Little by Little

Hello from Japan!

The family and I staying with family again, and boy I forgot how hot and humid the summers are. It’s currently the monsoon season (梅雨, tsuyu) so it rains a lot, and even indoors it’s hot and sticky without A/C. This is also the season of the Rains Retreat in Buddhist Japan in the olden days.

Anyhow, recently I saw this Jodo-Shu Buddhist-themed calendar around the house:

The English translation is very close, but the Japanese has some extra nuance that’s noteworthy.

In Japanese is written:

こころ耕す kokoro tagayasu

南無阿弥陀仏 namu amida butsu

The first line, means to cultivate the heart using the verb tagayasu (耕す), which implies tilling a field, or plowing a field.

So, it’s not just an academic exercise in reciting the nenbutsu, it cultivates the heart like a field. If you let the field go fallow, nothing grows except maybe some weeds. Buddhist practice is much like this, whether it be the nenbutsu or some other practice.

Namu Amida Butsu