For 75 Years, Something Wonderful and Great Has Been Transmitted

Editor’s note: This article is based on the speech that Bishop Rev. Marvin Harada gave at the BCA’s Southern District Jr. Young Buddhist League (YBL) conference banquet on Aug. 30 at the Kellogg West Conference Center and Hotel at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, in Pomona, California. The Wheel of Dharma is reprinting the edited transcript of the speech with the permission of Rev. Harada.

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There is the possibility — for some of you Jr. Young Buddhist League (YBL) members here tonight — that your great-grandparents could have attended the first conference in 1950.  

It is also very likely that your grandparents might have attended and it is very, very likely that your parents or one of your parents attended.  

It is even possible that your parents met either at this YBL conference or in a different district or at their local temple, and that you have your life today because of that encounter. I met my own wife from our local temple in Eastern Oregon, the Idaho-Oregon Buddhist Temple.

I started serving at the Orange County Buddhist Church (OCBC) as a minister in 1986. I remember very vividly that Cindie Nishimoto Nishida, Jeffrey’s mother, was the chairperson of the conference that OCBC hosted in 1988, and she did a terrific job. Now, her son, Jeffrey, is the outgoing President of Southern District (SD) Jr. YBL.  

Shortly after I became a minister at OCBC and in the Southern District, Rev. George Matsubayashi handed over the role of ministerial adviser for the Jr. YBL to me. He had done it for 16 years or more. I did it for something like 15 or 16 years as well, and it was a real joy to be a part of the YBL program.  

Over the years, as a minister, I have conducted weddings for young couples who met through YBL. Their bridesmaids and groomsmen were their friends from YBL. Their wedding receptions were like mini YBL conferences. 

I have also conducted funerals and memorial services for many of the grandparents and parents of Jr. YBL members over those many years as well.  

Believe it or not, I can remember when Rev. Kory Quon, the Resident Minister at the Venice Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, was in the YBL. Rev. Kory’s wife, Kim, was SD Jr. YBL President. To see him as a minister now is a wonderful thing.  

To see people like Michiko Inanaga, who was also SD Jr. YBL President years ago, now working for the BCA is also very gratifying.  Michiko’s husband, Glenn Inanaga, who I believe was SD Jr. YBL Vice President when she was SD Jr. YBL President, is the BCA President-elect and will take office next year.  

The Southern District has continued strongly for 75 years. From the YBL, we have come to receive ministers, BCA presidents, temple presidents, Dharma School teachers, leaders and dedicated members.  

Something has been transmitted over those 75 years. Something has been handed down from one generation to the next generation.  

I once watched a wonderful music video by the amazing cellist, Yo-Yo Ma, in which he explained that once he was playing the cello in a concert and he was trying to play a perfect concert, but he was bored out of his mind.  

It was then that he realized something. He realized that the object of his music was not perfection, but it was to transmit something that lives on in somebody else, to transmit something that lives on in somebody else.  

We could say that we are doing the same thing. We are transmitting something that lives on in somebody else. What are we transmitting? We are transmitting the teachings, the Dharma, the Nembutsu, so that it lives on in somebody else — in our children, in our grandchildren, in our great-grandchildren, in those who are encountering the Dharma for the first time and in those who have been lifelong Buddhists.  

As you face your life ahead of you, I hope that you will find that the Dharma is a foundation for your life like the ground that you stand on. I hope you will find that the Dharma is the anchor of your ship of life that keeps you from drifting aimlessly. I hope that you find that the Dharma is the pathway for your life to maneuver the many twists and turns, and the ups and downs of life that you will go through.  

Someday, you will meet the love of your life, but at the same time, you might lose the love of your life. Someday, you might get your dream job, but you also might be laid off from your dream job. Someday, you might get the sports car of your dreams, but you also might not be able to afford even a used Prius. Life will present many challenges to you as it does to all of us.  

What can remain as a constant for us is the Dharma, the teachings, that you might not always think of, but I hope will be what you will fall back on when you feel sad or lonely, when you feel lost, when you feel that the world around you is dark and gloomy, when you feel that the whole world is working against you and nothing seems to go right. 

That is when the Dharma might really come alive for you, at your lowest moment and at your darkest time. That is when great immeasurable light can illuminate your heart and mind and you will know what needs to be done and you will know what direction to go in life.    

Through your years of attending the temple, attending Dharma School classes, going to Jr. YBL seminars, retreats and conferences, listening to a variety of speakers, I think that — although you might not feel that way now — something has been transmitted to you that lives on in you.  

That something might lay dormant for some time, for even years, but at the right time, with the right life experience, the Dharma will emerge in your life  if it hasn’t already.  

It is then that you will find a deeper meaning in the teachings. You will find meaning in the Three Treasures of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. You will find meaning in your own life that you have been given out of eons and eons of time.  

You have this one life to live. You have this one life to cherish. You have this one life to find meaning, depth and fulfillment.  

May you find that the Dharma is your life companion, that it is your silent but steady friend, that it is your center of being, that it is the very marrow of your bones and that it is always with you, always a light, always a source of wisdom and insight, always a source of warmth and compassion. 

It is my hope that this Southern District Jr. YBL Conference will continue for another 75 years, and someday at a future anniversary like this one, some of you might be a minister, or a Jr. YBL adviser, or a YBL parent or maybe the Bishop of the BCA, and you too can share the Dharma so that it lives on in somebody else.