April 9, 2025
7:00 p.m.
Buddhist-Christian Interfaith Conversation
Buddhist Education Committee
Dealing with Difficulties and Experiencing Greater Joy in Life: A Shin Buddhist Way for Today
Saturday, March 15, 2025
1:00 to 3:30 p.m.
Rev. Dr. Kenneth Tanaka
Professor Emeritus
Musashino University, Tokyo
We welcome you to join us in person at the San Mateo Buddhist Temple for this timely Dharma Session.
We are taught that one of the core Buddhist teachings is “non-self.” For many American Buddhists, that seems to go against our spirit of “individualism,” self-esteem, and “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.” Some, therefore, think Buddhism is too pessimistic and passive. Also most people consider self-esteem to be a good thing, so we try to nurture it in our children. How, then, should we think about these seeming contradictions? This seminar will attempt to answer these pressing questions as Buddhism continues to make inroads into contemporary American society.
To join us via Zoom, CLICK HERE and sign up for “Study Classes and Seminars”.
Women Liberating Buddhism
28th Annual Nembutsu Seminar
Saturday, February 15, 2025
Schedule
9:00 a.m. Registration and Continental Breakfast
9:30 a.m. Opening Service and Welcome
9:45 a.m. Lecture I
10:45 a.m. Break
11:00 a.m. Lecture II
12:00 p.m. Lunch
12:45 p.m. Discussion and Q&A
1:30 p.m. Conclusion
Dr. Paula
Arai
Eshinni & Kakushinni Professor of Women in Buddhist Studies
Institute of Buddhist Studies
We welcome you to join us in person at the San Mateo Buddhist Temple on Saturday, Febuary 15 for this Dharma session.
You may also join via Zoom Meeting. To join us online, CLICK HERE and sign up for “Study Classes and Seminars”.
特別法座：江本常照先生 Special Dharma Lecture by Rev. Jōshō Emoto
２０２４年７月８日（月曜日）午後３時からサンマテオ仏教会の本堂で特別法座を行います。
Monday, July 8, 2024
3:00 p.m. (Pacific Time)
Special Dharma Lecture live in person at the San Mateo Buddhist Temple.
江本常照先生
真宗大谷派 普光山長仁寺 住職
大分県中津市
Rev. Jōshō Emoto
Resident Minister, Choninji Temple
Nakatsu City, Oita Prefecture, Japan
この日本語の法座は英語の通訳付きで行います。
This talk will be delivered in Japanese with English interpretation by Rev. Henry Adams.
オンライン（ズーム・ミーティング）で参加する方は、ここで「日本語の法話」に登録してください。
To join us online for this hybrid Dharma Session, CLICK HERE and sign up for “日本語の法話”.
Creating Inclusive Sanghas (Part II)
April 17
7:00 p.m.
Rev. Melissa Opel
Resident Minister
Buddhist Church of San Francisco
We warmly welcome you to join us in person at the San Mateo Buddhist Temple for this Dharma Talk and conversation with Rev. Melissa Opel.
To join us via Zoom, CLICK HERE and sign up for “Study Classes and Seminars”. To protect the privacy of online participants and encourage free and open discussion, this session will not be recorded.
Shōshinge: Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu (Session 31)
This session concludes our journey through the Shoshinge, which began in the Spring of 2020. As we read this final section, we reflect upon the significance of Shoshinge as a whole and consider the essential teachings that Shinran Shonin illuminates in his verses.
The mahasattvas and masters who spread the sutras
Save the countless beings of utter defilement and evil.
With the same mind, all people of the present, whether monk or lay,
Should rely wholly on the teachings of these venerable masters.
The Medicine of Compassion: Pure Land Practice and Other Power in a Tibetan Buddhist Pill Tradition
27th Annual Nembutsu Seminar
Saturday, March 9, 2024
2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Dr. James
Gentry
Stanford University
Dr. Gentry specializes in Tibetan Buddhism, with particular focus on the literature and history of its Tantric traditions. He is the author of Power Objects in Tibetan Buddhism: The Life, Writings, and Legacy of Sokdokpa Lodrö Gyeltsen, which examines the roles of Tantric material and sensory objects in the lives and institutions of Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhists.
We welcome you to join us in person at the San Mateo Buddhist Temple on Saturday, March 9 for this Dharma session.
You may also join via Zoom Meeting from the comfort and safety of your own home. To join us online, CLICK HERE and sign up for “Study Classes and Seminars”.
Shōshinge: Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu (Session 30)
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
We continue our study of the teachings of Honen-bo Genku, Shinran Shonin’s teacher, reflecting upon the hindrances caused by doubt, and benefits of shinjin, or entrusting in the Buddha’s teachings:
Return to this house of transmigration, of birth-and death,
Is decidedly caused by doubt.
Swift entrance into the city of tranquility, the uncreated,
Is necessarily brought about by shinjin.
Shōshinge: Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu (Session 29)
Wednesday, October 11, 2023
Please join us as we encounter the teachings of Honen-bo Genku, Shinran Shonin’s teacher, who established a radically inclusive Sangha community where samurai and aristocrats sat shoulder to shoulder with outcastes and thieves to hear the message of Amida Buddha’s great compassion:
Master Genku, well-versed in the Buddha’s teaching,
Turned compassionately to foolish people, both good and evil;
Establishing in this remote land the teaching and realization that are the true essence of the Pure Land way,
He transmits the selected Primal Vow to us of the defiled world:
Shōshinge: Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu (Session 28)
Wednesday, September 13, 2023
Please join us for a conversation about the teachings of the Japanese Pure Land Master Genshin, whose teachings offer the assurance that the light of the Buddha’s compassion is constantly illuminating our path forward in life, even when we are not aware of it.
The person burdened with extreme evil should simply say the Name:
Although I too am within Amida’s grasp,
Passions obstruct my eyes and I cannot see him;
Nevertheless, great compassion is untiring and illumines me always.