Following a Different Path

If Tsuyoshi Hirosumi had been the first-born son in his family, he would be in Hiroshima, at the Buddhist temple his ancestors began about 700 years ago.

“In Japan, especially for our denomination, the elder son assumes the father’s position when it is time,” said Hirosumi, the 61-year-old spiritual leader of the Newport Higashi Honganji Temple. “I was born the third son of the temple, so I could go anywhere.”

Since the 13th century, the family line has remained unbroken at the Saizen Temple, in Fukuyama City, within the Hiroshima district. And if no male child is born to a particular generation, a boy is adopted and charged with the responsibility of succeeding his father as senior priest of the temple.

The temple is about 70 miles from the city of Hiroshima, far enough to escape damage from the dropping of the atomic bomb during World War II. But attacks by American B-29 bombers did destroy the temple, which was rebuilt at the same location. Hirosumi’s older brother now represents the 29th generation of his family there.

At age 24, Hirosumi chose a different path. He left Japan to bring the religious practices of his forebears to the United States, becoming one of three priests at the Higashi Honganji Temple in Los Angeles, a Jodo Shin Buddhist sect.

“Everything was a challenge for me. The language was the main problem, but it was also a challenge to teach where the main background was a Christian culture,” he said, picking up a bracelet of meditation beads to illustrate his point.

“In Japan, people would never ask what these are. So many things we took for granted in Japan, I had to explain. I never had to do that before.”

Hirosumi found himself ministering to Japanese Americans who were not raised with Buddhist traditions and practices. But the form of Buddhism he was teaching did not demand unflinching obedience to religious precepts, or years of rigorous meditation.

“In the Jodo Shin school, it is not necessary to do the hard training required by other schools. After Sakyamuni Buddha, the originator of Buddhism, died, the disciples all got together and they discussed what they had heard from the Buddha. One group decided they would follow exactly what the Buddha did. It’s called the Theravada school.

“We belong to the Mahayana school, where it’s not necessary to follow exactly what the Buddha did or practiced, but to follow the teaching. What he was seeking is the most important thing. ‘Yana’ means vehicle and ‘maha’ means large. In a large vehicle, there is room for everybody.

“In the original Buddhism, there are precepts that say, ‘Don’t tell a lie, don’t get intoxicated, don’t kill any living thing.’ But a fisherman has to kill the fish. The Jodo Shin school teaches that Amida Buddha has concern for ordinary people, who are suffering. Amida is not the historical Buddha, but a symbol of the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha.”

Hirosumi came to Orange County in 1975, conducting services once a month for Buddhists who would meet in private homes.

“There were many new Japanese immigrants here who wanted to have services in their own language. So the Higashi Honganji in Los Angeles asked me to come. At first, the services were for adults, but their children were speaking English, so we also established a Sunday service for children in English.”

The growing congregation moved first to a vacant Costa Mesa lawn mower shop, then purchased a residential building in Santa Ana Heights a few years later. Hirosumi was transferred to a full-time position serving the Costa Mesa, Newport Beach area in 1982, and the congregation purchased its current building six years later.

There are now about 50 families who belong to the Newport Higashi Honganji Temple. Services are in English, although Hirosumi conducts bilingual services on occasion. Using typical church fund-raising techniques, including bingo games, the temple became financially self-sufficient in 1995.

Most temple members attend a special service on the first Sunday of each month. On other Sundays, there are small groups, often students, who come to learn about the principles of Buddhism. His family’s ministry may date back to the 13th century, but Hirosumi says the teachings directly address the conflicts of everyday life in contemporary times.

“Buddhism always emphasizes that attachment is the cause of suffering. Life is impermanent. The materialistic world is limited, because everything is going to change. In Western culture, we think we must conquer or overcome bad things or bad conditions, but the Buddhistic way is not to overcome, but harmonize.”

For Buddhists, according to Hirosumi, the ultimate goal is to reach a high spiritual level that will free oneself from repeating the cycle of birth and death.

“That’s the teaching of Buddha, how to get out from this cycle. One of the disciples asked Sakyamuni Buddha, ‘When I die, where will I go?’ He never answered those kind of questions. Is that really the most important thing to know right now? That’s what Buddha’s silence meant, that it is more important to be aware in the present moment.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Profile: Rev. Tsuyoshi Hirosumi

Age: 61

Hometown: Hiroshima

Residence: Temple City

Family: Wife, Masami; two grown sons

Education: Bachelor’s degree in the history of Japanese Buddhism from Otani University in Kyoto, Japan, where his grandfather was a professor of Jodo Shin Buddhism; Japanese language teaching credential; studied English for two years at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

Background: Raised in the Saizen Temple in Fukuyama City, Hiroshima prefecture, where his father, Yutetsu Hirosumi, was the senior priest; worked in Kyoto at the headquarters of Higashi Honganji, a Jodo Shin Buddhist sect, developing programs for temples throughout Japan, and in the organization’s foreign affairs department, 1959-61; one of three priests at the Higashi Honganji Temple in Los Angeles, 1961-82; hospital chaplain at USC Medical Center, 1966-72; conducted Sunday services at the West Covina Higashi Honganji Temple, 1966-79; principal of the temple’s West Covina Japanese School, 1968-80; began monthly services in Orange County in 1975; founded a children’s Dharma School in Santa Ana Heights in 1979; was transferred from Los Angeles to the Costa Mesa, Newport Beach area full time in 1982; the Newport Higashi Honganji Temple building in Costa Mesa was purchased in 1988; the temple became financially independent in 1995

On oneness: “Buddhism emphasizes harmony and complete oneness. Even birth and death are not separate. Every moment is birth and death, birth and death. We should not worry about the future or the past. The most important thing is to appreciate the present moment.”

Source: Rev. Tsuyoshi Hirosumi; Researched by RUSS LOAR / For The Times