Click-a-Sermon 6:  "Ohigan and the Middle Way"

Ohigan and the Middle Way

Japan observes annual spring Ohigan week from March 18th - 24th. During this time Buddhists visit ancestral graves and temples where family ashes are kept, observing Ohigan memorial services. Since ancestor veneration has become so dominant in Japanese Buddhism, the true meaning of Ohigan is often neglected.

Ohigan is celebrated every spring and fall during the equinoxes when the length of both day and night becomes identical. In Buddhist philosophy this balance of light and darkness symbolizes the Middle Way, which is another expression of Buddhist Enlightenment.

When Enlightenment is applied to actual daily life, it is called the Middle Way. And it avoids the extremes of suffering and pleasure, pessimism and optimism, as well as the extremes between a purely material perception of the world versus mental perception, and tries to walk the practical path in-between.

One of the ancient Buddhist scriptures likens the Middle Way to tuning the strings of harp, which can neither be too tight nor too loose to create a perfect melodic note.

Judgment of a true Middle way is very difficult, for man's ego and ignorance is far too apt to set a Middle Way at the limits of personal convenience, which seldom approaches a true Middle Path. Buddhist Middle way is the absolute true Middle which does not assume right nor left. It is not a path of compromise.

Thus this Ohigan, celebrating the equinox is a reminder to all Buddhists that our aim is to discover the True Middle Way and to walk carefully through life on the narrow path to Enlightenment.

© 2002   Reno Buddhist Church