Thank you Letters
I’m Doing My Best to Translate Your Lecture as Accurately as Possible. Nicola Gant, Great Britain
I returned to Britain earlier this month [December 2013] after my stay in Toyama Prefecture, Japan, and have continued to listen to your lectures since then through the Internet. Thank you for blessing me with these precious chances to listen to Buddhism. I am continuing to work on the translation of the transcribed lecture, and I am currently on the second half of the afternoon session. I look forward to finishing it and recording the voice-over for this part. ‘The true self’ is such an important topic, and so I am doing my best to translate this lecture as accurately as possible. Thanks to your easy-to-understand way of teaching and use of humour, I think the lecture will be a great introduction to the topic for English speakers. I will try to finish translating the lecture as soon as possible. I will work as hard as I can and continue to move towards the light. As the weather grows colder, please take good care of your health. December 30, 2013
How Truly Ignorant I am of Amida’s Sincere Efforts to Save Me
Frank Costelloe, Los Angeles
Thank you for your webinars even though you are still recovering your health. I heard that your goal is to give a lecture on stage at the 2,000-Mat Hall again. I hope you will take your time to get well. In a recent webinar you gave the example of how you and a friend attempted to save a dog that was trapped in a trench as an example to show how Amida Buddha is trying to save all beings, but we, like the dog, are running away from him. However, I learned that Amida will hunt us down, corner us and save us, just like you rescued the dog. It is pitiable that I am such a person trapped in eternal suffering, yet running away from the one that promises to save me. It tells me how truly ignorant I am of Amida’s sincere efforts to save me, since I think that the effort that I put in to listen to Buddhism comes from me. Yet I have learned that it is all Amida Buddha’s power. I have started to use a computer tablet device to share Buddhism when I walk around talking to people, for example on a campus. I have 20 short lectures prepared, such as the reality of mankind, which I present on the device to the person. I can also show a segment of the animation of Master Shinran. Such devices are making my activity more productive. New Buddhist book If You Plants Seeds of Happiness, Flowers of Happiness Will Bloom is going to be published next month. This is a very easy to understand book about the Law of Cause and Effect, and very suitable for Americans who are learning Buddhism for the first time. I am looking forward to sharing it. February 10, 2014
We Too Need to Exercise an Abundance of Patience. Bita Asakura, Los Angeles
Thank you for the lecture on benefiting oneself through benefiting others. People who enter our Shinran Center in Gardena to listen to the teachings of Buddhism come to us through the Vow power of the Supreme Buddha Amida. Therefore, I came to realize that even if slowly, surely the circle of truth will expand. During the end of 2013, one of my roommates often told me that 2013 was a bad year for her and her family with illness and accidents. She wished for 2014 to come as soon as possible because she hoped that 2014 would be a better year for her. But even though I asked her, “Without changing the cause, how can you expect a different effect?” it seemed like it did not click with her at all. As for me, my only wish is to be a person for whom the New Year is auspicious; a person whose birth in the Pure Land is settled. When we aim towards this purpose alone, I notice that mysteriously we get more phone calls from people who ask for guidance from Buddhism for their troubled and scattered minds. There are many people in the USA who seek for peace and ease of the mind and pursue that in Buddhism. When I think that those people are sent to us by Amida Buddha, inside I overflow with joy. I think what is most important for us is to think about how to teach Buddhism in a way that the listeners would come back to learn more. Sometimes I feel like I’m planting seeds on an iron plate. But when I remember the path that you have taken over 60 years, I cannot help but to think that we too need to exercise an abundance of patience. We look forward to your continued guidance, and please take good care of yourself as well. December 20, 2013
Source: The Buddhist Village Times #38 | 2014, Thank you Letters
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