shinbuddhism

In this episode of Words From My Teachers, an Everyday Buddhism podcast, I am reading the first five chapters from The Center Within by Rev. Gyomay Kubose:

• Awareness

• A Shining Star

• Buddha Nature and Gassho

• Buddhism Is Everyday Life

• Empty-Handed

I hope you enjoy these readings and I hope you will take my suggestion and cue to do some reflection at the end of each essay. As my teacher, Rev. Koyo Kubose taught, "Don't just read. Ask yourself how you can use what you heard? How can you add it to your spiritual toolbox?"

This is the last of the episodes released in full as public episodes, so be sure to subscribe to receive 5 essay readings weekly.

And please share this feed using the convenient "Share" button on the Substack post.

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For more about Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism: Bright Dawn.org

Introducing Words From My Teachers, a premium, weekly Everyday Buddhism podcast. Words From My Teachers features readings from the books written by and about my teachers from the Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism and the Kubose Dharma Legacy … Rev. Gyomay Kubose, Rev. Koyo Kubose, and Haya Akegarasu.

This is the first of 2 episodes that will be offered as public podcast episodes … then make sure to sign up to receive them weekly through the Substack link.

In this first episode, I will give a background of Bright Dawn, based on an article I wrote some years ago. I called it The Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism: Buddhism with Attitude—Keeping it REAL and ALIVE. It summarizes the history of the Kubose family and Bright Dawn and I have shared a link to a PDF of the original article in my Everyday Buddhism Substack feed.

Rev. Koyo Kubose and his father, Rev. Gyomay Kubose, continued the mission started by the Japanese Pure Land teachers, Honen and Shinran—bringing the Dharma to everyone in their everyday lives. Rev. Gyomay Kubose’s lifework was dedicated to promoting Buddhism in America, so that the Dharma could be part of the lives of those in a Western culture, where Buddhism was not native.

It is my hope that this Words From My Teachers podcast will help keep Rev. Gyomay's and Rev. Koyo's voices alive by bringing them to listeners not familiar with the Bright Dawn teachings and reinforcing them to those who already appreciate them.

Stay tuned for the next episode, with a reading from Rev. Gyomay Kubose's book, The Center Within, that will be offered as public podcast episodes … then make sure to sign up to receive them weekly, on Mondays, by subscribing to my Everyday Buddhism Substack premium content.

Subscribe to Words From My Teachers Premium Podcast

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For more about Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism: Bright Dawn.org

Introducing Words From My Teachers, a premium, weekly Everyday Buddhism podcast. Words From My Teachers features readings from the books written by and about my teachers from the Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism and the Kubose Dharma Legacy … Rev. Gyomay Kubose, Rev. Koyo Kubose, and Haya Akegarasu.

I started the Everyday Buddhism podcast in June of 2018 so that I could share the everyday approach to Buddhism that was instilled in me by my teacher Rev. Koyo Kubose and the Bright Dawn Lay Ministry program. It is an approach that was not widely taught or communicated at the time … and, honestly, it still isn't.

The lineage from which the Bright Dawn teachings derived is unique in the Dharma-sphere and its teachings are what I built my podcast and virtual sangha approach on.

It is my hope that this Words From My Teachers podcast will help keep Rev. Gyomay's and Rev. Koyo's voices alive by bringing them to listeners not familiar with the Bright Dawn teachings and reinforcing them to those who already appreciate them.

Stay tuned for the first 2 episodes that will be offered as public podcast episodes … then make sure to sign up to receive them weekly by subscribing to my Everyday Buddhism Substack premium content.

Subscribe to Words From My Teachers Premium Podcast

Enjoy a special release of a Members Only Feature: Bonus Contemplation Podcasts. These are short podcasts for you to use as subjects for contemplation or analytical meditation.

I've released this contemplation, "Impermanence", as a birthday gift to my podcast audience, in celebration of my 70th birthday. It is by my friend and fellow Buddhist teacher, Kaspa Thompson. It purposely follows the episode, "Navigating Grief and Loss" by Kimberly Brown.

Kaspa directs the Bright Earth with their partner, Satya, and works as a psychotherapist. They has been a Buddhist teacher for more than a decade and has a special interest in outside practice. They are a committee member of the Eco Dharma Network, and Chair of the Network of Buddhist Organisations UK.

I am publicly releasing another bonus podcast, at the same time. It is a reflection on the Five Remembrances and presented by my dear friend and Everyday Buddhism Sangha leader, Bradley Jinaiyo Nussbaum. These bonus contemplation podcasts will be released regularly and presented by myself or some of my Bright Dawn Lay Minister/lay ministry student friends and colleagues.

To be sure you don't miss any of them, join the Everyday Buddhism Membership Community or Everyday Sangha:

https://www.everydaybuddhismcommunity.com/join-community-or-sangha.html

For more about Kaspa and the Bright Earth Pure Land Buddhist Temple, check out these websites:

https://www.brightearth.org/

http://www.kaspathompson.co.uk/

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Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits!https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism

In this special "best of" episode, we celebrate Bodhi Day, the traditional celebration of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni's enlightenment. Yet, listen as we discover how it is a celebration of our enlightenment, too.

The message of the December darkness is a messenger of our own enlightenment. Without darkness, we couldn't know light. Shakyamuni's enlightenment experience is ours. He proclaimed, "I and the great earth, and all beings are naturally and simultaneously awakened."

We don't chase the darkness away through external ritual or stringing lights, but by looking inside to find our own light.

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My teacher, mentor, and friend, Rev. Sunnan Koyo Kubose passed away suddenly last month. In his honor, I'm replaying Episode 20, a special interview with him, as the first of a series of episodes dedicated to honoring my teachers. It is through Bright Dawn and my Sensei, I learned how to bring Buddhism into the everyday.

Listen as we discuss what the Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism and its Lay Ministry program is all about, from Rev. Koyo's perspective ... its historical influences, its mission, vision, and special niche as a program bringing the Dharma to everyone in an ordinary, everyday way.

We'll talk about the balance of gratitude, humility, ambiguity, uncertainty, perfect studentship, and — most importantly — naturalness, in Bright Dawn and it's lay ministers, as they bring the Dharma to everyone.

Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, "Everyday Buddhism"

And books from Rev. Koyo Kubose and Rev. Gyomay Kubose:

Bright Dawn: Discovering Your Everyday Spirituality

Everyday Suchness: Buddhist Essays on Everyday Living

The Center Within

It seems, sometimes, that when Buddhist and other religious teachers, and serious practitioners get deeper into practice, the more they seem capable of deluding themselves—either in a performative way, posing and positioning for others, or because they have completely deluded themselves about what is really happening within them.

They hide their humanness behind the beauty and strength of their words, or their teacher's words, and they hide their brokenness. They hide so well they begin to believe they aren't broken.

In this episode, I talk about my brokenness and about how, like the Japanese art of kintsugi, expressing the philosophy of wabi-sabi, we must embrace the flawed and imperfect to honor our whole self—in all its brokenness—rather than hide what is broken. We need to illuminate those broken parts.

In this podcast, we'll explore finding ways to say "thank you" in this time of loss, fear, despair, and uncertainty. I take some time reflecting on the Buddhist teachings of the gift of our "precious human life."

Our lives are a gift. We did not plan, arrange, or have any control in making our births happen. We were gifted them. And, for that gift, despite how rocky our lives sometimes seem, we say "thank you!"

Listen to how you can use mindful awareness to shift your focus to what's in front of you ... to "just this". Sitting in "just this", you are relieved of your endless wants, worries, dramas, AND sadness. From that place, you can connect to a place of freedom where your heart softens around your fears and joys, and you can relax in the whole of life—if only for a few minutes.