Otagaki
Rengetsu, best known as a famous Japanese poet, was also a calligrapher,
potter, and painter. She was born in 1791 into a samurai family
with the surname Todo, but was soon adopted by the Otagaki family and
given the name Nobu. Having lost her mother and brother at a young age,
she served as lady-in-waiting at Kameoka Castle (in present-day Kyoto
Prefecture) from the age of 7, until she returned home at the age of 16
to marry. In 1823, after the death of her husband and three young
children, she became a Buddhist nun, adopting the name Rengetsu, which
means "Lotus Moon".
Rengetsu
moved to Chion-In temple in Kyoto to be with her father, a Buddhist
priest. She remained there for ten years until her father's death, at
which time she moved to the countryside. To earn a living Rengetsu wrote
Japanese poetry and also produced clay teapots which she often decorated
with carved inscriptions or calligraphy of her poems. People would try
to imitate her unassuming ware and occasionally come to apologize to
her. At such times Rengetsu would often give them one of her original
pieces with the permission to copy it. People could duplicate the
teapots well, but not the lovely poems she would engrave upon them.
Rengetsu would also write her poems on cards. Her paintings, which
accompanied the poems, are marked by their unpretentious and subdued
quality. So many people would come to see Rengetsu that she had to move
from place to place in order to gain some solitude.
One
evening Rengetsu was visited by a robber, for whom she prepared tea and
freely gave a cloth kerchief (furoshiki). When she later learned
that a tall man found dead in the village shortly thereafter was
actually the robber, Rengetsu arranged to give him a proper funeral. She
subsequently learned that she had accidentally served the robber
poisoned tea, which was intended for her. Evidently, Rengetsu had made
many friends, but unfortunately, some were enemies of the Tokugawa
Shogunate.
In
the years to come, Rengetsu moved to another village where she made
shoes for the shoeless children. She donated all her earnings to the
village, and built a bridge for the people, and gates for the local
temple. Her artistic career and the compassionate gifts it allowed her
to bestow continued uninterrupted until her death in 1875.
Rengetsu
was dedicated to thinking of and helping others as a way to repay the
debt of gratitude she owed to the Buddha. Do we think of others before
ourselves in a similar way? During the Los Angeles riots which followed
the Rodney King beating a few years ago, there was a lack of
understanding between people who perceived themselves as being different
from one another. They failed to see that as a human species, we have
more in common with each other than differences. What are our common
ties? Surely it is not the teachings of the Buddha, for many
"others" are not Buddhist. Yet, through the teachings we are
afforded an opportunity to reflect carefully on our true nature as human
beings and through this awareness of our "self-nature," see
ourselves as no different from any other human being.
Buddha
did not just see sickness, old age and death in others around him; he
also saw it in himself. Until there is spiritual liberation for all,
there is no enlightenment for me. The 18th Vow of the Larger
Sutra reaches to the "lowest denominator" and excludes no
one. When we awaken to our everyday life as Namo Amida Butsu, we
will know each other intimately, and we will find ourselves in each
other.
