Buddhist Church of Lodi

Buddhist Church of Stockton is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom Sunday Service. Those who are on our (church) mass email list will get a link to the Zoom service.

To Sangha, Your loved ones who passed away in July, August , September , and October have been recently memorialized in a combined Shotsuki service. This service was conducted by Rev. Shibata. You can view the video on YouTube.. link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlsFwwdaJug

Shotsuki Service video link on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdlyuFIkAeMD6e9ECQY-wBA/

To Our Sangha One of the unfortunate consequences of the coronavirus pandemic has been the suspension of our monthly Shotsuki services. These services are monthly memorial services who passed away during a particular month of the year. Remembering our loved ones makes us realize the foundation of our life. It is a precious occasion for us to listen to the Buddha Dharma and express our appreciation to our loved ones who now become Buddha. Until we are able to again meet ...in person, we are pleased to announce that, through the support of Rev. Candice Shibata, we are now able to resume these observations in a safe and meaningful manner. While we would all prefer to meet in person, we are not confident that we have solutions in place to do so safely at this time. For the balance of the year, Rev. Shibata will conduct Shotsuki services alone in the church and we will record them and upload them to YouTube ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdlyuFIkAeMD6e9ECQY-wBA ) for your viewing. Links to these videos can be searched directly and also will be found (link) on lodibuddhist.org Your loved ones who passed away in April, May and June have been recently memorialized in a combined Shotsuki service. This service was conducted by Rev. Shibata, recorded and is available online as of October 5. We will do the same in a separate service for those who passed away in July, August, September and October and post it online by 10/19/20. Beginning in November, we will conduct individual monthly services that can be viewed live and you will be able to access archived versions by the 2nd Sunday of each month. As this process is new, we are sending these first letters and lists to our entire Sangha until we are comfortable that everybody understands this new process and is able to view the services. Should you desire a receipt for your thoughtful donation in memory of your beloved, please attach a note to your offering and we will send one in the weeks following the service. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly if you have questions. In Gassho, Buddhist Church of Lodi

Sorry for this being late. We are still trying to get organized on doing Online (Zoom) services Buddhist Church Stockton is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Stockton, Lodi, & Walnut Grove Service Invitation... Time: Sunday, October 4, 2020 Service at 10:00 AM (Golden Chain II, Juseige, Our Pledge) followed by October Shotsuki Service 10:30 AM (Sambujo, Amida Kyo, Three Treasures) These two services are accessible from the same Zoom link. Thank you, BCL Office [email protected] Join Zoom Meeting Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85826650573#success Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video an... Meeting ID: 858 2665 0573 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbfyaPyaiz Buddhist Church of Stockton 2820 Shimizu Dr. Stockton, CA 95203 (209) 466-6701 - office phone (209) 469-2811 - office fax

From Rev. Candice Shibata I think I say this every month, but last month flew by! I still cannot believe that the year is almost over! However, before we ring out 2020, many of us may be reflecting upon this upcoming holiday season and wondering if we should or can spend the holidays with our extended family members. I always look forward to seeing my family and enjoying (too much) delicious foods at our family gatherings, which warms my heart and my tummy. The pandemic ...has definitely shed some light on the gratitude of being able to freely see our loved ones prior to March of this year. Speaking of the holiday season, Halloween always seems to be the observance that kicks off the festivities at the end of the year with the abundance of shared sweets and candies. To be honest, I was never too fond of Halloween. I believe that it is mostly due to being afraid of Halloween masks, which began early on in my life and continues to be a memory that still gives me shivers when I think about it. It may even contribute to my love of comedies instead of scary movies. Despite the distance between our family in California and my mother’s family in New York City, we still had many opportunities to visit with each other during vacations and are still very close. I remember our cousin coming for a visit in California and while he stayed with us he scared me (multiple times) with a Halloween mask of an old man. I am sure it was funny for my older cousin, but no matter how much I may have anticipated his teasing, it completely scared me! Looking back, this mask was not gory or particularly scary, however, it was being caught off guard seeing him in that mask as an old man that scared me the most. As a young child I may not have completely understood the reality of aging and how it affects all of us. I can only imagine how Siddhartha Gautama felt as he left the comforts of the palace for the first time and encountered the sights of an old man, an ill man and lastly, a man who passed away. During these outings, Siddhartha Gautama was accompanied by an attendant who revealed to the young prince that all living beings experience this process of life. These encounters, in addition to meeting an ascetic who was living a simple life compelled Prince Siddhartha to leave the palace to search how to end suffering. As humans we also wear masks that prevent us from seeing reality clearly, others and ourselves, which in turn causes suffering. These masks blind us in the form of greed, anger and ignorance. Sometimes our own insecurities create masks we wear so we can feel brave when facing others. However, the teachings of the Buddha and Shinran Shonin can give us strength and comfort to help us to remove our masks of greed, anger, ignorance and insecurities to live our lives with gratitude and humility. In Gassho, Rev. Candice Shibata

To our Sangha - A quick update from our recent General Meeting held via a Zoom call last week. Unfortunately, due to ongoing, high level COVID infection rates in San Joaquin County, we have canceled in-person services through the end of the year. ... However, as many of you are aware, there are numerous options to join and/or view online services held by various temples. We will continue to publish links to these events via email and Facebook. As we now enjoy the wonderful support from Reverend Shibata, we are happy to announce that we will begin to conduct virtual Shotsuki services for Lodi families. Given that we have missed 8 months of Shotsuki services, we will conduct 2 virtual services to catch up - one covering the months March - June, and a second, covering July - October. We will be sending letters to families with loved ones who passed in these months along with instructions on how to access the virtual services by the end of the month. Starting in November we will revert to conducting individual monthly Online Shotsuki services. The plan moving forward will be to have the option to view the service online live, or a recording at a later time. We think this is an important first step in helping to reconnect our Sangha. From an administrative perspective, I’m pleased to report that our church continues to maintain a relatively healthy financial position despite the recent lack of services due to a corresponding reduction in expenses and income from the rental of the Residence. Work continues on the annex kitchen, slowed in combination of COVID related factors as well as some typical surprises that are not uncommon in a building of this vintage. Hopefully by our next update we will have some pictures to share. Last, if you know of anybody who would like to be added to our email distribution list, please have them send a message to the office, or through the website at lodibuddhist.org. In Gassho, Corey Okazaki BCL Board President