Editor's Note - This is an excerpt from the July 2004 issue of the Buddhist Wheel

The words of our tradition say, “We are a community of people, a SANGHA, joined together by our joy and gladness in a life, entrusting to Amida Buddha. As Jodo Shin Buddhists, we shall be sincere in words and in deeds and share with others our Jodo Shinshu Teachings.”

Recently a special gathering directed toward facilitating temple improvement was held in the Sangha Hall. Youths and adults were asked to share their thoughts with each other as well as with our temple leadership. In so doing, they could share in the vision for the Sangha.

Haven’t you as a member said to yourself, “I wish we could have this or that included in the service,” or “I wish there were others from the community coming to the temple.” Haven’t you asked how can we become acquainted with our large Hilo Betsuin sangha?”

Shinran Shonin our founder had his view of membership. He spoke of his relationship with others as ondobo ondogy; that is, walking together in the path of the teachings. He shared the teachings with whomever he met. One on one, he shared with them the joy of receiving Amida Buddha’s entrusting. He spoke to the men and women explaining the vow of Amida Buddha which gave them the assurance of their future spiritual life. They in turn shared with others, and the sangha grew. It did not begin as a large group. They had dojos, meeting places, to hear the teachings and to ask their questions and have any misunderstanding cleared. Shinran Shonin’s sangha slowly grew as the sharing grew in newly found spiritual joy of living with the Nembutsu each day in gratitude.

Just as in Shinran’s time, people today are searching for their spiritual home. In Hilo, you can tell that many are searching for a church or temple by just looking at the Hawaii Tribune Herald. On Friday’s religion page, many churches publicize their services, so much so that this week the print font was 10 or 11, just so that the religion briefs could fit on one page.

To go back briefly to last year, a daylong facilitation workshop was held on a Saturday to assess temple needs. Youths and adults shared their basic concerns, one of which was the need for youth activities. As a result, the Board of Buddhist Education has sponsored a monthly Youth Night. The most recent wonderful fun-filled June youth night was “Summer Blast”. More recently, the second facilitation was held on Sunday. Following a brief service in the Sangha Hall and a brief message of reflection, the sangha moved forth into the small group discussions. Much sharing and discussion took place; all one had to do was look at the sheets of paper listing ideas, feelings and wishes for the temple. Each small group summarized their findings to the entire group. To inform the entire sangha, these ideas will be gathered so that all of the Hilo Betsuin sangha may share in the vision for Hilo Betsuin’s future. These thoughts will focus on the new direction for our temple’s sangha in spreading and sharing the joy of our community of Jodo Shin Buddhists.

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