The Many Varied — and Moving — Ways People Encounter Buddhism

I am always impressed by how people come to encounter Buddhism — especially Shin Buddhism. 

I recently returned from Japan, where I helped lead our group of five from the BCA, who went for the intensive 10-day retreat to receive Tokudo ordination in our Nishi Hongwanji in Kyoto.  

Besides the five individuals from the BCA, we also had four from Europe, three from Hawaii and one from Canada. All of the overseas people were put into one group and the lectures and classes were in English. But the services and meals were shared with all of the Japanese participants.  

I was asked to conduct several lectures and discussions for our English-speaking group during the 10-day period. I asked each of them to share how they encountered Buddhism and Jodo Shinshu. Their journeys to the teachings were quite varied.  

One man from Europe was Vietnamese. He shared how he left Vietnam as a teenager as a boat person. Their boat was attacked by a pirate ship and he was grabbed by a pirate to be taken onto their boat when he began to chant loudly in Vietnamese, “I take refuge in the bodhisattva of compassion,” and the pirate let him go.  

He became a monk in the Theravadan tradition and practiced for 10 years, when he happened to read a book about Honen Shonin, which then led to him finding a book about Shinran Shonin and the rest is history. He gave up being a monk and became a Shin Buddhist.  

Another person was brought up in Christianity, but as a teenager, he came to the realization that he could not accept it any more. He found a book on Zen by Alan Watts and was hooked on Buddhism. The rest is history for him.  

Another participant happened to read the book “Siddartha,” the classic novel by Herman Hesse and then began to read about Buddhism. When she entered one of our BCA temples for the first time, she was warmly welcomed and was especially struck by the Dharma message by the minister. The rest is history for her, too.  

One individual was not a Buddhist, but tragically lost his teenage son to an untimely death. When he and his wife were going through their son’s belongings and writings, they found that he was studying Buddhism and had considered himself a Buddhist. That led this couple to finding out what kind of religion Buddhism was that had attracted their son to it. The rest is history for him, too. 

Another individual was bullied as a youth, then took up martial arts and was introduced to Buddhism through martial arts. It was almost like a “Karate Kid” movie story. The rest is history for him, too.   

Others were brought up as Shin Buddhists, like myself, but their journey to pursuing the ministry and Tokudo had its own causes and conditions as well. For some, it was a devout grandmother or the influence of good Dharma friends and teachers.  

The Three Treasures begins, “How rare and wondrous it is to have been born into human life, and now I live it. How rare and wondrous it is to be able to listen to the Buddha-Dharma, and now I am able to hear it.”   

To be born as a human being is harder than winning the Powerball lottery.  Even harder is it to encounter the Dharma, the teachings.  

This opening of the Three Treasures admonishes us not to take our life for granted. It admonishes us not to live our lives in vain. This one-in-a-million chance of being born occurred and we have our life. It should not be taken for granted. Someday, when we are 80 years old, will we be left wondering, “Where has my life gone?”

Even harder than being born is to encounter Buddhism and to encounter the Dharma. Hearing the true stories of our Tokudo recipients and how they each encountered the Dharma makes me realize how we cannot take for granted being able to meet with and listen to the Dharma.