Itadakimasu

I wrote earlier about our zazen (meditation) lesson at the Soto Zen Mission in Nuuanu.  It was  followed by a shojin ryori, a Buddhist vegan type meal which had to be eaten in silence.

Before eating, the priest asked for the meaning of "Itadakimasu."  Someone offered that it meant "We shall receive (this food)."  I thought the priest would elaborate further on that, but he didn't.  I suspect his English vocabulary wasn't extensive enough to do so.

Still... as I reflected on that word, I couldn't come up with adequate words either.  My mother always says "Itadakimasu" before she eats and "Ogochiso sama deshita" after she eats.  Itadakimasu is a phrase that expresses gratitude and acknowledgement for the meal you are humbly about to partake.  Gochiso sama is said later and it states your thankfulness for the delicious meal.

Then Art remembered seeing a sign last year on my daughter's kitchen bulletin board in Chicago.  My granddaughter had been going to a Japanese school once a week and was learning these very phrases from her sensei (teacher) Naomi.

This reminded Art and me of the poem by Kahil Gibran called On Eating and Drinking.  I can't reproduce it here because of  U.S. copyright laws.

His poem says that since we must eat, we need to do it with gratitude and respect.  Since we have to kill to eat or take a mother's milk from an animal, we should do it as an act of reverence.  

When you eat an apple you have to feel that the act will enable its spirit to bloom in your heart.  When you drink wine, you should remember the songs of autumn when the grapes were harvested.

Our shojin ryori had to be eaten in silence.  As uncomfortable as that was at first, it made you respect the work that went into creating each dish.  You began to pay more attention to what you were eating and savoring the flavor and texture.

This photo was taken during our trip to Japan in 2010 when we stayed at Eiheiji Temple.  Mom and Auntie grew up in a Buddhist Temple so it was probably very nostalgic for them.


I've been known to inhale a Big Mac without thought, but an animal had to give its life for me to eat it.  Many people worked hard to produce the meal... and yet, I don't often think about it, except worry about the calories.


Perhaps I won't say the actual word Itadakimasu out loud when I'm out, but I'll sure make an effort to think it.  And when I'm done, I'll be sure to say Ogochisosama deshita in my heart as well.

Learning About Silence

My cousin, Larry sent an email inviting me to a zazen (meditation) lesson at the Nuuanu Soto Mission temple.

Art and I had taken my mother and aunt to Eiheiji, one of the two main Zen temples in Japan four years ago and did learn some basics about zazen from some young priests who we still remember fondly.

However, we haven't done much here in Hawaii so we thought it would be interesting to try zazen again.  Besides, Larry said his wife was now a fabulous vegan chef and would be helping to serve a vegan Buddhist meal afterwards.

When we got there, it felt a little surreal because this is where Art and I were married some 41 years ago. That's us at the top of the stairs after the ceremony.

In fact while my grandfather was serving as a priest in Kaunakakai on the island of Molokai, he brought my grandmother to this temple so she could safely give birth for the first time.

This is mom on the steps of the temple a few days after her birth in 1929.  I think that's my grandmother in the center. 

I was looking at that 85 year old photo of mom and wondered why the temple looked different.  I looked online and found these photos.  I discovered the temple was rebuilt in 1953.  It's amazing what you can find on the web.

Well... I was only going to write about the zazen session and my mind started wandering which might show you how difficult I find this exercise.

With my foot still recovering, I asked for a chair to do the zazen.  I asked for a chair for Art also since he is NOT flexible and I didn't want him to be in too much pain.  Normally, zazen requires you to sit in a lotus position with your legs crossed.

Twenty minutes of sitting quietly and trying to empty your thoughts is not easy, but we (sort of) managed it.

We then went down for the Shojin Ryori (vegetarian meal).  I was stunned.  I did not expect such a beautiful meal waiting for us.

Except for the rice with corn kernels and miso soup, I wasn't positive what everything was.  It looked so beautiful.

Dinner is at the top, dessert is at the bottom.

We had to eat in silence which was definitely different.  You began to appreciate every bite, be conscious of each morsel's taste and texture.

Again, this wasn't easy for me because I was dying to make a comment about each dish.

The shojin ryori was prepared by Veganista Hawaii which explained how very professional the meal looked and tasted.

I'm now trying to convince mom and the aunties to try this.  Mom said no, but I've got Auntie Grace half way convinced to going.  We'll see.

I can always ask for chairs for them, too.

Saying Grace

Dina of Jerusalem Hills Daily Photo asked yesterday if there was a Buddhist invocation.  Yes.  Like other religions, there are blessings, prayers and such for many occasions.

Then it got me thinking about something that happened this Thanksgiving that I totally LOVED.  On many occasions in the past here and on the mainland, if there was a Christian who liked to say grace before a meal, we were most certainly happy to allow them to lead us all in a prayer (even if the person was the only Christian at the table). 

This year, before eating I insisted that someone say grace since that's what you do on Thanksgiving.  My sister-in-law is Catholic and my nephews were raised Catholic, sort of.  Well, this year neither nephew wanted to do it and my sister-in-law had to work so couldn't join us.

So I asked mom if she knew a Buddhist grace.  She said, "Of course there is.  My father had us all say a prayer before each meal." 

Anyway, she explained to us what the words meant and then recited the long passage by heart.  I was shocked that she could remember it.

"We said it every day before every meal so of course I remember it,"  she laughed.

Saying grace at Eiheiji Temple

Then I remembered how she and Auntie Grace recited the sutra when we were at Eiheiji (one of the two main zen Buddhist temples in Japan) a couple of years ago.  Art and I had sat there with our mouths open to hear them say the sutra from the memory of their hearts.

Mom said that the first part of the sutra is too difficult to explain, but contain some of the tenets of Buddhism.  She was able to translate the second part as:  "The first bite is to ward away bad things.  The second bite is for doing good deeds.  The third bite is for everybody's happiness.  And every meal is for everyone to find their satori (sort of an awakening of understanding).

And so mom said the first Buddhist grace we've ever heard at our Thanksgiving table.

I can't begin to explain how it felt.  It was beautiful.  It was perfect.  It was full of love.

It was like coming home.

Wasting Water on Your Way to Hell

We went to a wonderful wedding reception on Saturday.   The bride is the daughter of a friend that Art knew when he was going to school at Bradley University in Peoria.  Jud and his wife, Shirley have since become good friends of both of us.  They actually live in California, but have family here in Hawaii.  Therefore, when their daughter married, they had another reception here in Hawaii.

I think everybody at the reception was family.  We were probably the only friends.  I think.  However, we were treated like family.  The bride, an accomplished lawyer, referred to us as Uncle Art and Auntie Kay which we loved.

Shirley sat with us.  I believe everybody at the table was Buddhist which was refreshing for us, even though it was Chinese and maybe Burmese Buddhism.  We had fun comparing the traditions of our many cultures.

We were joking about how Shirley always finishes her food so she smiled and told us a story. 

There was once a man who wanted to go to Heaven so he did all the right things.  He went all over the world to help others.  He was kind to his parents.  He never hurt anyone.  On his deathbed, he was convinced that he'd led a good enough life and would go to Heaven.

Imagine his surprise when he died and found himself down in another direction.  He asked the King of Hell WHY he was there when he'd done everything right in his life.

The King of Hell took him to a lake and pointed to it.  Still not understanding, the King of Hell told him that this lake was all the water he had wasted in his lifetime.

As we all listened to Shirley's story in rapt silence we were startled to find the waiter standing at our table with a pitcher of water.  When he asked if we wanted a refill on our water glasses we all shouted, "No!" in unison and then broke out in laughter.

What fun!

That evening, I took a very short shower.

Buddhist Ancestor Worship?

I've always been disturbed by the term ancestor worship to describe the honoring and remembering of those who passed before us.

Why would you call it ancestor worship?  It makes it sound like Buddhists are elevating their loved ones to the status of gods.  That's ridiculous!

 And yet that's how I've heard and seen Buddhism described.

It's a put down, isn't it?  It's used to make Buddhism sound heathenistic, uncivilized, pagan, scary?

That's not how I was raised to believe.

We have a family altar at our house.  That's another custom that was used to try to illustrate the supposed belief in ancestor worship.  It really disturbs me to know people think of Buddhism that way.

My mother prays at the altar every morning to honor, not worship people she has loved and lost.  She humbly sends her gratitude to the next world.  She does believe that there is a next world where people she loved are waiting for her.

She also feels we need to visit graves at special times of the year to offer flowers and send our prayers of remembrance.  She doesn't want us to forget those who went before us because they paved the way.  We need to learn from their trials and make the way easier for those who will follow us.

It is the Obon season now which is why we were at the grave site yesterday and temple tonight.  We are remembering loved ones and honoring their memory.

This is a good thing.  It's not ancestor worship.

Buddhism and Tiger Woods

I just read an excellent article by Tamara Lush (Associated Press) in the Star Bulletin this morning concerning Fox sports analyst, Brit Hume saying that Tiger Woods should look to Christianity rather than Buddhism to gain redemption and forgiveness. He is referring to the fact that Woods said he applies a lot of what he learned from his mom's Thai Buddhism to focus his game...meaning golf.

I'm tired of this. I'm really tired of anybody trying to impose their belief systems on others by saying their system IS better than ALL the others. Wars often start for just this reason.

I'm thrilled that you have a religion or belief system that works for you, but please don't look down on what other people might believe, especially when you don't really understand their beliefs.

Here is an excerpt from Lush's article in the Star Bulletin. I tried to find the link but it's not there yet so I'm copying it off the paper.

..."Adultery is as much of a sin in Buddhism as it is in Christianity," Thurman (Robert Thurman, professor of Tibetan studies at Columbia University) said. "The ethics are the same in both traditions. Adultery is a sin and cause the kinds of problems that Tiger Woods is in."

Where many Westerners stumble is that Buddhists' definition of sin-- and what happens after it--differs from the Judeo-Christian tradition, as the consequences of Buddhists' actions are a result of a person's thoughts and deeds rather than divine punishment. Believers have to look to themselves and turn to an ethical way of life for redemption, although there are savior figures to help a Buddhist in need. There is no one, omnipotent "creator god" to bestow redemption as in Christianity.

You have the law of karma, so no matter what Woods says or does, he is going to have to pay for whatever wrongs he's done," said Stephen Prothero, a Boston University professor on Buddhism and the author of "Religious Literacy: What Americans Need to Know." "There's no accountant in the sky wiping sins off your balance sheet, like there is in Christianity." ...

I guess that's what surprised me when I went to college and met a dorm mate who told me she slept with her friend's boyfriend but she wasn't worried because she was going to church that evening to confess her sins and be fine again. Then there was that other dorm mate who was crying hysterically for a whole bunch of us because she said we were all going to hell for not belonging to her church even though she knew how nice we all were.

Sigh...