Buddhist Education Committee
The Making of American Buddhism
Wednesday, November 1, 2023
7:00 p.m.
A conversation with Dr. Scott Mitchell about his new book The Making of American Buddhism.
Dr. Scott
Mitchell
Rev. Yoshitaka Tamai Professor of Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Studies
Institute of Buddhist Studies
The Making of American Buddhism available for purchase at the BCA Bookstore.
As of 2010, there were approximately 3-4 million Buddhists in the United States, and that figure is expected to grow significantly. Beyond the numbers, the influence of Buddhism can be felt throughout the culture, with many more people practicing meditation, for example, than claiming Buddhist identity. A century ago, this would have been unthinkable. So how did Buddhism come to claim such a significant place in the American cultural landscape?
The Making of American Buddhism offers an answer, showing how in the years on either side of World War II second-generation Japanese American Buddhists laid claim to an American identity inclusive of their religious identity. In the process they-and their allies-created a place for Buddhism in America. These sons and daughters of Japanese immigrants-known as “Nisei,” Japanese for “second-generation”-clustered around the Berkeley Bussei, a magazine published from 1939 to 1960. In the pages of the Bussei and elsewhere, these Nisei Buddhists argued that Buddhism was both what made them good Americans and what they had to contribute to America-a rational and scientific religion of peace.
The Making of American Buddhism also details the behind-the-scenes labor that made Buddhist modernism possible. The Bussei was one among many projects that were embedded within Japanese American Buddhist communities and connected to national and transnational networks that shaped and allowed for the spread of modernist Buddhist ideas. In creating communities, publishing magazines, and hosting scholarly conventions and translation projects, Nisei Buddhists built the religious infrastructure that allowed the later Buddhist modernists, Beat poets, and white converts who are often credited with popularizing Buddhism to flourish. Nisei activists didn’t invent American Buddhism, but they made it possible.
We welcome you to join us in person at the San Mateo Buddhist Temple or via Zoom Meeting on Wednesday, November 1 for this Dharma session.
To join us for this online Dharma Session, CLICK HERE and sign up for “Study Classes and Seminars”.
Open Dharma Q&A and Discussion with Rev. Giei Sasaki
Wednesday, September 6, 2023
7:00 p.m.
Rev. Giei Sasaki
Hongwanji Guiding Dharma Teacher
Bring your Dharma questions and curiosity to this open conversation with Rev. Giei Sasaki, a leading thinker and scholar of the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist tradition.
To join us online for this hybrid Dharma Session, CLICK HERE and sign up for “Study Classes and Seminars”.
one long listening: a memoir of grief, friendship, and spiritual care
Wednesday, May 3, 2023
7:00 p.m.
A conversation with Buddhist author Chenxing Han about her new book one long listening: a memoir of grief, friendship, and spiritual care.
Photo by Lan Le
Chenxing
Han
Institute of Buddhist Studies Alumnus
and Buddhist Author
Immigrant daughter, novice chaplain, bereaved friend: author Chenxing Han (Be the Refuge) takes us on a pilgrimage through the wilds of grief and laughter, pain and impermanence, reconnecting us to both the heartache and inexplicable brightness of being human.
Eddying around three autumns of Han’s life, one long listening journeys from a mountaintop monastery in Taiwan to West Coast oncology wards, from oceanside Ireland to riverfront Phnom Penh. Through letters to a dying friend, bedside chaplaincy visits, and memories of a migratory childhood, Han’s startling, searching memoir cuts a singular portrait of a spiritual caregiver in training.
We welcome you to join us in person at the San Mateo Buddhist Temple or via Zoom Meeting on Wednesday, May 3 for this Dharma session.
To join us for this online Dharma Session, CLICK HERE and sign up for “Study Classes and Seminars”.
Shōshinge: Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu (Session 27)
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
Please join us for a conversation about the teachings of the Japanese Pure Land Master Genshin, whose teachings set the stage for the flowering of the Pure Land teaching in Japan.
Genshin, having broadly elucidated the teachings of Sakyamuni’s lifetime,
Wholeheartedly took refuge in the land of peace and urges all to do so;
Ascertaining that minds devoted to single practice are profound, to sundry practice, shallow,
He sets forth truly the difference between the fulfilled land and the transformed land.
Buddhism and Social Welfare
Wednesday, April 5, 2023
7:00 p.m.
Rev. Jundo Gregory Gibbs
Resident Minister
Pasadena Buddhist Temple
Supervising Minister
Buddhist Temple of San Diego
Supervising Minister
Arizona Buddhist Temple
Rev. Gibbs will be joining us via Zoom Meeting on Wednesday, April 5 for this Dharma session. We warmly welcome you to come to the San Mateo Buddhist Temple to view and participate in this session with other Sangha members in the Hondo.
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 26)
Wednesday, March 8, 2023
In this month’s session we will further explore the teachings of the Chinese Pure Land Master Shan-tao (Shandao), who illuminates the path to attaining the threefold wisdom realized by Queen Vaidehi.
Shan-tao alone in his time clarified the Buddha’s true intent;
Sorrowing at the plight of meditative and non meditative practicers and people of grave evil,
He reveals that Amida’s light and Name are the causes of birth.
When the practicer enters the great ocean of wisdom, the Primal Vow,
He receives the diamondlike mind
And accords with the one thought-moment of joy; whereupon,
Equally with Vaidehi, he acquires the threefold wisdom
And is immediately brought to attain the eternal bliss of dharma-nature.
Sangha Life After Covid: Continuity and Change
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
7:00 p.m.
Rev. Blayne Higa
Resident Minister
Kona Hongwanji Buddhist Temple
As we begin to view the Covid-19 pandemic in the rearview mirror of our lives, we look forward to welcoming Rev. Blayne Higa via Zoom to share his perspective on the aspects of temple life that remained constant through the pandemic, as well as the lasting changes to temple life that have resulted from our Covid-19 experience.
Rev. Higa will be joining us via Zoom Meeting on Wednesday, March 1 for this Dharma session. We warmly welcome you to come to the San Mateo Buddhist Temple to view and participate in this session with other Sangha members in the Hondo.
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.
Experiencing The Power Beyond Self: How the Buddhist Teachings are Manifested in Our Helping Others
26th Annual Nembutsu Seminar
Saturday, February 11, 2023
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Rev. Dr. Yasushi
Kigoshi
Professor
Otani University
Visiting Scholar
University of California Berkeley
In this seminar, Rev. Dr. Kigoshi will talk about the series of weekend trips he and Otani University student volunteers took to the area affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The volunteers went to provide help to the disaster victims – cleaning out damaged properties and organizing gatherings for activities but most importantly, being there to listen and provide moral support without using the occasions for proselytizing. In this way, Prof. Kigoshi and the students learned concrete Dharma lessons about themselves and society.
Continue reading “Experiencing The Power Beyond Self: How the Buddhist Teachings are Manifested in Our Helping Others”Shōshinge: Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu (Session 25)
Wednesday, February 8, 2023
In this month’s session we will encounter the teachings of the Chinese Pure Land Master Shan-tao (Shandao), who clarified the meaning of the Contemplation Sutra as an expression of the Buddha’s vast compassion for all beings.
Shan-tao alone in his time clarified the Buddha’s true intent;
Sorrowing at the plight of meditative and non meditative practicers and people of grave evil,
He reveals that Amida’s light and Name are the causes of birth.
When the practicer enters the great ocean of wisdom, the Primal Vow,
He receives the diamondlike mind
And accords with the one thought-moment of joy; whereupon,
Equally with Vaidehi, he acquires the threefold wisdom
And is immediately brought to attain the eternal bliss of dharma-nature.