Orange County Buddhist Church
Orange County Buddhist Church
A Way of Seeing (Nothing Special)
There is a phrase in Japanese that is often used for calligraphy. It translates as “Everyday is a good day.” It is a very Zen-like saying, but I am not sure that the person who originally wrote it was in fact a Zen practitioner, not that it matters for purposes of this essay.
As I thought about what to write about this June of 2006 (how is that for sneaking in the date?), I checked the BCA calendar to see if there were any Buddhist special days, since that would make it somewhat easier to write, or at least give me something to write about. If you check your BCA calendar, you will see that there is not a single Buddhist special day in June. The only date noted is Fathers Day, on Sunday, the 18th. I did not realize it was so late in the month. In any case, it is nothing special. LOL.
This is when the saying above came to mind. Everyday is a good day. Everyday is a special day. It is too bad, though, that we do not often think this to be the case. A day apparently must have extra significance to be thought of as a special day, such as a birthday, graduation, one’s first job, wedding, a first-born, promotion, serious illness, retirement, or death.
Do you not think it would be much better to think of every day as a special day, simply because we because we awakened into that day? The saying comes from very much a Buddhist way of seeing; we have only the day, really only the moment, in which we are alive and able to give meaning to our lives. What could be more special than that?
If we see our lives in this manner – that everyday is a good day – then we should not squander any day into which we wake, right? If you are like me, there have been too many wasted days, but it is never too late to change our way of living to accord with our way of seeing. When we see how difficult, if not impossible, it is to do that, we come to see how difficult or impossible it is to realize enlightenment, or freedom from suffering, on our own. After all, that is what the Buddha Dharma is all about. When we see that and see that the Vow is what makes it possible, for the first time, it makes sense to say Namo Amida Butsu.
Another way in which to see freedom from suffering is to give meaning to our suffering. In the end, maybe that, too, is nothing special.
Gassho,
Dull-witted Jaan
Rev. John Doami
