Rick Stambul's President's Messages for 2009

My name is Rick Stambul and I will be serving as your new President starting this month. I am honored to welcome everyone to join us at West L.A. Buddhist Temple in making this a year of connection and change.

It is of some historical significance that for the first time in our almost 60 year history you have chosen a non-Japanese-American member to serve as your President. For me, this brings with it significant responsibilities: To preserve and nourish our links with Buddhism as well as our ethnic traditions, to be responsive and sensitive to the concerns of all our members, to protect the beauty and financial security of our temple property for ourselves and for future generations, and to honor the memory of those who founded our Temple at great personal and financial sacrifice and who gave of themselves in the true spirit of Dana. I look at the portraits of our past Presidents, Ministers, and temple founders displayed in the hallway of our hondo, and I feel both inspiration as well as weight of responsibility to continue on the sometimes difficult path they walked. I am humbled by your confidence in me to serve as your President, and I ask each of you for your support and goodwill in the year ahead.

Our country is now facing a severe economic crisis that brings uncertainty about the future to our families and ourselves. For many of us, financial hardships spawn fear and anxiety that intrude into our daily lives. It can negatively affect our plans and create difficulties in our closest relationships. Perhaps it may be helpful, particularly at this time, to renew and strengthen our ties with our Buddhist heritage and to join together more frequently with those familiar faces with whom we have shared good times over the years. We have so much to offer each other as a temple sangha searching together for peace of mind, for security, for the Dharma. I believe we can find purpose and strength in our lives as one Sangha more successfully than we can as individuals. Let us make this the year to renew that search.

Please join me in continuing to honor our previous minister, Rev. Harold Oda, and his predecessors, who offered us the dharma in a way that was accessible to all of us for 58 years and who left a great legacy for our current sensei, Rev. Fumiaki Usuki, now into his fifth year with us. Usuki sensei is indeed a well from which we can all continue to draw fresh water. He brings the electricity of a “Can do!” spirit and attitude we can all connect with. Everyone is welcome to join Usuki sensei on most Sunday mornings at 9:30 (for service and a dharma talk) or most any Thursday afternoon at 1:00 for his informative and informal dharma class. Or just drop by to spend good time with friends. And we have more to offer at WLABT. Much more.

Our Taiko Group meets weekly and has performed yearly at our Obon Festival. We have Taiko members ranging in age from 8 to 75. Consider joining our Taiko group as a new member next month. Our monthly Bulletin offers us an intimate connection with what’s going on at our Temple as well as providing articles of interest and worth. Submit an article you’d like to share with our Sangha or search its pages to find more programs you may find of interest. Our monthly Shotsuki Hoyo services on the first Saturday of each month and our weekly Sunday services are well attended. Join us.

Our annual Obon Festival brings renewal each July as it reconnects us in the spirit of Kangi-e, or Joyous Gathering, with the extended Buddhist and Japanese-American communities throughout Southern California in dance, music, taiko, food, family, and friends. Join us early each year when we start planning for our Obon carnival or join us for dance practice just for the exercise and companionship if not for the sheer joy of dancing. Knowing the dance steps isn’t important. Instead, joining others for some easy exercise while laughing at ourselves in the process is the right path.

Or come hungry to our monthly 80-Plus-lunch program (if you’re 80 or more) that everyone raves about. We serve delicious gourmet lunches, free of charge, to scores of our members who have reached this auspicious age and which is supported by our annual Yard Sale for which our members work year-round.

Make the decision to become more active for your own reasons. Tell me what you think, what you want to see happening at WLABT, your comments and complaints. Whether you’re 6 years old or 96, please email me at wlabtpres.rick@live.com, or call me at (310) 284-8003, or write me at the temple and I will get back to you.

Namo Amida Butsu, Rick Stambul, WLABT President

A number of our members have expressed concern to me that our temple sangha has been declining in numbers for some years now. This presents a timely challenge to consider what this means to each of us. I think it presents an opportunity to choose the direction our Temple will take for the 21ST century. Our youngest members may have different visions than our oldest. Our long-time members may see things differently than our newest. But everyone’s opinions are valuable and need to be heard, and considered with care.

Rennyo Shonin (1415-1499), a direct descendant of Shinran Shonin and the eighth monshu (head priest) of the Hongwanji in Kyoto, initiated a unique way of transmitting the Dharma through the use of simple letters, widely read among fellow travelers, entitled Gobunsho. In the introduction to the Jodo Shinshu Seiten (1988), I read with interest the following comment by Rennyo regarding his view of our Jodo Shinshu school of Buddhism:

The prosperity of our school does not lie in big gatherings and show of power; attainment of the ‘entrusting heart’, even in the heart of a single person, is an indication of the prosperity of our school.

I believe that Rennyo was urging people to realize the essence of Shinran’s teaching. To paraphrase Rennyo, the success of our WLABT Sangha does not lie in counting rising numbers of members or multitudes of people attending services but instead, in enjoying and experiencing the present moment by rejoicing in those members who do try to appreciate the Dharma regardless of the numbers and who want to be involved and enriched. The opportunity for change is today; it is at this very moment that you are reading this article. If a temple is vigorous and alive today then the future will take care of itself. As an old saying goes, often attributed to the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy,

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now---when?

Now. Now is the time! The time for everyone who is interested to show up and be heard. What do you want from our Temple? We have the resources to do virtually anything. We are a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Temple and we will define ourselves on our own terms. We will plan those programs and go to those places, spiritual and otherwise, that we choose. We will take the Shin spiritual path together. How do we apply Buddhism to our everyday lives? What is the mission of our temple? How do we define ourselves in Buddhist terms and what in the heck does that mean to begin with? Do we want to focus on sports, dance, music, reading books together, going to baseball games, getting more involved in the Sawtelle and Japanese-American community, visiting those who are ill, or what?

On Saturday, March 21 at 10:00 a.m. at our Temple, we will hold the first WLABT ROUNDTABLE to talk about these things. The purpose of the Roundtable will be to talk about what we want to do as a temple sangha.

Every person, aged 8 to 98, is warmly invited to weigh in and be counted. If you have any interest in helping to decide what we will do at WLABT, how we will describe ourselves, what programs you want to participate in, what direction you want to see our Temple move, then attend our Roundtable. It's up to you. Join us!

Namo Amida Butsu, Rick Stambul, WLABT President

tera yama ya chigo wa korogeru cho wa tobu

temple mountain-
a baby tumbles
a butterfly flits

Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828)

Springtime has arrived although in southern California the seasons are always an on-again, off-again type of thing. Kobayashi Issa, a renowned Haiku poet and devout Shin Buddhist, offers us spring most anytime we're in a mood to read him. Issa's haiku reveals a baby tumbling and a butterfly flitting somewhere on the grassy grounds of a Buddhist temple in the mountains. Issa invites us to meditate on the connections between the three, baby, butterfly, and temple. Though at first glance this is just an everyday event, Issa suggests that life itself—the life of children and of butterflies—is sacred. So, let's welcome springtime and change. Our upcoming Ohigan Seminar is on Saturday, March 14 (9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.) and our Ohigan Service on Sunday, March 15 starts at 9:30 a.m. when we will have the pleasure of listening to Dr. Lisa Grumbach (English) and Dr. Eisho Nasu (Japanese) two wonderful speakers. I've had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Grumbach lecture at a BCA National Council meeting and I am eagerly looking forward to hearing her again. This is going to be an interesting and informative weekend. ROUNDTABLE MEETING: As I discussed in my February message, we will hold the first WLABT Roundtable on March 21 at 10 a.m. and everyone is invited. We're going to talk, just talk, about what kind of events and programs we would like to see at WLA and what kind of Temple we want for our future. Please join us. I'm also asking all temple members, organizations, and affiliated organizations to show up on March 22 at 8 a.m. (Good morning!) for our quarterly clean-up. It's a dirty job and everyone's help is needed to keep our temple beautiful. We'll be hosting the Bay Cities Gardener's Association Cymbidium and Bonsai show at our temple on March 28 and 29. And be sure to join us for our Hanamatsuri and Hatsumairi service on April 5 at 9:30 a.m.

Namo Amida Butsu, Rick Stambul, WLABT President

Okawa e fuki nagurareshi sakura kana

blown to the big river
floating away ...
cherry blossoms

Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828)

Kobayashi Issa, the famous haiku poet and Shin Buddhist, helps us welcome April and cherry blossom season with his many-layered haiku shown above. Issa’s haiku often mention the “Big River” (okawa) which is a common reference in his poetry to both the Sumida River in Edo (today’s Tokyo) and to the Yodo River in Osaka. He invites us to appreciate the impermanence of the cherry blossoms we may have been watching as each speck of each blossom floats away from us on the water. It also reminds me of the symbolism of the flowers Rev. Usuki arranges in our onaijin each week. The flowers make me mindful that while they are symbolic of the beauty of the Pure Land inside each of us, eventually, we will all die and be literally and figuratively blown away. Hence, Issa reveals the impermanence of life itself.

April brings us two wonderful services. Hanamatsuri, which will be on Sunday, April 5 at 9:30 a.m., commemorates the birth of Siddhartha Gautama in Lumbini Garden (who later became enlightened as Sakyamuni Buddha). One of my favorite services will take place on Sunday, April 12 at 10:00 a.m. in memorial to and honoring Eshinni and Kakushinni, the wife and daughter, respectively, of Shinran Shonin. Eshinni’s intimate letters to her daughter appear and are explained in a compelling book entitled The Letters of the Nun Eshinni by James C. Dobbins, which is available in our temple library. The letters offer us a glimpse into the world of everyday life in 13th century Japan before Shin Buddhism had a significant following. But it is the final three chapters that I found fascinating as they are essays inspired by Eshinni’s letters. I recommend the book to everyone.

And for those of you who are interested in Bon Odori (dances performed at our annual Obon carnival), you’re in for a great opportunity. On May 16, Saturday, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Los Angeles Hongwanji Betsuin, the Southern District Dharma School Teachers League will present a seminar entitled The Japanese-American Bon Odori Tradition. The day will be filled with the history of Bon Odori in the U.S., music, dance, taiko, discussion, the works! Join me for this great day of fun open to temple members or those just interested in learning what all the fuss is about.

Please email me at wlabtpres.rick@live.com, or call me at (310) 284-8003, or write me at the temple and I will get back to you.

Namo Amida Butsu, Rick Stambul, WLABT President

yo naku mushi nanji haha ari chichi ari ya

insects chirp in the night--
what of your mothers?
your fathers?

Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828)

Kobayashi Issa, the well-known haiku poet and Shin Buddhist, entertains us with one of my favorite poems. Shinji Ogawa comments that Issa is really asking the insects a question, namely, “Do you have mothers and fathers?” He surmises that Issa is thinking of his own motherless existence. In fact, the eighteenth century Japanese poet lost his mother at the early age of three, suffered from poverty, his children died, his marriage with his second wife was unhappy. However, Issa’s poems reflect the small, everyday joys of life as celebrated by our own Jodo Shinshu Buddhism.

This is also a fitting haiku for our upcoming Mother’s Day service to be held on Sunday, May 10, at 9:30 a.m. It doesn’t matter if your mother has passed on or not; this is the time for all of us to reflect on the many gifts our mothers gave us, most important of which is birth into this life. Please join us for this special service to honor your mothers or to honor their memory.

Our Gotan-e service will be held on Sunday, May 17, at 9:30 a.m. Gotan-e is when we commemorate the birth of Shinran Shonin (1173-1263) together with followers of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism throughout the world. Shinran is the founder of Jodo Shinshu and, as many have said before me, he was ruthlessly honest about the human condition and its manifold limitations when it came to realizing enlightenment. He opens a door to equality, serenity, and inner peace for all of us who choose to walk in the path he opens for us in the Nembutsu.

Usuki Sensei will both tempt and teach us with dharma talks at both services, and for Gotan-e Rev. Nekoda will deliver the Japanese sermon. How fortunate we are to have such dedicated teachers opening the door to the Primal Vow and inviting us to walk through it if we dare. Please join us.

Don’t forget that on Sunday, May 31, at 10:00 a.m. we will be joined by our ondobo- ondogyo (fellow travelers) from San Fernando Valley Hongwanji Buddhist Temple for our service at WLABT. Please, everyone, join us to welcome Rev. Patti Usuki and SFVHBT to our temple.

I invite all of you to contact me anytime at wlabtpres.rick@live.com or at (310) 284-8003. I look forward to the helpful comments many of you send me.

Namo Amida Butsu, Rick Stambul, WLABT President

A fool dancing, a fool watching, Odoru aho ni miru aho
Since we are all fools, Onaji aho nara
What a loss not to dance. Odorannya son son

Our annual West LA Obon Odori and Festival are fast approaching (July 25 and 26). Whew! It’s summertime again. “Bon odori as a religious dance means to dance joyfully in memory of our ancestors, and to dance joyfully means to dance without ego or hakarai. Different than fun, joy is not something one creates. Joy is a discovery while fun is a sometimes futile attempt to create joy. When you dance, pay attention to the dance and all who are dancing with you, forgetting the self.” For me, Obon Odori is my connection with the Sangha and allows me to forget myself and participate in the spiritual joy of the dance. Who cares if I look like the dancing fool I am?

I urge all of you to dance this year. Attend our odori practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays (starting June 23 at 7:30 p.m.) led by our favorite odori teacher, Grace Mizushima. Bon Odori calls to all of us to join in the dance as is so well expressed in the refrain at the beginning of this message.

I also want to encourage everyone (boys and girls, men and women, our entire family) to join me in wearing yukata (or kimono) at our 2009 odori. Wear it for comfort as that is its purpose on this special occasion.

I believe that dancing at Obon brings a Buddhist spirit of joy and celebration that everyone should experience. “If your body can no longer dance, then sit down and dance with your feet, your eyes, your ears, and your heart—don’t just sit and watch.”

June is also a very busy month for us. Join us on June 7 for Temple Cleanup starting at 8:00 a.m.

June 13 is the 2009 Southern District Conference to be held at Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple and all are invited. WLA is co-hosting a small part of this conference along with Venice Buddhist Temple, whose members have planned this special event. Please contact the Temple office for details.

Saturday, June 20 is our annual Yard Sale and all are encouraged to drop by and look for a bargain. Proceeds go to support our monthly 80+ lunch program.

Senshin Buddhist Temple will be holding its Obon Odori on June 27, and Sun Valley Buddhist Temple on June 27-28. All are welcome.

I invite all of you to contact me anytime at wlabtpres.rick@live.com or at (310) 284-8003. I look forward to the helpful comments many of you send me.

Namo Amida Butsu, Rick Stambul, WLABT President

Summertime has arrived and already dozens of temple members are pitching in to help get ready for our annual Obon Festival and Odori on July 25 and 26. Calculations are being made to figure out how much food to buy; what cooking tools and burners we’ll need; where each booth will be located (“Help us, Tosh!” [Ishioka]); and just how many days of work will be needed to make our Festival the success it is every year. I am so appreciative of how many of you continue to show up each year, often without being asked, to prepare our Temple for the approximately 1,500-plus people who come to share our joy. This is going to be a busy month.

Attend our Hatsubon service (Sunday, July 12 at 9:30 a.m.). Come together for odori practice (Thank you, Grace and Greg [Mizushima]) every Tuesday and Thursday (except July 2) evening at 7:30 p.m. until our last rehearsal on July 16. Please join us for the fun of learning new dances and sharing the joy of odori together with just our WLA tomodachi.

Join us for our Obon cemetery services on Saturday, July 18 (9:30 a.m. at Woodlawn and 11:00 a.m. at Inglewood). At Woodlawn Cemetery, be sure to check out the memorial to Japanese American veterans, a tribute to the courage of all our Nikkei men and women now in uniform and those who served our country with distinction.

Help us set up tents and booths for Obon on Friday, July 17 at 7:00 p.m. and come together on Sunday, July 19 at 8:00 a.m. for our famous WLA “double B’s,” booth construction and brisket. The brisket lunch that our BWA ladies prepare for us each year is one of my favorite events. Thank you, BWA! Wolfing it down with everyone who shows up for our early morning construction crew gives me a feeling of connection that I look forward to each year. Hard work, good cheer, good food … Banzai!

Help us on Sunday night (July 26) following odori in the street to begin taking down the tents, and again on Monday (July 27 at 7 p.m.) for final booth takedown, so Usuki Sensei and a few other regulars don’t end up doing all the finishing clean-up work as they have done for years.

Then it’s back to business as usual for our monthly board meeting on Monday, August 3 at 7:30 p.m. This is where suggestions and complaints are discussed and everyone is welcome to attend, especially if you care about the direction of our temple and also have the time to participate.

Contact me anytime at wlabtpres.rick@live.com or at (310) 284-8003. Comments are welcome and I appreciate the dozens of contacts I receive monthly.

Namo Amida Butsu, Rick Stambul, WLABT President

Summer is nearly over and most of us are still recovering from the hard work we all devoted to our July 2009 Obon Odori and Festival. Thank you to all who took time from their busy schedules to pitch in for this annual celebration which is so important to our temple sangha. The carnival was a huge success. Some estimated we had more than 2,500 people on Saturday alone and I can say with some certainty that there were more than 550 dancers celebrating life along La Grange Avenue on that same Saturday evening. Now we return to more mundane matters like maintaining our temple facilities and institutions and safeguarding its financial future.

I am making an open invitation to all our temple members to attend our Long Range Planning Committee meetings (our next meeting is Tuesday, August 25 at 7:30 p.m.). These meetings are more important than ever as we are beginning to confront some significant challenges facing the near and long-term future of our temple sangha. Will you join us in these deliberations for the future of our temple and our children?

We are actively discussing the possibility of a major change in how we manage our temple finances. Should we convert from the decentralized committee system that our temple has used for most of its almost 60 years to a more accountable and manageable budget system? Some suggest that a centralized budget system would allow us to keep track of what we earn and spend each month (which we currently do with decentralized committees). The purpose is to create a practical method of understanding precisely what we have available to spend at the beginning of each year, to ensure we don’t run out of funds, and to keep a lid on current spending. I invite all members to offer their comments as to whether or not we should change to a centralized budgetary financial system. I urge all members to join us by participating in our Long Range Planning Committee meetings to discuss this critical matter.

We are also beginning to discuss changes necessary to our monthly Bulletin brought about by the retirement of our Editor, Sei Shohara, in January 2011. Our Bulletin is highly valued by all of us and, in my opinion, rates as one of BCA’s most exceptional temple “newspapers.” Thus this transfer of editorship will require great care and consideration to ensure we maintain its high level of accessibility and overall excellence. All members are urged to join us in discussing this significant change for our temple at our Long Range Planning Committee meetings.

September also brings with it our Fall Ohigan Seminar on Saturday, September 12 from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. when Rev. Usuki will present another of his informative presentations (in English), while Rev. Kiyonobu Kuwahara (from the Jodo Shinshu Center in Berkeley) and Rev. Yuki Sugahara (a candidate of the International Ministerial Overseas Program) will be making a joint presentation in Japanese. Our Fall Ohigan Service will begin at 10 a.m. on Sunday, September 13, with Rev. Kuwahara as English guest speaker and Rev. Sugahara as Japanese guest speaker. Please join us.

Contact me anytime at wlabtpres.rick@live.com or at (310) 284-8003.

Namo Amida Butsu, Rick Stambul, WLABT President

The year 2009 has already been one of the busiest for our temple in recent memory. Each week has witnessed our temple sangha of fellow travelers (ondobo ondogyo no sekai) reinvigorated by Usuki Sensei’s weekly Buddhist services, dharma talks, study classes, and dedication to West LA; by the don don don of our Taiko group; our Obon festival; and a list of monthly events simply too long to set out in this column. Whew!

Our Board of Directors and Long Range Planning Committee (LRPC) seem to keep everything running without pause and to plan for our temple’s future. I continue to invite all members to join us for both our monthly board and LRPC meetings so everyone’s voice is heard.

We’ve started a critical discussion at our LRPC meetings to find the best way to protect the financial health of our temple, its committees and organizations, while allowing us to properly audit all our temple accounts to ensure their safety and accountability. Presently, we must periodically audit all our financial accounts in order to protect our non-profit legal status. However, our intrepid auditor, Victor Naramura, presently cannot perform a solid audit on a timely basis until we have all the financial data from each committee and organization. Attend our next LRPC meetings on Tuesday, September 22 and October 20 at 7:30 p.m., if only to listen to the positive changes coming to our temple, or to help us.

The LRPC will also be talking about adopting a Mission Statement for our temple. A Mission Statement is not merely words soldered together to look good. In my judgment, we need a comprehensive Mission Statement for guidance, something to refer to when creating functions for our members. When we begin planning an event we should be able to rely on a clear statement of who we are and who we want to aspire to be as a temple sangha: What do we want to accomplish from a religious or philosophical perspective, as well as from a secular viewpoint. Only a Mission Statement seems to provide the roadmap we all need to answer these important questions. How does the event we’re discussing move us forward towards realizing our temple goals as set forth in its Mission Statement? Dr. Jack Fujimoto is heading our Mission Statement Task Force that will begin its discussions at our next LRPC meeting. Join us!

Our LRPC has also begun in-depth discussions of the transition of our Bulletin to a new Editor and Bulletin production process when Sei Shohara retires from his long-standing position. Anyone interested in helping us plan for this change is asked to join us for these talks to continue the Bulletin’s outstanding quality and content.

Come together with us in visiting San Fernando Valley Hongwanji Buddhist Temple on Sunday, October 18 for morning service, and especially on Saturday, October 24 at 5 p.m. for Family Fun Night at West LA. If you haven’t enjoyed watching the delight on the faces of our youngsters when everyone, children and adults alike, arrive dressed up to join together in meeting the goblins prowling our temple grounds, you’ve missed a great moment. Please join in the fun! Contact me anytime at (310) 284-8003 or at wlabtpres.rick@live.com.

Namo Amida Butsu, Rick Stambul, WLABT President

It’s already the November Bulletin and I’m writing this article in the still sweltering heat of September in order to meet the Bulletin deadline. How does one write about the chill of November while wearing shorts and a T shirt shortly after Ohigan? It’s surreal.

Our annual Eitaikyo Service will be held on November 8 at 11:00 a.m. with our own Rev. Fumiaki Usuki offering us insights into the Buddhadharma in English while Rev. Seikan Fukuma will be engaging us in Japanese. Eitaikyo is an abbreviation of Eitai Dokyo which means the perpetual recitation of the sutras. It is a time to pay respect and to honor those who have departed. Donations to the Perpetual Eitaikyo Fund are to preserve the memory of our loved one(s) forever. By donating to this fund, the deceased is remembered each year at our Eitaikyo Service. Everyone is welcome.

On Saturday, November 14, at 5:30 p.m., Buddhist Men will be hosting a Longevity Celebration honoring its members who have reached, or will reach, auspicious ages of 60, 70, 77, 80, 88, 90, or 99 this year. This year Buddhist Men will honor, among seven others, two members who are, or will be, 90 (Sotsuju). For the first time in my memory of temple events, Buddhist Men are inviting Asoka and BWA members and their spouses for a delicious steak or salmon dinner free of charge! Reservations are required and you can read about all the details regarding this celebration later in this edition of the Bulletin. Please plan to attend this fun evening.

November 15, Sunday, at 9:30 a.m. we will hold our annual Thanksgiving Service. Join us.

And on November 22, Sunday, at 9:30 a.m., our regular Sunday service will be led by Rev. Ensei Nekoda while Rev. Usuki attends to the needs of Oxnard Buddhist Temple as its temporary supervising minister. Rev. Nekoda’s generous participation as both a Jodo Shinshu minister as well as a member of our temple sangha has been a special gift. He regularly assists us and Rev. Usuki at our services and actively participates in many of our events. He is a valued member serving each of us in this special capacity and I thank him publically for his many years of service to WLA. We are all so appreciative of Nekoda Sensei’s presence and good cheer.

May we all awaken to the dharma.

Contact me anytime at wlabtpres.rick@live.com or at (310) 284-8003.

Namo Amida Butsu, Rick Stambul, WLABT President

As I’ve walked Sawtelle Blvd. many times over the past year, I watched with interest the multitudes of people also walking our neighborhood. I am fascinated by how many of them seem to have a need to avoid being alone. They do this by talking on their cell phones, texting, checking email, playing online games, anything to avoid solitude. This repetitive drama seems to be everywhere these days. A wise and good friend once advised me of the importance of learning to appreciate being alone with our own thoughts, with the beauty of nature around us, as one way to connect with our authentic selves and to improve our relationships. Have we forgotten the visual and audible beauty of a single leaf rustling in the wind or of a bird soaring in the sky? Have we become a society fearful of being alone? It makes me recall the wisdom of the book Walden by one of our greatest writers, Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862). He mused on the virtues of solitude as a way to find our own truth. But such a search also forces us to confront our fear of loneliness. Thoreau comments more than 150 years ago:

I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows. The really diligent student in one of the crowded hives of Cambridge College is as solitary as a dervish in the desert. The farmer can work alone in the field or the woods all day, hoeing or chopping, and not feel lonesome, because he is employed; but when he comes home at night he cannot sit down in a room alone, at the mercy of his thoughts, but must be where he can “see the folks,” and recreate, and as he thinks remunerate himself for his day’s solitude; and hence he wonders how the student can sit alone in the house all night and most of the day without … “the blues”; but he does not realize that the student, though in the house, is still at work in his field, and chopping in his woods, as the farmer in his, and in turn seeks the same recreation and society that the latter does, though it may be a more condensed form of it. Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are. We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable … We meet at the post-office, and about the fireside every night; we live … crowded and are in each other's way, and stumble over one another, and I think that we thus lose some respect for one another. Certainly less frequency would suffice for all important and hearty communications. The value of a man is not in his skin, that we should touch him. I have a great deal of company in my house; especially in the morning, when nobody calls. Let me suggest a few comparisons that… may convey an idea of my situation. I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that laughs so loud, or than Walden Pond itself. What company has that lonely lake, I pray? And yet it has the blue angels in it, in the azure tint of its waters. I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horsefly, or a bumblebee. I am no more lonely than the Mill Brook, or a weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house.

Appreciating our solitude may just be the path to happiness, better relationships, and true access to Amida Buddha. Namo Amida Butsu,

Contact me anytime at wlabtpres.rick@live.com or at (310) 284-8003.

Namo Amida Butsu, Rick Stambul, WLABT President