Reverend Greg

Free within our prison

That which once made us free becomes our prison, again…

The nature of attachment – it strikes at the very core of who were are as a species. Our ability to become attached determines the success and fulfillment we experience from everything in our lives, from our relationships to our paths of self-discovery.

Buddhism speaks about releasing attachments but the concept is difficult to make sense of in the context of the modern world. Images of itinerant priests wondering lonely dirt highways from town to town are romantic but hardly serve to illuminate any truth on the concept of attachment.

The problem is that in my experience something must be done again and again in order to glean any value from it. This is the basic law of practice. Jumping from an airplane with a parachute is perhaps a thrill done once, but once isn’t enough to establish a true path of discovery. How many thousands of US consumers have shelled out hundreds and thousands of dollars to become scuba certified only to wait every three or four years to dive the warm and comfortable waters of the Tropics? Pictures of exotic adventure sit on desks, Caribbean tourists dressed in high-tech equipment awaiting entry into clear and beautiful waters, done only once. Lives continue day after day locked in corporate employment waiting in quiet desperation for that far-off day when we can escape our dreary existence once again if for only a brief moment in our lives.

Buddhism itself is the ultimate attachment. Older forms of Buddhism teach non-attachment yet one must become attached, even addicted to the teaching itself in order to escape attachment in other aspects of life.

I’m not much for recreation. I’m too busy. I dive, but my diving has become an exploration in self-discovery in the truest sense. My Buddhist practice, well – that’s a given. Buddhism, chanting Nam myoho renge kyo to the Gohonzon is an axis point, the center, the Sun around which all other planets revolve. It is truly the home to which I return in my heart day after day throughout my life.

This is the trick I believe, to establish a central focus which becomes consistent and dependable as our lives progress. There’s a reason for this and it’s a simple one – life changes. That which freed us can become our prison. This happens when we reject the natural evolution of a path within our life and hold tight to it refusing to allow it to grow. It’s then that it becomes an attachment in the truest sense of the word.

SGI has changed, and continues to change. The campaigns and band-wagons of yesteryear have ceased and we are now free from the dogma of a powerful priesthood and yet I see those around me who cling tight to fond memories and try desperately to resurrect the mindless number-seeking shakabuku mindset we fostered back in the 80’s.

In the Bujinkan I see those who grasp at approaches to their taijutsu, the kihon happo and sanshin no kata that are now outdated, washed over by years of Soke Hatsumi’s teaching. In my area a rare and strange appearance by a senior teacher has created conflict and spotlighted those who refuse to let go of past illusion in favor of present truth.

Life changes, we change, and yet our paths, our attachments, remain as they should for us to gain benefit and guidance. The Gohonzon is a consistent and a point of return for us Nichiren Buddhists though our relationship with it and Nam myoho renge kyo evolves and develops in orbit with our life experience.

My relationship with my Tamagotchi is a fine example. I awake every day to start my cycle of jump games (the Tamagotchi Connection, the newest model, has two games – Dance/memory and Jump) counting each perfect game up to 30 on juzu. I observe the strange cycle of my own nervous system as it peaks with morning coffee, making the games more difficult (I get twitchy) and then quiets as the afternoon progresses. I count 10 perfect games and then any further games are purely recreational. The day could come that I would have to break my attachment to my Tamagotchi - unless of course, it replaces the Gohonzon as my central Buddhist practice. Insanity or extreme cleverness? You be the judge…

The things we do may remain the same, but the reasons are completely different from person to person and change and evolve within each individual’s life.

Evolve or perish….
Rev. Greg, Shidoshi

Posted by revgreg at March 30, 2005 06:13 PM