moment to help reveal buddha-nature of all beings and to bring peace to everywhere. Because of the illusion and attachment, however, we see, think and act in our own way, and mess up our own mind, relationship, and society where we live. It is important, therefore, to walk the bodhisattva way, so that we can see, think, and act in a more enlightened way and we are able to connect to your life.

I would like to vow today to joyfully promote the work of RKINA, so that opportunities to study and practice the teachings of the Lotus Sutra (Ekayana Buddhism) are more widely open in this society,
more centers and groups of Rissho Kosei-kai will develop in the US,
and more positive energy will be generated and be extended to all over the world.

Thank you very much for your continued guidance and presence.

In Gassho
Shoko Mizutani

Please join us for a cup of tea and nourishment for your soul at the Buddhist Center -RKINA.
http://www.buddhistcenter-rkina.org/

The Power of Smile

When I was participating in the web cast celebration of the 70th anniversary of the foundation of my Buddhist Congregation yesterday, I realized that this year is also the 30th anniversary of my own Buddhist life. On May 4th, 1978, I walked into the Rissho Kosei-kai Buddhist Center of Sapporo to learn the Dharma.

One of the greatest learning I have ever got is the awareness of my connection with external conditions. We are likely to be influenced by the things happening around us. When people are nice to me, I am happy. When things don’t go well, I am frustrated. When the traffic is smooth, I feel good. When a service is delayed at a restaurant, I am irritated.　However, I am also aware that even though the external conditions may not be something I want, I can free myself from negative influences by tuning my state of mind into the Buddha’s state of mind, i.e. appreciation of that circumstance and appreciation of that moment.

Will it take time to attain that special state of mind? I think it is a life-long practice. But making a smile has a power to connect us to the Buddha’s mind right away. When we smile, a feeling of happiness arises from within ourselves irrespective of the conditions we are in.
External conditions fail to control us, and instead we can engage ourselves in a constructive process.

Smile has a power. And this is what I was able to gain from my practice with Rissho Kosei-kai.
Thank you, Buddha, and thank you, Founder Rev. Nikkyo Niwano, for its foundation.

Mizutani

Moving Out 2/18/08

2/10 I moved from Torrance to a new apartment in Irvine. What I took with me today were just the Buddha Statue and a sleeping bag. I started my new life with Buddha.

2/11 I went back to the family house and packed everything in boxes.

2/12 A big truck came and moved all furniture and boxes to the new place.

2/13 I cleaned my sweet house, dumping all trashes in the neighbors’ trash bins as well as mine.

2/14 I returned my house keys to the landlord. I tried to express how much I was appreciative of this house that supported our family life, then tears dropped.

2/18 Most boxes are now gone and I finally vacuumed the rooms in the new apartment.

It was a big week of moving my life from the previous place to the new place.
I realized that I have a strong attachment to my family. Things like a picture, note, toy, often stopped my hand of packing. In 2001, we came to US and my wife and kids made a great effort to adapt to this country. I may not be very considerate to each of them, however, as I was so busy with my own work too. Cleaning a house by oneself is hard, but I realized that it was a great time to feel deeply my appreciation to my wife and kids, Aki, Naoki, Yuri, and Taishi. It was another awakening!

Do not let your attachment controls you; Control your attachment for a new discovery.

Before I left the home, I bowed to each room and thanked. I also bowed to an old tree by the side of a kid's playhouse in the backyard. And I bowed to the house.

Thank you, Buddha.
Shoko Mizutani

"When you change, other will change." 1/26/08

After enjoying swimming exercise at the YMCA pool, I went to the Borders for lunch and books this afternoon. A young guy at the coffee section served me politely and also very friendlily. 　I found a book ,“The Best Buddhist Writing 2007”, and stood in a customers’ line. A charming lady at a cashier called me up, and I walked to her. She asked me, "Do you have a Borders’ card?" "Yes, I have. But I didn't bring today." "That's all right. What is your email address?" "OK, it is mizutani21@..." "That's your age!" We smiled together.

A positive interaction always makes me happy.　In Japan, we don’t show much friendliness or a smile to those whom we don’t know yet. This is truly a great virtue of people in US.　　But even in this county, not all people are nice. Through my own experience, I have noticed something. That is when I am with a big smile, the person I meet is most like respond to me with a big smile. This is the basic concept of Buddhism, the Law of Causation. In a simple expression, it means, “When you change, other will change”. I experienced the dharma today too. Shoko Mizutani