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, we were reminded of t

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 wanted to share a (slightly edited) story that Georgette

  NOTE:   In this is a special guest article by temple member and friend, Linda Tanaka who lives  in North Idaho, reflects on interconnection and all the relationships, causes, and conditions that make life in the country possible. Greetings from North Idaho or as my brother, David, calls it ‘the wilderness’.   Our fall season was short lived.   Snow arrived before Thanksgiving and didn’t let up until Christmas.   We were doing snow management for days in a row.   Toss in having to buy a new snow blower before Christmas and a low of -24 degrees [that’s “minus”] with frozen pipes, Winter 2022 will be one to be remembered. Are you wondering how a person born and raised in the Eastern Oregon desert then 30+ years in Northern California could end up about 6 miles from the Canadian border?   That’s a long story but I will give you the condensed version.   My husband, Vic Cherven, is a geologist with extensive knowledge of California geology from his jobs during his career.   We had mo

New Years Day Dharma Message 2023 " I hope that everyone will, deeply entrusting themselves to the  nembutsu and firmly embracing prayers [for peace in the world] in their hearts, together say the nembutsu. "   (From the Collected Works of Shinran p. 560) Happy New year! Happy 2023!  Akemashite Omededou Gozaimasu 今年もよろしくお願いします On December 31, members and friends joined us online from around the country for our New Year's Eve Joya No Kane service.   Traditionally  for this service the temple bell is rung 108 times. Because of the temple fire earlier this year and because we were on Zoom, we had to be creative--each person used bells that they had in their homes and we took turns ringing them. This bell ringing activity purified the 108 Bonno , our many attachments to the world of suffering. Ringing the bells cleaned out our greed, anger, and ignorance,  and reminded us of the Infinite Wisdom & Compassion of Amida Buddha that accepts us just as we are.  The process

“In gratitude to Amida, the Buddha-as-words, I dedicate my whole being to realizing Buddha’s intent. In gratitude to the masters of teachings and the countless good Dharma friends among our ancestors, I dedicate my total efforts to spreading the Nenbutsu.”    Translation of the  Ondokusan  from Shinran Shonin’s Shozomatsu Wasan #59. ( Translation by Rev. Kakei Nakagawa, Rinban of Fresno Betsuin based on Bishop Kenryu Tsuji’s writings) (Shinran Shonin Image from Idaho-Oregon Buddhist Temple Altar) . January is the month for a major service called “ Hoonko ” which is typically observed on January 16 th in the Nishi Hongwanji tradition.  “ Hoonko ” means “repaying our debt of gratitude”. This is a time for us to reflect on and appreciate the life and teachings of Shinran Shonin, the founder of our Jodo Shinshu tradition. Our debt of gratitude to Shinran Shonin extends to our ancestors who walk together with us on the path of the Buddha Dharma. The Japanese term for this idea of goo

The start of a new year offers us the hope of a new beginning, a fresh start, a clean slate. As we begin the new year, many people make plans to improve their lives through New Year’s resolutions. And it is polite and kind to wish others happiness, prosperity, good health, love, and good fortune in the coming year.   These are great traditions—maintaining hope and offering good will to our neighbors are important. But it’s also important to approach the new year with a sense of humility and realism. Buddhism reminds us that the world of samsara is imperfect and impermanent  and we humans are motivated by self-interest and misguided by limited understanding. The 3 poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance motivate our actions. Given our limited perspective it is easy to set high expectations for the new year and then become discouraged when a goal is not achieved. Remember a year ago when many thought COVID would go away and life would go back to “normal” in 2021! Clearly, we were wrong.  

  With many different winter holidays coming up, I wanted to reflect on how we think about these holidays and our relation to each other. T hese holidays mean different things to different cultures. Here in the U.S. many people look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas. But there are lots of other holidays that are celebrated here and around the world. Here are just a few examples: Kwanzaa (Pan-African), Hanukkah (Jewish), Bodhi Day (Buddhist), Las Posadas (Latin America), Boxing Day (Canada), Ōmisoka (Japan), or even Kramer’s favorite, Festivus. Some people here in the U.S. think we should only use the greeting “Merry Christmas”, but “Happy Holidays” could be a more inclusive greeting. It’s all in how you look at it. Different people and cultures have different perspectives and part of our spiritual practice, as Buddhists, is being humble about our own perceptions. At the 74th NW District Buddhist Convention in September, Sensei Koichi Mizushima gave a presentation “Seeing is Believi