As this year winds down, my thoughts are encompassed with feelings of gratitude and appreciation to each of you who have supported and participated in the many temple programs and activities throughout the year. Our temple is a place for a wide range of activities, from the attentive listening and invoking of the dharma on Sunday mornings, the energetic gatherings of our dharma school children and youth in the dharma services and classrooms, the thunderous sounds of the taiko drums by our children, youth, and seniors, the unhurried weekly gatherings of our seniors and their focused attention on cards, crafts, and supportive presence to each other; the nightly use of the gym facilities ranging from the clashing of Kendo bamboo sticks, the dribbling sounds of basketball by children and youth leagues, and the echo of yesteryear of our adults and seniors as they dribble for health and maintenance; the heightened energy expended at our Obon season bazaar and its exhuberant closing in the Obon odori; the quiet continuance of our cultural legacy through bonsai, traditional Japanese dance, flower arrangement, and suiseki cleasses; and the innumerable personal conversations I've enjoyed with many of you in sharing our rich and unique life experiences and meanings. All these and many other encounters, which I may have unintentionally missed, enrich the multi-dimensitonal life of our temple sangha.

Yet, in the midst of all these activities and encounters, I listen to our involvement as an indescribable affirmation ofour sustaining faith in the timeless movement of Buddha's infinite light and life enfolding our harried daily lives. In the same way a deep loving and caring parent always thinks and feels deeply for its child, whether the child is aware of not, Amida Buddha's constant light of wisdom and its embracing life of compassion sustain us through the hills and valleys of our daily life. We manifest this blessing of infinite light and life inintoning namu-amida-butsu, expressing our gratitude and appreciation to the fulfilled vow of Amida Buddha. Shinran Shonin himself awakened to Amida's fulfilled vow as the very source of his spiritual liberation and the spiritual liberation of others. Thus, our spiritual liberation as ordinary people with deep karmic afflications and sufferring are transformed by this fulfilled vow, which is the Buddha's primary wish to bring freedom and meaning, joy and happiness to the life of all beings.

Here we affirm Amida Buddha as the Other Power as it is expressed in the Tannisho, "Entrusting our life to Amida Buddha's Primal Vow by saying namu-amida-butsu, we attain Buddhahood." The person who shares the same awakened faith as Shinran Shonin is said to "walk the unimpeded path of spiritual freedom to Buddhahood." Shinran Shonin expresses this transforming power of namu-amida-butsu as,

When we say namu-amida-butsu,
which surpasses all (human) virtues,
Our heavy obstructions of (karmic) evil - past, present, and future -
All are unfailingly transformed, becoming light.

Namu-amida-butsu thus "lightens" our karmic afflictions and sufferings and empowers us live meaningfully and purposefully. Namu-amida-butsu brings deep inner peace and harmony and feelings of limitless gratitude and appreciation. The inner spiritual freedom we receive in namu-amida-butsu transforms us and empowers us with a boshisattva spirit to serve others in their quest for spiritual liberation and freedom. We are guided by the "enlightened tools" of selfless dana-giving, boundless patience, and clear wisdom-insight. We receive the blessings of a renewed life of awareness, acceptance, and appreciation as our daily ingredients for living. And our true purpose and direction in life become clear and real in the deep awakening of namu-amida-butsu as the well-spring of our spiritual vitality and energy.

May the boundless power of namu-amida-butsu enrich and energize our whole life and enhance the many programs and activities of our temple. Any may even one person in the course of his/her involvement with our sangha truly awaken to the rich blessings that emerge in the transformative life of namu-amida-butsu. In this spirit, thank you in gassho. Namu-amida-butsu.