May 19th was another busy Sunday at Oregon Buddhist Temple. While Yuki Sensei led the Chanting Club inside Hondo, the OBWA and May Toban Team were busily working in the downstairs kitchen to prepare the "otoki" that was to be served after the service.
The Gotan-e Service, to celebrate Shinran Shonin's birthday, started at 10am. Added to the regular Sangha, OBT welcomed a big group of local high school students from Jesuit and Catlin Gabel. We were all very happy that the students chose OBT to learn and experience Buddhism!
For this special service to celebrate the birth of Shinran Shonin, we got to chant Shoshinge with Wasan. The OBT Choir sang "Shuso Gotan-e", a special song for the special service. Rev.Yuki's Dharma Message from this service can be seen on our Youtube channel, so please check it out!
Dharma Message was followed by Hatsumairi Ceremony, conducted by Rev.Yuki. Hatsumairi recognizes the new members to the temple. 20 people were recognized for this year's Hatsumairi! Welcome!!!
The celebrating mood of welcoming the new members continued onto downstairs, where everyone enjoyed Otoki. A piping bowl of udon noodles with all sorts of goodies on top!
Team OBWA/MayToban tirelessly brought out bowls after bowls of the warm deliciousness.
It has to be noted that during this time, Rev.Yuki was giving a monthly Japanese Howa in Hondo to the Japanese Sangha! Does OBT multi task well or not!?
This did not wrap up this Sunday yet!
As everything in the kitchen was being cleaned and polished, the welcome table upstairs was being transformed into a ticketing booth for Hiroya Tsukamoto concert! If you have not heard his music, please click on the link -- and come to his next concert when he is in town again! You will experience his stories -- of his journey through rural Japanese villages, to small towns in U.S. -- you will experience the stories of the everyday people he has met, through his amazing guitar performance.
Can you believe that all these happened in one day !?
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Some Upcoming Events:
5/26 (Sun) Rennyo Shonin Memorial Service
6/2 (Sun) Book Club
6/9 (Sun) Shotsuki Hoyo for June
6/29 (Sat) OBT & OBWA community service at Oregon Food Bank