Retreat participants pose on San Luis Obispo Buddhist Temple's front steps
Retreat participants pose on San Luis Obispo Buddhist Temple's front steps |
West Covina Buddhist Temple's Family Retreat lived up to its name as over a dozen of the temple's families made their way up to San Luis Obispo on the weekend of February 25 to 27, 2005. As with last year's retreat, the weather was excellent, and Dr. Franz Metcalf, Professor of Religion at Cal State Los Angeles, led a number of thought-provoking discussions.
Most families traveled on Friday evening, reaching the secluded San Luis Obispo Temple at all hours of the night. The next morning, following a delicious breakfast and morning service, Dr. Metcalf gave the first of his talks while the younger generation headed outside to make giant bubbles.
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| Above, participants enjoy the Saturday Morning breakfast Below, Dr. Metcalf shares digital pics of his new baby with WCBT members |
Above, after breakfast, everyone gathered in the hondo for a morning service Below, Jeanne Kawawata helps supervise the kids activities |
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| Dr. Franz Metcalf | Participants listen intently during the lecture |
After lunch, everyone piled into cars and made the twenty-minute trip north to Morro Bay. Two sailing ships were re-enacting a gun battle, and a persistent sea otter appeared near the fishing pier, floating on his back and eating his lunch of shellfish. Near a giant anchor memorializing local fishermen, Dr. Metcalf led a discussion for the adults while the kids headed down the waterfront to a small aquarium and a playground complete with pirate ship.
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| Exploring the Morro Bay area (Morro Rock in background) | Participants enjoyed listening to Dr. Metcalf in Morro Bay |
Returning to the temple, Dick Koga and the dinner crew made a wonderful chow mein. At the evening service, we all could appreciate Johnny Martinez' meditation on gratitude: an expression of thankfulness for the small, good things in our lives (like a newspaper thrown onto the porch in the morning instead of down on the driveway) and for each other as members of the Sangha. We closed the day with Dr. Metcalf leading a short sitting meditation session.
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| Saturday evening entertainment included dancing the Tanko Bushi together |
Sunday morning began with morning service and a second heartfelt meditation, this time by Lorena Arita, again emphasizing the importance of the Sangha and the tolerance and acceptance shown by its members. Following a pancake breakfast, the adults sat down to their third and final lecture -- this time on the many varieties of practice in the different traditions of Buddhism and illustrated by photos of Dr. Metcalf's own personal guru (his new baby!) -- and the kids went outside again for touch football and pick-up basketball games.
After cleaning up (and retrieving Diego Arita from the locked "pizza hut" building!), we headed south again to Los Angeles, looking forward to our return to San Luis Obispo in 2006!
In closing, here is a passage from Dr. Metcalf's "Quotes You Might Like to Remember from the 2005 Family Retreat": "There's a simple way to become Buddha: avoid unskillful activity, detach from life and death, feel compassion for all living things, respect superiors and help inferiors, end your aversions and desires, and go without schemes and worries. Then, you'll be named Buddha. Do not seek anything else." (Dogen Zenji, Birth and Death 5)