The Package is The Message: A Guest Message by Keith B. Hopper NOTE from Rev. Anne Spencer: We always enjoy sharing insights and experiences from our diverse IOBT community. This month we are happy to share a reflection from Keith Hopper. Although Keith now lives in Florida, his early years were spent in Vale, Ontario, and parts of western Idaho. He graduated from Ontario High School. In 2022 he received a tip from a friend about our twice-monthly Tuesday evening online discussion groups and he decided to join us.  He has been a regular at our meeting ever since. Let us...

“I will gather the true words so they may help others to practice the way for Birth. My wish is that those who have attained Birth may lead those who come after them and those who aspire Birth may follow their predecessors, thus following one after another, endlessly and uninterruptedly, until this boundless sea of Birth-and-Death is exhausted.”  From Doshaku’s Anraku Shu quoted by Shinran Shonin toward the end of his Kyogyoshinsho) I think of this quote from Shinran Shonin’s Kyogyoshinsho when I think about our Issei (1st generation Japanese immigrants) and...

On January 7, 2024 Idaho-Oregon Buddhist Temple held our Reopening/Dedication Service, celebrating our recovery after the fire in July of 2022. Rev. Jerry Hirano officiated the service and invited our two Assistant Ministers, Rev. Kathy Chatterton and Rev. Anne Spencer to share their thoughts as the temple reopened.   Photo (left to right): Mike Iseri (Temple President) Rev. Anne Spencer, Rev. Jerry Hirano, Rev. Anne Spencer at the Hoonko & Grand Reopening Service on Jan 7 2024.  In this blog, we are sharing summaries of Rev. Kathy's and Rev. Anne's reflections on the...

January 1, 2024 Happy New Year! Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu! あけまして おめでとう ２０２４ Congratulations on the beginning of a new year! Yesterday at our temple's New Year’s Eve service, we rang the kansho--the big  bell behind the altar--108  times. Everyone who attended in person was able to line up and ring the bell 4 times each. It is interesting to me how each person, using the same bell and mallet, manages to make a slightly different sound. Listening to the different tones and tempos we each create is a wonderful reminder of the uniqueness of each one...