Dear Members,

Recently, I was asked to submit a Dharma message in honour of a friend's 1^st Year Memorial Service. I thought I might share it with you because it talks of the more idealistic side to this job; while at the same time, pays my respects to a pretty neat man.

Dennis Yoshikawa was an American, who married into a temple family in Japan. He and his wife, Yoko, came up with the idea that he would host a monthly service in English at his temple, Chogenji, so that foreign students could practice some of the things that they had been learning like preparing Dharma talks, setting up the altar area and chanting. Since there was no place like this when he was studying in Japan, he thought that the melding of a place to make mistakes with the comfort of being able to converse with other "foreigners" would benefit all who would take part.

He was right. Over the course of some 15 years that the Chogenji English Service ran with him as the head, some 30 overseas ministers from the mainland U.S., Hawaii, Brazil and Canada partook of Dennis and Yoko's genuine concern and generous hospitality. There are some humans out there that you just gotta love.

"Signs of long years of saying the nembutsu and aspiring for birth can be seen in the change in the heart that had been bad and in the deep warmth for friends and fellow-practicers; ..."

It is hard to believe that it has already been a year since Yoshikawa sensei returned to the Pure Land. I am sure that over the course of the year, each of us, who was lucky enough to have known him in his physical manifestation here, has had occasions when, seemingly out of the blue, a cherished memory of him, or of the Chogenji English Service has popped into our minds. Some people you meet and experiences you have resonate within you forever.

I had the marvelous opportunity to take part in the English service at Chogenji for some four and a half years; from 1992- 1997. Knowing how much this experience has enriched both my professional and personal life, it is impossible to imagine how much of an effect Yoshikawa sensei and the Chogenji English Service has had on the overseas propagation of Jodo Shinshu during the thirteen years that it has been in existence. For me participation in the services and having access to Yoshikawa sensei; his experience and friendship, was a warm and comfortable introduction to a life and livelihood that I love; an opportunity to learn and grow embraced by the companionship of a man who had a genuine and kind concern for the future of both his teaching and the flesh and blood humans, who had taken on the responsibility of attempting to relay that teaching to others.

He was great in that he saw a need and realized that he was of the right character; blessed with a loving and accepting wife (who actually enjoys having a bunch of idealistic foreigners invading her home every month), with the corresponding interests and aims to fulfill that need. Is that not the great hope that all of us on the bodhisattva path have?

After all of this praise, you might get the feeling that maybe I think that Yoshikawa sensei was some kind of saint or something; but he knew, and never let me forget, that he was like any other human. I think that this "humanness" was the very thing that allowed him to have such an influence on each of our lives.

Through a firm knowledge of his own faults and foibles, likes and dislikes and strengths and weaknesses, those around him felt safe and comfortable in admitting to their own faults and foibles, silly biases and, sometimes even, blatant idiosyncrasies. In having devoted himself to the inner search that is the basis of the Jodo Shinshu teaching, we also gained the incentive to continue on with our own introspections; wether the things that we discovered there were particularly pleasing to our childish egos, or not. Either way at the Chogenji English Service they would become things to laughingly share with each other; to get them out in the open, so to speak, so that we could, in our more quiet, solitary times, even more strongly resolve to work on them; not so much for our own benefit, since we had already been warmly loved and accepted in spite of them; but rather for the benefit of all of the beings that we are so very lucky to have karmic ties with.

The monthly Chogenji English Service was a beautiful counter to all of the pressures, self- imposed expectations on myself as a ministerial prospect and general discomfort of living in a foreign country. It was almost like a haven really; a place to let down my guard, throw away my masks and recharge my batteries. The services provided me with an ideal to look for in all of the subsequent temples that I have visited and worked at. After all what is a temple really other than a feeling of overflowing love, acceptance and genuine concern housed by a building?

Attending the Chogenji English Service and having it become a part of me induced a kind of "pressureless pressure". I was no longer gathering facts and doctrinal knowledge so that I could merely save my "self" by being able to answer the myriad of questions that the people back home would be asking of me in my new role as "sensei"; rather the whole intent became the struggle to see myself as I truly am, so that I could hopefully, finally be of some benefit to the people that I owe so much to.

We all need friends along the way. Particularly the more idealistic of us will, by our very nature, experience some very conflicting feelings as we notice the times when we are not manifesting our ideals as fully as we may like to. In those times, it may be helpful to give a more tangible shape to Amida Buddha's Wisdom and Compassion. In calling to ourselves memories of people and places where we felt something very close to Amida's boundless and unfailing acceptance, we can create a kind of mental bridge to connect the mystical and intangible with a definite, physical expression in this world. For many of us, Yoshikawa sensei and the Chogenji English Service is just that kind of connection.

Thanks Dennis for being a warm, compassionate, "human" expression of some of the better sides of human nature. Thanks Yoko for putting up with us and for "making" your husband the great guy that he is. None of us grows and matures without the love and support of others. Every sentiment expressed here applies directly to you also. Take care, eh?

In Gassho,