Now I am in Cambridge! ケンブリッジにて

Now I am in Cambridge, England. This must be my eighth visit to Cambridge and my fourth visit to Anglia Ruskin University. I remember the first time I visited this university. It was in the summer of 1998 when I was staying in Cambridge with a group of Japanese students. I was not happy with the organizer at that time and was beginning to look for an alternative. One day as I was walking along the edge of the big field, it occurred to me that I should contact Anglia Polytechnic University that was right next to the field. I just went to the campus reception desk and visited the office of the Departgment of English as a Foreign Language without anyone's introduction. Then I introduced myself and explained my motive to go there. They immediately understood me and introduced me to a Ms. Felicity Lane, who was acting as an agent for organizing Japanese students studying at ARU. She and I worked out a plan for the following year's summer program and in this way the friendship relationship between Anglia and Soai University developed.

Before I first visited England in 1991, I had thought that British people were always formal and hard to become friends with, but I soon realized I was mistaken. I see hardly anybody who is clothed in a formal attire in daily life. They most of the time wear very casual clothes and are very friendly and have an excellent sense of humor.

Yesterday and today I talked with two old friends of mine Martin and Ann. I first met Martin in India around 1968. Somehow we became good friends but we parted in two different directions from India. When I was going to England for the first time in 1991, I contacted him. He was surprised to hear from me so abruptly, but gave me a very warm welcome. He showed me around London and treated me to dinner. When I went to England in 1998, I again surprised him by giving him a call without any previous notice, but again he was a complete gentleman in receiving me as an old friend. I am afraid I did the same mistake one more time and he finally reminded me that it was "mischievous" of me to call him without any previous notice. This summer, I gave him an early notice and apologized to him for my earlier rudeness by interrupting his normal rhythm of life. I realize what a terrible inconvenience I had caused him. If someone called me in Japan and announced that he or she was here, I would feel obligated to drop everything I was doing or planning to do and try to meet his or her needs. The British chivalry is still very much alive. I am going to see him this Saturday August 2 in London.

I met Ann and her husband for the first time in 1991 when my employer Soai University sent me and another escort teacher Prof. Masaharu Torii as escorts for a group of women students. At that time the organizer at that time arranged that we stay with them. At that time she and her husband Don welcomed us and treated us like members of the family. Since then I met them every time I went to England and they were always kind to me. Unfortunately Don suddenly died two years ago. I talked with Ann on the phone this morning and she told me he died on the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage, on the day of their golden wedding ceremony. She said something to the effect that he went on the most timely occasion and he was good at it. When I heard this, I couldn't help laughing. Of course I apoligized to her for laughing about someone's death, but she said, "That's fine. That was rather funny." Talk about this British humor! I am going to meet her next week Tuesday on August 5. I cannot wait. Maybe Don showe me the way how I should go. This is the end of the first report of my stay in Cambridge.

やっとケンブリッジに落ち着きました。今アングリア・ラスキン大学の学生寮の一室に泊まっています。おそらくこれが英国への8回目の訪問で、この大学には4回目の訪問になるでしょう。

私のこの大学との関わりは1998年以来です。その年私は40人ほどの短大の女学生とともに当地に滞在していましたが、どうもそのときの受け入れ者の教育面での対応に満足できず、ほかの可能性を探り始めていました。ある日大きな芝生の運動場を歩いていると長崎外国語短期大学の学生にあい、彼女らが当時のアングリア・ポリテクニック大学で英語を勉強していることを知りました。それで何の紹介もなく大学の受付に行き、それからEFL（外国語としての英語教育）学科の事務所に飛び込みました。自己紹介をしてから私の訪問の意図を説明すると、やはり日本人の学生をまとめていたFelicity Laneさんに紹介されました。それでFelicityさんと二人で計画を練って、よく年施行しました。このようにして相愛大学とARUの関係ができたのです。

イギリスに始めてくる前には、イギリス人は紳士淑女の国だから、いつも振る舞いがきっちりしていて、なかなかうち解けられない人たちだと思っていましたが、全く予想に反して、町で見るイギリス人で、きちんとスーツとネクタイをしている人に会うのは稀です。皆、ラフな格好で歩いています。もちろん大きな会社の営業の人たちは別でしょうが、全体としてくつろいだ格好で、親しみやすく、親切です。イギリス人のユーモアと来たら、いつも頭の中を掃除されるような感じです。

昨日と今日（7月29日と30日）二人のイギリス人の旧友と電話で話をしました。一人はマーティンさんで、彼に最初にあったのは、インドのバローダ滞在中の1968年でした。インド滞在中はとてもよくしてくれました。その後彼はイギリスに帰り、私は日本に帰り、さらにアメリカに渡ったりしたために、音信不通でしたが、1991年に相愛大学が私をイギリスに引率教員として送ってくれたときに、ケンブリッジから便りをして、再会をしたわけです。そのあと、1998年にもイギリスに来てから連絡を取りましたが、また旧友として大歓迎をしてくれました。このように、長い間隔を経てから会ったものの、私がイギリスに来てから急に連絡するのは、彼としても毎日のリズムを壊されるらしく、2003年に同じようなことをしたとき、とうとう、「君はいたずら者だ」とやんわり諭されました。よく考えてみると、もし古い外国人友達が日本に来てから急に私に電話をかけてきたら、私だって、そのときにしていることや使用と思っていることを投げ出して、その人を迎えなければ、と思うでしょう。今回はそれを思って、日本に出る1ヶ月前から手紙を出し、以前の粗忽さをわびました。昨日電話したら、また温かく私を歓迎してくれて、この土曜日にロンドンで会う約束をしました。

もう一人アンさんに始めてあったのは1991年の夏で、引率教員として始めてイギリスに来たときに同僚の鳥居正晴教授とともにアンさんと夫ドンさんの家にホームステイさせていただいたのです。それ以来イギリスに来るたびに連絡すると二人は自動車で会いに来てくれて、あちらこちらを案内してくれ足り、食事に招待してくれたりしました。残念なことにドンさんは2年前に急になくなられました。それで今回アンさんに訪英を告げてあったのですが、今日電話すると、以前と同様に「熱烈歓迎」の言葉を言ってくれました。彼女によると、ドンさんは彼らの金婚式の日になくなったのです。「ほんとにうまく時間を合わせてくれたわ」といったので思わず笑ってしまいました。笑っていいことかどうかわからないので、とりあえず謝ると、「いやいや、これはちょっと考えるとおかしいことだからいいわよ」と言ってくれました。彼女には来週の火曜日にケンブリッジで会うことになっています。ケンブリッジでの生活の報告第一号はこれで終わり。

信心 Shinjin (True Faith)

6月に書きかけていた「信心」についてのエッセーを今、イギリスのケンブリッジで書き終えて公開しましたので、6月のエントリーの中から見つけてお読みください。

I began to write an essay on Shinjin and have finally finished writing it in Cambridge, England. It is in the June section of my blog, so if you are interested, please locate it from among the entries in June and read it.

Thank you.

Getting ready to go abroad 外国旅行への準備

As I announced earlier, I am leaving for England on July 25. I have heard that the highest temperature there is 24 degrees Celsius and the lowest temperature of day about 13. In Japan we have an expression "fuyu-gomori" or "keeping indoors in winter," but I am going to do a "natsu-gomori" or "keeping indoors in summer" most of the time because my students will be studying English at Anglia Ruskin University and I will be staying in my room in the halls of residence, trying to write three or four papers I have to send in the fall and winter.

Here in Osaka, the hot and humid summer has really started. Yesterday the temperature in Osaka was 37.3 degrees C. It's a crazy heat which makes one literally crazy. Yesterday there were 13 deaths in Japan when they were enjoying taking a dip in water in rivers, swimming pools and in the ocean.

Even a bear got crazy in this heat. Today's newspaper reports that yesterday in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, some people were enjoying staying in tents in the camping ground. Then a 70-kilogram bear came down there and began to push one of the tents from outside where 5 persons were staying. A 12-year-old girl, who was taking a nap inside the tent, woke up, and tried to push the bear back from inside the tent and finally kicked it. The bear was surprised and ran away. The girl said that she thought it was her 10-year-old younger sister who was making a mischief and pushing the tent from outside. Because the "push" was very persistent, she finally kicked "her" to give "her" a good lesson. Just after her nap, she was not quite awake and did this valorous deed half asleep. If she had known that it was a bear and screamed, the bear would have been more agitated and attacked them.

外国旅行への準備

前にもお知らせしましたように、７月２５日にイギリスへ出発し、ドイツを経て８月３１日に帰国します。日本語に「冬ごもり」ということばがありますが、私の場合は「夏ごもり」です。というのは学生はケンブリッジのアングリア・ラスキン大学で英語の勉強をしますが、私は学生寮にほぼ一日中閉じこもって、この秋か冬に提出しなければならない論文３，４本を書かなければならないからです。ケンブリッジでの最高気温は２４度、最低気温は１３度くらいだそうですから、立派な避暑ですね。家の者をはじめ、日本の人たちに申し訳ないです。

それにしてもなんとも暑いですね。昨日の大阪での最高気温は３７．３度でした。こんなに蒸し暑いと、人はおかしくなります。今朝の新聞によると、昨日一日で全国で１３人の水による死者が出たそうです。熊もおかしくなるようで、これも今朝の朝日新聞によりますと、昨日、北海道の羅臼のキャンプ場でたくさんの人がテントを張って泊まっていると、７０キロくらいのヒグマが現れてテントの一つを外から押し始めたそうです。中には５人の家族がいて、そのうちの一人１２才の女の子がうたた寝からさめて、テントの中から押し返したそうです。それでもしつこく外から押すので、しまいに中からキックすると、外のものは逃げていったとか。その女子中学生は、うたた寝から目覚めて、まだ頭がぼーっとしており、外から押すのが１０才の妹だと思って、押し返したりキックしたりしたそうです。もし熊だと知って叫び声を上げていたら、熊は余計に興奮して危険なことになっていただろうとのことです。

The Mountain 山

3. The Mountain 　　　(an essay printed on June 1999 Daijo)

The column “Watch” in the February 6, 1999 issue of the Japanese Mainichi Daily starts with the following statement: "Mountains have a strong influence on human minds. They make us revere them, climb them and do things that we don’t normally imagine we would do. They appear steep, rugged and inaccessible. Even so, we cannot help looking up to them. Why?"

Geologically, mountains are no more than bumps on the earth, but spiritually and psychologically, they have been the source of awe, fear, reverence, pride and identity. In this way, mountains have always interacted with human minds.

“Mountain” has often been used as a simile or a metaphor. Takeda Shingen, famous warlord in the 16th century, used a battlefield banner with a motto that ended with “Immovable like the Mountain.” His solid presence in the battlefield brought a terror to his enemies.

Shinran Shonin said in his KyōgyōshōMonrui, “How lamentable! This bald-headed foolish Shinran, having sunk in the broad ocean of attachment and desire, and having been lost and confused in the great mountain of fame and profit, finds no pleasure in joining the rank of the rightly settled ones.” In this passage, the mountain is compared to the enormousness of our blind passion. The ruggedness and great scale of the mountain prevents us from liberating ourselves from the desire for fame and profit.

In the Shin Buddhist altar (butsudan), the image of Amida Buddha is standing in a miniature palace over the platform called shumidan, which is a miniature Mt. Sumeru, the highest point in the whole universe in the Buddhist cosmology. This is intended to express the fact that Amida’s wisdom and compassion surpass all things in this world of impermanence.

Then it follows that when we sit in front of the butsudan, the entire space is a miniature Pure Land. When we listen to a Dharma talk and say the nembutsu in front of Amida’s image, the whole place transforms into the real Pure Land, with Amida actually delivering the Dharma. As long as the Dharma talk and the nembutsu last, we are residents of the Pure Land. Afterwards we return to our daily life with renewed energy and spirit.

Thus the Buddhist altar (butsudan) is the highest point in the microcosm of our temples and households. Wherever there is the nembutsu, there is the Pure Land with Amida delivering the Dharma, whose power of wisdom and compassion penetrates the depth of our existence..


３。山　　　　　　　　　 (『大乗』１９９９年６月号掲載）　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

１９９９年２月６日付け毎日新聞の「ウォッチ」欄は次の文で始まっています。

「山は人の心を支配する。拝ませたり、登らせたり、なにかムチャをさせたがる。険しいうえに拒む感じが強い。なのに、あこがれである。なぜか。」

地質学的には、山は地球上の出っ張りにすぎませんが、精神的・心理的に言うと、山は私たちに畏怖、恐怖、崇敬、誇りそしてアイデンティティなど、さまざまな感情を与えてくれます。このように、山は常に人間の心と交流してきました。

「山」は比喩や隠喩によく使われます。１６世紀の戦国大名・武田信玄は、戦陣には「動かざること山の如し」で結ばれる旗印を立てていました。戦場における信玄の不動の姿は敵を震え上がらせたと言われています。

親鸞聖人はその主著『教行證文類』に「悲しきかな、愚禿鸞、愛欲の廣海に沈没し、名利の太山に迷惑して、定聚の数に入るを喜ばず」と仰っています。山の大きさが人間の煩悩の大きさを表現しています。この煩悩の山の険しさと深さのために、私たちは名利の欲求から解放されることがありません。

お寺や家庭の仏壇では、阿弥陀像は須弥壇と呼ばれるミニ須弥山の上のミニ宮殿に立っておられます。須弥山とは、この存在世界の中の最高峰で、天地の中心地です。阿弥陀様がその上に立っておられるということは、阿弥陀様がその智慧と慈悲において、この無常の世を超越していることを表します。
ということは、私たちが仏壇の前に坐ると、その場が「ミニ浄土」になるということです。そして私たちが仏法のお話を聞いてお念仏するとき、そこは本当の浄土に変わり、阿弥陀仏が実際に法を説いておられる所となります。法話と念仏が続く間、私たちは浄土の人民なのです。そのあと新しい元気をいただいて、毎日のくらしに戻るのです。

このように、仏壇は私たちのお寺や家庭という小宇宙の至高の場所です。念仏のあるところに浄土があり、そこでは阿弥陀如来の智慧と慈悲が私たちの存在の奥底まで到達しているのです。

My schedule for July and August 7月と8月の予定

I don't know who I am addressing or if there is anyone who is concerned about what I am doing, but I have to tell you that on July 25 I am leaving for England to stay in Cambridge with three students of Soai University till August 23. The students will study English at Anglia Ruskin University and I will be just "staying," occasionally casting watchful eyes on the students. I will probably spend most of my time in my room in the student hall of residence and try to write papers. I will also continue to enter essays in this blog, telling you how I am doing and what kind of thought, dirty or clean, has arisen to my mind. Since I am retiring at the end of March next year, this will be the last trip abroad on my university's payroll.

On August 23, I will travel to Heathrow with my students and send them off to Japan. I will stay at London for two more days and repair for Bad Reichenhall in southern Germany via Vienna and Salzburg on August 25. There is going to be the 12th conference of the International Association of Shin Buddhist Studies, European Branch and the 15th European Shin Buddhist Conference. I will read a paper entitled "Non-violence as the Universal Principle for Creating World Peace." I will discuss Gandhi, Ambedkar, Khan Abdul Zaffar Khan and Martin Luther King, Jr. to show that despite the difference in creed, they followed the principle of non-violence and succeeded in corrected the gravely wrong situation in society.

Then I will take off from Salzburg on August 30 and return to Osaka on the following day. I will be contacting you through this blog during these 38 days.

Hot!

It's been quite hot and humid for the past few days. The Meteorological Agency has not declared the end of the rainy season for Kansai area, but it is likely to get more and more unpleasant. It is no use complaining about the hot weather, but we might be expressing our sympathy and care for each other by repeating such meaningless phrases as "How hot it is!" or "The weather is just unbearable, isn't it?"

Still this heat makes it difficult for us to concentrate on anything and makes us tired whether we are "going, staying, sitting or lying down." What shall we do? As long as we are in good health, we should try to do what we ought to do now one by one. To escape from what we must do does not give us any solution.

Today I went to Ryukoku University and taught my class on "Propagation of Shin Buddhism." Today was the last day of instruction before the summer vacation. I had about ten students and some of them were interested in the subject, others looked uninterested, and still others were engaged in "unlawful" acts like sending email messages with their mobile phones or doing homework from last week. Students are almost the same all over. They think their teachers are somewhat stupid or senile and don't know what they are doing secretely.

However, they liked to participate in discussion on the material. We used a printed Dharma talk by Rev. Hanayama Shoshin entitled "The role of Buddhism in the 21st century" on the June 2007 issue of the monthly Wheel of Dharma published by Buddhist Churches of America at Berkeley. It compared Japanese Buddhism with American Buddhism and criticized Japanese Buddhism as "Funeral Service Buddhism." By it he meant that most Japanese Buddhist priests are engaged in funeral services, forgetting their role as propagators of the Dharma. He also pointed out the fact that American Buddhist temples are losing young members. At the end, he concluded by saying, "I would like to thank my father, grandfather and ancestors for their heritage and carry on the tradition that they have left with me. Even though the basic teaching of Buddhism has not changed in the past 2500 years, it is important to work out a new way to propagate the Dharma that suits the changing times. Only by being able to adapt to the new era, can Buddhism survive. This is the law of nature."

Re-creating a new tradition well adapted to the new environemtn while preserving the core of its basic teaching has been a recurring issue in the history of Buddhism. That is the imporant task to which we who live in the 21th century are assigned.

暑い！ Hot!

この数日蒸し暑い日々が続いています。梅雨明け宣言は大阪地方にはまだ出ていませんが、これから7月の終わりにかけて、ずっと過ごしにくい気候になるでしょう。暑い、暑いといってもしかたがないけど、その挨拶で私たちは互いに慰め合い、いたわり合っているのでしょう。源信僧都の言い方をまねれば、「いかに暑くとも地獄の業火にくらぶべからず」というところでしょうか。

　それでもこう蒸し暑いと、何もしていなくても頭がボオーッとするし、「行住坐臥」つかれてしまいます。どうすればいいのでしょうか？体が悪くない限り、今やるべきことに気を入れてやる以外ないですね。自分のしなければならないことから逃げるのは、解決になりません。

今日、龍谷大学へ行って私の担当科目である「伝道学特殊講義B」を教えました。今日が夏休み前の最後の講義でした。学生さんたちはいつものように、興味を持って授業に参加する人、つまらなさそうにしている人、こちらに知られてないと思ってケイタイを机の下でいじくっている人、今日までの宿題をやっている人、様々でした。学生はどこも同じですね。しかしディスカッションにはみなよく乗ってくれました。仏教研究所(バークレイ)発行のWheel of Dharma(2007年6月号）掲載の法話を扱いました。花山勝清師の｢二十一世紀における仏教の役割」という題で、日本仏教とアメリカ仏教のそれぞれの問題点を厳しく批判し、将来に対する提案をしているものでした。最後に、｢私に偉大なる人生と教えを残してくださった、父や祖父を初めとするご先祖様方に感謝し、その遺志を継いで行きたいと思っております。2500年以上たって仏教の根本教義は変わらずとも、その布教方法を時代に即した手段で伝道して行くことはとても大切なことです。時代に適応できてこそ、生き残ることができるというのも、自然の摂理なのです」で結ばれていました。どうすれば仏教を、真宗の伝統を守りながら時代に適応できるか、というのが私たちに与えられた課題でしょう。