by John Iwohara (Vista Buddhist Temple)

If you are a Star Trek fan, you probably know where this quotation is from. The quotation is from the episode "All Our Yesterdays" in which a planet whose sun is about to go super nova (explode) decides to save its population by sending everybody into the planet's past. The planet did this by using a time portal that can be opened by examining any of their history tapes (a disk actually) that are all kept and catalogued in the "library." Unfortunately, the landing party of the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise (Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy) beamed down to the library without knowing that the library also served as a time portal to the planet's past. As fate would have it, just as Captain Kirk was reviewing one of the history disks, he heard a woman in distress from the other side of the portal. Naturally, being Captain Kirk he raced to save the woman in distress and in doing so inadvertently went through the time portal. When he came through the other side he, naturally, saved the woman from her would be assailants. He then suggested to the woman that she return with him to the library, to which she replied, "Library, what's library?"

I will not ruin the whole story by telling you how it ends, but the reason why I am relating this story to you now is because of the question, "Library, what's library?" What exactly makes a place a library? Many temples have a library, but what distinguishes that particular room from all the other rooms of a temple to be given the special name "library"? What makes a library a library? What, for that matter, makes a home a home? What makes a temple a temple?

As an attempt at an answer to the first question, a library is a place where books (and things like books) are catalogued and stored so that people can share in the human experience recorded in those books. Without books, a library simply becomes a place with a lot of shelves; simply storing books makes a warehouse, not a library. A home is a little more difficult to describe. Some homes are very large. These homes may have three car garages, libraries, dens, basements, studies, family rooms, swimming pools, tennis courts, and play rooms. Other homes may be very small. Some homes are not even houses. It can be a small apartment. For some people, it may even be a small tent. What is it that makes a home a home? Although it may be defined as a physical place, I prefer to think of a home as anywhere a family lives together. Without a family, a home simply becomes a place where a group of people live together.

Finally, what makes a Jodo Shinshu temple a Jodo Shinshu temple? The "feeling" of a temple is determined of course by the attitude of the people that go to the temple. Why do people go to the temple? Is the temple the place you go to make friends? Possibly, but you can make friends at school or at work. Is the temple a place you go to get married? Possibly, but you can get married at city hall. Is the temple a place for funerals? Possibly, but you can have a funeral at a funeral home. What makes a temple a temple? In my opinion, I think a temple is a place where people with a growing appreciation for the Nembutsu gather and enjoy what they have received: an appreciation for the working of infinite wisdom and infinite compassion in their lives. In other words, the temple is a place that forces us to see how truly difficult the life we have received is difficult to have received. It is so easy for us to waste our lives, and yet the Nembutsu is there for us reminding us of the uniqueness and preciousness of each and every life including my life. If this were not true, then Amida Buddha would not have made enlightenment contingent upon the enlightenment of ALL sentient beings. The temple also reminds us how difficult it is to hear the teachings: it is so easy to go to the temple, and yet it is also one of the most difficult things for us to do. To maintain the temple, we discover how everyone is interconnected, interrelated, and interdependent. A temple of the Nembutsu is a place that shows us who we are, as we are.

It is for the above reasons that making friends, getting married, and having a funeral at the temple becomes meaningful. In happiness and in sorrow, Namo Amida Butsu is there for us. At the temple, we are brought together because we share in the same happiness and sorrow, and most importantly because we are all allowed to share in the same life, the same infinite life we know as Namo Amida Butsu. Although a temple with all of the neat things like a basketball gym and cultural classes is good to have, like a million dollar house without a family becomes just a nice looking building, if a temple cannot be a place where we can all go to enjoy hearing and sharing Namo Amida Butsu together, as a family, then the temple simply becomes a building for people to pass the time together. If we ourselves do not enjoy, appreciate, and share the lives we have been given, as seen in the light of the Nembutsu, then there really is no reason for a temple. The temple would become a "library without books".

On the other hand, it is because of the potential a life lived in Nembutsu has that the temple was built in the first place. It is also for this reason that the members of a temple work so hard to try to preserve what has been handed down to them. However, if we simply preserve what was handed down, the temple would become a "warehouse for books" and not a "library". Because of this fact, each of us, and each generation is challenged to continually "re-build" the temple. Through this process, If we are willing to meet this challenge, then the temple becomes a gateway to infinite possibilities, and becomes a library with books to fulfill both the mind and the heart.

 

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