Guided by Boundless Wisdom and Compassion

Last June, after three years of study at Chuo Bukkyo Gakuin in Kyoto, my eldest daughter passed the ordination examination and received her Tokudo ordination at Nishi Hongwanji Nishiyama Betsuin. 

I am deeply grateful, and I believe this was possible in large part because the members of Fresno Betsuin have warmly watched over our family for many years. I also offer my heartfelt thanks to Rimban Rev. Kakei Nakagawa, who supported and encouraged her studies in Japan.

During the pandemic, when my daughter was in middle school, she said something that stayed with me: “I want to help Dad, and I want to support the temple that Dad is working so hard to support.” 

Around that time, along with three other students, she helped begin a Youth Minister’s Assistant program. Those young people supported my Kaikyoshi activities, and even after graduating, they continue to lend a hand whenever they return home from college. 

My daughter is now a high school senior and also serves as the Central California Junior YBA President. Their steady presence has been a quiet encouragement to me.

As she entered high school, she told us that she wanted to study Jodo Shinshu seriously. Many active Kaikyoshi ministers have studied at Chuo Bukkyo Gakuin, and Rev. Nakagawa suggested it as a place where she could learn directly from the tradition and deepen her understanding through consistent listening. 

My daughter was born in Sacramento, and because of my transfers and schedule, she did not attend Japanese language school. Instead, she taught herself Japanese, including reading and writing kanji, and then entered Chuo Bukkyo Gakuin, where college-level reading and writing are expected.

Of course, she did not do this alone. My wife supported her quietly, and at times, directly. We worried that it would be difficult for an American-born daughter to keep up in Japanese while studying alongside Japanese university students. So, my wife enrolled in the same program and studied with her. It was not simply to help with homework. It was three years of learning side by side.

During those years, my daughter was also taking multiple AP classes in English and sports activities at her American high school. Yet she continued the demanding study of Jodo Shinshu in Japanese, week after week, year after year. 

Watching her effort, I felt genuine respect. Her example also reminded me to continue training myself. In the working of boundless wisdom and compassion, we are supported and guided through causes and conditions we do not fully control. Sometimes that guidance appears through a teacher, sometimes through a community, and sometimes through a young person’s sincere determination.

In Jodo Shinshu, we do not measure our lives by how “right” we become. We return to listening, again and again, and in that listening, we discover how we have already been supported. When gratitude arises, saying Namo Amida Butsu becomes a simple “thank you,” an expression of arigatai.

I have three daughters, and my second daughter, who was born in Fairfax, Virginia, entered Chuo Bukkyo Gakuin last year, following her older sister’s path. She has watched her sister’s efforts over the past three years, so I hope she will be able to learn steadily and graduate safely. As their parent, I can only support them as best I can and trust the conditions that allow them to keep going.

I have served the Buddhist Churches of America as a Kaikyoshi minister since 2003. Looking back, I do not feel I have achieved something “great” that I can hand down as an inheritance. But I do feel that I may have been able to leave something more meaningful: an opportunity to encounter and learn the Dharma. 

In Jodo Shinshu, the heart of our life is listening, again and again. Not just for special people, each of us continues to listen to the Dharma in our own place and in our own way. As a lifelong student, I hope we can continue to listen together, again and again.

Finally, on a personal note, I began my doctoral program in Buddhist Studies in 2016. By engaging three languages, Sanskrit, Tibetan and Nepālbhāṣā (Newar), I was able to complete and submit my dissertation this February. This, too, was possible because of the support and encouragement I have received from so many of you. When I think of how many people and conditions made this possible, I can only bow in gratitude.

With gratitude, I will continue to do my best to share the Dharma of Jodo Shinshu. I sincerely ask for your continued guidance and encouragement. 

If you have a young person in your family, please encourage them gently. Even in difficult times, the Sangha continues to support us, and that is something I will never forget. Gassho