by BISHOP KOSHIN OGUI
Buddhist Churches of America

I guess it must have been around midnight. I awoke to someone banging on the door. I opened it to see a man who begged me, “Please hide me, I’m being chased.”

I knew he was an intern from Japan on a short-term agriculture training program. He was also a college student. Apparently, he had come to be very friendly with a woman whose husband had just come home after serving in Vietnam. This husband had found out about their relationship and was now looking for him. And he had a gun.

The young Japanese man, fearing for his life, begged me for help, so I let him spend the night in the temple.

When dawn came, I paid a visit to the husband. I told him, “I’ve instructed the young man to stay away forever, so please forgive him.” His wife, at a loss, stood by silently. I was also young then, just 25, so I trembled inside. The husband finally broke the silence, saying with barely controlled anger, “I was going to kill him.” In the end, he relented.

When the Japanese student heard about this development, he was extremely grateful. He thanked me profusely. He promised to come and help out at the temple sometime, and then he left.

A lot of people think that priests just perform functions at funerals. I remember thinking, I wish people knew all the different things we priests have to do.

When I thought about how that Japanese student almost didn’t get to return to Japan alive, a strange feeling came over me. I kind of laughed to myself. I was also mystified by the drama that arises from sexual relations between men and women. That drama will always be there, I guess. As long as men and women exist.

Through this incident, I found out that there were about 80 agricultural trainees from Japan in Oxnard at the time. After that, for better or worse, I became known among them as a problem-solver of sorts.

Now at 68, I am reminded of the delicate nature of life. Life is a strange thing if you think about it; at any moment there is a hair’s breadth of difference between life and death. And the drama between men and women, that will surely continue for eternity.

Gassho

Translated by Lefteris Kafatos