Archives
Rev. William Masuda
Each year, the dharma school students with their teachers focus on a theme under which they learn and reflect on the Buddha-dharma. The theme for the 2005-2006 Dharma School was Right Effort. Right Effort, as we know, is one of the essential spokes of the Wheel of Dharma expressing the Eightfold Noble Path. Right Effort is not a spoke unto itself, but works most effectively and judiciously when it is integrated with the other spokes of Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Livelihood, Right Mindfulness, and Right Meditation.
The theme on Right Effort for the dharma school students, ranging from 3 years old to 17 years old, resulted in a wonderful and illuminating booklet on the thoughts and feelings of our children and youth. Since the booklets are not widely available, I would like to share some of those thoughts with you. While all the writings are equally valuable in the dharma school student's spiritual development, I will share a few which caught my attention.
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"Right Effort is important because when you're on a team and you do not try your best, you will let your whole team down". (8 year old girl)
"Right Effort is important because when I learned to play piano, I never practiced, but I learned that if you practice you like it more and you get better." (7 year old girl)
"Right effort is trying your best, no matter what you want to achieve. It is always important to put your right foot forward. Right effort can be hidden in the smallest tasks, for example, doing your homework as well as you possibly can. Or simply taking out the trash and doing your chores. Right effort is being who you are to the best of your ability so you can live up to your full potential." (13 year old girl)
"Right Effort means many things to me. It means to try your hardest in anything you do. You don't have to be good at something to make effort towards it. This is only the surface of Right Effort. The main point of Right Effort is to do things for the right reasons. If something is sincere but really is made only for few personal gain, it is really not worth doing." (12 year old boy)
"I think that right effort means you never give up. For me, I try hard in school/everyday life, and don't let setbacks get in the way of continuing to try to do by best". (11 year old boy)
"Parents and teacher always tell you to try your hardest. 'As long as you try your hardest, you will succeed'. I don't think this is completely true because there have been plenty of times where I've tried my hardest and messed up. I didn't feel successful, and I was disappointed in myself. So I researched the internet about Right Effort because I must have missed the day when Mr. Yanari explained it. I thought Right Effort just meant trying your hardest at school, sports, and at your job and stuff. I learned that there is actually a lot more to it.
I went to this one website, UrbanDharma.org, and it said,
- 'Fundamentally, the meaning of Right Effort can be expressed in a simple way:
- It's the effort to be aware, the effort to see clearly, to pay attention. That's Right Effort'.
The website also told a story:
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One Zen master was asked, 'Would you give me the essence of the teachings?'
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He wrote down, 'Attention'.
Then the person said, 'Fine. Now would give me the whole teachings, the commentary, and how I should undertake it?
- And he said, 'Attention, attention'.
The person said, 'Isn't there anything else?'
- And he said, 'Attention, attention, attention. That is it. To be present, to see clearly.'
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Many thanks to the Wednesday morning participants of the Helping Hand who are learning nenju-making under the guidance of Sachi Matsui. These nenju will be given to Buddhist patients at Stanford Hospital as dharma gifts from our temple hospital spiritual care volunteers. These dharma gifts truly express the shared effort and caring of our temple's spirit of "compassion in action". Thank you very much again.
