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Thats good to hear Shugen. So glad you guys are all OK. Thats the most important thing. Mutch can be rebuilt or redone as log as all are safe and well. Sounds like you made the right call although it must have been very difficult. Thinking of you and your family. Metta and our prayers are with you.
Sounds like great news Shugen. You may have already talked to your insurance company, but if you haven’t a home owners policy will typically cover Loss of Use if you were evacuated by a civil authority even if your house did not catch fire. This coverage usually has 10s of thousands of dollars in coverage to cover expenses like hotel bills and eating out.
Thank you for posting, Shugen! I saw the map and wondered if you would be able to tell about your house. Sad to see so many that were completely destroyed, but thankful that most were able to get out safely despite it being such a close call. So many amazing Bodhisattvas in action helping people get out. The videos are chilling, looking at the fire raging so close to the lines of evacuating vehicles!
Enjoy the time with your parents!The kids are getting a good lesson in the value community and family support, no doubt.
Now that we know that Shugen is safe, and his house was spared, let us continue to keep in our hearts all the people who were not spared in this fire, as well as in natural disasters around the world.
We must recall that there is almost no Buddhist temple in Japan with buildings more than one or two hundred years old or so. Very rare. That is because Japanese temples have been made of wood, fire was the means of light and heat, and they are typically built in the forests and mountains. Sometimes they were caught as battlefields in war. They all burned down. Sometimes, again and again.
Eiheiji suffered many fires (no building there is older than 1794). Sojiji was moved to the other side of Japan after a great fire 150 years ago.
The Buddha never found a way to stop fires and destruction. That said, the Buddha did find ways to cool or control the fires in our hearts. A fire in control can provide cooking and heat, yet anger, fear, sadness, jealousy and the like out of control will also burn down the world.
Dogen said that the time of fire is fire, the time of ashes is ashes. I will add that the time to rebuild is the time to rebuild. The time to safely return home is the time to return home. The time of loss is the time of loss. In all these cases, we are always at home.
Soto Zen monks around the world (not us) do chant a famous Dharani each day to prevent calamity and destruction. Here it is. We do not recite this chant here at Treeleaf, as I believe that it is a form of superstition and "abracadabra" magic spell.
Disaster-Preventing Dharani
(Shōsai shu 消災呪)
Full title: Marvelously Beneficial Disaster Preventing Dharani
(Shōsai Myōkichijō darani 消災妙吉祥陀羅尼)
[Chinese]
No mo san man da
moto nan
oha ra chi koto sha
sono nan ◎ to ji to
en
gya gya
gya ki gya ki
un nun
shifu ra shifu ra
hara shifu ra hara shifu ra
chishu sa chishu sa
chishu ● ri chishu ri
sowa ja sowa ja
● sen chi gya
shiri ei so mo ko
Nobody knows what it means (in the sense of meaning to words beyond the power of the sound), nor does it seem apparently to stop fires given the events at all those burned temples. I am sure that someone can be calmed by it, and can find some personal meaning. In this Sangha, we practice with less reliance on such things and old superstitions.
But I do know that power of Zazen to cool and balance the fires of the heart. That is enough.
The Tendai and Shingon Buddhists of Japan (not the Zen folks) have a beautiful fire ritual filled with all manner of esoteric meanings as well. The obstructions are burned away. Have you even seen their fire ritual?
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