Toronto Nichiren Buddhist

Church

ANNOUNCEMENT'S

 1. O-BON SEGAKI SARVICE    July 18^th 1:00pm

Every year, July 13^th to 16^th is O-bon week. Around this time, your ancestors’ soul will return to their beloved ones home. In order to welcome them, please prepare for O-Bon, offering food before your Butsudan (Buddhist Altar) and pray for their peace.

On July 18^th, we will hold an O-Bon Segaki Service for our ancestors and other suffering spirits. During the service, I will be offering the O-touba before the Buddhist altar. I will read each O-touba at the service.

Please write your ancestors’ Buddhist names or given names on the application form and return it to the Temple by Friday July, 16^th.   You can download the application by clicking here

I will be preparing the O-Tōba with your ancestors’ names written on them. The O-Tōba is $5 each. You may include your O-Tōba fee with your donation.

2. The Spring Garage Sale                   May 30^th  9:00am-4:00pm

Once again, in virtue of Buddha, the garage sale was a great success.

There were 14 volunteers that helped out. Thank you for bringing in donations for the garage sale. In total, we raised $580.10. The next garage sale will be on Sunday October 4^th.

We had sunny weather that continued throughout the week, and fortunately on this day, we also had a beautiful sunshine. We all finished the day with a suntan!

3. World Reverend meeting                              June 29^th-July1^st

World Reverends conference is hosted in Tokyo for 3 days from June 29^th to July 1^st. The main contents are as follows; Rev. Fukushima will attend

June 29^th:  Status report by the Reverends, work situation of all the countries.

June 30^th:  Status report by the Reverends.

                   Explanation and discussion from the International Affairs Section,  

                   Head Office of Nichiren Shu Buddism.

July 1^st: Individual reverend interview

Rev. Fukushima will temporarily return to Japan from June 14th to July 8th for this conference. He will also have a Routine Physical    Examination. Rev. Fukushima’s contact information during his absence is listed in the calendar.

4. Notice of change of Head of International Affairs Division of Nichiren Shu Headquarters

On June 1^st, the head of International Affairs Division changed from Kanjin Mochida to Genichi Oikawa Shonin, the previous Reverend of the Seattle Nichiren Buddhist Church.

5. Joint Service at Momiji Health Care Society　　　May 16^th

On May 16th, we had our joint service with the members at the Momiji Health Care Society. Our members at Momiji are seniors and do not have the opportunity to go out very often. They always look forward to this joint service. After the service, we gathered and had a lunch potluck. The members of Momiji prepared various dishes, and we had a pleasent time.　The next joint service is scheduled for Sunday October the 10^th.

We all look forward to see you at the next joint service!

6. Students from Japan visit the temple

This month’s sermon:

Learning at the ESL (English as a Second language) school

In the ESL school, from time to time, we have discussions about a particular topic the teacher brings up in class. Many of the themes are related to human rights. One day, the theme was　"The thing you hope for the most". We discussed our opinions and expressed our ideas about this theme. Of course, it was all in English. This is the time when we practice English expressions. With many of the students coming from conflicted countries, the hopes that they expressed had reflected their life experiences.

Half of the students are immigrants from China, and the other half comes from other parts of the world. For most of the Chinese students their hopes were; improving their English, attaining a good profession, and to earn a lot of money in order to take good care of their family.

China’s economy is now developing remarkably, however, the ones who emigrate do not always benefit from this. It is possible to understand how serious they wish for their hope to come true.

My friend from Afghanistan hopes to maintain a peaceful living. He had lost his siblings and his entire fortune due to the internal conflict in his country, and this hope reflects his hope that comes from the bottom of his heart.

Recently there is a man who has just moved from Sudan. He hoped for Sudan’s change of government and that his country would become peaceful. Sudan is currently known to be having the world’s worst civil war.  I do not know his personal situations but I have felt deeply sad for him.

As a Japanese missionary worker of Nichiren Shu, my hope is to increase the members of our temple. However, after having said so, I reconsidered my answer. The reason why I had come to Canada for missionary work is ultimately for world peace, and also to realize my personal happiness. Missionary work is only a step towards this hope. I seem to have mistaken this step for an objective.

By all means, I am doing my missionary work in order to reach my sole purpose because I believe the Lotus Sutra is the most excellent teaching of all. My ESL classmates all wished for peace for their family and country even while living in a difficult condition. This has made me believe that it is a honourable religious activity.

Toronto has become very hot recently, and I was bringing a fan to school. The classroom is not air-conditioned and it is very hot. When my classmates saw my fan, they had told me that it was very uncommon and that they would like to have one. The next day, I brought them the fans that were left from the previous garage sale. I had given them a price for the fan and they placed their money in my pencil case. The fans were sold out immediately and when I looked inside my pencil case, I realized I made three times the amount of money I presumed I would make. Once they knew this money would be a part of the fund for temple activities, they had bought the fans for more than what I asked for. Although they are not Buddhist and are struggling financially, they had donated money for our temple. This had reminded me of what one of Buddha’s disciples, Mahakasyapa, had said. “Being poor refers to the heart of one not giving to others when they have their sufficient needs.”  

The ESL school where I can meet many people from around the world teaches me many things.