Tag: practice

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Reaching Beyond Temples to Teach Buddhism

Rev. Shoukei Matsumoto is a different kind of Jodo Shinshu priest. He’s more entrepreneur than traditional minister and he’s trying new ways of reaching beyond temple members.

Among his many activities, he started a company, Interbeing, aimed at bringing Buddhist teachings to business people. He earned a Master of Business Administration degree and developed lessons to help priests better run their temples. He organizes spontaneous meet-ups with young people in various cities to discuss life issues. He started a temple café and created a Buddhist website called higan.net. He’s written several books, including the popular “A Monk’s Guide to a Clean House and Mind,” which was translated into 18 languages. Continue reading “Reaching Beyond Temples to Teach Buddhism”

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The Art of Listening

By Rev. Marcos Sawada

A confession: I’m more a speaker than a listener. Are you a good listener? Many people are not.

Generally, I think people like to talk more than listen. That’s strange, given we have two ears but only one mouth. Mouths have two functions which keep them busy—speaking and eating. The job of ears is merely to hear. So why is listening so difficult? Continue reading “The Art of Listening”