法話：面倒なことが豊かさに

Happy House Rokken is a multi-generational shared house with care services located in a corner of the Rokumamichi Shopping Street in Nagata Ward, Kobe City. Thanks to my connection with the owner, Mr. Yoshitaka Sudo, I was able to serve as the celebrant at the funeral of one of Happy House's residents last year, and this fall I have been participating in a project to learn about the meaning of life and death, which began as part of Happy House's educational activities. First, let me briefly introduce what Happy House is like. The six-story building has 40 rooms, and is home to elderly people who require assistance, elderly people who require nursing care, and people with dementia. The biggest feature is that the lobby space on the first floor is open to the community, and people of different occupations, ages, and nationalities come and go every day. The number of people who come and go is more than 200 in a week. Elementary school students play video games on their way home from school, and mothers raising children in the neighborhood leave their children with the residents. The mothers apparently use that time to shop or spend their own time to refresh themselves. Mr. Shuto himself lives in Happy House with his family, and he wants to make Happy House the best place to raise children. He says that in order to do so, it is important to "increase the number of people who appear in daily life." He believes that children can learn a lot by interacting with a variety of people. In fact, Mr. Shuto's daughter, who was in the second grade of elementary school, learned childcare skills such as changing diapers and feeding the baby while taking care of a baby left by a mother in the neighborhood. She also became able to help a resident with dementia who could not communicate verbally with meals. According to Mr. Shuto, helping elderly people with meals requires advanced skills, and when he asked his daughter, "How are you so good at it?", she replied, "It's the same as with a baby." From this story, I felt that the place of everyday life is a place to learn how to live. Mr. Shuto grew up in the downtown area of Shin-Nagata, and felt that the long-house culture, where people interact with each other a lot, was easy to live in. However, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake left the town in a burnt wasteland, and while the town's appearance is becoming more and more beautiful through reconstruction, the old connections between people have become weaker, and the culture of the tenement houses has been lost. It felt like that culture was being recreated at Happy House. One of Shuto's Happy House concepts is "close strangers are better than distant relatives." We often hear people say, "It was good to have a big family in the old days," but nowadays, nuclear families are on the rise, and it is said that we are in the age of the "individual." So, even if you are not a family, if you have a rich community with nearby strangers, you can live happily. This is the idea behind this concept. I think it would be wonderful if temples could play such a role in the community. However, it is not all good to have various people involved. At Happy House, there are troubles every day, and there is not a day that goes by without some kind of problem. Shuto's idea, which was born from such an environment, is that "if three or more discomforts overlap, it doesn't matter." I think this way of thinking is the essence of Mr. Shuto's power, who does not seek hasty and easy-to-understand solutions or answers. Children running around, rampaging grandparents, dancing foreigners - they are all together, even though they don't understand each other. "We can be together even if we don't understand each other. We create an environment where we are accepted in any situation." That is Mr. Shuto's idea. Yes, at Happy House, the premise is that everyone is "allowed to be there." A place where you can simply be affirmed for your existence is a place where you can feel truly safe. There is also a temple a little close by. People who come to the temple come for various reasons and purposes. Praying for a request, memorial service for the deceased, daily prayers of gratitude, taking a walk, or just relaxing. At the temple, people can exist regardless of their title, position, or career, and they don't have to worry about it. Everyone can spend their time in their own way, watched over by the great presence of Buddha. That may be why it is a place where they can feel safe. The reason I wanted to share the story of Happy House with you is because my encounter with Happy House made me think about the richness of life. Perhaps we have sacrificed wealth in order to gain convenience and comfort. I felt that the most important thing is "human relationships." The lifestyle we have acquired, in which we have as little contact with others as possible, is not troublesome. However, at the same time, have we lost the new realizations, learning, and joy that...