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Please have patience while we update and expand aspects of our website. Thank you.
Welcome to the homepage of Karuṇā Tendai Dharma Center / Jiunzan Tendaiji and the Tendai Buddhist Institute, (est. 1997). Karuṇā Tendai Dharma Center is a branch temple of Enryakuji, Mt. Hiei, Japan (the administrative center of the Tendai School and the birthplace of Japanese Buddhism), and an official North American representative of the Tendai School of Japanese Buddhism. We are also the first fully authorized Tendai Buddhist training center for the education of priests and the establishment new Tendai Buddhist Temples and Dharma Centers in North America and beyond.
As Compassion (karuṇā) is a central virtue of the Mahayana Buddhist path, the name for our village temple in East Chatham, NY is “Karuṇā Tendai Dharma Center.” As an branch temple of the Tendai Buddhist lineage, we also have an official Japanese name, registered with Enryakuji Temple on Mt. Hiei, which was given to us by Rev. Shōshin Ichishima: “Jiunzan Tendaiji.” This name means “Compassionate Cloud Tendai Temple,” and reflects the natural surroundings of the Berkshires. The name Tendai Buddhist Institute refers to the educational wing of our organization, which oversees the training and education of priests and the establishment of new Sanghas.
Weekly Meditation
Buddhist meditation services are held on Wednesday evenings, and are free and open to the public. You do not have to be a “Buddhist” to join our service. All are welcome. There is no fee and reservations are not required.
06:00PM, we gather in the main house for a Dharma talk and discussion.
Schedule of topics may be found in our newsletter, The Shingi: Newsletter of the Tendai Buddhist Institute.
07:00PM, meditation service in the Hondo (Main Hall).
08:00PM, potluck dinner in the main house.
Other Regularly Scheduled Events
Sutra Study classes are held on the first Saturday of every month.
Dharma School and Family Service is held once a month.
Special services such as weddings, memorial services, baby blessing ceremonies, refuge taking ceremony, retreats, and annual events and holidays are held throughout the year.
Please contact us if you would like more information.
May Wednesday Meditations and Discussions
2 Stump the Sensei – Yup, this is a time you can ask any question regarding Buddhism and Monshin will do his best to answer it.Are there questions that did not receive an adequate answer during our discussions, or maybe there was a question that came from readings or daydreams. Now is the time to ask.
9 What is the Role of Joy in Buddhist Practice – there is a common misperception that that Buddhism is nihilistic, negative, only about suffering, etc.; there is joy. We will discuss the Joy that is found in Buddhism, it may shine a different light on your practice.
16 The Lotus Sutra: It’s Role in Buddhist Culture and Practices – This sutra is arguably the most important and influential in East Asia. We will discuss its place alongside other Buddhist canon, as well as it’s contribution to the cultures in which it was taught and practiced.
23 Monkey Bridge, by Lan Cao – a discussion of this essay (1997) about a young girl’s journey from Viet Nam to America during the Viet Nam war, and how her Buddhist beliefs culturally and historically grounded her. This is an exploration of ethnic Buddhism so that we can better understand our co-religionists whose ideas and practices seem to separate rather than unite us as Buddhists.
30 Rupa – as Form and Beauty – (Nama-rupa -Pali and Sanskrit- name and form.) Rupa is usually understood in our usage as ‘form’, and though ’empty’, can also be translated as ‘beauty’. Chorin Peter Donahoe will offer a look at some images and texts on form and beauty.
Other Events in May:
6 Dharma School and Family Service – 10:30 AM – Once a month, Jiunzan Tendai-ji holds Dharma School and Families Service. This is a great opportunity to share the Dharma together as families and contribute to the growing culture of Buddhism in America. Parents, grandparents, and young children (under 12) who wish to participate in Dharma School will head over to the classroom, while parents and children (12 and up) who wish to participate in the meditation service will proceed to the Hondo (main hall). Dharma School and morning meditation conclude together in the Hondo with a brief family service followed by a potluck lunch in the main house. All are welcome. Future Dharma School Dates: June 3rd, July 29th, August 26th
12 Sutra Class and Morning Service, 8:30 – 10:30 AM – The Maha Prajna Paramita Hridaya Sutra (Heart Sutra) is the most often chanted, cited and best known sutra in the Mahayana canon. We will read and discuss two different translations and commentaries (Mu Soeng’s and Red Pine’s) as a set throughout the classes.
NOTES:
Please sign up to donate flowers for a month – at Tendai Buddhist Institute / Jiunzan Tendai-ji. You can either bring them yourself or pay to have them purchased for you. There is a sign-up sheet on the notice board in the kitchen. If you have any questions please ask Shoshin (Sandy), Chorin (Peter), or Shumon (Tamami). Providing flowers for the hondo is a service to the temple and a smŗti practice. By providing flowers one makes an important contribution to Jiunzan Tendai-ji. Several people can choose to contribute together. We still have several months available later in the year..
Food Pantry at Jiunzan Tendai-ji – Gratitude is best shown by extending to others the thoughtfulness we have received. Please bring non-perishable food items to the Tendai Buddhist Institute on Wednesday’s. We contribute these items to the Chatham Silent Food Pantry.
Website Guide
For more information about our temple, lineage, and recommended reading list, please see our About Us page.
For more information about Shakyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, and the other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the Mahayana Buddhist Tradition, see our Buddha Page.
For more information about the teachings and practices of Buddhism, see our Dharma Page.
For more information on temple life, and to see if there is a temple near you, see our Sangha Page.
To learn more about the priests and trainees affiliated with the Tendai Buddhist Institute, please see our Tendai Buddhist Institute Page.
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Jushoku’s Thoughts
"We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." This insightful remark by Martin Luther King, Jr., in his 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail', written to the white clergymen of that city, on 16 April 1963 is expressed in Buddhism as interpenetration
The basis of interpenetration is a major theme in East Asian philosophy. Confucianism defines one's social connections and relationships as a relational identity. In Daoism the self is a manifestation of Dao. Subject and object and self and other are canceled in the oneness of Dao. The Huayan (Avataṃsaka or Flower Garland Sutra) worldview - which emphasizes interconnectedness, incorporating metaphors such as Indra's Net - describes a cosmos of infinite realms upon realms, mutually containing one another[1].
There are different ways of expressing living the Buddha Dharma; The Six Perfections, the three qualities that best embody the Buddhist practice, Karuna (compassion), Prajñā (wisdom) and Upaya (expedient means), and the three intentions that are essential to Buddhist practices, humility, gratitude, and harmony. The Buddhist concept of Interpenetration encompasses them all. The challenge of being continually aware of Interpenetration is that it is such an all-embracing philosophy that it is easy to overlook in the moment to moment focus of our lives. It is though we are looking through the wrong and of the binoculars as we navigate our daily existence. How do we turn the binoculars around and see the big picture when we are observing minutiae of our lives?
Classical Buddhist teachings inform us that the seventh element of the Noble Eightfold Path is Smŗti, the spiritual skill that forms an essential element of Buddhist practice. It is Right Mindfulness or Awareness. Smṛti originally meant "to remember", "to recollect", "to bear in mind". This is not to be confused with the vernacular term 'mindfulness' we see used ubiquitously as something quite different in primary and secondary education and psychotherapeutic notions of moment-to-moment mindfulness. Sharf[1] refers to this as "bare attention". This type of mindfulness often leads to self-absorption.
Contrast this to Smŗti. In the context of interpenetration, one is aware of the connections that we make throughout our existence. Connecting with phenomena we have been speaking about recently, and phenomena in the world, if we discussed racism we realize that it has a negative effect not only on people of color, but people who are white; not only upon the LBGTQ community, but on the straight community. If we have a frame of reference that diminishes those of people of the other political party, it severely limits our understanding of the people in our political party.
In a different context the idea of interpenetration may assist us in feeling less isolated and disconnected. By personifying the connectedness of all sentient beings, the earth, and the cosmos, we are offered the opportunity to feel harmony, and through this harmony gratitude, and a result of this gratitude humility. This leads us to a profound desire for compassion through wisdom.
Zhiyi categorized the final of the Four Meditations as neither sitting nor walking meditation. This is the true understanding of interpenetration, Smŗti. It is a sublime state to reveal awakening within this very lifetime. If not now when?
Love and Gassho ..... Monshin
[1] Cleary, T. (1993) The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra. Shambhala; New edition edition P. 2.
[2] Sharf, Robert (October 2014). "Mindfulness and Mindlessness in Early Chan" (PDF). Philosophy East and West. 64 (4): 943.
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