January 2008 Newsletter

January Calendar

January 1 (Tue)
10:00 a.m. New Year’s Day Service

January 2 (Wed)
7:00 p.m. Dharma Circle

January 4 (Fri)
10:00 a.m. Avalon Care Center Visitation

January 6 (Sun)
9:00 a.m. Fujinakai Meeting
10:00 a.m. New Year Kito Service / Sunday School Activity

January 8 (Tue)
10:00 a.m. Island Nursing Home Visitation

January 13 (Sun)
9:00 a.m. Otakiage
10:00 a.m. Sunday Service
11:00 a.m. Directors’ Meeting

January 15 (Tue)
10:00 a.m. Liliha Health Care Visitation

January 20 (Sun)
10:00 a.m. Sunday Service
11:00 a.m. Traffic Safety Kito

January 27 (Sun)
9:00 a.m. Sunday School Meeting
10:00 a.m. Shodaigyo
11:00 a.m. New Year’s Party

January 29 (Tue)
9:00 a.m. Newsletter mailing

*Morning Services will be held every Sunday from 6:30 a.m.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of our members and friends!

Bishop Joyo Ogawa

A HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of our members and friends. Last year, on September 11th and 12th, the Nichiren-Shu Order held the kickoff celebration for the Nichiren Shu Order campaign entitled "Rissho Ankoku Odaimoku Kechien Undo" at Kuonji Temple on Minobu-san. There were about 500 leaders, representing each district in Japan and overseas who vowed to Nichiren Shonin to exert themselves for the success of the campaign.

"Rissho Ankoku" means to spread peace throughout the world by establishing the true dharma. "Odaimoku Kechien" means to sow the seed of the Odaimoku by chanting it.

Nichiren Shonin teaches us, "We must put into practice the teachings of the Lotus Sutra in all phases of life." It means the realization of both individual happiness and peace in society, through the establishment of the True Faith by saving the suffering people and spreading happiness and peace by realizing the true faith.

In Hawaii, we will start a special campaign for "World Peace and the Odaimoku."

When we look back on August 24, 1997, we held the kickoff celebration with Bishop Shobun Nagai, the Chief Administrator of the Nichiren-shu to celebrate the 750th anniversary of the founding of Nichiren Buddhism and the 100th anniversary of Nichiren Buddhism in Hawaii.

This kick off celebration was the first step to lead us to successfully accomplishing our 100th Anniversary celebration and building our new Hondo.

This year, we are planning to hold a Rainbow Conference and kick off celebration for the new special campaign. I hope ministers and steering committee members, who represent each of the Hawaii mission will lead the movement towards the target year of 2022, which is the year of 800th Anniversary of Nichiren Shonin's birth.

I believe that if each minister and member moves for the campaign with "One spirit in different bodies", every mission in Hawaii will be more active and develop.

Chanting the Odaimoku does not only come from our mouth but also from our soul and through the way we live our lives. Nichiren Shonin asserted that it is not true practice if we only understand it with our minds. Instead, he said, we must devote our heart and soul to the fullest when reading or chanting the sutra. We should lead our daily lives in accordance with this teaching.

We must practice an act of the Bodhisattvas to realize our Founder Nichiren Shonin's wish of spreading the Odaimoku all over the world to achieve happiness for mankind and world peace. The recitation of the Odaimoku is an act of the Bodhisattvas for salvation of self as well as others.

I wish good health, happiness and prosperity to all of you throughout the year of 2007. (Bishop Ogawa)

Let us learn the bodhisattva ideal in the year of 2008.

Mr. Eric Kawatani

President of Nichiren Mission of Hawaii

On behalf of the Nichiren Mission, Happy New Year! As we celebrate this holiday with our family and friends, people have been reminding me, and I share with you, to "smell the roses" and to refocus our energies for a truly happy and prosperous year. This is a time when we should reflect on things which really mean something to each of us, like lasting peace and happiness, health, family…..

This year, our temple is participating in the Nichiren Shu campaign for world peace through the Odaimoku. I am sure that you are thinking, "how can our little selves contribute to world peace?". But, that is why you are here, that is why we have temples, shrines, and churches where we work together to achieve these great ideals. At our services, our ministers teach us that we can achieve such a challenging goal by taking small steps in our own daily lives. Those small steps are to make compassion and respect a real and natural part of our lives. This begins with faith in the Odaimoku to help us change our deep-seated bad habits and attitudes. When we do so, our personal lives, our families, our friends, and our work will be brightened with our positive and open hearts. Just look at the popular TV shows, what are they about? They are about people who cannot get along with each other, who lie to each other, who cannot talk to each other, who cannot feel the pain and suffering of other people; and other TV shows focus on accidents of fate where bad things happen to people and we watch how they cope and react. No one knows what challenges we will be facing the next day, but we gain strength and energy to overcome these challenges with our spiritual base of compassion and respect. We have learned from our ministers that when we strive for compassion and respect for all living things, not just ourselves, we begin to understand the bodhisattva ideal. The bodhisattva ideal is important to us since we believe it is the key to bringing about world peace and our own peace and happiness.

To start describing the bodhisattva ideal,

It is about caring and having compassion and respect for all things, not just ourselves or just our select family and friends.

It is about working TOGETHER with others for the peace and happiness of everyone, and not just for yourself.

It is about smelling the roses and prioritizing our time, energy and resources to what is truly important to us, the peace and happiness of all living beings,

Please come to the temple this year to learn about the bodhisattva ideal and together, we will have the opportunity to bring much good to our families, our friends, our communities, and everyone around us.

NOTICE BOARD

Fifth Dharma Circle

The fifth Dharma Circle will be held on Wednesday, January 2, 2008 from 7:00 p.m. We are planning to hold a short Shodaigyo practice, English chanting of the Lotus Sutra and discussion with refreshments. This time, I would like to share with you Buddha
Shakyamuni’s first preaching right after his Great Enlightenment. Please feel free to attend the Dharma Circle. You are always welcome.

Appreciation from Fujinkai

The Fujinkai wishes to acknowledge the help, support and generous donations that made the Mayor’s Cultural Craft Fair and our Mini-Bazaar a great success. Thank you!

Otakiage (burning old Buddhist items with prayer)

We will hold the otakiage on Sunday, January 13 at 9:00 a.m. If you have any old Buddhist images or articles, such as last year’s ofuda, old amulets, old ihai tablets, etc., please bring them to the mission on that day. We will burn those items with respectful prayer. If you have any questions on this matter, please feel free to contact ministers by phone or e-mail.

Traffic Safety Kito

We will hold the traffic safety kito prayer on Sunday, January 20 from 11:00 a.m. If you would like to have your car blessed for safety on the road throughtout the year, please bring your cars on that day.

New Year’s Party

We will have the New Year’s Party on January 27 at 11:00 a.m. Please refer to the invitation enclosed with this newsletter.

2008 Calendar

We are happy to send you the 2008 calendar with this newsletter. There may be unexpected schedule changes during the year, so please watch for any schedule changes in our monthly newsletter.

Membership Dues for 2008

Membership dues represent your commitment and support of our Mission. The detail is enclosed with this newsletter. Thank you for your support in advance.

Hilo Nichiren Mission

Hilo Nichiren Mission is planning to hold a monthly service on Saturday, January 26, 2007, from 10:00 a.m. Rev. Junsei Nagayoshi of Honolulu will be officiating the service since Rev. Tetsudo Takasaki is now in the 100 days ARAGYODO in Japan.

Let’s share the support for the homeless

The Mission would like to ask you to bring any toiletaries, such as.toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo, conditioner ( in hotels bathrooms or in airplane), etc. We are planning to bring them to the River of Life Mission in downtown to share the support for homeless and indigent people as a bodhisattva’s practice. If you have any questions on this matter, please feel free to contact us at 595-3517 or e-mail us.

Editor’s Note

Happy New Year! Time passes quickly, doesn’t it? It has been one and a half years since Rev. Nagayoshi came to the Nichiren Mission. In the last board meeting of the Mission on December 23, 2007, Bishop Ogawa announced that Rev. Nagayoshi would be a resident minister of Wahiawa Nichiren Mission from February 1, 2008 since Wahiawa Mission had not had a resident minister for eight years. So, he is going to move to Wahiawa from February this year. But, do not worry. He will be coming to the Nichiren Mission to help us hold special services whenever we hold them, and also to help us do other things. Wahiawa is not far from here. When we hold this year’s New Year’s Party on January 27, we will have a farewell for him. But, it’s not a really farewell as I write that Wahiawa is not far away from here. We would rather encourage him as the new resident minister of Wahiawa Mission. We all hope that Wahiawa Mission will be developed by Rev. Nagayoshi’s future effort. (Editor)