Underground Railroad – October 17, 2019

Today as I make my way home I was able to visit the Underground Railroad Museum in Niagara Falls New York. It sits adjacent to the Amtrak station. I had spotted it on my way to Canada and I was hopeful that I would have enough time to visit there before catching the train. Fortunately I was able to do so. The Underground Railroad was an unofficial route from slavery to freedom. An unmarked yet…

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Going to a Pure Land Temple – October 16, 2019

Yesterday I took the train from Syracuse, NY to Niagara Falls Canada for the express purpose of visiting a large temple located there. The temple is referred to as the 10,000 Buddha Temple although that is not the correct name. The correct name of the temple is the Namo Amitabh Buddhist Temple. The temple is a Chinese Pure Land temple. Since I first learned of the temple, almost three years ago, I had wanted to…

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Oeshiki 2019 – Sunday, October 13, 2019

Today at the temple we commemorated the death of our founder Nichiren Shonin. At the time of Nichiren’s death is it said that the cherry trees bloomed out of season. Nichiren died at Ikegami Japan on October 13, 1282. He had been ill for a while previous at Mount Minobu where his retirement hermitage was located. On the advice of Shijo Kingo, Nichiren’s faithful samurai follower who also advised Nichiren as his physician, Nichiren traveled…

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Francophone Study – English and French Language – Video – October 8, 2019

The recording is in French and English. Today we discussed how to have gratitude and appreciation for unpleasant events in our past. In particular how do we have gratitude to parents who may have treated us in unskillful ways, or who harmed us when we were children. The issue is complicated, and not to be over simplified, and certainly we should not read general guidance written for someone else or written for a general audience…

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