Staying Connected: Reflections on a Dharma Gathering for College Students

Hello, just as a quick introduction, I currently attend Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Playa Vista, California, as a sophomore with a major in marketing and a minor in Asian Pacific American studies. 

I grew up in Santa Clara, California, where I attended Mountain View Buddhist Temple (MVBT) and was involved with YBA. When I came to LMU, I joined the Nikkei Student Union (NSU), where I was introduced to the West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple (WLABT) community through its quarterly college night events. I’ve really appreciated having this community and space away from home where I can stay connected to my religion.

All the college nights have been really fun, but on the evening of Friday, May 9, we participated in a new event sponsored by WLABT and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) NSU, which was focused on dialogue around Buddhism. 

With the help of Kelli Kosakura of UCLA NSU (previously a member of MVBT YBA), we were able to secure a space at UCLA to hold our meeting. Our gathering opened with chanting “Juseige” and we moved into reflecting about why we were doing this and the importance of having community. 

We asked various questions about topics we were confused about in Buddhism and learned more about Rev. Ko’e Umezu, Assistant Minister at WLABT, and her personal relationship and journey with Buddhism. 

Some topics we covered were the adaptation of Buddhism in America and whether Buddhism is a philosophy or a religion.

I had just recently learned some about how Buddhism has adapted to American and Christian-centric values in the United States.

I learned that Dharma School was an adaptation by Japanese Americans after World War II and the incarceration camps to seem more mainstream American and I was interested to see how else that was reflected throughout Buddhism in the United States versus Japan. 

I think it has been helpful for me because Dharma School was an easier way to digest and understand Buddhist lessons compared to chanting or a Dharma talk, which is more catered to the older audience. 

However, despite not understanding the chanting, Rev. Umezu offered a new perspective by teaching the origins of the translations and language. She told us how it was adapted from Chinese and not wanting to translate it to Japanese as you could potentially lose the deeper meaning behind the words. 

Rev. Umezu said she uses it as a time to ground herself and reflect on her ancestors in Buddhism and being the language they communicated in. She said she reflects on the fact that we are part of more than just ourselves and that we are a product of our ancestors and so much more in a large world. 

In our talks with Rev. Umezu, we also learned about other differences in Japanese versus Buddhism in the United States, including pews and calling them churches instead of temples.

We covered the controversial topic of whether or not Buddhism is a philosophy or a religion or even just a way of life. We came to the conclusion that it can be all of them. 

We talked about how for philosophy and philosophers, we often don’t view the creator as these higher powers who are attached to the ideas and values themselves or worship them. 

Through that lens, Buddhism is more of a religion. However, if you choose to just take the lessons and apply it to your daily life, it is more a philosophy or way of life. 

We went into specifics, trying to define what exactly a religion is, but came to the conclusion that it’s hard to define and there is no real defined set of traits, which kind of rendered the whole question useless. I think the main takeaway is that it doesn’t matter and it can be different based on the individual and that’s a good thing, tailoring itself to whatever a person might need in their life.

Overall, I had a lot of fun and learned a lot. Even with Dharma School, these spaces weren’t as open to overall curiosity and learning about Buddhism in this way and I was glad I took the time to come, even in a busy season with finals. 

Being around like-minded people and exploring our religion was a lot of fun. I really appreciate Rev. Umezu for taking the time to teach us and cater to an audience and community she wished she had in her own college experience.