Being a Member of the Temple

We’ve put the temple membership renewal/sign-up form in our newsletter for a few months now, as a gentle reminder that’s it’s that time again, people…  Born Buddhists—first-,  second-, and third-generation Japanese Americans who pioneered the establishment of our temple after World War II—don’t usually need the reminder.  Paying dues, like running a food booth at the annual festivals, is part of their temple life and practice.

It is less so with newer members, especially those coming to us from Christian denominations or without experience in other religious traditions that pay dues.  The seekers who may have been coming to our services for months (or years!), enjoying the book club and participating in classes and meditation services, may be shocked to learn that these activities do not make them “members” at all—friends, yes, and welcome; but not members.

“Why are there dues at all?” we have been asked.  “Am I supposed to pay to hear the teachings of the Buddha?”

The answer is:  “of course not”.  Membership dues are not the price you must pay in return for the privilege of hearing the teachings, attending the book club, or any of our other activates that are open to the public.  Member dues are a way of practicing dana, or generosity.

(And yes, our member dues are a significant portion of the temple budget to keep a roof over the head of our teachers and their teachings, and to ensure that our beautiful temple remains open and available to future generations of seekers as it was made open and available to us.  But that’s the result of dana, not its practice.)

In the Lotus Sutra—one of the most important and influential of the early Buddhist texts—there are six paramitas, or values, that are considered most important:

dana, generosity;

sila, morality;

ksanti, patience;

virya, diligent effort;

dhyana, meditation, and

prajna, wisdom.

Generosity is essential in Buddhist history.  Since the Buddha’s time, monks have begged for their food, and it is still the practice among the monastic forms of Buddhism.  In our lay Buddhism, generosity is essential  to keep the temple and its sangha alive and thriving.

It’s obvious what’s in it for the monk with a begging bowl—the entire day’s food ration!  It’s equally obvious what’s in it for the temple that asks for membership dues—that’s where the electric, water, phone bill, and minister’s salary come from.  Maybe it’s less obvious why dana is a spiritual value for the one who gives.  Maybe that’s where the confusion or consternation arises.

We are usually offered rewards for our generosity, whether it’s a tax write off or a thank you gift.  Listen to a public radio broadcast during any pledge drive and you’ll hear the package of “incentives for giving”, such as a special CD or DVD made available just for donors, perhaps.  And we get into that mindset with temple memberships too.  Someone will ask what their membership gets them, and we fall into the pledge drive trap of offering our monthly newsletter, special member rates for temple facilities, special member rates for temple services (weddings, funerals, memorial services), as well as eligibility to serve on the board and eligibility to vote at the temple annual meeting.

Quite honestly, if we’re selling temple membership, wouldn’t you rather have a special issue DVD?

The truth is that we are not selling anything.  We are offering the opportunity to practice dana.  In Buddhism, motivation matters.  The Buddha taught that when we give, we do so without thought of reward.  That’s dana.  We give without attachment to our giving or to what it “gets” us.  We practice dana to release our greed.  Dana helps us dissolve our ego-I and relieves the sufferings of others.  Perhaps most importantly, dana includes our gratitude for what has been given to us, that enables us to give.

There is a lot of teaching embodied in the practice of dana.  We know dana is practicing generosity, and nobody should put a price on another’s generosity.  But for many of us, particularly those newer to Buddhism, the concept of dana, and particularly in America when the best intentions are followed with the anxious question of “how much?” requesting guidance, we assign suggested minimums for membership as well as special services and facility uses. 

And, when we’re done mailing our monthly newsletter to all our members, we leave the extras in the temple foyer for our friends and visitors, because—

—don’t tell anybody—

—the newsletter isn’t a benefit of paying dues.  Dana is.

Our Board of Directors

Like every non-profit organization, our temple has a board of directors—members who are elected by the membership at large and charged with the administrative oversight of the temple life.  The spiritual and education needs are directed through our supervising minister.  We stuck to the financial and administrative work.  And, once in a while, we look up as a body and say who are we, who do we want to be and how are we going to get there?

We s spent the last half of 2015 developing a strategic plan for our temple’s future.  We participated in two retreats and received feedback from important Temple groups on our initial draft.  The 20/20 Vision for 2018 is now complete and we will begin a 3-year process to implement the plan.  We will not try to accomplish these goals in one year, so please don’t anticipate that change will happen at such a rapid rate. And because we know things will continue to change (remember that impermanence lesson?) we will revisit and adapt our plan each year.   But here’s what we have in our pocket at every board meeting now:

Resident Minister:  We anticipate recruiting a resident minister in the next 3 years. We will try to create a new, contemporary model for VBT resident minister.  A team will scope our needs and goals before beginning a recruitment process.

Buddhist Education: We will continue to expand Buddhist education by offering more classes and more meditation. Outreach will be important in bringing awareness in the community of our Buddhist education program.

Temple Building and Grounds:  We will make a greater investment in improving the Temple building and grounds to catch up on the deferred maintenance, upgrade the kitchen, and improve the Temple grounds and gardens.

American Buddhism:  We will evolve our Buddhist practice to embrace contemporary Buddhist practices that our Sangha has requested and will enjoy. We will establish a team to examine ideas including more meditation, engaged Buddhism discussions, and relook at how to preserve our Japanese tradition and cultural heritage while revisiting our mix of the Japanese and English languages.  Before we make any changes, it will be imperative to listen to a broad cross section of Sangha voices and opinions on this matter.

Financial Security:  We will continuously examine existing and new activities for raising funds to keep the Temple financially secure with the necessary resources to accomplish our goals and grow.  This will include an ongoing analysis of our current activities including the Hanamatsuri and Obon festivals.  We will also ensure that our existing financial assets are both secure and well managed with growth in mind.

Not every idea in the plan is  new or “out of the box” creative.  We have effectively embraced change in recent years, which has been an important element in our success. The new 20/20 Vision Plan is just a more formalized process to manage change and achieve our future goals. 

Nirvana Day (Nehan-ye)

In his book “Old Path, White Clouds”, Thich Nhat Hanh tells a story of the Buddha.  The Buddha says, “my teaching is not a dogma or a doctrine, but no doubt some people will take it as such.”  He goes on to say, “I must state clearly that my teaching is a method to experience reality, and is not reality itself—just as a finger pointing at the moon is not the moon itself.  A thinking person makes use of the finger to see the moon.  A person who only looks at the finger and mistakes it for the moon will never see the real moon.”

Sometimes it troubles our temple visitors and newer members to hear so much about the teachings, life and death of Shinran Shonin, our sect’s founder and teacher. 

“What about the Buddha?” they ask.  “How does all this square with the Buddha?”  And, indeed, while Shinran is unknown outside Shin Buddhism, the Buddha is universally known as a great sage.  His images are found everywhere, from dramatic stone carvings outdoors to paintings in caves, to the interiors of temples, and even to gardening supply stores. 

We revere and honor our teacher Shinran as the finger pointing to the moon, and we give him both the memorial of his death (Ho-Onko, January) and birth (Gotan-E, May).

But we honor the source of the teachings, the moon of the dharma (teachings), Shakyamuni Buddha, three times a year:  his entry into Nirvana (February, Nehan-ye), his birthday (April, Hanamatsuri), and his enlightenment (Bodhi Day, December).

Today our Sunday service commemorates the death of the Buddha Shakyamuni and his entrance into Nirvana.  Nirvana is not the place of enlightenment.  The Buddha achieved enlightenment at the age of 35 and continued to teach until he died 45 years later at the age of 80.

Nirvana means “to extinguish”, as in the way a candle flame is snuffed out.  Sometimes we talk about paranirvana, where, in the case of the Buddha, you have the extinguishing of life of one who achieved enlightenment in this lifetime. Tradition tells us that, knowing his death was imminent, the Buddha rested his sick, ancient body on one side, propping his head up with one hand, and gave a final teaching to the disciples surrounding him:

Make of yourself a light.  Rely upon yourself:  do not depend upon anyone else.  Make my teachings your light.  Rely upon them:  do not depend upon any other teaching.

He wanted his disciples to go forth as teachers themselves in order to free others from suffering as he had freed his disciples.  He finished his last teaching with these words:

During the last 45 years of my life, I have withheld nothing from my teachings.  There is no secret teaching, no hidden meaning, everything has been taught openly and clearly.  My dear disciples, this is the end.  In a moment, I shall be passing into Nirvana.  This is my instruction.

And with that, the light of Shakymuni Buddha was extinguished.

Buddhist Education - "Beyond Belief"

Our Buddhist Education Committee is a relatively large, sprawling committee for our small temple.  We are officially charge “to support dissemination o the Buddha Dharma” as well as work with our ministers to promote and coordinate the temple’s educational activities.

It sounds like a lot of work (it is!), and it sounds important (dissemination of the Buddha Dharma—the Buddha’s teachings—is; the committee is not).  Mostly we are known as “BEC”, and our committee members become visible when we register attendees for our class offerings.

Part of the temple’s vision the next three years includes expanding Buddhist education by offering more classes and more meditation services.   There always seems to be more interest from the community in learning more about Buddhism at the beginning of the year and after exposure to the temple from our annual festivals, so we are starting the year with a new class by Sensei Jim Pollard:  “Beyond Belief:  Finding the Shin Buddhist Path”.

What is the Shin Buddhist path anyway?  Although Shin Buddhism is the largest sect of Buddhism in Japan, it is less well known in this country, and it has some teachings that we think an American population would find very useful and interesting.  Shin Buddhism is the teachings of Shinran Shonin—more accurately, it is the experience of Shinran, as transmitted to him by his teachers. 

First, he became an ambitious person, then a devout person, and finally a foolish , ordinary person.  His experience of finding the path is a universal one.  In other words, what happens to us is the same as what happened to Shinran.  To be a Shin Buddhist is to make his experience our own.