Koloa Jodo Mission - Buddhist Temple Since 1910
Today, I'd like to introduce one of my favorite signs of Kaua'i.
It is "Kaua'i Loves You."
When I first saw the sign of "Kaua'i loves you", I thought it was very interesting. Soon, I loved the novelity of this idea because I saw Buddha in this sign! I believe everybody knows the sign of "I love New York" or "I love Tokyo." But this sign says, "Kaua'i loves you." Great job, to Mr. Umezu (I think!).
According to the sign, you are lucky!!! You don't need to do anything, but you are going to receive "Love" from Kauai without your doing anyting. As long as you like Kaua'i, you can be a couple easily between Kaua'i and you, whereas you are not sure whether you can be a couple or not between New York and you, according to the sign "I love New York." It's always up to the object who can decide to be a couple.
So the sign, "Kaua'i loves you" seemed to be much better that the sign "I love Kaua'i." However, there is a huge problem, if you think this sign very carefuly. Kaua'i loves you, but it doesn't say, "Kaua'i loves me." It is always "YOU", not me who are loved by Kaua'i. I have actually lived on this beautiful island of Kaua'i for 13 years, but Kaua'i doesn't love me for good and all, but always loves you. You are lucky, because you are loved by the garden island.
To tell you the truth, however, you are not the one neither who is loved by Kaua'i. You will soon realize, "Oh, Kauai doesn't love me, but you!" , too, when you come to Kauai. There is actually nobody who is loved by Kaua'i.
In Buddhism, this is called "emptiness" since there is no existence of "You". The existence of "You" is always temproal and illustion, not asloute being. "You" exist in the relationship of interdependence.
Yes, this sign is very very deep, that's why I love this sign. The more you think about this sign, the deeper you are going to be in the world of emptiness.
Buddhists, including myself, tend to think, "Buddha loves me". I actually love the teaching of "Buddha loves me", but from the view point of "selfless being" which is the essence of all things, it shall be "Buddha Loves You!"
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mo (Friday, 11 January 2013 23:29)
Once again you have put into words the invisible thing that holds us all together. I think it's also fun that the word love(s) falls in the middle of the message on the button.The Middle Way of Nargarjuna. I looked up absolute, and was surprised to find that interdependence was an antonym. We love your website! Keep up the good work Master Ishikawa.
koloajodo (Saturday, 12 January 2013 11:08)
Thank you very much for your commending and interesting comment. I also appreciated your link of Nargarjuna theory. I haven't read it, but my interet now is roots of mahayana Buddhism. I will appreciate your further suggestion. I wonder if there is any scholar who wrote about Nargarjuna and Aristotle. I believe the roots of middle way must be in the Greek philosophy.