Good morning, thank you all for joining today either in person at the temple or via our live stream on the internet. Today we celebrate the Lunar New Year as well as Setsubun.
Today we celebrate the start of the Lunar New Year and Setsubun. The Lunar New Year used to fall more closely in time with spring, now at least in China and Japan and a few other places it occurs in February on the third. The custom of Setsubun we celebrate is the tossing of soybeans. In old times people would clean their houses in preparation for the start of the Lunar New Year. They would then invite a priest to come and perform purification blessings on the dwelling chasing away any demons so the New Year could be fortune filled and problem free. As the soybeans are scattered it was customary to say ‘Oni wa soto fuku wa uchi’ which roughly translates as demons out and fortune in. Now days the ritual takes place at the temple and fills in for the personal ritual done at home.
The tradition in some places is to eat the number of soybeans that represent the age you will be this year plus one. The plus one is so the age will be in line with how old you would be if you were Japanese, because the Japanese count things slightly differently than we do, but I won’t go into that in detail right now.
Today I would like to talk to you about the assembly gathered together at the start of Chapter I in the Lotus Sutra. I know for me it is still very difficult to read through the list of people who are present while the Buddha sits quietly in meditation. It is much easier to read it in the Chinese and actually has quite a song like quality that we miss out on in English.
According to Nichiren the size and variety of people in attendance is unlike any ever before in any of the sutras previous to the Lotus Sutra. In this assembly we not only have a large number of people we also have a large variety of beings, both human and non-human. Why is this important and what significance does it have for us as modern practitioners of the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Sutra?
I would like for you to take a moment and consider your list of friends, not Facebook friends but real life friends. I am guessing the list of real life friends is much smaller than the Facebook list which probably includes people you haven’t actually ever met. Among your list of real life friends I wonder how many of them are very much like you are? Are your friends similar to you in economic wealth or poverty? Are your friends more similar to you in looks and age? Are your friends more similar to you in political beliefs, or even religious beliefs? How much variety is there among your friends, and could all of your friends easily get along with each other? How much of an ambassador are you among your list of friends?
Generally speaking people are friends mostly with others who are most alike in some way. It is the rare person who can have a list of friends who are greatly diverse and even rarer still is the person who seeks to bring a diverse friendship group together at the same time and in the same place. Frequently if the friends are diverse people keep their friends separated.
Thinking about all the ways we segregate ourselves, and how difficult it is for many people to get along, it is significant that the assembly gathered for the Buddha was peaceful, diverse and large. I suppose some modern mega-churches might approach the size and diversity of the assembly at the Lotus Sutra, but only in the human realm.
As to the size of the crowd Nichiren points out that never before had such a large gathering of people assembled to hear the Buddha preach as had gathered for the Lotus Sutra. To him, and to others, this is significant because it shows the importance of the teaching. Remember too, the assembly actually increases in size when later on in the sutra the Buddha calls back all of his emanations and they arrive with their entourages.
Thinking again about your own life and the friends you have, the number of people who would come to assist you if you were in trouble, or the number of people who would come to your funeral, or birthday party. That number may be large or it may be small and it may even depend upon what you are asking your friends to do. How much diversity is there in your friend list of those who would come to your aide if you were in trouble, and what is the size of that list?
Many people today surround themselves with either virtual friends, that is friends who don’t really exist in their everyday physical world, or they surround themselves with people who are most like themselves. Being around people who are most like you is frequently advice given to people in search of AA groups to overcome drinking addictions. But as Buddhist we should be comfortable around diversity in all the ways it can be classified. Through our practice of cultivating our lives and understanding ourselves we can develop lives that can cultivate and understand and relate to very different kinds of people.
Also developing, cultivating, and nourishing real time face-to-face friends is hard work but the benefit to one’s personal well being is priceless. It is easy to seek pleasurable things, and sometimes not being around people may seem to be the most pleasurable experience. But we have become addicted to seeking pleasure and avoiding discomfort in all areas of our lives, and personal interactions is no exception. We are too easily adverse to unpleasant or difficult things, even the unpleasant and difficult things about ourselves.
Interacting with others and increasing our exposure to differences can serve to help us develop and grow as Buddhists. It is also certainly advantageous if we wish to share the Dharma with others.
Think about the assembly gather around the Buddha and then think about the assembly gathered around your own life. As we conclude the final observance in our New Year celebrations perhaps you can consider making a determination for the remainder of the year to increase the number of real time friends and the diversity of your intimate list of friends.
Let me close by wishing you a happy New Year may it be one of peace, happiness, good health and good fortune.
