What is Obon?
A Jodo Shinshu perspective
What is Obon
Obon is absolutely NOT the time when the souls of your ancestors return to mess with you!
At least not in Jodoshinshu Hongwanjiha (Nishihongwanji).
In Jodoshinshu, Obon is called Kangi-e, or The Gathering of joy. It is the major festival of our Buddhist calendar year. It is a memorial service and celebration in memory of our ancestors and all who have died. It is an occasion to remember our indebtedness to all who have gone before us, to appreciate and thank those lives and to reaffirm the sanctity of all living beings. In order to have this appreciation, we are called to the Obon gathering to dance, however embarrassed or however boastfully – so that in the meditation of dancing, we can momentarily forget the self: It is at this moment, that we suddenly remember our indebtedness to others and truly dance joyfully – happiness is the ego getting it’s way, joy is being free of ego.
Senshin has always begun the Obon dances with the Awa Odori, the Dance of Fools.
Within the song is the famous line:
Odoru aho ni miru aho. Onaji aho nara odoranya son son – A dancing fool and a watching fool, since they are both fools, what a waste not to dance.
To truly dance Bon Odori is to be truly connected. It must be done without a calculating mind, without a mind needing to always be in control. It is “just dancing” in its purest form – without guile, without pretense, without embarrassment, without ego asserting itself in any direction.
Ironically it is the Jodoshinshu Buddhist who differs from all his fellow Buddhists in Japan over the interpretation of the Maudgalyayana (Mogallana) story found in the Ullambana Sutra. The sutra relates the story of Maudgalyayana, a disciple of the Buddha, who saves his mother from suffering in the realm of hungry spirits (gaki) by making offerings of food and clothing to a company of monks on the 15th day of the 7th month. The Japanese pronunciation of Ullambana is “Urabon”, which was later shortened’ to “Bon” or “Obon”.
This story of Maudgalyayana was interpreted and developed into the idea of a service for the dead to relieve their suffering. Bon Odori or “Bon dancing” was said to have begun from the dance of joy of Maudgalyayana on seeing his mother freed from the torments of the realm of the Gaki. Over the centuries, Obon and Bon Odori was popularized, with the decidedly unBuddhist interpretation of the “souls” of our deceased ancestors returning to this world on the 13th through 15th of July or August. The idea of “disembodied souls” and the giving of offerings to pacify them is anathema to Jodoshinshu – so much so, that most Jodoshinshu temples in Japan do not have Bon Odori but simply have the Obon service as a memorial service. In contrast to this, the Jodoshinshu temples in America all observe an Obon service and Bon Odori and are careful to make clear their view of Obon and Bon Odori.
Lighting a candle, a paper lantern, an oil lamp, and burning incense, is a self-reflective act designed to make us see the unsubstantial nature of “self”, of “me, my, I”, of soul. It is to make us see that it is the ever changing actions and the effects of actions that is real. Yet we persist in wanting it to be a connection between one embodied soul (myself) and another disembodied one (our deceased loved ones). We want there to be an unchanging “thing” in us which survives the body – and we want that to be the reality of the world. For Jodoshinshu, Obon and Bon Odori is the story of a monks realization of impermanence and non-self, and the joy which comes with that awareness.
Bon Odori is to reach a state of forgetting your ego, and thereby being able to remember and reconnect to those who have died. This is done by forgetting your ego, not indulging it.
For it to have true significance, we must be Maudgalyayana. We must experience the joy of being made aware of the reality of movement with nothing doing the moving. Without knowing it, we are change itself – but we deny that this is so in our everyday thoughts and actions. From the time we are children we seek out the unchanging in the world, and not finding it we create it. We create the whole universe of unchanging “things” and imagine that reality is the harmonious relation between separate “things”. We want stability in our lives, unchanging schedules, routines, relations, and people. “Happiness” is having things we want remaining unchanged. Maturity is knowing better. Awakening is moving with the change. And the Nembutsu is knowing that while flowing, you still want to return to self centered “happiness”. Bon Odori is therefore not “my” dancing, but rather being danced. Here alive or dead has no relevance, the actions of both continue. Samurai polishing their swords and souls, profound monks unmoved by the world, people with special powers and auras, et.al, are for people of greater lights and Hollywood connections. They are not us, and we are not them. It is best that we say “Namoamidabutsu” and dance.
And no, no no – we do not welcome, entertain, and see off the souls of our ancestors at Obon.
What is Obon
Obon is absolutely NOT the time when the souls of your ancestors return to mess with you!
At least not in Jodoshinshu Hongwanjiha (Nishihongwanji).
In Jodoshinshu, Obon is called Kangi-e, or The Gathering of joy. It is the major festival of our Buddhist calendar year. It is a memorial service and celebration in memory of our ancestors and all who have died. It is an occasion to remember our indebtedness to all who have gone before us, to appreciate and thank those lives and to reaffirm the sanctity of all living beings. In order to have this appreciation, we are called to the Obon gathering to dance, however embarrassed or however boastfully – so that in the meditation of dancing, we can momentarily forget the self: It is at this moment, that we suddenly remember our indebtedness to others and truly dance joyfully – happiness is the ego getting it’s way, joy is being free of ego.
Senshin has always begun the Obon dances with the Awa Odori, the Dance of Fools.
Within the song is the famous line:
Odoru aho ni miru aho. Onaji aho nara odoranya son son – A dancing fool and a watching fool, since they are both fools, what a waste not to dance.
To truly dance Bon Odori is to be truly connected. It must be done without a calculating mind, without a mind needing to always be in control. It is “just dancing” in its purest form – without guile, without pretense, without embarrassment, without ego asserting itself in any direction.
Ironically it is the Jodoshinshu Buddhist who differs from all his fellow Buddhists in Japan over the interpretation of the Maudgalyayana (Mogallana) story found in the Ullambana Sutra. The sutra relates the story of Maudgalyayana, a disciple of the Buddha, who saves his mother from suffering in the realm of hungry spirits (gaki) by making offerings of food and clothing to a company of monks on the 15th day of the 7th month. The Japanese pronunciation of Ullambana is “Urabon”, which was later shortened’ to “Bon” or “Obon”.
This story of Maudgalyayana was interpreted and developed into the idea of a service for the dead to relieve their suffering. Bon Odori or “Bon dancing” was said to have begun from the dance of joy of Maudgalyayana on seeing his mother freed from the torments of the realm of the Gaki. Over the centuries, Obon and Bon Odori was popularized, with the decidedly unBuddhist interpretation of the “souls” of our deceased ancestors returning to this world on the 13th through 15th of July or August. The idea of “disembodied souls” and the giving of offerings to pacify them is anathema to Jodoshinshu – so much so, that most Jodoshinshu temples in Japan do not have Bon Odori but simply have the Obon service as a memorial service. In contrast to this, the Jodoshinshu temples in America all observe an Obon service and Bon Odori and are careful to make clear their view of Obon and Bon Odori.
Lighting a candle, a paper lantern, an oil lamp, and burning incense, is a self-reflective act designed to make us see the unsubstantial nature of “self”, of “me, my, I”, of soul. It is to make us see that it is the ever changing actions and the effects of actions that is real. Yet we persist in wanting it to be a connection between one embodied soul (myself) and another disembodied one (our deceased loved ones). We want there to be an unchanging “thing” in us which survives the body – and we want that to be the reality of the world. For Jodoshinshu, Obon and Bon Odori is the story of a monks realization of impermanence and non-self, and the joy which comes with that awareness.
Bon Odori is to reach a state of forgetting your ego, and thereby being able to remember and reconnect to those who have died. This is done by forgetting your ego, not indulging it.
For it to have true significance, we must be Maudgalyayana. We must experience the joy of being made aware of the reality of movement with nothing doing the moving. Without knowing it, we are change itself – but we deny that this is so in our everyday thoughts and actions. From the time we are children we seek out the unchanging in the world, and not finding it we create it. We create the whole universe of unchanging “things” and imagine that reality is the harmonious relation between separate “things”. We want stability in our lives, unchanging schedules, routines, relations, and people. “Happiness” is having things we want remaining unchanged. Maturity is knowing better. Awakening is moving with the change. And the Nembutsu is knowing that while flowing, you still want to return to self centered “happiness”. Bon Odori is therefore not “my” dancing, but rather being danced. Here alive or dead has no relevance, the actions of both continue. Samurai polishing their swords and souls, profound monks unmoved by the world, people with special powers and auras, et.al, are for people of greater lights and Hollywood connections. They are not us, and we are not them. It is best that we say “Namoamidabutsu” and dance.
And no, no no – we do not welcome, entertain, and see off the souls of our ancestors at Obon.
What Bon Odori is NOT
Bon Odori is not a performance meant to be watched by others – it is for meant for people to dance.
Real Bon Odori is not meant to be used to attract crowds to a carnival – it is meant for people to dance.
Bon Odori is not “Nihon Buyo” or classical Japanese dance – it is folk music and dance.
Bon Odori is not “Ondo”
Ondo does not mean dance in the Japanese language, it means to “take the lead” in a cheer or toast. and is a form of music with a single singer and a responsive chorus. Ondo meaning “dance” is a term coined by non-Buddhist JA’s who wanted to secularize the Bon Odori and mistakenly used the term Ondo to mean “dance”.
Bon Odori is to be danced as you are, symbolized by wearing Yukata (literally – bathrobe) as opposed to a kimono.
Bon Odori is not a performance meant to be watched by others – it is for meant for people to dance.
Real Bon Odori is not meant to be used to attract crowds to a carnival – it is meant for people to dance.
Bon Odori is not “Nihon Buyo” or classical Japanese dance – it is folk music and dance.
Bon Odori is not “Ondo”
Ondo does not mean dance in the Japanese language, it means to “take the lead” in a cheer or toast. and is a form of music with a single singer and a responsive chorus. Ondo meaning “dance” is a term coined by non-Buddhist JA’s who wanted to secularize the Bon Odori and mistakenly used the term Ondo to mean “dance”.
Bon Odori is to be danced as you are, symbolized by wearing Yukata (literally – bathrobe) as opposed to a kimono.