Dharma Message from Rev. Fumiaki Usuki

“The Bird and the Window ”

Taken from the June 2006 WLA Bulletin:
The Official Newsletter of West LA Buddhist Temple

 

The biggest troublemaker you’ll probably ever have to
deal with, watches you from the mirror every morning.

This passage is from An Old Farmer’s Advice but I’m sure the Buddha also said something like this to warn that the troublemaker is usually you and me! I would like to tell you a story that is still unfolding right at this moment. I often work behind the Onaijin (altar area) where there is a sink for arranging the flowers and making rice for Buppan (rice offering) every week. Next to the work area is a minister’s waiting room for guest ministers. The area is also where I can sit and be quiet and reflect on many things, especially when I need to come up with the Dharma message for the weekly Sunday service.

I recently noticed a ticking noise coming from the back room -- the back room has a large window and it gets very sunny. One day, I went to check on the clicking noise and found a bird sitting outside on a window bar and pecking on the window (see photos). I also noticed that he does this all day, especially when it is sunny. Why do you suppose he does this? Is he picking at insects? Does he want to come inside? Or, is he crazy?

The window is tinted and has a reflective coating so it reflects the ultraviolet rays. I think when the bird comes near the window he sees himself and mistakes himself for another male bird that is a threat to his territory and he needs to pick a fight. He may also think that the bird is inside the building.

Many birds and animals are territorial and they don’t like having another male around their nesting or mating area and will defend it with their lives. But this bird does not realize that he is picking a fight with himself. Who do you suppose will win? I think the window. It is strong glass and eventually bird’s beak will wear down or crack before he breaks the glass.

So, I watch him do this when I’m in the back room. I also tried to take a photo of him but when I get close to the window, he can actually see a moving image behind the glass so he flies away to a nearby wire and waits. He is more patient than I, and so I have to go back to work. He then comes back and starts the process all over again. But, finally this morning, I was able to take several photos of him. I may have finally won the battle of patience.

Can you imagine being a bird? He doesn’t know what a mirror is and he doesn’t know that he is seeing himself. He only sees another bird that he needs to get rid of. Do you think he will eventually get tired of pecking on the window? I don’t know how much patience this bird has and I don’t know how long he’s been doing this, so who knows what will happen. I hope he will eventually go away or we may have to install another type of window so he won’t hurt himself.

Human beings are like this bird when we are selfish or ignorant. We also can’t see that when we get angry or want something beyond reason, we fight our own selfishness and bother others with our own troubles. When this confrontation occurs we also do not realize that we are fighting the self. This is why “The biggest troublemaker you’ll probably ever have to deal with watches you from the mirror every morning.”

Here’s another passage from An Old Farmer’s Advice that you may want to think about:

Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

 

 

SHINSHU CORNER

Not My Doing
The Lotus and the Chicken

The lotus flower blooms
Beautifully in the dirty pond
But that’s not because
Of the louts’ efforts.
A baby chick
Hatches from an egg.
But it doesn’t hatch
Through its own efforts.
That’s what I finally
Became aware of.
But that awareness
Is not my doing.

 

In this poem by Misuzu Kaneko, she expresses her deep feeling for the benevolence of Amida Buddha and his Vow to awaken all of us in this world. The Jodo Shinshu teaching is based on the “Buddha-centered power’ of the ‘Primal Vow” and we cannot do anything to cause our own enlightenment. Our enlightenment is solely due to the “vow power” of Amida Buddha… This is what Misuzu Kaneko became aware of… There is no need for me to try to become enlightened. In fact, such “self-centered effort” is actually a hindrance. That’s the attitude that is always expressed in Jodo Shinshu.

Misuzu’s World of the Nembutsu – Daishun Ueyama. Nembutsu Press

 

Pain and Time

At times almost all of us Envy the Animals. They suffer and die, but they do not seem to make a “problem” of it. Their lives seem to have so few complications. They eat when they are hungry and sleep when they are tired, and instinct rather than anxiety seems to govern their few preparations for the future.

As far as we can judge, every animal is so busy with what he is doing at the moment that it never enters his head to ask whether life has meaning or future. For the animals, happiness consists in enjoying life in the immediate present – not in the assurance that there is a whole future of joys ahead of him.

The Wisdom of Insecurity, a message for an age of insecurity
– Allan Watts

 

Gassho,

Rev. Fumiaki Usuki
West LA Buddhist Temple

 

 

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