I would like to talk about golf and Buddhism. Many of our Sangha members enjoy playing golf. But some times, playing golf can lead to stress and disappointment. Of course, when you play golf without any mistakes, you will get pars or birdies. You won’t have disappointment and stress.
The Los Angeles Buddhist Church Federation has a Hanamatsuri Golf Tournament every year in March or April. Once, after a particular tournament, Rev. Gyoko Saito gave a short message to the players at dinner. In his talk, he said: “The golf game is Buddhism. Our golf ball and our game don’t always go the way we wish they would, and neither does our life. That’s why we need the Buddhist teachings in our life. We listen to the Buddha’s teaching for every thing in our life, so the golf game gives us the teaching of Buddha too. I hope that you had a great game, and that you listen to these great teachings through playing golf today even though you may have had a bad score.”
When you begin to play golf, you need a teacher or instructor. Sometimes your instructor is also your friend or your parent. I think the best way to learn golf is to take golf lessons from a pro golfer.
They will teach you how to swing and hit a ball. They’ll also show you how they do a chip shot and how to get out from a sand trap, and so forth. During your golf lesson, you may be out on the course and having a lot of fun. But sometimes your ball goes into the sand trap or the rough. Your ball is not always on the fairway or in the right position on the green. However, even though you hit the ball into the sand trap or under the tree, that is OK. At the golf lesson, you just try to concentrate on hitting the ball. You just play golf “as you are.” In golf, you can’t go back to the tee and hit the same ball again. You only get one chance and one time to hit the ball.
You have to accept your play and your ball as it goes and as it is. This is like the Buddhist phrase, “sonomama.” It doesn’t matter whether you have a good score or bad score, you have to accept the result of your game as your own karma. You can’t blame anyone other than yourself. Our life works in the same way. There are difficulties and sufferings in our lives just like the sand traps and rough greens on the golf course. We try to avoid and escape from these difficulties in our lives. However, we really can’t escape from them. We have to just accept and live with difficulty and suffering as part of our life. We must accept our life as it is.
During the golf lesson, you learn how to hit the ball and how to proceed with the game. Similarly, at our temple we listen to the teaching of Buddha, which is teaching of truth called Dharma. Dharma means “Teaching of truth.” Also, you may have heard the word “Tathagata.” Tathagata is another term for Buddha. The Sanskrit word Tatha means “as it is,” “suchness” or “thatness.” In Japanese, “suchness” or “as it is” is expressed as “Sonomama,” “Gata” means “coming from.” So Tatha-gata means Person or teaching that comes from “suchness” or “as is.”
I think that at the temple, we are learning how can we accept and understand the realities and truths in our life. What this really means is that, through Buddhism, we receive the eyes to see the truth. We receive the “true view.” Nembutsu—the reciting of the Name of Amida Buddha—always reminds us of this true view in our lives. Encountering difficulties and suffering will not confuse us when we have the true view. We can accept our life as it is, or “Sonomama.” We are able to cope with our problems with this true view, with a “settled mind.”
In closing I would like to read a Shin poem from a book by Dr. Taitetsu Unno, River of Fire, River of Water:
You, as you are, you’re just right.
Your parents, your children, your daughter-in-law, your grandchildren,
They are, all for you, just rightHappiness, unhappiness, joy and even sorrow,
For you, they are just right.The life that you have tread is neither good nor bad.
For you, it is just right
Whether you go to hell or to the Pure Land,
Wherever you go is just right.Nothing to boast about, nothing to feel bad about,
Nothing above, nothing below.Even the day and month that you die,
Even they are just right.A life in which you walk together with Amida (Light of Dharma, Light of Compassion)
There’s no way that it can’t be just right.When you receive your life as just right,
Then a deep and profound trust begins to open up.(from River of Fire, River of Water, page 121)