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“Through careful observation of our existence on this earth, we comprehend that there are inseparable relations with our parents and countless ancestors.”

OBON

- Bishop Emeritus Taisen Miyata

“There is a Haiku poem by Kyoshi: “Okuribi ya, kaeri te nozoku jibutsudan”. This poem refers to the end of the hot three days of Obon at which time the Okuribi Ritual (a bonfire built for sending off the spirits of the dead to their own abode) also has ended and one looks inside the house toward the Buddhist altar in relief.

The shape and form of the parents have gone, and we can no longer hear their voices. However, once a year at Obon service, the husband and wife both come back to their home. Even those who have gone on before are kept busy coming and going. Buddhas go from this world to the other and so do the essence of our lives. Transcending reason, we can visualize the scenery with Buddhas and people intermingling.

Odaishi-sama said: “Aji no ko ga, aji no furusato tachi idete, mata tachi kaeru aji no furusato”. Aji refers to this world, as well as, to the other world – a world where one goes and returns actively and endlessly. It is symbolized as Mahavairocana in the Shingon Esoteric Buddhism.

Sakyamuni Buddha said: “Shisu beki mono no inochi aru wa, arigatashi”. We die and we are born again, transmigrating through lives. This is the way our lives continue. There are one set of parents who brought one child into being. Going back to their heritage, the number increases to 4, 8, 16, and beyond. In 26 generations, it becomes 134,200,000. If we are to count further back, we realize what a tremendous ordeal it must have been to reach our own lives.

We must revere this life shared and made possible by the universe. Obon is the time at which we see this religious significance in each other. In the sutra, Hannya Shingyo, there is a phrase, “Fusho fumetsu”. It means there is no beginning and no end, that life is endless.

Let us not forget, Osegaki and Kyogi Nagashi, Haka mairi, Mukaebi, Okuribi, Kento, Shoko, Ossettai, and Goeika Kuyo are each important activites of the Obon ritual. I conclude with a poem by Hakusho: “Naki haha no chiisana zabuton iyogasuri”.