Daifukuji Soto Mission Treasuring the Past, P.O. Box 55 Kealakekua, HI 96750 Embracing the Present 808-322-3524 www.daifukuji.org November, 2011

Thanksgiving Service: Light refreshments will be served following Gathering In Gratitude the service. Flowers for the altars are Sunday, November 20 10:00 a.m. always appreciated & should be delivered by November 18. Canned foods for the Hawaii Island Food Basket may be brought Dear , let us all to the service on Nov. 20. come together in the spirit of thanksgiving and bow our heads before the Thanksgiving Eve Buddha with our hands in Interfaith Program gassho. For many, this Wednesday, Nov. 23 has been a difficult year;

yet, each one of us has so much for which *6:30 p.m. at the Makaeo to be thankful. Big Pavilion at the Old Airport This year, I would like to ask you, our members and friends of Daifukuji, to Letʼs celebrate the spirit of Thanksgiving with add your personal touch to our music and song. After a hiatus of four years, Thanksgiving service. I invite you to the Thanksgiving Eve Interfaith Program is express your gratitude by sharing a back, thanks to the efforts of Pastor Chuck poem, a reading, a song, a piece of Frumin of Lovin’ Life Ministries. Various faith music, or a dance. You may present your groups in the community, including the individually or as a group. Each Daifukuji Family Sangha & Daifukuji Taiko, will piece should be no longer than 4 minutes. be participating in this program. There will be We will weave together a lovely a special performance by the dynamic Thanksgiving service. Tongan United Methodist Choir. Canned foods, as well as monetary donations, will be If you are interested in participating, please collected for the Hawaii Island Food Basket. call Rev. Jiko (322-3523) or send an e-mail Admission is free. to [email protected] by November 12. *Time is still tentative. Please confirm time with Rev. Jiko before the event.

1 Friday, Nov. 11, 2011 at 1:00 p.m. -- preparation of vegetables Kokua Needed: General Clean- Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011 at 4:00 a.m. -- bento making Up Day Sunday, November 27 Questions? Please call Ella Yasuda at 322-8806. This bento sale is an annual 8:00 a.m. fundraiser that benefits the Fujinkai. Please help make it a success.

Daifukuji members & members of Welcome To Our Sangha temple groups, we humbly request your kokua at our year-end temple clean up. Please bring rags, buckets, The Daifukuji Sangha extends a warm gloves, and garden tools, labelled welcome to Brett Stone, who recently with your name. Refreshments will be became a member of our temple. Brett provided. is also a member of the Daifukuji Zazenkai. Aloha and welcome, Brett! Let’s beautify our temple and grounds in time for Bodhi Day, the day of the Buddha’s enlightenment. Many Daifukuji helping hands are needed. We will Baikako begin at 8 a.m. with a short meditation inside the temple. Welcomes Five New Members Questions? Call Ron Iwamoto at 322-9147. Harmony, discipline, meditation, reverence, bringing comfort and joy to others, and focusing one’s mind on the buddhas and are what comprise the path and practice of Fujinkai Coffee Festival Baikako members. All are welcome to Bento Sale join this serene musical form of Soto practice. Saturday, November 12 The members of the Baikako Plum Blossom Choir welcome the following The Daifukuji Fujinkai womenʼs group will be making bentos and other goodies to sell at new members and thank them for the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival on joining: November 12. Monetary donations to the Elaine Fernandez Daifukuji Fujinkai for the purchase of Jean Ikeda ingredients and supplies are appreciated. Nancy Osako Evelyn Tabata Kokua is needed on the following days: Merle Uyeda

2 Domo arigato to Baikako president and and Arabic. The book has fine Japanese long-time Baikako member, Michiko paper and is a joy to hold. Enomoto, for helping Rev. Jiko lead the Baika sessions for beginners. If you are “Zen and the Brain” by James Austin is interested in joining this enthusiastic an 850-page tome from MIT which has group of beginners, please call Rev. Jiko the subtitle, Toward an Understanding at 322-3524. Now’s the perfect time to of Meditation and Consciousness. join! You don’t have to be able to read Japanese. “Zen Meditation: Plain and Simple” by Albert Low is an antidote to the previous book. Instead of just dwelling on “about” Library News meditation, like the MIT book, the Low by Clear Englebert book explains “how to” meditate. The Buddha did it; Dogen did it. And you too Daifukuji library donates some of our can meditate---and this book can help. abundance to other Soto It’s a uniquely well-done book about a temples. Our space is limited, and core Buddhist subject. wonderful books get donated, so we share with the other islands in a great “Peace is Every Step” by Gaetano Kazuo circulating Dharma-go-round. Maida is a very moving DVD about Thich Nhat Hanh. I highly recommend it; I was The first four new arrivals are quite in tears by the end. remarkable and are thanks to donations to the bazaar: “Living and Dying in : Five Zen Masters of Modern Japan” by Arthur “Memoirs of a Buddhist Woman Braverman includes four priests and one Missionary in Hawaii” by Shigeo Kikuchi. laywoman. Three of the priests are Soto Ms. Kikuchi was the wife of Rev. Kikuchi and one is Rinzai. The book is very of Kau, arriving at the Naalehu readable (in fact it’s hard to put down) Hongwanji in 1917. The book is a quick and the inspiring examples will help to and rewarding read. It’s less than 70 deepen your Buddhist practice. pages long and is a fascinating glimpse at local history. Robert Aitken is a well-loved Hawaii “Three Zen Masters: Ikkyu, Hakuin, writer and the library has two more of Ryokan” by John Stevens. Ryokan his books. “The Mind of Clover: Essays in (1758-1831) was Soto Zen’s best known Zen ” is a classic from poet. He was a Japanese hermit monk 1984. “The Morning Star: New and who greatly admired the Chinese hermit Selected Zen Writings” is from 2003. poet Han Shan, the author of the well- known Cold Mountain Poems. “Zen Gardens: Kyoto's Nature Enclosed” “Poems by Ryokan” has ten of Ryokan’s by Tom Wright and Katsuhiko Mizuno haiku translated into four languages by has peaceful full-page color photos for Yuko Yuasa---English, Japanese, Chinese, most of the book. 3 from a seated position. Interestingly, a recent study by the Harvard Medical School documented the beneficial effects of Tai Chi for women and for people who have high blood pressure.

For Tai Chi practice, clothing should be comfortable, allowing full movement without restriction. Here in Hawaii we are fortunate to be able to practice Tai Chi outdoors year-round in parks and at the by Philip Hema beach, adding the benefit of tapping into the natural forces present in such places. The origins of Tai Chi are to be found in the martial arts of ancient China. !Of the If you are interested, please join us three styles surviving into the 21st each Thursday at the Cultural Hall century, "Yang" is the most wide-spread from 9 AM to 10 AM. Our group is small and popular in the West. The slow, which allows for individual help in almost hypnotic movements, called mastering the practice in a friendly and posture forms, are based on the supportive atmosphere.! For further "advance/retreat, strike/evade" reaction- information, please contact Philip @ responses thought to have been 989-7167 or e-mail me observed in a confrontation between a @[email protected].!! bird and a snake. Philip, who studies Tai Chi with Bob Today, the benefits of consistent Tai Chi Yokomoto, has been leading Tai Chi practice at Daifukuji for over a year & has been practice have been well-documented. donating his time to do this. Thank you very These include a calming of the mind and much, Philip. a loosening of the limbs, which results in increased flexibility, while the gentle stretching of muscles and tendons increases blood flow. Having to memorize the various posture-forms in correct sequence also challenges the memory.!

But perhaps the most important benefit of Tai Chi practice is an increased sense of balance wherein the mind and the body become the mind/body, moving effortlessly through the various posture forms. Tai Chi Chuan can be practiced without regard to age or gender and The Daifukuji Tai Chi Group certain forms may also be performed 4 Shakyo: Tracing the by William Chigen Lundquist

Zazen, or sitting meditation, is not the only type of meditation helpful to Soto Zen Buddhists. Led by Mayo Chinn, a few of us here at the Daifukuji have been gathering on selected Saturday mornings throughout the year to Fujinkai Autumn Field Trip practice Shakyo, which I think of as by Lorraine Tanimoto writing meditation. We sit and trace the Heart or various depictions of On Friday, October 14, twenty-nine Kannon with either a calligraphy pen or Fujinkai members and guests embarked a special type of ink and brush from on a field trip and visited two of Kona’s Japan. places of interest. Our first destination was the Keauhou Store. Present owners A brochure on Shakyo practice put out Kurt and Thea Brown restored the store by the Soto Zen International in 2010, maintaining the atmosphere of Center says Shakyo is a means of the former Sasaki Store. Today, it is a spreading the Buddha Way among mom-and-pop type of store with people, and can also be a way of praying memorabilia. The next stop, the Original for fulfillment of wishes. “But today,” Hawaiian Chocolate Factory, turned out said the brochure, “we can do shakyo in to be an educational experience. Owner order to reflect on ourselves, or to attain Bob Cooper walked us through the four mental well-being by mindfully tracing stages of their “cacao pod to chocolate” the sacred scriptures. It does not matter operation. Their chocolate factory if one has or not, or if creates three kinds of single-origin one’s writing is good or not.” I was chocolate and these three types were relieved to read that last part, because sampled by everyone. The tour ended my handwriting has always been terrible, with lunch at Manago Hotel. and is not improving as I age. Fortunately, the value of Shakyo is in the (The Fujinkai thanks Lorraine for her doing, not in the perfection of the final hard work in coordinating this field trip.) product. We are meditating, not producing fine art, whether the final product is attractive or not.

I find by concentrating on doing something, I can focus my mind better than I usually do in Zazen. I’ve tried both the pen and the ink and brush, and traced both the sutras and images of Kannon and find all the variations useful. I sometimes end up with blobs of smeared ink when using the brush, but 5 there is something almost sensual about Thursday Evening Zen dipping the brush with just enough force Daifukuji Kannon Hall to break the surface tension of the ink, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. then trying to apply just the right amount of ink to the paper with continuous, confident strokes. It isn’t November 3: Zazen & Chanting easy for me, but the added difficulty November 10: Buddhist Movie Night results in increased concentration. “Life of Buddha”

The practice is simple enough. We sit up November 17: Zazen & Chanting straight at tables and allow our minds to calm. We gassho as Rev. Jiko leads us in There are also weekly Wednesday reciting the Four Universal Vows and the morning zazen sessions which are Heart Sutra. We can finish each page by held from 6 a.m. to 7: 15 a.m. dedicating our effort to others, as I have Please call Rev. Jiko (322-3524) for to the victims of the tsunami in Japan or more information. the tornados in the Midwest. At the bottom we write our names and the date Note: Zazenkai members are with the words “Humbly traced.” At the invited to attend a potluck breakfast end of the session, we gassho and recite meeting which will be held after the first period of zazen on Nov. 30. the Fueko.

The practice is simple, peaceful and Studying the Precepts beautiful. Mayo cheerfully helps newcomers figure out how to begin. Please join us at Saturday Morning Study Group the next session scheduled for 9:30 – 11 a.m. on November 5. November 5, 11 a.m. to noon (to be preceded by sutra tracing from 9:30 - 11:00 a.m.)

November 19 9 -10 a.m.

December 3 11 a.m. - noon (to be preceded by sutra tracing from 9:30 - 11:00 a.m.)

December 17 9 - 10 a.m.

These sessions are open to all. If you will be participating in the Buddhist confirmation ceremony in March or are thinking of doing so, you will find these sessions especially meaningful. Tracing the sutras and pictures of ! Please inform Rev. Jiko buddhas and bodhisattvas (322-3524 or [email protected]) if harmonizes body and mind. you are planning to join this study group. All are welcome. 6 For the past two years I have had the privilege of working on a DVD project about our nine Soto Zen temples in Hawaii, a project sponsored by the Hawaii Soto Mission Association. As this project nears completion, I am overcome with feelings of gratitude for the ministers and sangha members of the past who lit the lamps of the Buddha- Dharma that are still burning brightly in Thanksgiving Greetings our temples today. from Rev. Jiko The early ministers rode into the fields Dear Daifukuji members and friends, on horseback to minister to the Japanese Happy Thanksgiving, dear sangha! immigrant laborers and to teach them about Kannon-sama’s boundless Visiting the Keauhou Store with the compassion. They labored alongside the Fujinkai members was a walk down people of their communities to build, memory lane to an era when life was board by board, the temples in which we hard but simple, and getting a new congregate today. bicycle at this particular store was a kid’s greatest thrill. Looking at the Look at our temple, Daifukuji. With the sturdy showcases, shelves, and furniture rays of the afternoon sun striking it from in the store, all built to last by the late the west, it is breathtakingly beautiful -- Yoshisuke Sasaki, I thought of this a red and white phoenix with its wings master carpenter from Japan who stretched open wide, beckoning all to designed our beautiful temple, the enter its doors. Daifukuji Soto Mission, also built to last. His wife Kuma’s diary was shown to me, May you enjoy a bountiful Thanksgiving written in her beautiful Japanese with an abundance of peace in your penmanship, a record of her daily life in hearts. I hope to see you at our Keauhou mauka. Today, while walking Thanksgiving Service on November through the Daifukuji cemetery, I 20th. Family & friends are welcome. stopped at the grave of Yoshisuke and In gassho, with much gratitude, Kuma Sasaki and offered a prayer of Rev. Jiko thanks from all of the members of our sangha to the two of them. They were Coming Up in December... true pioneers. When the 100th anniversary of our temple is celebrated Jodo-e Bodhi Day Service & General Membership in 2014, we will remember them, as well Meeting...... Dec. 11 as the other pioneers of that era -- the Project Dana...... Dec. 14 issei -- whose toils and determination made possible the establishment of Kannon-ko & Ofudayaki...... Dec. 21 Buddhism in Hawaii. Mochitsuki...... Dec. 28 New Year’s Blessing Services...... Dec. 31 & Jan. 1 7 Sangha Photo Gallery

Fujinkai Autumn Field Trip Oct. 14, 2011

Happy Halloween! Hereʼs Yaeko Hakodaʼs costume Toshie Hanato, winner of was judged “funniest” in the the “Scariest Costume” Dr. Richard Stevensʼ “Learning From Place” costume contest. category of the Project class visited Daifukuji on Oct. 7th and did some Dana costume contest. weeding and planting. Mahalo, everyone! October 2011 November 2011 December 2011 S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S November 2011 1 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Sangha Sisters Temple Board Samu 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Youth Taiko Fujinkai Special Events 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 27 28 29 30 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Adult Taiko Kannon-ko Service Baikako Practice Bon Dance Group 30 31 Family Service Project Dana Dharma Study Teen Sangha Major Service Zazen Happy Strummers Orchid Club

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 9:30 AM Family Sang‐ 5:00 PM Youth Taiko 6:00 AM Zazen 9:00 AM Tai Chi Ses‐ 8:00 AM Samu 9:30 AM Sutra Trac‐ ha Field Trip 5:00 PM Youth Taiko sion ing 7:00 PM Fujinkai 7:00 PM Zazen & 10:00 AM Youth Board Chanting taiko-beginners 11:00 AM Precepts Study

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 8:00 AM Baikako 5:00 PM Youth Taiko 7:00 PM Beginners Project Dana 8:30 am 9:00 AM Tai Chi Ses‐ 8:00 AM Samu Bento Making 4 a.m. Practice 7:30 PM Happy Baika Class sion 1:00 PM Bento Prep 6:00 AM Zazen 10:00 AM Youth 9:30 AM Family Ser‐ Strummers 7:00 PM Buddhist 7:00 PM Sangha Sis‐ 5:00 PM Youth Taiko taiko-beginners vice Movie ters 7:00 PM Orchid Club

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 9:30 AM Family Ser‐ 5:00 PM Youth Taiko Kannon-ko 10 AM 9:00 AM Tai Chi Ses‐ 8:00 AM Samu 9:00 AM Precepts vice sion Study 6:00 AM Zazen 7:00 PM Zazen & 10:00 AM Youth 5:00 PM Youth Taiko Chanting taiko-beginners 7:00 PM Youth Taiko Board

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Thanksgiving Service 5:00 PM Youth Taiko 7:00 PM Beginners Interfaith Service Happy Thanksgiving! 10:00 AM Youth 7:30 PM Happy Baika Class taiko-beginners 10 a.m. 6:00 AM Zazen Strummers 5:00 PM Youth Taiko

27 28 29 30 1 2 3 General Clean Up 8 am 5:00 PM Youth Taiko 6:00 AM Zazen 9:00 AM Tai Chi Ses‐ 8:00 AM Samu 10:00 AM Youth 6:30 AM Zazenkai sion taiko-beginners Meeting 7:00 PM Temple 5:00 PM Youth Taiko Board

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