Observations About Myself – It Helps to Keep Training By Brett Hanson I appreciate the dharma offerings I read from Reverend Masters Phoebe and Seikai, and it seems appropriate to make my own offering.  I have taken the approach of writing about my own experiences and how Buddhist training has helped me to understand my place in the world.  Perhaps the reader will make a connection or relate in some way.             When I was a young adult, I decided that some of my emotions and personality traits needed to change.  To mani ..read more

Desiderata By Rev. Master Seikai Desiderata is a prose poem written a century ago by Max Ehrmann, an American from Terre Haute, Indiana. He copyrighted his poem in 1927, and it became popular in the 1960s as the result of it being widely published, and also rendered into a popular song released in 1971. It was believed to have been written by an unknown author and discovered in Old St. Paul’s Church in Baltimore, which dates to the 1690s, but that story was been disproven.             The word desiderata comes from Latin, meaning “things d ..read more

We start every new year by holding a ceremony to honor the Buddha of the future, Maitreya. This past January 1 there was a good group of people who came for it, and we followed the ceremony with a lively Dharma Talk about who and what Maitreya represents. We hope to hold one ceremony each month which will mark one of the traditional events in the Buddhist yearly calendar, or focus on one of the Bodhisattvas of Mahayana Buddhism, and then discuss the meaning in that day’s Dharma Talk. We celebrated our first year in Santa Paula on February 19 with an Avalokitesvara ceremony (the Bodhisattva rep ..read more

bijou In Memoriam Bijou 2013 – 2022               Bijou’s relatively short and often difficult life came to an end in April. Rev. Seikai adopted Bijou in December of 2014 and brought him up to the temple on Lockwood Valley Road, where he made an immediate change for the better. He had been on death row in the Ventura County Shelter for being a biter—we never found out who owned him originally—and from there an animal rescue group, Paw Works, took him to their location in Camarillo. In the shelter he was called Havoc, and at Paw W ..read more

 Moving to Santa Paula We made the move! Everything we wanted to keep was loaded up into cars and moving vans and hauled from the Ozena Valley to Santa Paula on January 29th. Two trucks and five guys from Meathead Movers did the heavy lifting. Several people donated their time and energy to haul some of the more fragile things over the mountains. The house had been tented for termites earlier in the week, and moving day, Saturday, was chaotic but successful. Many of our neighbors stopped by to welcome us; they were happy to see the unoccupied house get new residents and that by all appear ..read more

Moving News From Pine Mountain Buddhist Temple December, 2021 For the third time in its history, Pine Mountain Temple is moving. Originally the Santa Barbara Buddhist Priory, which was started by Rev. Jisho Perry in 1979, the temple moved once in Santa Barbara, and then over the mountains to Ventura County and the Ozena Valley in early 2000. Now, exactly 22 years later, we are moving again. Revs. Phoebe and Seikai have been the only two monks and residents of the temple since our last monk resident, Rev. Leon, moved on in 2009.             ..read more

News             As of mid-June, most Covid-19 restrictions in California have been lifted, and life is returning to what we judiciously call “normal.” Revs. Phoebe and Seikai were both vaccinated during the spring, as California slowly moved to vaccinate people over, then under 65. We have resumed accommodating overnight guests at the temple on condition that they have been vaccinated. At this point, given the widespread availability of the vaccines and the inexcusability of not getting the shots, those who have not been vaccinated must w ..read more

In Memoriam of 2+ million people in the world Who died of Covid in 2020. When we are one with enlightenment we know that there is complete immaculacy and universal light; utter quietness embraces the sky.  When we return to the world we know that everything is as a dream; let us pray that the three treasures of the Dharma may be always watching clearly.  We have offered incense, water, flowers and candles and have recited the Scripture of Great Wisdom and the Adoration of the Buddha’s Relics and pray that the merit we accrue in making these offerings will be given to all those who ha ..read more

KODAK Digital Still Camera             In Memoriam              Carol Barker On September 12, 2020, Carol Barker died in a Denver, CO,  Hospice Center, of bowel cancer. Carol had been a member of the Santa Barbara Priory, and then of Pine Mtn. Temple, while she lived in California and some of our older members may well remember her bright and courageous presence. Even when she moved out of state she remained in regular correspondence with Rev. Phoebe and supported the temple. Last year her youngest son Marvin fell ill with c ..read more

Kneeling with respect for George Floyd and all those who died at the hands of other people. Kneeling with sorrow for the suffering we humans inflict on ourselves. Kneeling with the recognition that I too have the potential to hurt or kill out of fear and anger. Kneeling with knowing that only I can change myself. Kneeling with gladness, seeing there are many people right now stopping and wanting to change. Kneeling with sympathy for the painful consequences of our past collective acts we will all still have to bear. Kneeling with devotion, asking That Which Is Greater than any of us to help a ..read more