About The Living Dharma WebsiteAbout The Living Dharma WebsiteWhy Was Our Website Started?
Our website was designed to serve as a form of outreach into the worldwide community. It is our attempt to make the wisdom of the Buddhist teaching available outside the doors of West Covina Buddhist Temple. The essence of this teaching, or Dharma, is the interdependence and oneness of all life. To learn more about Buddhism, please read our What Is Buddhism page.
As a form of outreach, our website also represents an exciting, ongoing experiment. First, a bit of history: Shin Buddhist temples in America were established by the first generation of Japanese-Americans, who immigrated to the U.S. around the beginning of the 20th century. In addition to the Shin teachings, they of course also brought with them their Japanese culture and language. Even today, our temples have a definite Japanese "flavor." However, we are aware that our future rests on our ability to communicate the Shin Buddhist teachings to Americans, 99% of whom are not of Japanese ancestry. Therefore, we felt strongly that our website should "speak" to Americans interested in Buddhism. That is, our site should not appear "foreign," and should be written in plain everyday English.
In this sense, our website marks the beginning of a new era for our temple. We are learning, via our interaction with Americans and visitors around the world, not only new ways to communicate the Buddhist teachings in contemporary terms, but also what changes we need to make at our temple to ensure that all visitors to our services feel at home. As the distinguished Shin Buddhist scholar Dr. Nobuo Haneda has said, "Buddhism is either for everyone, or it is worthless."
Perhaps on the deepest level, the reason for our website was best expressed by Shinran Shonin, the 13th century Japanese priest and founder of our tradition of Buddhism. Shinran used the phrase, Jishin Kyoninshin. Jin is "self," shin is "believe," kyo is "teaching," and nin is "others." Hence, "First believe in the teaching yourself, then teach others to also believe." The critical point about this statement is that in Shin Buddhism, we understand that both "my believing in" and "my teaching others" are actually accomplished without self-effort. That is, through constant listening to and reflection upon the teachings, the "Buddha Spirit" within each of us can be awakened. The essence of this spirit is the deep understanding that all life is one. When we receive this insight, we--like the Buddha himself--are naturally inspired to work for the awakening of all people.
Who Benefits From Our Website?
The interactive nature of our website allows us to exchange e-mail back and forth with people all over the world. In so doing, we've learned that sharing the Buddhist teaching is a dynamic, two-way process. You can get a sense of this by reading some of our e-mail. Three subjects that are often on the minds of our visitors are "Coming to Buddhism From Other Faiths," "Buddhism and Death" and "Buddhism and Youth." Perhaps you'll agree with us that the distinction between the person sharing the teaching and the person receiving it is often blurred. Ultimately, we believe that both "teacher" and "student" learn simultaneously.
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