I just came back from a fabulous, fabulous weekend in the Antelope Valley, about an hour north of Los Angeles. A dear friend who has been active in the local interfaith group there was invited to make a presentation on Buddhism to the local synagogue's teen group. They are studying world religions as part of their confirmation process, and my friend Michele knew the rabbi from her interfaith work. She invited me to come along, and I gladly accepted. We had our little get-together yesterday (Sunday) morning.
This was really exciting! I took the train up to the Antelope Valley on Saturday, and spent the night at Michele's lovely home. She and he husband have a black cat named Raleigh. I have two black cats, myself, so I felt right at home. Raleigh was an excellent watch-cat. He strictly supervised me, sleeping all night on the couch by my side.
On Saturday night, Michele and I prepared for our talk. We had a number of hand-outs, some of which we got from the SGI-USA's webpage, and others which we got from other sources. We felt pretty much ready to go, but then we remembered that we had not resolved that most fundamental of Nichiren Buddhist questions...
Nam or Namu?
We flipped a coin (how appropos for a Super Bowl weekend!) and Namu won the toss. Michele printed up a number of business-cards on her home printer which read "Namu Myoho Renge Kyo". We gathered our handouts, did an upbeat gongyo, took an omamori Gohonzon with a portable butsudan, and headed out for Temple Beth Knesset Bamidbar in Lancaster, California.
The weather was incredibly blustery and windy - Michele told me this was normal for their area. But the weather gods gave us a hopeful sign, a beautiful, full rainbow across the sky just in back of Michele's home. How could we go wrong with an omen like that?
When we got to the synagogue, the teens were meeting in what seemed to be Rabbi Hoffman's office - I loved this office - it was books, books and more books - just my kind of place!
There wasn't a lot of room - only three chairs and a couch. The five teens were all squished together on the couch, leaving the chairs for us grownups. They sort of reminded me of pull-apart cinnamon rolls that had been baked in a too-small pan, all pushed up alongside each other, but these young people were in good spirits and eager to learn.
As part of their confirmation studies, these teens are learning all about the religions of the world - this is something that some other liberal denominations do as part of their religious education as well (I'm thinking of the Unitarians), and it's something that I admire. I also had to think about what hardy souls these young people must be. The Antelope Valley is...well...the word "redneck" sort of springs to mind. If you're a born-again Christian Republican, then this is the place for you. If you're a free-thinking Jewish teenager, I'm thinking the neighborhood might be a bit of a character-builder.
We started off discussing how all forms of Buddhism involve some sort of practice. It's not pri marily a belief system, it's something that you need to do. I then introduced a basic metta meditation, where we first wish that we ourselves be well and happy, then wish wellness and happiness for a friend, a "neutral" person, a troublesome person or "enemy", and ultimately wishing wellness and happiness for all beings everywhere. We did this for a total of about five minutes, which is a long meditation for a teenager squished like a cinnamon bun, but they did a great job. The Rabbi sort of blissed out and didn't seem like he wanted to come back!
Michele explained about the Gohonzon, and that our school of Buddhism focuses on chanting a mantra. We handed out the daimoku cards, and she showed them the omamori. Then, we all chanted together for a few minutes.
We discussed a number of basic ideas - the Ten Worlds, and how the opportunity for manifesting Buddhahood or Enlightenment is present in all of the Worlds -- this is what we believe happens when we chant. We talked about how Buddhism had travelled from India through China to Japan, and how we are all in the process of figuring out what an "American Buddhism" is going to look like.
I really can't praise these kids enough. They were smart, attentive, curious, and they asked good questions. Their parents and Rabbi Hoffman should be really, really proud of them.
Thanks so much Michele for inviting me, and thanks to Temple Beth Knesset Bamidbar for hosting this gathering and for raising such wonderful teenagers!
I will write more later on the theme of interfaith dialogue later on this week.
Byrd in LA
Posted by wahzoh at February 4, 2008 10:55 AMExcellent! Can you describe how you did the metta meditation? I assume it was guided? Did you follow
a script?
Hi, Robin - it was me, sort of "parroting" metta meditation tapes that I had at home. Following the breath, breathing in, may I be well, breathing out, may I be happy.........
Then on to the friend, breathing in, may they be well, breathing out may they be happy......
and so on. The tapes were the only audio template I had.
I also gave a handout with the Metta meditation outlined. I wanted them to learn metta, as I wish I had learned it when I was their age. It would have saved me a lot of suffering.
Hoping that meets your standards, Captain Metta!
Great experience, Byrd!!!
My new appointed region leader had a similar experience in November of last year. She was visited by students of the teachers training of the Christian College from a city called Gouda in the Netherlands. The did a inter cultural experience seminars week. These students visited her house and watched the DVD our shared humanity. After seen tht,they had a lot of questions too. More or less like in your experience. These students where very surprised that we practiced at home instead of a temple. They also would visit a Synagogue, a Chinese temple and a mosque.
This they did as a part to have more understanding in other cultures and religions. Which we have a lot of here in the Netherlands, as you might know.
That these students where to be trained to become a teacher and came to visit SGI chapter Eindhoven was to me so great, since Soka Gakkai was founded by a teacher, Makiguchi, and now a new generation of teachers came to learn of this wonderful practice and philosophy. How Great!
NMHRK
André
Hoping that meets your standards, Captain Metta!
laugh. Awesome. I think the metta cultivation, combined with insight from Daimoku, has incredible potential. I am like the Rabbi, I tend to drift off into bliss; the daimoku grounds me. I am not saying that Daimoku needs help, metta does. Well, one thing, insight can be tough to swallow in strong does; a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
gassho
robin
Posted by: robin at February 4, 2008 11:13 PMHi Byrd,
I appreciate so much that you came up on the Metrolink from "down below" and shared metta meditation and practice with the confirmation class of BKB. Those kids give me hope for the future!
I must send Rabbi Hoffman and the class a Thank-You Card for asking us to come and share about Buddhism with them.
Posted by: Michele at February 5, 2008 03:50 PMWell, thank you so much for letting me come up, Michele! And give a little scratch to Raleigh for me, too. Tell him that if I come up again, I will bring tuna.
Best, Byrd
Posted by: Byrd in LA at February 5, 2008 04:16 PM