animals

Bodhi Day Service: Life Outside the Palace Gates

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Sunday, December 7, 2025

We warmly welcome you to join us in person at the San Mateo Buddhist Temple for our Bodhi Day Service on Sunday, December 7. For this year’s Bodhi Day Dharma talk, Rev. Henry will revisit the story of Prince Siddhartha’s excursions out of four gates of the palace. The prince’s sheltered life in the palace can be appreciated as an allegory for the comforts and conveniences of modern life, in which we go to great lengths to avoid the experience aging, illness, and death, and yet cannot escape these realities of human existence.

Schedule
8:30 a.m. Shōya Raisan Chanting
9:00 a.m. Sangha Coffee Time
9:30 a.m. Bodhi Day Service
10:30 a.m. Dharma Discussion in the Social Hall

 

To join us via Zoom for this Dharma Service CLICK HERE and sign up for “Live Broadcast of Services”.

Pet & Plant Memorial Service

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Featured artwork: Drawing by Ren Fung

Sunday, October 5, 2025

We gratefully remember the animals who provide us with companionship as our pets. We also show our appreciation for the plants that support our lives, including the cut flowers that adorn the Buddha Shrine and bring us joy through their beauty.

Use the form below to provide the name of the deceased pet(s) and/or plants that you would like to remember at the San Mateo Buddhist Temple Pet and & Plant Memorial Service.

Schedule
8:30 a.m. Shoshinge Sofu Chanting
9:00 a.m. Sangha Social Hour
9:30 a.m. Pet & Plant Memorial Dharma Service
10:30 a.m. October Shotsuki Hoyo Monthly Memorial Service

To join us for this online Dharma Service, CLICK HERE to sign up for “Live Broadcast of Services”.

Like a Crow Attacking a Rock – The Buddha’s Unbreakable Settled Mind

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Sunday, December 1, 2024

We warmly welcome you to join us in person at the San Mateo Buddhist Temple for our Bodhi Day (Buddha’s Enlightenment) Service on Sunday, December 1. The traditional telling of the Buddha’s life story describes how he attained enlightenment after vanquishing Mara, the demon king who strives to confine all beings to a life of suffering and discontent through their greed, anger, and ignorance.

In this Sunday’s Dharma Talk, Rev. Adams will share appreciations for how the Buddha’s resolute clarity in face of Mara’s onslaught illustrates the truth that a calm and peaceful person may appear weak and vulnerable to some, but in reality those who live with a settled mind have the courage and unbreakable resolve to overcome all manner of difficulties and distractions.

Schedule
8:30 a.m. Shōya Raisan Chanting
9:00 a.m. Sangha Social hour
9:30 a.m. Bodhi Day Service
10:30 a.m. Dharma Discussion

To join us via Zoom for this Dharma Service CLICK HERE and sign up for “Live Broadcast of Services”.

Pet & Plant Memorial Service

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Featured artwork: Drawing by Ren Fung

Sunday, October 6, 2024

We gratefully remember the animals who provide us with companionship as our pets. We also show our appreciation for the plants that support our lives, including the cut flowers that adorn the Buddha Shrine and bring us joy through their beauty.

Use the form below to provide the name of the deceased pet(s) and/or plants that you would like to remember at the San Mateo Buddhist Temple Pet and & Plant Memorial Service.

Schedule
8:30 a.m. Shoshinge Sofu Chanting
9:00 a.m. Taiso Morning Exercise with instructors Juliet Bost Yokoe
9:30 a.m. Pet & Plant Memorial Dharma Service
10:30 a.m. October Shotsuki Hoyo Monthly Memorial Service

To join us for this online Dharma Service, CLICK HERE to sign up for “Live Broadcast of Services”.

Hunting and Fishing

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From The Letters of Rennyo Shonin (Gobunsho) Fascicle 1, Letter 3

The important point of the settled mind in our tradition does not lie particularly in refraining from evil thoughts or keeping delusory thoughts and attachments from arising.

We may just carry on trading, working as servants, hunting or fishing. If we deeply realize that the Primal Vow of Amida Tathagata promises to save such worthless people like us, who are absorbed, morning and evening, inn our daily engagements, deluded under the influence of our evil karma, and if we single-heartedly entrust ourselves to Amida Buddha’s compassionate Vow without any doubt, while having firm assurance of our emancipation － since such a single thought of entrusting is sincere, we will certainly be saved by the Tathagata.

Beyond this, in what state of mind should we say the nembutsu? We should say the nembutsu as long as we live, acknowledging our deep indebtedness to the benevolence of Amida who saves us by settling our birth through the endowment of the power of entrusting which we thus receive.

Such people are called practicers with the entrusting heart who have attained the settled mind of our tradition.

Humbly and respectfully.

18th day of the 12th month, 3rd year of Bunmei [1471]

Bodhi Day Service: How to Catch a Snake

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Sunday, December 3, 2023

We warmly welcome you to join us in person at the San Mateo Buddhist Temple for our Bodhi Day Service on Sunday, December 3. Bodhi Day is our annual celebration of Sakyamuni Buddha’s attainment of enlightenment seated beneath the Bodhi Tree. As we revisit the traditional story of Sakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, Rev. Adams will offer some reflections on the Buddha’s teaching that listening to the Dharma requires the same care and focused attention needed to catch a poisonous snake.

Schedule
8:30 a.m. Shōya Raisan Chanting
9:00 a.m. Taiso Morning Exercise
9:30 a.m. Bodhi Day Service
10:30 a.m. Dharma Discussion

To join us via Zoom for this Dharma Service CLICK HERE and sign up for “Live Broadcast of Services”.

Pet & Plant Memorial Service

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Featured artwork: Drawing by Ren Fung

Sunday, October 1, 2023

We gratefully remember the animals who provide us with companionship as our pets. We also show our appreciation for the plants that support our lives, including the cut flowers that adorn the Buddha Shrine and bring us joy through their beauty.

Use the form below to provide the name of the deceased pet(s) and/or plants that you would like to remember at the San Mateo Buddhist Temple Pet and & Plant Memorial Service.

Schedule
8:30 a.m. Shoshinge Sofu Chanting
9:00 a.m. Taiso Morning Exercise with instructors Juliet Bost Yokoe
9:30 a.m. Pet & Plant Memorial Dharma Service
10:30 a.m. October Shotsuki Hoyo Monthly Memorial Service

To join us for this online Dharma Service, CLICK HERE to sign up for “Live Broadcast of Services”.

The Calm and Courageous Lion (January 8)

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This Sunday’s Dharma Talk by Rev. Adams will focus on the courage that awakens in our minds when we are free of ignorance, greed, and anger, inspired by the following verse the Sanbutsuge:

Ignorance, greed, and anger

Are completely absent in the World-honored One;

You are a lion, the most courageous of all humans,

Having immeasurable majestic virtues.

Schedule
8:30 a.m. Shoshinge Sofu Chanting
9:00 a.m. Sangha Social Hour
9:30 a.m. Dharma Service
10:30 a.m. Shotsuki Hoyo Monthly Memorial (Hondo Main Hall)
10:30 a.m. Dharma Discussion (Dharma Room)

We welcome you to join us in person!

To join us online via Zoom , CLICK HERE to sign up for “Live Broadcast of Services”.

Being a Jellyfish in the Dharma Ocean (December 11)

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In this Sunday’s Dharma Talk, Rev. Adams will reflect on the wisdom of the jellyfish that flows in harmony with the vast ocean, and share appreciation for the following verse from the Sanbutsuge:

Deeply and clearly mindful

Of the ocean of the Dharma of all Buddhas,

[The Awakened One] knows its depth and breadth,

And reach its farthest end.

Schedule
8:30 a.m. Shōya Raisan Chanting
9:00 a.m. Hula with Stephanie Hagio Chin
9:30 a.m. Dharma Service
10:30 a.m. Dharma Discussion
10:30 a.m. Shotsuki Hoyo Monthly Memorial

We welcome you to join us in person!

To join us online via Zoom , CLICK HERE to sign up for “Live Broadcast of Services”.

Pet & Plant Memorial Service

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Sunday, October 2, 2022

We gratefully remember the animals who provide us with companionship as our pets. We also show our appreciation for the plants that support our lives, including the cut flowers that adorn the Buddha Shrine and bring us joy through their beauty.

Use the form below to provide the name of the deceased pet(s) and/or plants that you would like to remember at the San Mateo Buddhist Temple Pet and & Plant Memorial Service.

Schedule
8:30 a.m. Shoshinge Sofu Chanting
9:00 a.m. Taiso Morning Exercise with instructors Juliet & Grace Bost
9:30 a.m. Pet & Plant Memorial Dharma Service
10:30 a.m. October Shotsuki Hoyo Monthly Memorial Service

To join us for this online Dharma Service, CLICK HERE to sign up for “Live Broadcast of Services”.