New Year's Bingo will help you focus on what is most important as you move into a new year.  Print off more than one card and play with friends and relatives! Say "Goodbye" to 2024 and say "Hello" to 2025  in style!

Recently, some of us were discussing how we handled the question of Buddhism as youngsters and teenagers. I didn’t have a specific answer because I don’t remember ever talking about going to a Buddhist “church” when I was in grade school.  Image: Rev. Kathy and her friend Sandy celebrating the Buddha's Birthday at "Church" Maybe I didn’t think I was different from my classmates because we all went to “church” on Sunday. Later when I was in high school, I might have referred to the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. I attended Northwest Nazarene College (now a university), and I did get the question from professors and students. I was required to take religion classes related to the Old or New Testament and Christian thought, and I had to examine my own beliefs. Prayers or hymns were often offered before classes began.  We were required to attend chapel three days a week. I did take an upper division world religions class, and of course, I was assigned the topic of ...

   Buddhism is, and has always been, deeply rooted in community. From the very beginning of Buddhism, monks and nuns have relied on the communities around them for food and support. In return, the monks and nuns offered teachings and blessings for the community, sharing the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha’s teaching to help communities find happiness and meaning in their lives. Image: Two volunteers help unload a truck of napa cabbages that were donated to our temple's bazaar.  In Buddhism, one of the most basic practices is to express one’s faith through the 3 Treasures by saying:   “I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dharma (the Buddhist teachings), I take refuge in the Sangha” (NOTE: “Sangha” traditionally refers to the Community of ordained Monks and Nuns, but “Sangha” in our tradition also includes anyone who follows the Buddhist path). Without these three things supporting each other—the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha—Buddhist teaching...

by Rev. Kathy Chatterton  This is the time of the year when, in my previous life as a 4th grade teacher, I was preparing for the new school year. There was plenty to do: putting up bulletin boards, arranging desks, stacking textbooks, preparing lesson plans, studying the list of student names.  Since our temple will be returning to weekly Sunday services, we might also want to prepare ourselves with a review of key elements in our service.  We want everyone who attends service to participate and feel comfortable .   If our veteran service goers happen to be seated next to a newcomer, please introduce yourself and offer your assistance with the service elements.  Here is a refresher course on some of the terms and rituals that are used in a typical service Before service begins, we enter the “Hondo” or Buddha Hall. It is an expression of respect to stop in the doorway and do a small bow before stepping in.  The start of service is signaled by a tolling...

  A basic teaching of Buddhism is: Everything changes.   Nothing stays the same.   Our temple’s experiences over the last 5 years really demonstrate this principle of impermanence! In 2020, our temple, like millions of institutions around the world, had to rethink how we operated to reduce the risk of spreading COVID in our communities.    For us, that meant moving to online services.   In the beginning, we had just one service a month online, but we gradually moved to online services twice a month.  And once a month we would have take-out lunch pick-up in the parking lot, which allowed for a little social time.  Photo:  Even on a cold winter day, our sangha stayed connected We began offering face-to-face services at the temple in early 2022. But then, in July of 2022, the temple had a major fire.   We held our 2022 Obon service in our parking lot, just two days after the fire. The service was brief, but it reassured our community that...

  For a week each July, our ministers and members of the community gather at cemeteries around our region to offer short Buddhist services of sutra chanting, incense offering, and a short Dharma message. This year, with the assistance of our temple president, Mike Iseri, we have visited 16 cemeteries between Boise, Idaho and Baker City, Oregon.  Because it is hot this time of year, we often look for trees to gather under while we hold these services cemetery.  The shade is very much appreciated by all of us, as we stand there together in the heat for the service.   The trees we stand under and the gratitude that we feel for the shade, as well as the people we honor during Obon season, got me thinking about the phrase  " Okagesama de arigato. " " Okagesama de arigato " can be translated to English as “gratitude to everyone and everything.”    Often in Japan, when people greet each other they will ask “ Ogenki desu ka ?”   which means, “Are y...

In 2008, I was certified as a Minster’s Assistant—a first step in a long and often surprising journey to ordination and my current position as an Assistant Minister here at IOBT.   At the time of my certification,   I received my Homyo or Dharma name.   The name I received was Ren Sho 蓮生 “to live as a lotus.” The first character “ren” means “lotus” and the second character “sho” means “to live.”   The lotus is known for its beautiful flower, but what is especially impressive about the lotus is that the vibrant beautiful flower grows out of dirty, muddy ponds.   Image:   A beautiful pink lotus thrives in the mud As I was beginning my path into Buddhist ministry, my Homyo honored the challenges I had faced in my life so far as well as the challenges and frustrations I would likely face in my studies and in life.   These challenges were the mud, but they were not necessarily bad.    Just like the lotus draws nourishment out of the mud, we hu...

  “I will gather the true words so they may help others to practice the way for Birth. My wish is that those who have attained Birth may lead those who come after them and those who aspire Birth may follow their predecessors, thus following one after another, endlessly and uninterruptedly, until this boundless sea of Birth-and-Death is exhausted.” (From Doshaku’s Anraku Shu quoted by Shinran Shonin toward the end of his Kyogyoshinsho)        I think of this quote from Shinran Shonin’s Kyogyoshinsho when I think about our Issei (1 st generation Japanese immigrants) and our Nisei (2 nd generation Japanese-Americans). The Issei knew the importance of religion and temples as they took up residence in America. They built our temples and invited Buddhist priests from Japan to lead their Sanghas. Photo:   1965 cabinet photo: Rev. Takemura pictured with the 1965 leadership. Our Issei leaders are seated in the front row with Nisei leadership standing behind....

January 1, 2024 Happy New Year! Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu! あけまして おめでとう ２０２４ Congratulations on the beginning of a new year! Yesterday at our temple's New Year’s Eve service, we rang the kansho --the big   bell behind the altar--108   times. Everyone who attended in person was able to line up and ring the bell 4 times each. It is interesting to me how each person, using the same bell and mallet, manages to make a slightly different sound. Listening to the different tones and tempos we each create is a wonderful reminder of the uniqueness of each one of us. Image:  Hitting the kansho bell on New Year's Eve.  I think everyone, young and old alike, enjoyed getting to be a part of this once-a-year tradition.   According to Buddhist tradition, this bell ringing activity purifies the 108 bonno , our many attachments to the world of suffering. Ringing the bell cleared away the greed, anger, and ignorance we accumulated in 2023.   And as we rang the bell, ...

As we approach the winter solstice in the Northern hemisphere, the days are getting shorter, the sun is making fewer appearances through the clouds, we spend more time inside, and life is just a bit darker.   As sunlight gets scarcer, it is a great time to intentionally appreciate the limited light that we do have.   Many cultures have holidays, such   as Christmas, Diwali, Kwanza, and Chanukah that celebrate light.   And even non-religious people will put up extra decorative lights to brighten the darker days.   In our tradition of Buddhism, on December 8, we celebrate Bodhi day, as the day (2500 years ago) that Shakyamuni Buddha became “en LIGHT ened,” breaking through the darkness of ignorance and understanding the true nature of reality.      So, as we approach these darker days, I think it’s  a good time to notice and appreciate the light we see around us AND then  find ways to share light with others.  For inspiration, I wan...