On 21th Dec 2011, my grandfather has passed away.
In the early morning on the day, I've got a call from my mom.

When my phone rang, the idea that someone in my family must have died came up in my mind, since both my grandfather and grandmother were suffering for 4 years in elder's care house. So, I was not surprised at the news.

My hometown, Otaru-city is located in Hokkaido island, the northern most part of Japan.
I checked weather forecast, which said an ice storm was reaching and some flights would be cancelled.
I asked my wife to take a train ticket from Tokyo to Otaru.

Hokutosei, the name of over-night train, left Tokyo at 19:00. It was 16 hours trip.

Since I lived in India for a year and am familier with terrible Indian train, Hokutosei seemed like a super-deluxe luxurious train, though the seat I booked was the cheapest shared compartment.

While I didn't order dinner nor breakfast, you can have nice meals in its restaurant car. To save money, I just ordered a coffee and gazed at the passing scenery through the train window thinking of grandfather's memories.

Funeral ceremonies used to be held mostly at home, but these days many are held at ceremonial halls.
That's also the case of my grandfather's.

Some of my relatives are also Buddhist priests in my home town. My uncle in law conducted the funeral ceremony, my cousin attended left side, and I was right side.

Eight years have passed since I became Buddhist priest. The fact of my grandfather's death was sad. But I also feel that my grandfather is not far away from me but very close to me. I am not talking just about my memory with him. It's more like the flow of life.

NAM-AMIDA-BUTSU

This weekend, I visited Izumo city in Shimane prefecture. Fujiwara-san, a head priest of Sairakuji temple, invited me to his temple's annual memorial ceremony for Shiran-Shonin who is the founder of Jodo-shinshu.

It was the first time for me to visit Izumo. It was just amazing. Izumo is known for Izumo-Taisha, one of the most famous Shinto shrine in Japan. Izumo-Taisha is very special not only for people but also for all of Japanese gods.

During Kamiari-zuki or November, all of the gods in Japan get together at the shrine and have an annual meeting to discuss how they make Japan's following year. Kamiari-zuki means "The month of gods". In contrast, most of the region except Izumo calls November Kanna-zuki, which means "The month of no god". Now you know that it is because all of gods in Japan get together at Izumo-Taisha in November so no god exist in all the areas in Japan except Izumo.

The concept of "World Shift" was created by a professor, Ervin Laszlo.

Influenced by the movement overseas, WorldShift Network in Japan was built and the movement is spreading.

Among several events regarding WorldShift, an event called "World Shift Actions" invited me to present "Vision" and "Actions" for the future of Japan.

I presented at the event about my life and vision. It was a great pleasure to have such an opportunity to talk to young students about what I have done in my life as a Buddhist priest.

The theme of my presentation was the standard of choice in our lives.
I cited a phrase in Danmapada "Not to commit any sin, to do good, and to purify one's mind, that is the teaching of (all) the Awakened."
I think this is very important to choose an option according to how we can maintain our heart clean rather than how we can get more money.

Simple, but so important.

Though I am Buddhist priest, I am married and have a child.
It's very common for Buddhist priests to get married in Japan.

Both I and my wife love India so much that I chose ISB, a famous business school in India, when I went to study MBA.
(I will write about why I got MBA in another article)
We named my son Koga, which means Ganga in Japanese.

We lived in Hyderabad India for a year.
Since then, Ganga can eat spicy curry as much spicy as one for adults.

Even in Japan, we often miss India.

Today, we watched a movie of Salman Kahn (my wife bought his DVD at Indian shop in Tokyo).
During dance scenes, Ganga danced with joy.
I want him to practice Bollywood dance.
If anybody knows good Bollywood dance class in Tokyo, please let me know :-)

In contrast, different kinds of dance performance are developing in Japan.
As my Indian friends may enjoy, I show you one :)

From this month (October 2011), an intern began to work at Komyoji temple for 3 months.
His name is Mr. Takimoto, a student of Waseda University in Tokyo.

He is not a member of Buddhist family.
But he is getting interested in Buddhism and becoming priest.

Initially, he applied for Temple cafe staff.
After a meeting, he told me that he is wondering if he can become a Buddhist priest.
So I made 3 month internship program for him.
He will know what is becoming a Buddhist priest in Japan.

By the way, in this August, we accepted another intern from France.
He was a student of Grandes Écoles.
He didn't have an intention to become a priest, but was very much interested in Japanese culture.
I still keep in touch with him and he saids he will come back Tokyo soon.

I think internship at Buddhist temple is a very good way to know Japanese culture and cultivate your mind.
If you are interested, let me know.
I will make an effort to create a internship program for you as much as possible :)

My temple, Komyoji, belongs to a group of Jodo-Shinshu Hongwanji-ha. Hongwanji in Kyoto is the head temple of the group. The founder's name is Shinran. This year, Shinran's 750 year memorial service is going on. Many people visit Hongwanji and enjoy special ceremony. If you have a chance to visit Kyoto this year, you must stop by and enjoy it!

By the way, I've got some questions from a student in Ireland studying Japanese Buddhism. I guess this conversation about online Buddhist temple (KNOM) will help somebody who study the same subject.

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Q. I found your idea of online-temple fascinating and I would like to know something more about it. My main interest is the question of if you you can help individual Buddhists with their everyday-life problems via your online services. If I understood that right, could you describe me, how does this online-help work?

A. Our aim of taking advantage of Web media is to open a new channel for people to access to Buddhism through Internet. In terms of solving people's problems in their daily life, Twitter is useful. Our website is strongly connected to SNS services such as Twitter, Facebook and so on. For example, if you tweet a question with "Somosan" which symbolize Q&A conversation between monks in Japanese, some of our Buddhist priests will give you some response. But in our view in using Internet, we can connect people who are interested in Buddhism to Buddhist priests. Once they are connected, people can go to temples and meet Buddhist priests directly. So our online-temple serves connector between people and priests rather than solution server.

Q. As far as I understood, you think that in order to?practice Buddhism, one still need a real connection to the temple?and pure online-religion is not enough to keep on one's faith, am I right? Is there any possibility to actually practice religion online? Then, what kind of things is it possible to pray for in you temple, do you aim at enlightenment or change of mind or is it possible to pray for everyday-life issues like for one's family or one's health?

A. If you read books or web-articles about Buddhism, you can practice Buddhism as you wish. That's one way to practice Buddhism. Practice can be done all in your mind. If you find a good teacher and meet him/her face to face, you will have a roll model who practice Buddhism in his life and develop spirituality. This meeting will motivate you and give you confidence. In Buddhism, as you may know, Sangha is very important. It is a friend group of practicing Buddhism. If you get good friends who support you, you will walk the path of Buddhism in a right way. Enlightenment is the ultimate goal of Buddhism. But the way to the goal is equally important. It's better to walk the path even if you won't get to the goal than not to walk.

I am sure you will relax and enjoy at my temple. In 2005, we opened a brand new project, "Kamiyacho Open Terrace" at Komyoji. Before the project, though we had been welcoming people at the temple, the number of visitors was not so much.

But I really loved the ambience at Komyoji and wanted to let people know and visit it. And I finally came up with an idea by chance. When I walked around the temple, I found that there are so many cafe shops around and all cafes are packed with no exception.

"Oh, this cafe is very much packed, while my temple is empty. Why? My temple's space is much more comfortable, peaceful and relaxing, isn't it? Hmmm, I guess the difference comes from people's notion for temple and cafe. In these days, most people do have a behavioural pattern in their mind regarding how to enjoy at a cafe. But unfortunately, they don't have an idea about how to enjoy at a temple.

So we tried to modify a part of temple's site so that the place looks like an open cafe. We arranged tables and chairs.

And if you make a reservation beforehand, you will get "Omotenashi" or welcoming service such as offering tea or coffee, and sweets made by a Buddhist priest (not me!). In addition, if you like, you can ask us any question or concern in your life. The master at Kamiyacho Open Terrace will kindly hear you.

By the way, I recently noticed that many of cafes were closed around my temple. Starbucks, Tully's coffee etc. I am wondering our Open Terrace's prosperity might force them to close their cafe shops. We have been unintentionally competing with cafe industry. Excuse me!

And a stiff cleaning guy, who is in charge of cleaning the main street in Ginza, was wondering whether he should remove those stuffs on the street.

In the afternoon, I attended a conference for managers of religious institution. The conference was presented by staffs from government and I guess half of audience was Buddhist monks. I am sorry but the presentation was not much helpful. So I skipped last half program and went back to my temple.

Taking pears for an offering out of wrapping paper.

Offering pears for Buddha.

Incense and burner.

From Buddha's view.

My workplace is Komyoji Temple. Since I can work anywhere as long as I carry my laptop, it's possible to work even in the main hall at temple. Previously, no one was regularly present in the main hall. But I observed that when I am present in the main hall by chance, it's easier for visitors to enter the hall and give prayer. So I decided to relocate my regular workplace from meeting room to the main hall recently.

The effect is gradually getting clear. During my stay at the hall, more people come and give prayer inside the hall. Did it!

This is not the case of most Buddhist priests. They, owner family priests, basically live in the temple with family and maintain the building as the caretaker of temple. But I am not an owner family member. I am hired. So I live in an apartment with family outside the temple and commute everyday.

I would like to show you the route from my home to Komyoji temple.

A small shrine along "Yomise-Dori (night market street)" in Yanaka. Every time my son stops at this place and give prayer to Jizo. This person is not me though.

Suzuran street is branched out from Yomise Dori. There are lots of Snacks (drinking with ladies) and Izakayas (just drinking).

Sendagi station, Chiyoda-line, Tokyo metro.

Buy train ticket.

Tokyo metro issues discount ticket for weekend ride. I usually work in the weekend so I often use it.

Inside metro train. 50% of people are texting with iPhone or Android mobile. 20% are reading. 20% are sleeping. 5% are spaced out. 5% are talking. This distribution is very different from India.

Change train from Chiyoda-line to Hibiya-line. Everybody walks fast or runs.

In the weekend morning, it's not bad to use metro. But weekdays, it's totally packed.

Kamiyacho Station. Weekend, this business district is very calm.

Arrived at Komyoji Temple.

View from my room. I change clothes and start working.

Higan (彼岸?) is a Buddhist holiday exclusively celebrated in Japan during both the Spring and Autumnal Equinox. It is observed by nearly every Buddhist sect in Japan. The tradition extends from mild weather that occurs during the time of equinoxes, though the origin of the holiday dates from Emperor Shomu in the 8th century.[1] People who normally worked in the fields had more leisure time to evaluate their own practices, and to make a renewed effort to follow Buddhism. Today, special services are usually observed in Japanese Buddhist temples, and Japanese temples abroad, based on the particular Buddhist tradition or sect. (Cited from Wikipedia)