Prudence read a story called “A Swim” from the children’s book, “Adventures of Frog and Toad.” The story is one of several stories in the book about the friendship between a frog and a toad. The story Prudence read was fun for the children but also was interesting for the adults.
Today we celebrated November birthdays, but only Rev. Bert was present. Two children celebrated with Rev. Bert as the congregation sang happy birthday.
Our inter generational activity was Thanksgiving card making.
Today’s Dharma Talk was given by Keiji Kukino. Kuki gave a brief history of yesterday’s first ever Bon Dance Festival at Windward Mall and how it came to be. Kuki also shared how he came to the understanding through Shinran’s teachings that the remembrance services after a death are really for the living, as the deceased are already cared for.
After today’s service, we celebrated October birthdays and, following refreshments, we welcomed the return of our monthly inter-generational First Sunday activities. Today’s activity was a toilet paper pumpkin craft.
Happy October birthdays, Jett and Annette!
Today was our first Sunday service after our summer break in August. Our Dharma Talk was given by our resident minister, Rev. Bert Sumikawa. Rev. Sumikawa spoke about importance of perseverance as well as dukkah, commonly translated as suffering.
As announced in the September newsletter, our monthly First Sunday family activity is back by popular demand. Following this morning’s service, we folded large origami cranes for International Peace Day, which we will observe on September 22, 2019. The cranes will be distributed by our Dharma school students to neighborhood businesses in hopes they will display them as part of International Peace Day.
Rev. Sumikawa welcomed the new year in our first family service in 2019. It is the year of the pig, the twelfth of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac cycle. It is a year to reflect on the previous 11 years and period of joy and relaxation. He also shared Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii’s theme for 2019, “Embrace Change: Transformation (Walk in Peace).”
We celebrated January birthdays today. One member, Patsy, is celebrating her 95th birthday. Happy birthday!
After refreshments, which included ozoni, we held our monthly First Sunday activity. This month, we made botamochi (ohagi), a Japanese sweet made with glutinous rice, rice and sweet azuki paste.
Joy kicked off her Dharma Talk about interconnectedness by leading the congregation in the Baby Shark Dance, the YouTube phenomenon with over 1.7 billion views. She closed with the question, “Can you imagine if Buddhism spread like Baby Shark did?”
For our First Sunday family activities, we made paper-strip pumpkins and mixed up a batch of colorful slime.
Today’s Dharma Message was given by Prudence, who shared a story about a gumyocho, a two-headed bird.
One head was named Karuda and the other Upakaruda. The heads had differing desires, which often caused conflicts between Karuda and Upakaruda.
One day, Karuda feasted until he could eat no more, while Upakaruda slept. When Upakaruda woke, he found he couldn’t enjoy the food since their stomach was stuffed from Karuda’s feasting.
Feeling resentful, Upakaruda ate poisonous fruits, hoping to punish Karuda. As expected, when Karuda woke, the poison kicked in and he died. Of course, because they shared the same body, the poison that killed Karuda soon after killed Upakaruda.
Before dying, Upakaruda realized the interconnectedness of his life and Karuda’s. By harming one, they both suffered.
After the service, we celebrated August and September birthdays. After refreshments, we had our First Sunday activity (postponed from earlier in the month due to our 50th Anniversary celebration), assembling paper plate doves to hang on our Peace Day tree.
Bob Nishita's Dharma message for today's First Sunday Family Service was about judgement. We often judge others based on how we see things from our point of view. When you point at someone, three fingers are pointing right back at you.
Bob also talked to us about being different. All of us are different and that's a good thing. Can you imagine if all of us were the same? We'd be arguing and agreeing with ourselves!
After celebrating July birthdays and refreshments, today's First Sunday family activity was making shaving cream and glue ice cream cones.
We celebrated July birthdays
Rev. Noriaki Sumi visited us today. Rev. Sumi was Kailua Hongwanji's minister from 1985 to 1987. From left to right: Rev. Kuniyuki, Rev. Sumi, Keiji Kukino, Rev. Sumikawa
Dr. Michael Jaffe gave today's Dharma Talk, "The Science of Happiness." He shared photos of the people of Bhutan, which measures the level of happiness of its people. Happiness is a core philosophy of the Buddhist nation, which measures and tracks its Gross National Happiness.
We celebrated June birthday and, after today's service, we decorated hand-shaped cards for Father's Day as our First Sunday craft activity.
Today’s Dharma message was given by Rev. Bert Sumikawa. His message was regarding Mother’s Day.
Rev. Sumikawa said there are a number of Sutras that express reverence towards one’s mother and about the mother-child relationships. He drew memories of his own relationship with his mother. While he was young, she seemed strict and would occasionally scold him. But, she would do things that he would later realize she did those things because of her love for him.
He recalled that he was participating in a 5th grade May Day program and he needed to wear a white shirt which he didn’t have. He didn’t tell told his mother until the night before. Although she scolded him for telling her so late, she bought material and supplies that night and he woke up the next morning and found a brand new shirt for him. She reminded him again to not wait until the last minute to tell her he needed something.
After the service, we celebrated birthdays for the month of May. Because there was no service last Sunday, we did the First Sunday Activities today – Mother’s Day flowers and yarn leis.
Joy gave us a picture-book summary of the Oscar-winning movie Coco. Many of the events of the film from Disney/Pixar takes place around the Mexican holiday Día de Muertos, or The Day of the Dead, which is a time for families to remember family members have died. Joy described the parallels to the Buddhist Obon, where we celebrate and honor the spirits of one's ancestors.
After the service, we celebrated Hanamatsuri (flower festival) by making flowers out of recycled plastic bottles and paper, as well as dyeing eggs in colorful shades of spring.
Happy Birthday to our April birthdays!
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