2005, Dharma School 50th Anniversary Year

Golden Anniversary Celebration

• 50th Anniversary Slide Show (5Mb PDF File)

• Messages

Special Pilgrimage Tour

• Itinerary

• Pilgrimage Tour Message

• Jidou-Nembutsu Hoshidan Program, Day 1

• Kikyoshiki Ceremony

• Jidou-Nembutsu Hoshidan Program, Day 2

• Commemorative Photo

• Message from Rev. Ryoga Suwa

• Visit Peace Park and A-Bomb Museum

• Venice Hongwanji in the News

Message given on Monday, August 1, 2005, Jidou Nembutsu Houshidan

       Does everybody like to study? I didn't really like it. Once, in the past, I received a really bad grade on a test. I didn't want my father to see my test so I hid it in my shoe. When he found out I was scolded. That's when I first thought, "I'd better study harder."

       After a while it was time for the next test. I answered the best I could but this time my test scores were worse than the time before. I was so upset that I crumpled the test into a little ball and jammed it into my shoe again. I didn't want to go home. It took me a long time to get home, but it started to get dark and I was getting hungry. When I finally got home by father was waiting for me.

       He said, "Show me your test." As I handed the crumpled up piece of paper to him he unfolded it, took a look at my test paper and then said, "Good job."

       I thought that I was going to be yelled at. Instead he said, "Good job." Why did he say that when this test score was worse than the last one? I thought about and thought about it, but I just couldn't figure it out. After I while my curiosity finally got the best of me and I asked my father, "Why didn't you yell at me?" He looked at me and said, "Because this time your test paper was blackened by your pencil work."

       When I compared the two tests, the first paper was white and the second paper was black. I discovered, then, that my father was not yelling at me because of my test score. The first test was white because I didn't study at all and just played all day long. But this second test I studies as hard as I could and this was revealed by all the calculations I had scribbled on my test paper to make it look black. My father did not yell at me because of my test score. Test scores are important. But my father taught me that there are more important things than test scores.

       My father was able to find "trying one's best" hidden in the test paper. This way of thinking is something that corresponds to the Buddha. Even when you think nobody is watching, there is somebody always watching out for us. Even when we think we are alone, we are never alone. When we are happy, when we are sad the Buddha is always by our side. Things that we can see are not everything. The Buddha is calling out to us, reminding us about this truth.