Reprinted from the Dharma Breeze by permission of the author
I am happy to announce that the Maida Center of Buddhism has now opened in Berkeley, California. The board has appointed me its director. The non-profit Maida Center is designed for the enhancement of Shin Buddhism in this country. We will publish English translations of the works of Shin Buddhist teachers such as Shuichi Maida (1906-67), Haya Akegarasu (1877-1954, Maida's teacher), and Manshi Kiyozawa (1863-1903, Akegarasu's teacher), and hold regular English and Japanese study classes and seminars. The Dharma Breeze will become the official newsletter of the Maida Center. Let me talk about my personal background before I discuss what the Maida Center means to me.
In 1971, I came to this country, to Chicago, from Japan. At that time I did not have any clear idea of what I was going to do in this country. Although I had a strong desire to introduce Shuichi Maida, my teacher, to the English-speaking world, I did not know how I could realize it. Everything seemed so difficult or impossible. I had not had any education in this country; mastering English seemed to be an insurmountable barrier. Since I came to this country with a tourist visa, there was no guarantee that an extended stay in this country would be possible. Furthermore, there was no financial basis for my life in this country. But probably the most difficult thing was the deep loneliness I experienced. During the first several months I spent in Chicago I had few friends.
In 1973, on the advice of the ministers of the Buddhist Temple of Chicago, I enrolled in the Buddhist Studies Program of the University of Wisconsin. I became a student mainly because I needed a student visa to stay in this country. In 1979 I received a Ph.D. degree in Buddhist studies from the University of Wisconsin. I am infinitely grateful for the academic training I received at the University of Wisconsin. Without it I do not think I could have come to the point where I am now.
During the second half of my life in this country, I have been living in California. In 1984 I was hired as Interim Dean of the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California, and my wife and I moved to Berkeley. After working one year for the Institute, I left there. From then until recently I worked for the Numata Center of Buddhist Translation and Research.
My coming to California opened up a totally new vista that I had not even dreamed of experiencing. Ever since I moved to Berkeley, I have been invited to dozens of Buddhist temples in California, Hawaii, and Washington. I have made many friends among Buddhist ministers and temple members. It is my impression that although membership in Shin temples in this country is steadily diminishing, more and more people are interested in studying Shin teachings. I consider myself a fortunate person, because I have known so many people who are eager to study Shin Buddhism.
What is the Maida Center of Buddhism for me? It is a learning center (dojo). More specifically, it is a Sangha, a group of people who are interested in learning the Dharma. It is a place where I can be part of a Sangha. It is a place where I listen to the Dharma with my friends. Although I was not clearly aware of it before, I realize now that what I have actually been searching for ever since I came here from Japan is a Sangha. Now I clearly recognize that a Sangha has been given to me as the Maida Center. It has been given to me as a place where I pursue the Dharma with my friends.
Here let me talk about the significance of the Sangha in Buddhism. Of the Three Treasures (i.e., the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha), the Sangha is the most important thing. There is nothing more important in Buddhism than a Sangha. It is only in the Sangha that the Buddha and the Dharma can exist. A Sangha is everything in Buddhism.
If a person thinks that he can study Buddhism without a Sangha or that there can be Buddhism apart from a Sangha, he is greatly mistaken. There is no Buddhism apart from a Sangha. Or, if a person thinks that a Sangha is a means through which he studies the Dharma, he is mistaken, too. A Sangha is not a means; it is the goal. In the Samyutta Nikaya there is the following exchange between Ananda and Shakyamuni:
Ananda: O, Venerable One, when I think carefully, it seems to me that my having good friends and being with them is equivalent to my having already passed the middle milepost of the Holy Path. What do you think about this view of mine?
Shakyamuni: Ananda, that's wrong. Such a view is not correct. Ananda, our having good friends and being with them is not equivalent to our having passed the middle milepost of the Holy Path. Our having good friends and being with them is itself the entire Holy Path.
Here Shakyamuni goes much further than Ananda, and says that having good friends and being with them is everything in Buddhism. He says that there is nothing greater than having friends and being with them. It is liberation itself; apart from it, there is no liberation.
I remember one of the lectures given by Rev. Fijin Yasuda, (1900-82, a famous Shin teacher). He pointed his finger toward us, his audience, and said:
"People say various things about birth in the Pure Land. But could there be any greater birth in the Pure Land than the fact that we are now sitting and learning the Dharma together? All of us are selfish and self-centered. We are always thinking about ourselves. Being like that, none of us deserve to be part of the Sangha, of such a wonderful tradition as this. But now we are fortunate enough to be part of it. We are now forgetting our petty selves and are listening to the Dharma. This place where we are sitting and listening to the Dharma together is the Pure Land. Our being allowed to be part of it is birth in the Pure Land. Do you think that you can have anything greater than this in your life - the fact that you are listening to the Dharma as a member of the Sangha? Some people may speak about the wonderful things to be obtained in the Pure Land after death, but those things are nothing but projections of human greed. The fact that we are allowed to be part of the Sangha is our liberation, our birth in the Pure Land. Being part of the Sangha is not a means of liberation. It is liberation itself."
Both Shakyamuni and Rev. Yasuda consider that the Sangha is not a means but the goal. A mere gathering of people is not the Sangha. The Sangha is the tradition of awakened individuals. Entering the tradition is "birth in the Pure Land." There is not a greater goal in Buddhism than that.
Shinran equates birth in the Pure Land with "entering the group of those whose realization of Buddhahood is certain (nyu-shojoju)." For Shinran this "entering" (which he calls the shinjin experience) is the most important and, at the same time, the most difficult thing. But, once this "entering" is realized and a person is born in the Pure Land, everything will become easy. The person will be effortlessly nurtured and guided to the attainment of Buddhahood by the power of Amida's Aspiration, by the power of the aspiration of the people in the Pure Land.
As far as I am concerned, the Maida Center represents the tradition of the great teachers such as Shakyamuni, Honen, and Shinran. It is a place where I can learn their teachings through the modern teachers, such as Maida, Akegarasu, and Kiyozawa.
What, then, do I specifically study in the Maida Center? For me, more than anything else, the Maida Center is a place for self-examination. It is a place where I first study how our teachers examined themselves and then study myself through their guidance.
It is also a place where I learn "the learner's spirit" that is exemplified by our teachers. It is a place where I learn "how to learn." How-ness, i.e., the humble spirit of the seeker, is my concern. What-ness, i.e., ideas, concepts, or doctrines, are not my main concern.
I consider Maida to be my teacher because he was a perfect student. I have never in my life known anyone who studied the Dharma so seriously and deeply as he did. Certainly the amount of writings he left behind and the profound insights he expressed in them greatly surprise me. But what astonishes me more than anything else is how he studied.
During the last twenty years of his life, Maida engaged in learning activities which seem to me unprecedented in human history. He sought learning places and learning friends. Whenever more than three people asked him to come to study with them, he was happy to do so. Almost every day he traveled and participated in a study group. He never placed himself in the position of the teacher. He always considered himself a member of the Sangha. More accurately, he attended the group with the conviction that he was "the only person remaining to be liberated." That is, he attended the group with the conviction that he was the only person that needed to be taught and enlightened by other members. In this regard, he literally followed the example of Shinran who said, "I do not have even one single disciple" and "When I carefully reflect upon the Vow (to liberate the most wicked) that Amida made after spending five kalpas (i.e., an immeasurably long time), I now realize that it was made all for myself, Shinran (i.e., the most wicked one), alone."
Buddhist learning is a mutual effort, a cooperative effort. As is said in the Sankie-mon (Statement of the Three Refuges), true Buddhist learning is always done "together with sentient beings (shujo to tomoni)." It is only when we grow as a Sangha that we can grow as participants in the Sangha. There is no individual growth per se in Mahayana Buddhism. I sincerely hope that many people become interested in participating in the learning activities of the Maida Center.
Maida Center of Buddhism
2609 Regent Street
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 843-8515