The Art of Storytelling

On April 18, I attended the Federation of Dharma School Teachers League (FDSTL) annual conference, which was hosted by the Central California Dharma School teachers and held at the Fresno Betsuin Buddhist Temple.

The theme for the conference was, “Making the Dharma Come Alive,” with a focus on storytelling. I suggested to the planning committee that we have a Japanese storyteller that I met a year ago in Cleveland, Ohio. His name is Yasu Ishida and he is a master storyteller.  

He does this professionally and performs at schools and libraries. He is a wonderful storyteller and entertainer. He uses magic, origami and a classic Japanese storytelling method called “kamishibai,” which uses pictures to tell stories. The pictures are in a wooden, framed box, and the storyteller pulls out one picture at a time as he tells the story. It originated in Japan, when traveling storytellers would go from town to town, tell stories to children and sell candy to them.  

Ishida’s kamishibai was mesmerizing and he used magic tricks to tell other stories and even taught origami to the group as he told a story while teaching us all how to fold the paper into various objects.  

Everyone of all ages loves stories. It was wonderful to see how the adults and even senior members were just as enthralled as the children by Ishida’s performance.  

Buddhism is rich with stories. The Buddha often used stories to share the Dharma and to make his messages interesting and understandable for his audience.  

For my keynote message for the FDSTL conference, I spoke about the movie “Star Wars,” as one of our great stories in contemporary times.  

George Lucas, the creator of “Star Wars,” drew a lot from the wisdom of Joseph Campbell, a renowned scholar of ancient mythology. Campbell, in his research, found common themes in stories from ancient times.  

There is always a “hero” and in the case of “Star Wars,” the main hero is Luke Skywalker, who meets a Jedi warrior by the name of Obi Wan Kenobi, one in a long line of Jedi warriors. Luke is so inspired that he too wants to become a Jedi warrior like Obi Wan. He wants to help save the galaxy from the evil empire.  

Our Jodo Shinshu is based on a sutra, the Larger Sutra of Immeasurable Life, that essentially is a story told by Shakyamuni Buddha. But it is not “just” a story.  

As Joseph Campbell points out, modern man has lost a sense of deep value and meaning of myth and stories in our lives. We think a story is just a story and this is just not true. Myth and stories can be timeless and can express deep and profound truth. The Larger Sutra is one of those timeless stories that has inspired Buddhists for nearly 2,000 years.  

Like all great stories, Shakyamuni Buddha’s story begins, “Once upon a time…” or in the case of the sutra, it is expressed as “In the distant past, countless, inconceivable, and innumerable kalpas ago … there was a Buddha named Dipankara, who was followed by many other Buddhas.” It is very similar to the “Star Wars” story of Obi Wan Kenobi being one of a long line of Jedi warriors.   

A king met one of those Buddhas, named Lokesvararaja, and was so inspired that he gave up his throne to seek truth, to seek Buddhahood.  Who does that remind you of? Doesn’t it remind you of Shakyamuni Buddha’s own life?  

This truth seeker took upon himself the name of Bodhisattva Dharmakara, and he sought to become a Buddha and to liberate all beings from suffering. After many kalpas of contemplation and practice, this Bodhisattva became a Buddha by the name of Amida.  

In this timeless story, Shakyamuni Buddha expresses what was in his own heart and mind as a Buddha, but through a story, whose hero was Bodhisattva Dharmakara, just like Luke Skywalker of “Star Wars.”