The Golden Chain

Today was Bodhi Day service at the Jodo Mission. Everybody was working on the water line (finally!) so I was the only one in the dojo. Sensei rang the bell and eventually Mrs. Miyashiro and Mrs. Kaneshiro showed up, but it ended up being like a private service, which was kind of cool. At Bodhi Day we recite the Eightfold Path and the Golden Chain, which was really a very powerful meditation for me.

I had been thinking a lot about how I use my words and really wanting to be more mindful of that. So it was really fitting to me to recite these particular gathas. One of the steps of the Eightfold Path is Right Speech, and in the Golden Chain we talk about how we will "try to think pure and beautiful thoughts, to say pure and beautiful words and to do pure and beautiful deeds, knowing that on what I do now depends my happiness and misery."

I think it's really proper that we say we will "try" to do these things. It's so easy to get discouraged when you backslide on something you set out to do. And, of course, like anything else of this nature, affirmations are meaningless without action. But it's good to connect to an ancient tradition like this, and realize how many generations struggled with the same things. I really got a strong sense today of the love and support I have not only from my family, friends, and community (including Mrs. Miyashiro's deathgrip on my arm as I tried to leave without taking lunch), but also from the generations before me, both in my Buddhist and Catholic families of faith. It makes me feel encouraged to try harder to live up to my ideals.

Will hit me with a really good thought before I left home this afternoon. He said that you shouldn't avoid trials, that God puts them in your path for a reason, and if you try to walk AROUND them they'll just come back and hit you on the ass. It's not an especially novel thought, but it really seemed apt today.