First of all, thank you everyone for your patience these past few months. I had to take a break in order to readjust myself (again) and sort of re-center myself for this site and what lies ahead for me.
Lunar new year this year was on a Sunday, and for those that know that can mean large crowds at the temples. The older temple where I work decided to cut its three-day service to two and a half days to accommodate crowd flow. I thought that was not a good idea. I almost had to crack my head figuring out how to recite three thousand Buddha names in that short time. In the end, it still worked, but not without aches and pains.
Before the new year, an old family friend and Dharma brother reached out to my mom. It was her son actually. We lost contact for years whether it was a change in numbers or devices. Long story short, this friend was suffering from heart failure and suffered a stroke. I was asked to visit her at the hospital and offer spiritual care. Eventually the afternoon of the first day of the year she transitioned. I performed most of the memorial services and offered a 13-course meal as my tribute to her as a long-time temple kitchen volunteer.
The night before, a mass shooting occurred minutes from my location. Twelve died, and nine were injured. Things could have gotten worse if it were not for the owner’s son of the second dance studio that fought the gunman away. The exact moment the shooting occurred a few friends and I were temple hopping at the next major street just about to head to our next location. I had so many other things running in my head I didn’t know how to feel at the moment. I was indeed worried about what would happen if this happened at the temple with crowded worshippers. Dharma Drum Mountain Los Angeles held a short service at the site. I was fortunate enough to attend and offer my prayers. Unfortunately for one reason or another, it didn’t catch a lot of media attention though the site was swarmed with news vans and cameras.
One of the most influential teachers and one of my most respected teachers in Buddhism, Venerable Master Hsing Yun entered into stillness. I felt a little bit sad that he’s not longer physically with us, but I’m glad that his dharmakaya, or all of his written works, is still around and accessible. He inspired me to go “out there” and try different things with Buddhism and not confine it to an old frame. He started to idea of giving small gifts to people to make them happy, he emphasized things like combining old and new, traditional and modern, and the concept of thinking globally and acting locally. The Ven. Master’s daily routine was one of a kind. He couldn’t see very well, so his last works were verbalized to a bunch of scribes and they put everything together and feed the manuscript through an assembly line of editors. After first production, the piece is lined up to be fed into another assembly line of translators. I could go on and on, but what I think the Ven. Master wanted for us after his passing is to continue his mission to teach Humanistic Buddhism. I’m pretty certain he will come back as continue his mission.
The reason I’m calling this a wet year is because recently in the SGV there has been a lot of rain and cold winds. It’s to the point where I have yet to store away any winter gear, including the electric heating pad. Hopefully it will dry up soon, but I also hope this amount of rainfall will relieve the drought that the SGV and most of CA has been suffering through. But nonetheless, conserving water is still important.
I’ll be back on one post a month for now. As always if there’s anything you would like me to explore or write about, leave a comment or let me know. May you be well.
The Buddha wears Glasses 