The 11th Spring School to promote the spiritual development of young people took place from 24 March to 5 April 2010. Eleven people (seven teenagers, three students and a priest) all flew over to London from Japan in order to take part. For most of those participating this was their first taste of a foreign country. It goes without saying that they all greatly enjoyed visiting the usual tourist spots such as the British Museum, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, Buckingham Palace, Wembley Stadium and so forth.  But the special feature of their Spring School experience was, of course, attending Service to the Buddha mornings and evenings. The young people also read a sutra, entitled The Sutra on the Gravity of What Has Been Done by Our Parents. They all visited Coniston in Cumbria and climbed Old Man Mountain, where eight of the twelve rocks used in the Zen garden at Three Wheels originally come from. They also visited University College London where they were given a very warm welcome by Pro-Provost, Professor Philip Treleaven.

Three young priests, thirteen to fourteen years old, attended this educational session. I would like to introduce extracts from the impressions recorded by four Spring School students, including those three students ordained two years ago.   



Extracts from some of the impressions recorded by Spring School Students
 
By Kotaro Kasahara (13 years old)
 
What made the deepest impression on me at Spring School was the little trip we made to Cumbria. We were able to experience at first hand the kind of natural scenery one would never find in Japan, only in England. My memories of the countryside around Little Langdale, especially, will stay with me for the rest of my life. Other very enjoyable experiences were looking out from a boat on the River Thames or  from the London Eye, watching the spectacle of the guards at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace and coming across the actor Rowan Atkinson (aka Mr Bean ), performing in the musical “Oliver Twist.”
As we continued to read the Sutra of the Gravity of What Has Been Done by Our Parents, I came to recognise my own self in the sutra and to see how truly boundless was the love I had been receiving from my parents. Yet the 'me' that I now saw was a person who was totally unaware of this fact. To make matters worse, this 'me' had been taking for granted all that I had received from my parents, without thought as to how to respond to them with gratitude for their love. Whilst my parents had always been thinking of me, I now suddenly realised, I had never once thought about them, only of myself.

 
By Kyosuke Sudo (13 years old)
 
My special experience was  reading the Sutra of the Gravity of What Has Been Done by Parents, a sutra that is the very essence of what Spring School is all about.  When I came to the passage where it says, “Giving all her good clothes to the children, Mother is always wearing old, worn ones,” it reminded me of the way my mother, whilst buying all sorts of things for me, seldom buys anythings for herself.
My parents have always put me first and I have simply taken everything for granted. I've always been begging them for extras and, what's worse, not listened  to their kind words but talked back to them defiantly. I really feel I have not been a good son to my parents. When I return to Japan, I would like to say “sorry” to them both.
When I showed Kenshin sensei my impressions of the first half of Spring School, he told me how lucky I was to have had the chance to become a priest, because being a priest means living one's life in heartfelt gratitude. I had never heard from other priests how to be a priest, but now I thought to myself “I can live in this way. How lucky I am to have been ordained  a priest.”
 
 
By Keisuke Sudo (13 years old)
 
At firstl I couldn’t really understand the title of this Spring School, “Supported by the invisible.” While reading the Sutra of the Gravity of What Has Been Done by Parents, however, I felt little by little that I was beginning to grasp the meaning. When I used to be asked to do something, I would hardly ever say “yes”. Usually I would resist, saying, “Stop bothering me!”  When reading the Sutra of the Gravity of What Has Been Done by Our Parents, however, I was  taken aback to realise just how much I had received  from my parents, ever since I was a tiny baby, which I don’t remember at all, and how much I continue to receive right up to the present day and on into the future. Amongst all the things I have received from my parents, I find there are so many that I have simply been taking for granted.
One day Kemmyo san said to me, “If your father and mother were strangers and you took all their gifts for granted,  you would feel very sorry, wouldn’t you?” This  awakened me to the fact that all the gifts from my parents that I had taken for granted for granted were actually precious expressions of their love. I had always thought that “filial piety” was merely helping parents  do things, but towards the end of the sutra I found that the Buddha talked about various forms of filial piety –  looking after one's parents when they are ill, for example. Although many of these forms are beyond my abilities at the moment, I would like to try and be good to my parents.
I thought to myself that the term, “the invisible,” could mean all those who have been supporting me, including my own parents.
 
 
By Kei Matsunaga (14 years old)
 
One day during Spring School Kemmyo san, with tears in his eyes, said to Kyosuke, Keisuke and me, “It is you who will support and develop Shogyoji Temple in the future.” Feeling so grateful for his words, I thought to myself, “I should try and serve the Buddha properly.”
Kemmyo san also asked us, “How can you behave responsibly towards your parents?" before going on to say,“There can be no other way than by becoming a good priest.” My father often tells me not to become a priest  in outward form alone. He and Kemmyo san are making the same point, I think. In the future I should be a priest not merely in form but also in spirit. I would like to put into practice in my daily life what I have learned at Spring School. I would like to attend service to the Buddha at least at the weekends.