Living a Lesson

Rev. Akio Miyaji with the Dancing Elvises at Obon

In my May 2024 Korin essay, Twenty-Five Years in the Making, I highlighted the 25th anniversary of my family’s first OCBC Sunday Service, May 16, 1999. With the recent passing of Rev. Akio Miyaji, this date carries even more significance for me now because Rev. Miyaji gave the Dharma talk that day. He was the very first Buddhist I ever heard speak in person and it was nothing like I ever thought it would be.

After he was introduced, he walked to the podium and began to speak. I don’t remember very much of what he said because he immediately came off the Naijin and started to discuss the triple jump. As I remember it, he began to talk about Bob Beamon’s record of over 29 feet at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. This wasn’t the topic I was expecting.

 He began to walk up the middle aisle from the front of the Gaijin towards the back of the Hondo. Then suddenly he was gone. He was now outside. I didn’t know what to think. Was that it? Was the service over? My eyes were as big as saucers. Then he came running into the Hondo, flying down the declining middle aisle and he suddenly went airborne. He was doing a triple jump. It was amazing! I had never seen anything like this at a Christian service. It was at that moment that I realized that I was in the “right” place.

Rev. Miyaji’s form was great, but he didn’t come anywhere near 29 feet. So, then what was the point? Why jump if you can’t compete or be the best? His point was very simple and direct. You cannot jump any farther than you can jump. So perhaps we should just relax and just enjoy the flight. We need to be comfortable with who we are.

This wasn’t so much of a traditional Dharma talk but rather performance art. It was something I felt with my body rather than understood with my mind. I experienced something very profound. This really was a teaching beyond words.

With his passing, I would like to highlight how effortlessly he taught. When he and I spoke, I often thought we were just making small talk, but he was always giving a lesson on what life would be like for a Buddhist. Not as a teaching but as just one’s everyday life. He led by example. It is said that Buddhism is a Religion, a Philosophy, and a Way of Life. Rev. Miyaji exuded Buddhism as a way of life.

He once suggested to me that we should all live our lives as a falling leaf, showing both sides of ourselves, without any contrivance or expectations. Just as a leaf does, showing the front side and the back as it gently falls to the ground. Both sides of the leaf have equal value.

He also had advice for new ministers. When I was in training for ordination, we had to memorize the Shoshinge. We never really memorized it by rote, the goal was to be able to follow the leader with our books closed. This was a very difficult task since many of us had not grown up chanting the Shoshinge. It is not really memorizing but rather chanting it repeatedly until you can sense what the next line will be.

Many ministers can do this with the Juseige and Sanbutsuge as can many of our Sangha members. Over time, it becomes second nature. I thought that I needed to also do this one day. Chant, as they say in Japanese, “Mu Hon”, “No Book”. But one day Rev Miyaji leaned over and politely asked me, “Who are you trying to impress?” He was correct. We wanted to do this for stature rather than for the meaning or the experience of it. My book has remained open ever since.

When my daughter Emily was in high school, she had a musical theater recital at Huntington High School. Linda and I parked the car and rushed over to the auditorium. We were a bit late, so most people were already seated but they hadn’t started yet, and the house lights were still on. We entered at the side entrance door, and for some reason, I stopped and bowed towards the audience. At the bottom of the bow, I realized that I wasn’t at OCBC. I was instead at my daughter’s high school. My mind was racing on what to do next. How do I recover from this?

Perhaps I could quickly kneel, pretending that I found a penny on the floor. Or I could pretend that I had to tie my shoes. But in that moment, I froze and decided the best thing to do was to just rise back up again without delay. I didn’t want to compound things by being too theatrical especially before a musical theater performance. But my instincts were correct, everyone was staring at me when I opened my eyes at the top of my bow. But just like that falling leaf I decided to just show both sides of myself. To just be authentically who I am. I am a door threshold bowing person now.

I told Rev. Miyaji about this mishap later at OCBC. I thought perhaps it was disrespectful to Buddhism. That we should only bow at church. But he said, with a big smile, that this was great. That I was now a bowing person, without any effort or contrivance. I realized now that I was a falling effortlessly, showing both sides. In deepest gratitude, thank you for that, Rev. Akio Miyaji.

Namoamidabutsu, Rev Jon Turner