March 2025 Geppo

CALENDAR

March 8 Sat. 10:00 am Rev JP DeGuzman
Shotsuki Hoyo Memorial Service 祥月法要
Shunki higan-e (Spring Equinox Service) 春季彼岸会
Shunki means spring season; higan means “the other shore”; “e” is a Japanese
particle meaning “heading towards” with the emphasis on the destination.

Discussion with lunch: “Perception and Perspective in Buddhism” Rev. JP
deGuzman will show short clips from movies like Star Wars and
Flashdance, and lead a discussion on Buddhist philosophy seen in
the film clips! Interesting!

April Service Sat. 10:00 am April 12
Shotsuki Hoyo Memorial Service 祥月法要
Hanamatsuri 花祭、灌仏会, Celebration of Buddha’s Birth

Memorial Service will be held for:

MR. ASAZO HARASHIMA
MRS. KIKU SAKAMOTO
MR. KENNOSUKE NAKANO
MRS. KOTOYE OMURA
MR. CHUZO SAITO
MR. KEITH KAZUO HARUTA
MR. HIDEO KOMATSU
MRS. CHIMI KIMURA
MR. YASUJI AOKI
MR. SUYEKI HATTANDA
MRS. YUI KITAHARA
MRS. MASAKO HISATOSHI
MRS. SHIMA FUKUMURA
MRS. SUYE ARAKI
MR. MINESABURO MORIHISA
MR. MASAO SANO
MR. YAICHIRO EMURA
MR. MASAO NAKAMURA
MRS. UME KAI
MRS. NAMI IKEURA
MRS. YUKU OKADA
MRS. YASU MORIHISA
MR. MAMORU HIDE
MRS. MARY KAZUE OKINO
MR. SAICHI MORI
MRS. MIYE NUMAZU
MR. KANEICHI OTSUKA
MR. KEN KUROZUMI
MR. SHOJI YAMADA

Bishop Marvin Harada’s Message (February)

Bishop Marvin Harada’s message from February was heartwarming. He
welcomed new attendees, noting that it takes courage to attend a service in a
new place. And, as we went through the various parts of the service, he
explained the meaning and noted it was easy to be distracted and hard to be
mindful, listening and keeping mind and heart in the moment. He told funny
stories about himself — as he went through the training for becoming a minister,
depending on whether there was anyone else in the minister classes, he was
second out of two students, and valedictorian when he was the only student!

He told stories from his life that illustrated “how to listen with the heart”:

You should listen as if you are listening for the very first time.
You should listen as if the message is for you alone.
You should listen as if this is the last time you will ever do so in life.

Rev Harada emphasized treasuring moments with others and yourself, and
reflecting on the messages, not just from service but from every encounter.

Figure 1: Doug Wilson, Dennis and Sets Furuike, and Bishop Marvin Harada

Treasurer’s Report: Sets Furuike

February Donations: $3240

The temple gratefully acknowledges the following donations (Orei 御礼)

Memorial Service | Special | Nirvana Day
M/M Dennis Furuike (Naoko Ishihara)
Terri Yamada (H. Yamada, T. Numazu)
Kathy Nishimoto (H. Yamada, T. Numazu)
Joyce Shelley (Mitsuko Aoi)
Lonny Ishihara (Naoko Ishihara)

Monday Qigong
Dennis Ito
Sheila Enelow

M/M Dennis Furuike
JJ Uyehara, Doug Wilson
Ellen Clark
M/M Ted Muneno
Mika Yamada

M/M Tadashi Kamei (Masashi & Kazunobu Nakashimo, Masao Nakamura)
Mary Saito

Ho-Onko
Tamako Nishimura ($40)

Many Thanks! Have you checked out our webpage lately? To Christophe
Sautot for the reformatting of our webpage and new Facebook posts!

Kudos! To Jodi Miles for new rosemary plant to replace the dried out juniper
near the walkway.

And, thanks for the new outreach items by Rev. JP deGuzman for posts in
The Independent and a flyer for the March service.

Did you notice? Kiosk in front highlights our next service; Thanks to Jodi Miles
and Ted Muneno for posting Rev. JP deGuzman’s flyer there!

Church News

The Board of Trustees are voting on a Cabinet of 7 Members, (instead of just 4
Officers). With 7 engaged leading members, BCSB could expand its activities
and outreach in religious matters, education, and social help.

Hanamatsuri, April 12 Service – Jodi Miles and Junko Torigoe are promising
a beautiful display of flowers for the service. If you’d like to help, please email
the church inbox (in header). ALSO, Christophe Sautot has offered to stream
the service!! Check our webpage and facebook in April for more information.

SAVE THE DATE! OBON is coming back to BCSB! The Acting Board have
committed to an obon festival on July 19. It could be a very small-scale with
just temple members dancing inside the social hall, or it could be a larger scale
festival similar to the festivals hosted prior to the pandemic. It all depends on
you, your ideas, your enthusiasm, and a little bit of elbow grease! Please
contact Jodi Miles for volunteering, or email to

mail@buddhistchurchofsantabarbara.org or leave a message on
the Church phone.

A Pandemic Turkey Sandwich
by Rev. JP deGuzman

Can you believe that it’s been five years since the global Coronavirus pandemic
began? I can’t! Since we observe O-higan – a time to reflect on the world of
enlightenment – and it’s been a half-of-a-decade since the world was turned
upside down, I’d like to share some lessons from those uncertain days of March
2020.

On March 11, 2020, my school transitioned to online teaching and learning.
Teachers had one day to overhaul our lesson, learn how to use a new-fangled
platform called Zoom, and assuage the concerns of our students. Most of us
continued to teach from our classrooms, but just a few days later the situation
became even less tenable. The shelter in place order was coming. Our dining
hall closed, and only essential staff were requested to stay on campus. On my
last day at school, I started at around 6:30 AM rushing to record as many
lectures online as I could since I had very bad Wi-Fi at home. It’s a long and
onerous process. I was doing this all while teaching my classes, worrying about
the creeping panic buying, and attending Zoom faculty meetings.

Before I knew it the clock struck 3:00 PM and I literally hadn’t eaten a single
bite of food all day.

To my pleasant surprise one of my colleagues who is also one of my closest
friends swooped into my classroom and offered me half of a sandwich. Little
did I know that she observed that I hadn’t eaten anything and realized she had
that half of a sandwich left over from her previous day’s lunch. In that fleeting
moment I didn’t have to worry about sheltering in place or long lines at the
grocery store or how I would react to a global pandemic whose scale society
hasn’t witnessed in generations. I was so struck not only at the kind gesture,
but truly at how all life had to come together to provide me nutritional and
emotional sustenance.

Objectively what sat before me was a turkey sandwich on sourdough with one
slice of tomato and a few leaves of spinach. But there was something about
that moment where I could be in awe of every interwoven thread of life that
brought that sandwich to me: whether it was the water and sunlight needed to
nourish the vegetables or the farmworkers who harvested them, the turkey
who gave their life, the people who prepared the sandwich, and my friend
who, through infinite causes and conditions, was born in Colombia, raised in
Philly, came to be my classmate in a doctoral program at UCLA, and eventually
became my coworker.

We reside in a state of being known as shigan – one of blind passions
where we are bonbu or foolish beings. Yet, higan is a realm of
enlightenment, and that realm is calling out to us every moment of our lives.
It called out to me, in the form of that day-old-sandwich and the realization that
endless life had to come together to bring it to my lips. Though I know
moments of anxiety or fear will continue to arise, I’ll think about that turkey
sandwich and find comfort reminding myself that moments to awaken to
higan are all around me.