World Women’s Buddhist Convention – Calgary 2015
Latest update including the Keynote Speaker announcement
Calgary Buddhist Temple Blog
Thursday Evening Services – the 6 ‘Perfections’
We will next be in week 3 of our Thursday evenings examining/exploring/discussing the 6 Paramitas or 6 Perfections at the normal 7:30PM Temple Service.
Here are the readings that we will start with so you can read them in advance if you like.
(please print a copy and bring with you)
Week 1: Dana:
6 Paramitas – 1 Dana (right-click, save-as)
Week 2: Ethical Behaviour:
6 Paramitas – 2 Ethical Behaviour (right-click, save-as)
Week 3: Patience or Forbearance:
6 Paramitas – 3 Patience or Forbearance (right-click, save-as)
Week 4: Joyous Effort
6 Paramitas – 4 Joyous Effort (right-click, save-as)
(a little departure from ‘straight Buddhist teaching this week)
Week 5: Meditation
Don’t forget to come for soup at 6:45PM!
6 Paramitas – 5 Concentration – Dhyana (right-click, save-as)
Week 6: Wisdom (right-click, save-as)
Don’t forget to come for soup at 6:45PM!
Temple Member honoured
On Saturday evening, January 25th, Temple member Rocky Oishi was honoured with an Award of Recognition by the Consul General of Japan for his work on behalf of the Japanese Community, both locally, and even within the world (ask him about his trips to Kenya to assist in clean water projects).
The event took place as part of the Calgary Japanese Community Association New Year dinner event.
Our Temple has Gratitude for the many people who assist in allowing us to function, in large & small ways, once or for many years.
Rocky has been a long-time Temple supporter and it is appropriate that we also communicate our Gratitude to him at the time of this Recognition of his efforts. (although he prefers to mention the people that helped *him* in his efforts).
He truly personifies the Buddha’s teachings in action.
Congratulations Rocky!
(Rocky on the right with the Japanese Consul General)
New Year’s Greeting from Gomonshu
年頭の辞
光寿無量
新しい年の初めにあたり、京都の本願寺よりご挨拶申し上げます。
門主を継職してから三十六年と九ヶ月過ぎました。中国の善導大師のお言葉に「人間悤々（あわただしい）として衆務（日常のつとめ）を営み、年命の日夜に去ることを覚えず（中略）いまだ解脱して苦海を出づることを得ず」（『往生礼讃』とあるのが、身にしみて感じられます。今年六月の退任まで、心して、勤めたいと思います。
年齢と共に、時の経つのが速くなるように感じられることは、多くの方に共通しているようですが、近年は世の中の変化そのものが速くなっており、一層、慌ただしく感じられます。この変化は主として、科学技術の発達と経済活動の進展によるものですから、人間一人ひとりの生活や社会の仕組みがうまく対応できるとは限りません。企業の盛衰や人々の生活格差は激しくなっています。それに対処できる国内の仕組みや国際的な協調が追いつきません。そのためか、過去を問わず、未来を考えず、今さえよければ良いという風潮が感じられます。それでは、過去の過ちを繰り返したり、子孫の世代に負の遺産を残すことになります。
佛教の役割は、移り変わる世の中を生きる人間に、変わることのない依り処を与え、恵まれたいのちを精一杯生きるよう導くことではないでしょうか。浄土真宗では、阿弥陀如来の本願すなわち南無阿弥陀佛が依り処です。阿弥陀如来に無条件に受け容れられることによって、私は不都合な過去も受け容れるようになり、今、生かされていることを喜ぶことができます。
今年も、お念仏申して、一日いちにちを大切に過ごさせていただきましょう。
2014年1月1日
浄土真宗本願寺派
門主 大谷光真
New Year’s Greeting
Immeasurable Light and Life.
At the beginning of the year, I would like to send you my greetings from Hongwanji in Kyoto.
Upon succeeding the position as Monshu, thirty-six years and nine months have passed. I have come to empathize with Chinese master, Shan-tao, as he writes in Hymns of Birth in the Pure Land, “Caught up in everyday life, the days and nights go left unnoticed, unable to become emancipated and escape the sea of suffering.” I shall vow to work diligently until my term comes to an end this June.
For many of us, although the passing of time seems to speed up with age, in recent years, changes within society have sped up, making things all the more unsettling. Because these rapid transitions are largely the result of developments in scientific technology and economic growth, they sometimes produce discrepancies in individual lifestyles and societal framework. The gap among socio-economic concerns including business corporations and people’s lifestyles are widening that both domestic and international efforts have not been successful in dealing with such issues. As a result, there is a sense that neither reflecting on the past nor thinking ahead into the future matters, so long as we are content with the present. However, this mentality will result in repeating past mistakes or passing burdens on to future generations.
Is it not that the role of Buddhism is to provide us who live in this constantly changing world, with an unfaltering spiritual foundation to live the life which we have received to the fullest? In Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, that foundation is the Primal Vow of Amida Tathagata, namely Namo Amida Butsu. Being unconditionally embraced by Amida Tathagata, we are enabled to accept our own inconvenient past and at this very moment, be joyous of this life we have received.
May we all continue to live every day of this year in appreciation of the Nembutsu.
January 1, 2014
OHTANI Koshin
Monshu
Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha
Welcome
Are you searching for an inner peace in this busy and stressful society? The Calgary Buddhist Temple offers a means of developing peace, harmony and gratitude in our everyday lives through encountering and being embraced by Amida Buddha’s Wisdom and Compassion. Shinran Shonin (1173 – 1263) the founder of our Jodo Shinshu (True Pure Land) School of Buddhism, believed peace and harmony can be achieved without adhering to a difficult, ascetic lifestyle.
Subsequently, we have shared his message to people all over the world.
Shinran showed us a great example of how to live in the midst of this uneasy life based on Buddhist principals. However, Shinran never considered himself as special one or perfect one. He referred to himself as a Bonbu (incapable being), and he clearly stated he was no different from all other beings. Because of the way he approached people, Jodo Shinshu became a wonderful teaching for all grass roots people. None of us are perfect, but each of us tries our best to follow Buddha’s teachings on a daily basis. In fact, Amida, the Buddha of Infinite Wisdom and Compassion, accepts all people as they are.
Over 2500 years have passed since Sakyamuni passed away, and 750 years have passed since our founder Shinran passed away, innumerable numbers of people have followed this path. There are thousands of people who, having been sustained by this spiritual guidance from the Buddha, lived each and every day fully and strongly no matter how hard their difficulties and challenges became.
This teaching gives us the realization that our life does not exist just by itself. Of course, in my case, I have a biological father and mother, but there are also many people affecting and contributing to my life. As the result of all this, I became the person I am today. Dharma; Buddha’s teachings give us a sense of togetherness and friendship. We are not alone. We are all mutually and indirectly connected to each other. We are part of Sangha; the Buddhist community. As in all Buddhist Schools, we value the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha as The Three Treasures.
Please come out to our temple to experience this dynamic and open teaching of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism at the Calgary Buddhist Temple.
(Rev. Tomofumi Fujii)
Congratulations to Fred Ulrich Sensei
Building bridges to Buddhism
Retiring Sensei helped expand religion’s profile in Manitoba
Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press Sensei Fredrich Ulrich, at the Manitoba Buddhist Temple, officially ended 14 years of teaching and preaching at the end of 2013.
After more than a decade of sermons, speeches and television appearances, the city’s most public Buddhist is becoming a little more enlightened about the prospect of retirement.
“I wanted to work until (age) 80, but I figured if I worked too long I wouldn’t enjoy my retirement,” explains Sensei Fredrich Ulrich of the Manitoba Buddhist Temple.
Ulrich officially ended 14 years of preaching and teaching duties at the end of 2013, but admits he hasn’t quite adapted to the rhythm of the next chapter of his life.
“I don’t think I’ll ever stop (working) but it will be in a different key signature,” says the Nebraska native, who plans to write a book and visit other Winnipeg Buddhist groups now that he’s freed from regular responsibilities at the temple.
Born into a German-Metis family, the 74-year-old Ulrich originally trained as a Methodist minister before going on to become a teacher. Still affirming the Christian principle of love, he turned to a broader expression of faith, exploring his aboriginal heritage as well as studying Buddhism for many years, and eventually became ordained as a Buddhist priest in the Jodo Shinshu tradition.
“I had these spiritual experiences that didn’t jive with what they were teaching” at the seminary, explains Ulrich, father of four adult children, including a daughter who is a United Church minister in Edmonton.
“I struggled within Christianity but I couldn’t find a Christian stream that would embrace Buddhism. I found a Buddhist stream that would embrace Christianity.”
That intersection of faiths has intrigued him ever since, and he’s proud of his work with his congregation — called sangha in Sanskrit — as well as his efforts in the community to create a better understanding of Buddhism beyond the stereotypes of chanting saffron robe clad monks.
“I think the core of my work in Winnipeg was interfaith as well as helping this church transfer from being an ethnic (Japanese) church to a Canadian church,” says Ulrich, who is the first non-Japanese sensei at the temple, founded more than six decades ago by Japanese-Canadians interned in the Second World War.
Ulrich has been successful on both counts, expanding the profile of the temple in the community, and attracting newcomers interested in exploring Buddhism, says board member Harvey Kaita, whose grandparents were among the founders of the temple in 1946.
“He has single-handedly made the Manitoba Buddhist Temple get known out there, so now we have more non-Japanese attending than Japanese,” says Kaita.
Last summer, the temple hired Sensei Michael Hayashi, a third generation Canadian of Japanese descent, to replace Ulrich.
That intersection of cultures has led to more mixed marriages, and more accommodation of other faith traditions, says Ulrich, who believes people can develop skills to live as interfaith families.
“We don’t need to convert them. They don’t need to become Buddhist and Buddhists don’t need to become Christians.”
Ulrich’s community work includes participating in the Interfaith Roundtable, the Manitoba Multifaith Council, and hosting school groups and other visitors at the modestly appointed temple, located just west of the Health Sciences Centre at 39 Tecumseh St. He’s also led healing ceremonies between Buddhists and Ahmadiyya Muslims, and taught meditation to residential school survivors.
For two seasons Ulrich also explained the tenets and practices of Buddhism to viewers of Joy TV, now the religious broadcaster Hope TV.
The temple plans to honour Ulrich’s work with a nine-course dinner on Saturday, Feb. 22
“Everything he believes and values really resonates with us,” says Kaita of Ulrich’s work.
“There was a strong connection there.”
brenda@suderman.com
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 14, 2014 D15