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...

  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....

  On January 7, 2024 Idaho-Oregon Buddhist Temple held our Reopening/Dedication Service, celebrating our recovery after the fire in July of 2022. Rev. Jerry Hirano officiated the service and invited our two Assistant Ministers, Rev. Kathy Chatterton and Rev. Anne Spencer to share their thoughts as the temple reopened.    Photo (left to right): Mike Iseri (Temple President) Rev. Anne Spencer, Rev. Jerry Hirano, Rev. Anne Spencer at the Hoonko & Grand Reopening Service on Jan 7 2024.  In this blog, we are sharing summaries of Rev. Kathy's and Rev. Anne's reflections on the reopening and the history and the future of the temple.  Rev. Kathy Chatterton: Our temple was officially dedicated on February 9, 1958, and officially rededicated on January 7, 2024. As a Sangha member who has been a part of the temple for over 60 years, I am very proud of our IOBT community for working together to bring the temple back to life. In my mind, the temple was on life support...