DHARMA MESSAGE FEBRUARY/MARCH 2024

Higan is a Buddhist holiday peculiar to Japanese Buddhism. It is a time for quiet reflection and study of the Buddhadharma which takes place twice a year at the Spring Equinox on March 21st and the Autumn Equinox on September 23rd. In Japan, where the four seasons are distinct and radically different from each other, the Equinox days tend to be exceptionally mild and balanced days of equal day and night. All of nature seems to pause in quiet contemplation on the equinox days before moving on from Winter to Spring and from Summer to Autumn.

Here in Southern California, it is said that there is only one season. Certainly, the seasons are not as pronounced in Southern California as in other parts of the country. But if one pays attention and spends the time to notice things other than himself, he will see that we don indeed have four seasons: hot, dry summers, an autumn season of beautiful sunsets, the winter rainy season, and the flower beautiful spring season. The differences are very subtle and require more effort in learning to be quiet than in other areas.

Higan has always meant a day or a week of quiet to me; studying Buddhism by learning to be quiet, and my being quiet, learning to appreciate things around me. We are always surrounded by Compassion in the form of beauty, but we are always too busy and too self-centered to stop, be quiet, and look around us. My having to write this article for Higan has made me sit behind my typewriter in my office here at Senshin and quietly think about my surroundings. I have been visited in this short period by one white cabbage butterfly, one hummingbird, been sung to by five sparrows, been yelled at by two crows, and heard the noisy screeching of six large green parrots- refugees from some home or pet shop who have been living in the area for the past year. A freeway of ants are crawling across the top of the fence outside my window shaded in a cool green light from the warm sun by fan-shaped palm leaves. It is beautiful, it is lovely, it is compassionately and it is always with me. But it is hard to see when you are in a hurry to get to the store. It is hard to feel when you are trying to balance your checkbook. It is hard to appreciate when the “I” or “me” demands our attention.

Such beauty, such love, such compassion is hard to awaken to. When self-centeredness is stage center, Truth and Beauty, Wisdom and Compassion are in the wings. But they are there, waiting to come on stage. They are waiting for our cue that our self-centeredness has left the stage.

By hook or by crook, our dear friend self-centeredness must first get off stage- it must be made quiet. Higan is that balanced time of quiet from which all beauty and truth come. In Japanese the work “otonashii” has two meanings: to be quiet, and to be mature. Correction, there is only one meaning, for “being quiet” is “being mature”. Higan is our bi-annual opportunity to be “otonashii”. AAAHHH, a monarch butterfly just flew by my window, waving to me. 

Namuamidabutsu

Rev. Kodani is an advisor to Hongwanji Place and was the longtime resident minister at Senshin Buddhist Temple. This Dharma Message is from “Dharma Talks of the Four Seasons”, which is available at www.hongwanjiplace.com