Rick Stambul's President's Messages for 2010
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul/Aug
- Sept
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
I especially like Issa’s New Year haiku above, to which one might add a word to the translation to clarify that Issa’s toast is being made with one of my favorite drinks, sake. Banzai!
My first year as President has been eventful and challenging and I look forward to a productive second-year term. I am grateful to all of you who offered your help, often without being asked, which made 2009 such a memorable year. Yet I am also glad to bid farewell to the year of the Ox (ushi) and to welcome in the year of the Tiger (tora) as it seems better to me to be associated with a Tiger instead of an Ox.
There are so many temple members to whom I owe my appreciation for their selfless contributions of time and hard work for the benefit of us all. The names are too many to list here; however, such special contributions to our temple were recognized at our Bodhi Day Service and Oseibo Taikai last month, and I again thank all those wonderful and dependable people. I also must apologize to all those (and there are many) who were not publically honored due to my failure to be aware of and to recognize their contributions.
Based on the recommendation of our Board of Directors and the good work of our Finance Task Force under the chairmanship of Dr. Jack Fujimoto, I sent a letter last month to all temple organizations requesting some brief financial data that must be submitted by our annual temple board meeting on Wednesday, January 13 at 7:30 p.m. in addition to submitting each organization’s regular annual financial report.
Rev. Fumiaki Usuki will be conducting our first Saturday Dharma Class on Jodo Shinshu and general Buddhism at noon on January 9 following Shotsuki Hoyo, which begins at 10 a.m. Everyone is welcome and I look forward to seeing you there. Our second Saturday Dharma Class will be held on January 30 at 10 a.m. Please join us.
We will formally welcome in the Year of the Tiger at our annual New Year Party (shinnen enkai) on Sunday, January 10. Service starts at 11 a.m., which includes installation of new officers for 2010, followed by our party. Join us for the dharma, and for food, fun, and entertainment.
Ho-onko service will be held on Sunday, January 17 at 9:30 a.m. and we all welcome and look forward to hearing Rev. Lee Saisho Rosenthal offer us the dharma at this important service.
This is going to be an exciting year and I continue to ask you all for more suggestions and comments designed to improve our temple and to better offer us the dharma.
Please email me at wlabtpres.rick@live.com, or call me at (310) 284-8003, or write me at the temple and I will get back to you.
Namo Amida Butsu, Rick Stambul, WLABT President
Since things neither exist nor don't exist,
are neither real nor unreal,
are utterly beyond adopting and rejecting,
one might as well burst out laughing.
Tibetan Nyingma master Longchenpa Rabjampa, 14th century
The year of the Tiger and 2010 is now firmly upon us all as we are still recovering from our New Year party just a few weeks ago. I trust everyone enjoyed the festivities. I am pleased to thank all those who gave of their time and effort at the very beginning of the year to make our party a grand success, and particularly those brave temple members who took a leap of faith to entertain us. Special thanks to our Dharma School members and teachers.
Our next Southern District meeting will be held on February 12 and everyone attending will be studying and preparing for the important issues to be decided at the BCA National Council Meeting on February 25 through 28. I will continue in my efforts to represent our West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple alongside Rob Kafka, our President- Elect, and Rev. Fumiaki Usuki, and vote on every issue with each of you in mind.
This year’s National Council Meeting will also include Shinran Shonin’s 750th Memorial Symposium and Banquet and Sunday Family Service. The symposium and banquet will be held on Saturday, February 27 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California with a host of impressive speakers. The keynote speaker will be Rev. Dr. Kenneth Tanaka of Musashino University, Tokyo and the banquet speaker will be Mr. Pieper Toyama. Mr. Toyama is the head of Pacific Buddhist Academy in Honolulu, Hawaii, which is the first Jodo Shinshu Prep School in the United States. His methods are quite different from what one might expect, as I’ve heard him speak before and learned how he uses Jodo Shinshu principles to interact with and teach his students. Very impressive! And you are all welcome to attend this Memorial Symposium and Banquet. Please contact our Temple Office for details.
On Sunday, February 28 there will be a Family Service at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, to which all WLABT members are also invited. The service will include a musical program which encompasses a music video, part of which was produced by the hard work and good efforts of Yasuko Shohara and Jim Shimomaye. Thanks to both of them. Please contact our office for details if you wish to attend this once-in-a-lifetime service.
February 14 is not only Valentine’s Day but is also our Nirvana Day Service at 9:30 am. Please join us. And email me anytime
at wlabtpres.rick@live.com, or call me at (310) 284-8003
In Gassho, Rick Stambul, WLABT President
I am now well into my second year as President of WLABT and I continue to receive more than I can possibly give back to my temple sangha. As part of my duties as President, I represent our temple at the funeral services of our members and of our BCA ministers to show respect for the departed and for the deceased’s family and friends. Since many of our funeral services are held during the daytime, I thought I wouldn’t be able to (or even want to) participate in this way because I have obligations at my full-time job. I was wrong!
I found myself attending more Jodo Shinshu funeral services during the past year than I had previously been to for most of my life. The surprise is my unexpected interest in this practice and the spiritual nourishment I receive by attending, watching, and listening.
Most often, the closest family members of the deceased conduct themselves with great dignity and respect. I often find myself watching, with riveted fascination, both the ritual and service that is being performed by our ministers, as well as the manner in which the “family” behaves, often with poignant integrity. I can learn from this, I say to myself.
And the ritual most always includes a reading in English and Japanese of one of the most famous Letters from the Gobunsho. The Gobunsho is a collection of letters written by the 8th Monshu of the Hongwanji, Rennyo Shonin (1415 - 1499). When Rennyo Shonin took over as Abbot of Hongwanji, he found it in a state of deterioration and stagnation. He immediately worked to change the state of things by aggressively reaching out to the common people. The stirring passage on The White Ashes taken from the Gobunsho is always read aloud at our funerals. Even though I have little understanding of Japanese, the reading of this Letter moves me perhaps due to my understanding of its English translation and by what I have learned about its meaning.
So it is said in The White Ashes, “Hence, we may have radiant faces in the morning, but by evening we may turn into white ashes.” This passage moves me every time I hear it. Also in this Letter we hear the phrase “the One Great Matter of our Life Hereafter.” Elsewhere in the Gobunsho, Rennyo Shonin writes to explain this key passage as follows:
“A scholar may well have mastered every Buddhist doctrine there is, but if he has yet to resolve the One Great Matter of our Life Hereafter, he knows nothing of religion. On the other hand, we have women and men here who are completely illiterate, yet who have come to terms with the One Great Matter of our Life Hereafter; these people I call those who are truly wise.”
I recommend reading the deceptively simple Letters of the Gobunsho for both spiritual sustenance as well as to learn more of our Jodo Shinshu doctrine. But more significant to me has been the gift of being moved by the seemingly repetitive funeral ritual which, to me, has at its core a celebration of the joy of life we all continue to benefit from merely by hearing it. I humbly thank all of you for the honor and the benefit I continue to derive by attending Jodo Shinshu funeral services.
Namo Amida Butsu.
Rick Stambul, WLABT President
Many of you may have heard this parable previously; however, I think it carries a strong, moving, and inspiring Buddhist message from which we can all learn.
As she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same. However, that was impossible because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard.
Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he didn’t play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy, and that he constantly needed a bath. Furthermore, Teddy could be unpleasant. It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X’s, and then putting a big F at the top of his papers.
At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child’s past records and she put Teddy’s off until the last. However, when she did review his file, she was in for a surprise.
Teddy’s first grade teacher had written, “Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners … He is a joy to be around.”
His second grade teacher had written, “Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle.”
His third grade teacher had written, “His mother’s death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best, but his father doesn’t show much interest, and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren’t taken.”
Teddy’s fourth grade teacher had written, “Teddy is withdrawn and doesn’t show much interest in school. He doesn’t have many friends and he sometimes sleeps in class.”
By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper of a grocery bag. Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing and a bottle that was onequarter full of perfume. But she stifled the children’s laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist. Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, “Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to.”
After the children left, she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she quit teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children. Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class, and despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her “teacher’s pets.”
A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her that she was the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.
Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in life.
Four years after that she got another letter saying that while things had been tough at times, he’d stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with high honors. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he had ever had in his whole life.
Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor’s degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had. But now his name was a little longer. The letter was signed, “Theodore F. Stoddard, M.D.”
The tale does not end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he had met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago, and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit at the wedding in the place usually reserved for the mother of the groom. Of course Mrs. Thompson did. And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. Moreover, she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together.
They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson’s ear, “Thank you, Mrs. Thompson, for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me I could make a difference.” Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back, “Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn’t know how to teach until I met you.”
Namo Amida Butsu.
Rick Stambul WLABT President
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