Sunday, July 22, 2007 - Obon Service

Sunday was our temple's Obon Service.

A time to remember ones who have passed away. The Jodo Shinshu tradition of Obon is slightly different than most Japanese Buddhist traditions. Traditionally, Japanese (non-Shin buddhists) believe that family members' souls return for a visit during the O-Bon period.

In Japan, it is time for homecoming, as most Japanese return to their roots to pay their respects. The ceremonies surrounding the festival including welcoming the spirits back home and sending them off.

Traditionally, O-Bon is celebrated with a dance as originated by Mogallana to help his departed Mom find her way.

Our O-Bon service featured guest speaker, Rev. Hata, a retired minister now living in the San Diego area. His sermon was about the poem, "A Thousan Winds." As noted below, it is thought to be a Native American poem or attributed to an Ohioan named Mary Frye. It has been rewritten into a song by Mitsuru Arai, a Japanese songwriter, who also recorded this song. He had heard the poem, and decided for a friend who had parted that he would write it into a song. His friend's daughter used the song as part of her wedding day, because it reminded her that her late mother was "around."

The song became very popular in Japan.

These aren't the translated lyrics of the song, but a version of the poem...

Do not stand at my grave and weep

Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.

Written at least 50 years ago, this poem has been attributed at different times to J.T. Wiggins (an English emigre to America), two Americans: Mary E. Fry and Marianne Reinhardt, and more recently to Stephen Cummins, a British soldier killed in Northern Ireland who left a copy for his relatives. Others claim it is a Navajo burial prayer.

The following was taken from The London Magazine December / January 2005:
"Mary Elizabeth Frye nee Clark was born in Dayton, Ohio, on November 13th 1905. She dies on September 15th 2004. Mary Frye, who was living in Baltimore at the time, wrote the poem in 1932. She had never written any poetry, but the plight of a German Jewish girl, Margaret Schwarzkopf, who was staying with her and her husband, inspired the poem. She wrote it down on a brown paper shopping bag.

Margaret Schwarzkopf had been worrying about her mother, who was ill in Germany. The rise of Anti-Semitism had made it unwise for her to join her mother. When her mother died, she told Mary Frye she had not had the chance to stand by her mother's grave and weep.

Mary Frye circulated the poem privately. Because she never published or copyrighted it, there is no definitive version. She wrote other poems, but this, her first, endured. Her obituary in The Times made it clear that she was the undisputed author this famous poem, which has been recited at funerals and on other appropriate occasions around the world for seventy years. A 1996 Bookworm poll named it the Nation's Favourite Poem"[London Magazine Editor, Sebastian Barker]

(This was also substantiated by research conducted by the staff of Dear Abby. -- Alan)