Wash Your Hands

This year got off to a memorable start for my husband and me. Or rather, 2011 ended on a “sour” note following our respective New Year’s Eve services, for we were both stricken with a mysterious stomach ailment that prevented us from making it to our temples the next morning for New Year’s Day services. It later turned out that a couple of other ministers, as well as a number of laypersons, had also fallen victim to the same illness on the same night. Fortunately, the symptoms only lasted for one or two days but the provenance still remains an enigma. A few days previously, the others had attended a gathering together. Whether it was the food (my husband brought some of the delicious feast home) or something transmitted in the air, we’ll never know.

Fortunately, it wasn’t like the movie, “Contagion,” that appeared a while ago, involving a global epidemic in which experts race to find a vaccine to counter a hitherto unknown deadly airborne disease. In a retrospective seg­ment, the movie shows that [spoiler alert] some trees had been cut down, dislodging an infected bat who grabbed a piece of banana, then dropped it into a pig’s pen. The pig then ate it, virus and all. Next, the same pig was being pre­pared for a banquet. The chef then shakes hands with Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow), transferring the inter-species virus to her and continuing a chain of events that branch everywhere.

All kinds of things can spread from one to another, not all of them challenging. Recently, a noted pianist, Alexis Weissenberg, who studied at Juilliard and played with Leonard Bernstein and Herbert von Karajan, passed away. As a young child, he and his mother were enabled to escape from a concentration camp by a German guard who enjoyed listening to the talented boy play Schubert on an old accordion. The karmic conditions of the guard’s appreciation of music and hearing this particular boy thus enabled millions of others to later encounter the virtuoso music and its accompanying benefits, multiplied infinitely into the future in different permutations. At great risk to himself, the guard was brought to do something that would benefit countless unknown others all over the world.

In neither case could anyone foresee the far-reaching consequences of their interactions. Whether we intend to do good or not does not necessarily compute with the reality of what happens in the grand scheme of life of which we are each a tiny but always significant part. The Golden Chain says, “I will try to think pure and beautiful thoughts, to say pure and beautiful words, and to do pure and beautiful deeds, knowing that on what I do now depends not only my happiness or unhappiness, but also that of others.” We remind ourselves all the time but in the next instant, our unskill­ful self emerges. Regardless, in one way or another we are always affecting others, and most of the time we aren’t even aware of whom, or how, or why, and we cannot control everything. Yet just as we are, inconceivable Compassion wraps its tendrils around us like a comforting aroma, seeping into our pores like a warm bath, resonating within like a soothing sound. What comforts you, and where did it come from? If you reflect deeply, you can begin to understand that you cannot trace it to a starting point; that it is the coming together of an unfathomable multitude of beings and events in past, present, and future. In infinite Wisdom, we find the Oneness of all life.

It’s important to pay attention to our thoughts, words, and deeds, and catch a glimpse of our true, imperfect selves. It’s also important to realize that for all the truth-reality we think we see, there’s so much more that is far beyond our ken. On the other hand, how easy it should be to notice the Great Compassion that enfolds us at all times whether in a warm word, unexpected and undeserved, or in the gentle blossom that flutters past to break the hardness of a stressful day. What comforts you to the point of gratitude? Even having the ears to hear, the eyes to see, or the heart to feel …

Be mindful of your connection with all beings and do what you can to mitigate harm. Wash your hands and stay home if you’re ill. Be kind to others. Above all, relax and rejoice in life, expressing gratitude for the Infinite Wisdom and Compassion that embraces us always, just as we are. Namo Amida Butsu.

In gassho,

Rev. P. Usuki

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