Teaching
Buddhism to the Children of the Desert
By Lora Ben
My name is
Lora and this experience is dedicated to all of you who feel discouraged
and separated from everything like I used to feel.
I am writing
from the United States, from a little town in the middle of the Mojave
Desert, which is situated in the southern part of California 2 hours north
of Los Angeles.
I speak Italian
because I was born and raised in Italy.
At the age of
33, I married an American Air Force service member and, in 1992, we transferred
to California with our son Luca. At this time, I am here alone with my
son, because my marriage ended when my husband chose to leave us for another
woman in 1997.
Anyhow, that
is old stuff now and I am alone but happier than I was during our marriage.
At the beginning
of my life here, alone and far away from all my loved ones and my country,
I felt like I was being punished for some unknown reason. But lately I
understood that it is my mission being here, in this little town of 10,000
inhabitants.
It's very hard
to do shakubuku here; however lately, I immersed myself in this mission
of mine, the mission of guiding the local youths to become happy by introducing
them to Nichiren's Buddhism.
The adults are
not too keen on listening, because drugs and alcoholism prevail as a practice
here. Since my son began attending high school, I have had the chance of
coming in contact with many youths of either gender.
Many of them
suffer because of broken families just like my son and they feel abandoned
and neglected. Many turn to drugs, alcohol, shoplifting, and other types
of crime as if in search of some kind of attention.
Thanks to my
son, of whom I feel very proud, I am able to speak to many of them and
some of them take part in our Buddhist activities. Furthermore, I have
realized that the older they are, the harder it becomes to make them listen
with their hearts, I have now dedicated myself in the formation of a group
of much younger ones.
Through games
and weekly activities, I introduce this practice to them. I began with
two brothers, sons of a friend of mine who is a Jehovah's Witness. She
did not like the idea of her sons, aged 12 and 10, practicing this Buddhism,
but the boys like practicing.
Now after only
a few months I have eleven kids between the ages of 5 and 11 and seven
from 11 to 17 years of age. Next Sunday, three more youths (two males and
one female) will join us in our weekly activities at our SFCC.
Perhaps one
day even the parents will join us, who knows? The biggest benefit is that
until now no parents are opposed to the decision of their children to practice.
Sometimes we must take time to chant a little Daimoku, instead of complaining,
so that we can see the true reason why things happen to us, and envision
our real mission. This is my experience.
Lora
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