The Book Club Begins a New Shelf of Books

Our temple book club began about five years ago at the suggestion of a temple member with a background in education.  A book club would allow interested temple and community members the opportunity to study Buddhism through selected readings as well as give people the chance to know each other better in a smaller, more personal setting than the Sunday service can provide.

Needless to add, the member who suggested the book club also got to start it!  The club’s co-chairs select the books for the year ahead, soliciting input from club members and the temple as a whole.  In the summer and year end holidays, the Book Club features a popular “Book Club Goes to the Movies” event, complete with popcorn.

As it began to develop, sometimes it was only the co-chairs at a book club meeting—but at least they’d both read the book selection and had something to discuss.  Sometimes the Book Club was a victim of shuffled scheduling and other demands on our collective time.  It took a few years of uneven attendance and trying different  meeting times before it caught on and began to draw 10-15 individuals per meeting.  Plus visitors to Sunday service found the selection of books to purchase useful for their private study even if they never returned to temple.

Now the Book Club is part of our experience of temple and community.  This year we

hope everyone is looking forward to reading some great books to guide us as we journey together on the Shin Buddhist path. The path is not without obstacles, as we find out in our book selection to kick off the year. The Authentic Life: Zen Wisdom for Living Free from Complacency and Fear, by Ezra Bayda, is written with exceptional clarity and simplicity. Bayda offers practical ways in which we can use our spiritual practice to respond to life’s blows.  He writes, “A crucial step is to see our difficulties as our path.” When spiritual practice begins to become the central orientation of our life, when we increasingly remember to ask ourselves, Can I see this situation as my path? – then we are in the process of living most authentically.” Our most painful experiences are an opportunity to deepen self-discovery and growth, even leading to freedom.