HIGASHI HONGANJI BUDDHIST TEMPLE

Transcription

1 HIGASHI HONGANJI BUDDHIST TEMPLE NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID Los Angeles, CA Permit No The Way Vol. 70 No. 7 October & November 2018 HIGASHI HONGANJI BUDDHIST TEMPLE LOS ANGELES BETSUIN TEMPLE SCHEDULE OCTOBER 7 10:00am Shotsuki Service 14 10:00am Autumn Ohigan Service 14 1:00pm Autumn Seminar 21 10:00am Sunday Service 28 10:00am Sunday Service (Discussion Group) 28 11:30am Dharma School Halloween Party NOVEMBER 4 10:00am Kaikyo-ki/Shotsuki Service 11 10:00am Sunday Service 18 10:00am Family Service 25 10:00am Sunday Service (Discussion Group) DECEMBER 2 10:00am Shotsuki Service 9 10:00am Bodhi Day/Year-end Family Service 16 9:00am Temple Clean-up 28 9:00am Mochitsuki (Friday) DHARMA SCHOOL HALLOWEEN PARTY Sunday, OCTOBER 28 join us for food + fun after service please RSVP! Kaikyo-ki/Shotsuki Memorial Service sunday, November 4 10:00am *Daylight savings ends

2 Volume 70 Number 7 October & November 2018 HIGASHI HONGANJI BUDDHIST TEMPLE LOS ANGELES BETSUIN November 11, 1918 Lest we forget. November 11, 2018, and forever. May there be peace in the world, and may the Buddha s teaching spread! Rev. Frederick Brenion It was to be the war to end all wars. It did not. It was to be a war that was to make the world safe for democracy. It failed. It was supposed to be over in a matter of weeks. It lasted for four horrific years. Casualties were estimated to be between 8 and 21 million. The cream of Europe s youth destroyed. It was a war that should not have happened. Yet it did. It did one thing. It changed the world forever. It did not solve anything. It did plant the seeds for the next war 21 years later. They called this war the Great War. The World War. Now, World War I. It ended 100 years ago this month, November 11 th, That day is known as Armistice Day, Remembrance Day. In the United States we renamed it Veterans Day. This year, Veterans Day falls on a Sunday. A day for Temple service. It Help needs your help and welcomes your contributions. With the cost of printing and postage steadily increasing, we request your support in helping to make our newsletter available in the years to come. Please consider making a donation to to offset some of the cost. Thank you for your continued support and readership. Onegai-shimasu! would behoove us all to contemplate the great issues of War and of Peace. As a matter for thought, close to 123 million people died from war in the past 20 th Century. When one considers the havoc that climate change and the collapse of resources such as water, food, and oil will bring, I fear even more for the days ahead of us. We must consider the matter of Peace. Do we even know what Peace is? Really, really is? I have heard that for the past 3,400 years of recorded history, people have only experienced peace for 268 of them. That is 8% of world history. It is equally dispiriting to realize that our United States has been at war for 225 out of the 242 years since The years of peace we have experienced as a country is just a bit less than the legal age of our sending young men and women to fight and die for us. Is peace nothing more than the absence of war? Merely a pause for the next one? We have no idea what Peace is. The only one who would know is a Buddha. A Buddha is one who becomes Peace. A Buddha is one who is Peace. In a forest, under a tree, Gautama Siddhartha came to an understanding, a realization on why he had no peace. In doing so, discovered the path to it. Leaving the forest, a Brahmin priest encountered him and immediately saw that something was different about this person. Are you a god, a deva, some great saint? To which he received the reply, I am none of these. I am awake. From that point he was Buddha, Awakened One. Peace is not an absence. Its content clear in the countenance of a person who woke up. He began to show the way so that others might have what he had. Many teachings, many sutras, convey many ways to a life of real peace. In our tradition I turn my attention to the Sutra that Shinran loved best, The Larger Pure Land. Listen! Wherever the Buddha is present, there is no state, town or village which is not blessed by Buddha s virtues. The whole country reposes in peace and harmony. Its people enjoy peace. Soldiers and weapons become useless as people esteem virtue, practice benevolence, and diligently cultivate courteous modesty. I want to be in that kind of environment. Can I? Can you? The condition is the presence of a Buddha. I need to be where a Buddha is. Buddha taught that where the Dharma is, there is the Buddha. If I cannot be around a physical Buddha I can be around the teachings. Be there as a listener. Be with people who try to live it. Try to live it myself. Perhaps help others to experience this too. One of our great scholars, Rev. Yasuda, a student of Ryōjin Soga, realized that what the Buddha was getting at here is that this land of bliss, this pure land, is a symbol of the Sangha. The Third Treasure. There are Three Treasures. The Buddha. The Dharma. The Sangha. You cannot have one without the other two. Of the Three, the Sangha has become for me the most central. It is the Sangha that carries forward the teachings of the Dharma, which is the light and life of the Buddha. If this is so, then our temples must be places of peace. They must be places that show forth peace. Places where one (Please see NOVEMBER, page 6) SUBMISSION DEADLINE! Submissions for are due the 10th of each month for the following month s issue. Articles and announcements for our December Issue are due November 10th, Submissions may be subject to printing restrictions and staff approval. Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you!

3 Page 2 Betsuin News info@hhbt-la.org HŌONKŌ September 8-9, 2018 This year s HŌONKŌ Observances were held during the weekend of September 8 th and 9 th. This gathering is held on a weekend near November 28 th of every year in commemoration of the memorial of Shinran Shōnin. It has traditionally been considered the most important observance in Shinshu Buddhism. Historically, it was said that the calendar of a Honganji temple begins and ends with the HŌONKŌ observance. The word, HŌONKŌ, means a gathering to repay our indebtedness, and is a time to express our gratitude for having the opportunity to encounter the Buddhadharma and to deepen our awareness of the teachings. Saturday evening, we had our HŌONKŌ Gathering, an informal observance of Shinran Shōnin s memorial. This event was sponsored by our ABA organization. The evening began with a short service, a Dharma Talk in English by Associate Abbot, Rev. Yul Ōtani, son of Overseas District Abbot, Chōyū Ōtani. On Sunday, formal observances were held at 10:00am, with a sermon given by Rev. George Matsubayashi, former Rimban of the Nishi Hongwanji Betsuin. The Associate Abbot, Rev. Yul Ōtani was here from Kyoto, Japan to participate and officiate the service. We welcomed him and his wife Ayako to Los Angeles and are grateful that they were able to join us for this special service. Following service, Toban 2 provided a traditional vegetarian otoki lunch of somen, ochazuke, and tofu salad. We hope that you were able to join us for this special occasion. visit our website at and like us on facebook at Temple Clean-up Cleaning the temple is a huge task, but with everyone s efforts we can make it sparkle in no time. It is a tradition for all of us to help bring a clean temple into the New Year. Our annual Temple Clean-up will be on Sunday, December 16 th. Without the efforts of all of our members and friends, we could not complete this big task. Please join us as we work together to prepare our temple for Thank you in advance for all of your hard work. MOCHITSUKI Our annual Mochitsuki will be held on Friday, December 28 th from 9:00am. This is one of the most exciting and enjoyable events of the year, but not without your help! Come out and help us make MOCHI for the altar and for our New Years Day ozoni. There will be plenty to eat here and take home. Be sure to invite your family and friends to enjoy this very special cultural yearend tradition. Lumbini & HIGASHI YOUTH GROUPS CANNED FOOD DRIVE THROUGH SUNDAY, NOV 11th PLEASE SEE DETAILS ON PAGE 5 Garden Maintenance Toban As you are aware, our landscape team, Mr. Maehara, Mr. Kawahira, and Mr. and Mrs. Tsuruda work hard to beautify our temple garden and grounds. During the year, Mr. Kawahira makes trips to his hometown in Kagoshima and during his absences he has asked if we could help to maintain the appearance of the garden. We recognize all the hard work that our landscape crew does every week and they appreciate our occasional maintenance. As a result, in May, ABA sponsored the first group Garden Maintenance Toban (Work Group). We were fortunate to have 15 members come out to spend the morning... weeding, trimming, and cleaning our grounds. We know our members take pride in our Temple and are more than willing to ensure that others are able to share in its beauty as well. Members feel that working in the garden also helps us to recognize the impermanent and transitory nature of all things. We are scheduling our next Temple garden maintenance on Saturday, October 20, at 8:00 a.m. Please advise if you can help and for more particulars as to what tools to bring, please dkikeda@aol.com or contact the Temple office. Thank you! In gassho, ABA Our deepest condolences to the family and relatives of Mrs. Etsuko Kato (96) July 27, 2018 Mrs. Matsuko Harada (86) August 7, 2018 Mrs. Masae Hirahara (90) September 5, 2018 Namu Amida Butsu

4 JOIN OUR HIGASHI YOUTH GROUPS! Dharma School Sangha Teens Jr. YBA Higashi Honganji has various youth groups for children and young adults of every age. Our Dharma School program is offered for children from approximately age 3 to 11 years of age (preschool through elementary school younger children are welcome if accompanied by a responsible adult). Sangha Teens is an extension of our Dharma School program for middle school students (grades 6-8). Together, we learn about basic Buddhism and Japanese American culture through fun and kid-friendly activities, stories, arts and crafts, games, and occasional special trips throughout the year. Our ministers give special talks to the children on Shotsuki and Family Service Sundays (generally the 1st and 3rd Sundays of every month). If you are interested in having your child participate in Dharma School or Sangha Teens, please contact Mika at hhbtkids@ gmail.com. Our Jr. YBA program is offered for high school students who are interested in learning more about Buddhism as well as engaging in discussions and social activities with other Buddhist youth OTANI GAKUEN Higashi Choir In addition to singing at most services at the Betsuin, our temple choir has also visited the Kei-Ai nursing home and the Sakura Gardens Retirement Home and Intermediate Care Facility to share our music with the residents. Current members are: Wayne Itoga, Sylvia Ena, Mimu Fujii, Setsuko Kawamoto, Rev. Akiko Okada, Nancy Kurihara-Johnson, and Trish Nicholson. Not pictured: Tomoko Ito, Rev. Paul Imahara. We are directed and accompanied by Ms. Kazue Funai. The choir practices on Tuesday evenings from 7 pm and we welcome new members who enjoy singing both religious and non-religious music. like themselves. They are encouraged to attend Shotsuki and Family Services (generally the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month) and help our other members with toban duties. They are also encouraged to attend the English discussion group the last Sunday of every month. Our Jr. YBA chapter participates in Southern District Jr. YBL activities with students from temples throughout Southern California. Southern District seminars and events are a great opportunity for students to travel to other temples as far as Oxnard, San Diego, and Arizona as well as temples within our vicinity. Students have the opportunity to meet Buddhist youth like themselves from outside our temple in a cultural, social, and religious environment. If you are interested in having your child participate in Jr. YBA, please contact Susan at info@hhbt-la.org. Families of all youth groups are also asked to volunteer and participate at various events throughout the year such as our Obon festival, Craft Fair, and annual Halloween party as well as certain services on Sundays. Page 3 Jr. YBA News 2018 Jr. YBL Conference This past Labor Day weekend, 5 members from Higashi Jr.YBA attended Southern District s Jr. YBL conference. This year s theme was Make Buddhism Your Operating System. In the workshops, we learned that a picture never shows the full story. This was an important lesson to all of us because we are all active on social media where we try to put our best selves out there. However, rather than trying to capture everything in photos, we were taught to take a break and live in the moment, as nothing is permanent. We carried this lesson with us throughout the rest of conference, enjoying every second we had with our friends from other temples because we do not know when we would see them again. This teaching helped reinforce the idea of impermanence and encouraged us to cherish the weekend with our friends.

5 Page 4 BBBS!!! BBBS? Wait!!! Big Bargain Sale is BBS! What s the extra B for??? The extra B stands for Beautiful! The Big Bargain Sale held on August 19th was a BEAUTIFUL success! Here are 3 beautiful reasons: The items donated by members and friends were selected and purchased by people intending to use the items with appreciation by giving them a second life. The days of preparation and the day of the sale allowed people to work together for the benefit of the temple and community. The Big Bargain Sale offered us an opportunity to feel gratitude and appreciation for each other s friendship and support. The gift of giving and helping continued as the unsold clothing from the BBS was donated to Union Rescue Mission. In addition, the remaining unsold items were shared with the Aikido Center of Los Angeles to support their Fall Fundraiser. A few weeks after the August Big Bargain Sale, the temple received donations of Japanese ceramic ware from a member, who was clearing out her storage space. Most of the items were brand new because she owned a retail store. So a mini Big Bargain Sale #2 was held after the September Shotsuki Service in the social hall. Her generosity enabled us to raise more money to add to the Big Bargain Fundraising totals! The Big Bargain Sale committee proudly announces the 2018 fundraising totals of over $9,500.00!!! The temple is looking for people to get involved and chair next year s Big Bargain Sale! The basic structure and procedure are already in place and the reputation of Higashi Honganji s Big Bargain Sale is well known in the community. There is not much that needs to be created from scratch. What is needed are some individuals willing to take the leadership roles. In order to place the Big Bargain Sale on the temple s Master Calendar for 2019, the deadline is November 10th. Again, we wish to thank everyone who contributed to this beautiful event in the form of donated items, help, support, publicity, friendship, and laughter! With Gratitude, Emily Matsumura

6 Lumbini & HIGASHI YOUTH GROUPS CANNED FOOD DRIVE Lumbini, Dharma School, Sangha Teens, and Jr. YBA will be collecting donations until Sunday, November 11th! Please bring your UNEXPIRED canned and non-perishable food donations to the temple so that we can help support our local community. Donations will be delivered to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Page 5 LUMBINI CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER FOR CHILDREN AGES 2 1/2 TO 5 YEARS applications available! Call today to set up a visit to the school! TEL: FAX: lumbini.missleslie@gmail.com WEBPAGE: facebook.com/lumbinicdc open year round: MONDAY through FRIDAY 7:30am to 6:00pm closed national holidays HEALTHFUL FOODS TO CONSIDER DONATING: FRUITS & VEGETABLES canned vegetables vegetable juice tomato sauce canned fruit (in its own juice) 100% fruit juice shelf-stable fruit cups PROTEIN tuna, salmon, or chicken beans chili beef stew peanut butter nuts GRAINS oatmeal whole grain crackers whole wheat pasta low sugar/high fiber cereal whole grain rice DAIRY evaporated or powdered milk sweetened condensed milk shelf stable rice milk shelf stable soy milk JOIN US FOR DHARMA SCHOOL ON SUNDAYS! MORE INFORMATION ON PAGE 3 PLEASE CHECK EXPIRATION DATES AND BRING YOUR DONATIONS TO THE TEMPLE BY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH! THANK YOU! GARDEN MAINTENANCE TOBAN will meet Saturday, October 20th at 8:00am. See more on page 2.

7 Page 6 (NOVEMBER, con t. from page 1) may find peace. Live peace. Be peace. That is a tall order for any of us. All of us. But is it impossible? Our fellowtraveler on this path, Shinran Shōnin, once spoke about our world as one that is fleeting and burning. He also spoke of the Nenbutsu as alone being true and real. I see it as our lifeline. Shinran later wrote a letter. We might do well to take this letter as written to each of us as well. Shinran speaks heart to heart. A wish for each of us. Those who feel uncertain of birth should say the Nenbutsu aspiring first for their own birth. Those who feel that their own birth is completely settled should, mindful of the Buddha s benevolence, with the wish, May there be peace in the world, and may the Buddha s teaching spread! Shinran sees all of us fellow travel- HŌONKŌ Service Sunday, September 9th, 2018 ers as people who can find peace within through the life of Nenbutsu. A life brought to us through vows of peace. Shinran sees us as a people who through that can express words and life of peace. The message of peace has been a slow one to unfurl within our Jodo Shinshu. One month before the start of that War to end all wars, a lonely and broken man died in his prison cell in Japan. Rejected, his priesthood revoked. Scorned. His name was Takagi Kenmyo. He was an activist priest. May there be more such. He pleaded for peace as the hall-mark of our Nenbutsu faith. He wrote from his heart: We have never heard that beings in the land of Bliss have attacked other lands. Nor have we ever heard that they started a great war for the sake of justice. Hence, I am against war. I do not feel that a person of the Land of Bliss should take part in warfare. Strong words. But when we walk with Shinran, when we walk with Buddha, we find strength. When we walk with each other as Sangha we are strong. Our Nenbutsu is strongest of all. Have no doubt of it. A century ago a terrible war ended. More followed. Today we still face wars. Unthinkable wars may still lie ahead. Peace is not a space between wars. Peace is the life opened to us by our Buddha. Shown by Shinran Shōnin. Lived through our Sangha by such people as Takagi Kenmyo. We can live it today. On this anniversary, remember our fallen dead. Honor those who serve now. But even more, remember our Nenbutsu, remember Shinran s wish for you and for me - May there be peace in the world, and may the Buddha s teaching spread!

8 Page 7 10th Annual Kiku Crafts & Food Fair Sponsored by West Covina Buddhist Temple Sunday, November 4, :00 AM 3:00 PM Asian inspired crafts, kids & adult clothing, jewelry, books, giftware, original artwork and delicious food! Come for some holiday shopping, Stay for the fun and food! MEMBERSHIP Update Paid 2018 Temple Members will receive the following benefits upon request from the office 10% off coupons - Fugetsu-Do - Toyo Miyatake Membership dues for 2018 are $ for couple/family and $ for single members. We no longer send out membership cards. Please keep your receipt as proof of membership. Thank you for your continued support. Sunset ESGVJCC Puente Ave San Bernardino (10) Fwy GO GREEN! Vincent West Covina Fashion Plaza There will be no central cashiering. Each vendor will handle their own sales and not all vendors take credit cards. East San Gabriel Valley Japanese Community Center (ESGVJCC) 1203 West Puente Ave West Covina, California For more information go to: livingdharma.org/currenteventswcbt.html or call Help us save paper and postage by requesting your newsletter delivery ONLINE! US at info@hhbt-la.org and specify ONLY for future issues of. Thank you!