Buddhism Experience

On Sunday September 13th, Camryn, Airi and I went to a Buddhist service at Honpa Honwanji Mission of Hawaii [(808) 522- 9200] located in Nu’uanu. The service started at 10:00 am and ended at 11:00 pm. This was my very first time going to a religious service outside of school and it was a really good experience. If it weren’t for this project, I don’t think I would have ever considered going to a service. It was really interesting and now I able to be able to see the differences and similarities between Christianity/Episcopalian and Buddhism. The service opened with the “Call to Worship”. This is where the priests entered the room and we chanted the Vandana and Ti- Sarana. This is an ancient chant, where the people express their praise to the Buddha (Vandana) and take refuge in the Three Treasures (Ti- Sarana). The first verse of the Vandana and the Ti- Sarana are sung in Pali, an Indian language that many Buddhist scriptures were written in. The second is sung in English and is chanted slowly. When they first started chanting this, I …show more content…
He explained that Buddhism teaches us a way to not be angry and that there are three poisons in life: greed, anger, and stupidity. If we steer clear of these three things, we will be able to live happily. In order to live our lives joyfully it is important to nurture ourselves with the Buddha’s teachings and compassion. Reverend Tomioka explained that Buddha’s world, his compassion and his wisdom is always working for our sake and can help guide us fully in this world. He then brought up the main topic “thirsty for Dharma” and explained that Hawaii people have always been thirsty for dharma just like how we are thirsty for water. Dharma has become something that is and essential part in their lives. Dharma helps people to find peace and comfort in life. He then concluded with “Let us appreciate what we have in today. By doing this we can see the beauty in