In the spring, I received news that the Ireicho  book was coming to Idaho and I signed up for the opportunity to stamp the names of my  maternal grandparents and my parents in the book. I was able to participate in this event in July of this year.  It was important to me to make this  connection to family members who are a part of the causes and conditions that  made me who I am today. If you’re not familiar with the Ireicho, here is some information from the Ireicho website: “Irei: National Monument for the WWII Japanese American Incarceration is a multi-faceted project to address the erasure of the identities of individuals of Japanese ancestry who experienced wartime incarceration and to expand the concept of what monument is through three distinct, interlinking elements:  A sacred book of names as a monument ( Ireichō ),  A website as a  monument ( Ireizō ),  Light sculptures as monuments ( Ireihi )." Photo: The Ireicho Book  The Ire...

 Sometimes the behind-the-scenes operation of our temple (and other religious organizations) can be a little confusing.  So we thought it might be helpful to give you all a short run-down of what we are doing behind-the-scenes.  Our temple president, Mike Iseri, recently wrote a short article regarding funding and temple leadership that might help make our processes a little clearer. We wanted to share it here as well.   Some may wonder where Idaho-Oregon Buddhist Temple gets money to operate.   First, and probably most obviously, we have several fund-raising activities throughout the year. Our biggest event of the year is our Obon Festival.  Obon is a very important holiday in our tradition--during this time we celebrate our ancestors. In fact, the dancing that we do at Obon is a way to "dance with our ancestors."  Even though this is primarily a religious and cultural event and a time to share our traditions with the community, it is also a time...

  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...

  NOTE from Rev. Anne Spencer: We always enjoy sharing insights and experiences from our diverse IOBT community. This month we are happy to share a reflection from Keith Hopper. Although Keith now lives in Florida, his early years were spent in Vale, Ontario, and parts of western Idaho. He graduated from Ontario High School. In 2022 he received a tip from a friend about our twice-monthly Tuesday evening online discussion groups and he decided to join us.  He has been a regular at our meeting ever since. Let us know if you would like to join us too! "The medium is the message" was a familiar twentieth century adage. Enigmatic, separated from its context and author (1960s Canadian communication theorist Marshall McLuhan), it was claimed by academics, promoters of all sorts, and also politicians, television preachers and other dubious sages. It has a ring to it and seemed to apply to our world, likely did, but as something of a koan . The exact meaning is fuzzy. On advic...

  “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....