Dharma Talks

Good morning, everybody! I am glad to see you this morning.

When I came to Hawaii for the first time about 20 years ago, there were many things surprised me. One of them was how to use wasabi and mustard. In Japan, we use wasabi for Sashimi and mustard for Oden. I saw people eat wasabi with oden and mustard with Sashimi in Hawaii. I was so shocked. It was out of common sense from the Japanese point of view. I could not stand it at the beginning although I did not say anything about the local way of eating. Today, it doesn't matter. I just eat oden and sashimi the way people in Hawaii enjoy eating. I am enjoying those tastes. It is not a healthy situation to criticize something based on your own common sense and prejudice. Our common sense makes our world narrow and prevents us from understanding what is possible.

Today, the state is discussing about the same sex marriage. Everybody asked if you support it or not. We had a meeting of the Hawaii Buddhist Council the other day. We talked about it at that time. I was asked if Nichiren Shu support the same sex marriage. I said that yes, we supported it. Let me tell you why.

The reasons why Nichiren Shu supports it are; #1, there is no phrase against it in the Lotus Sutra. #2, as far as I know, Nichiren Shonin did not say anything about it. #3, the executive director of the department of propagation of Nichiren Shu delivered a statement a few years ago. It says that Nichiren Shu did not oppose or go against the same sex marriage if local laws support it. #4, I don't think that it is against public welfare and society. I could not find any reasons to oppose it from my experience. That is why I support it.

Let me share with you a little history of Japanese Buddhism. Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the 6th century. Since then, monks were practitioners, not preachers. They became preachers in the 10th century. Those monks could not marry until the 19th century. It was a rule. The world of monks from the 6th century through 19th century was a world of male monks or a world of female monks. They were separated by strict order. You may think that there was no encounter with opposite sex during those days. It was not true. Nichiren Shonin wrote to criticize some unfaithful male monks who were involved with ladies. It means that there were some monks who dated ladies, secretly at that time. Those monks were targets of criticism. Again, the world of monks were the world of male monks or female monks. How about love in the same world? As it turns out, same sex couple of monks was common at that time. It was a closed world. You may not understand it from the modern view. However, it happened during a different historical and cultural background. We cannot say or judge what happened 1,000 years ago from today. Nichiren Shonin did not say anything about love between the same sexes in his writings although he wrote many things about husband and wife. I assume that Nichiren Shonin was not interest in such a thing or it was too common to talk about it. No matter how he thought of it, love between the same sexes was not a target of his criticism. Thus, many monks started to marry late in the 19th century except Jodo Shin Shu. It was because the Meiji Imperial government forced monks to marry. The government wanted Shintoism to be a national religion of Japan. They thought that Shinto priest was looked down upon by the Buddhist monk. So, the government tried to reduce the monks to a lower status and forced monks to marry. Monks were completely taken in by the government policy. And, I too am taken in.

One of the most important things of Buddhism is that there is no story of creation. Some religions say that there is a god who creates everything. If god is a creator, there are many contradictions. For example, if god creates everything, why did he create bad people? The Buddha found out the truth inside things. He did not create anything. He did not create anything so that contradiction between Buddhism and science and technology could not happen. I think that we will never have such contradiction even in the future. So, you can feel comfortable with Buddhism without contradiction.

There are many things to discuss related the same sex marriage. One of them is in our own minds and sometimes our refusal to accept a new thing. The teaching of Buddhism never denies it. We can have a faith with peace without worry. Buddhism is flexible to accept new things.