Gathering 2012

Ahhh....I so suck at blogging for the Fellowship Club. I'll do a catch up from August and then a summer 2012 wrap up post.

Above is a picture of most of the participants of Gathering 2012. This picture was taken on Saturday August 11th. 

Gathering 2012 for those who don't know was suppose to be part of the BSC's 40th Anniversary Celebration and a collaboration with the Shin Buddhist Project of Wahiawa Hongwanji Mission and the Young Adult Retreat IV. The speakers for the conference were Dr. Alfred Bloom, Rev. Koyo Kubose, Dr. Kenneth Tanaka, and Cheryl Lippman Tomita. 

On Friday of The Gathering 2012 Rev. Kevin Kuniyuki conducted a special service to honor the BSC's 40th Anniversary. In attendance, we had 2 former directors Rev.Tatsuo Muneto and Rev. Thomas Okano. Also in attendance that night from Kahuku Hongwanji were Mr. & Mrs. Barbara Tatsuguchi and Mrs. Nancy Kunimitsu and her son. Rev. Kuniyuki announced that night that there would be 2 scholarships for both a PBA student and a student associated with the Hongwanji in honor of Kahuku Hongwanji. Kahuku Hongwanji is closing at the end of the year as previously stated in an earlier entry.

After the service and a tribute to the BSC's 40th Anniversary,The Gathering 2012 commenced with a presentation by former Waikiki School principal Cheryl Lippman Tomita. She presented on Habits of Mind and how she was able to incorporate it into the culture of the school and it has continued on since she has left.

On Saturday the rest of the guest speakers gave their thoughts on Habits of Mind and  then there was a breakout session so that the participants could give their thoughts on Habits of Mind and how they thought it would be able to work in their temple. The guest speakers began with Dr. Alfred Bloom who said that while the 16 Habits of Mind were good and related to  the eight fold path he found 16 principles that would help people get along better in their lives.

Dr. Bloom's talk was followed by Dr. Kenneth Tanaka talked about themes from his book Ocean.  He said that many of the principles still applied to temples and that even if we chose to continue using the Habits of Mind we should continue to have Dharma as the center of the temple.

After Dr. Tanaka gave his talk, Rev. Koyo Kubose related to the audience stories about his father. He used stories about his father's patience with everyone not just some people. How he told Dharma School students  to continually thank their shoes and he said that many students his father taught in those days had come up to him in recent years and told him that they still thank their shoes.

After Rev. Kubose talked all the speakers got together and did a panel discussion. Can I say that as Buddhists we have some really bad jokes?!? No, really we do. But the panel was great nonetheless. 

On Sunday the participants of the Young Adult Retreat joined the Gathering participants for a bit but more on that in part 2