California Tendai Buddhist Monastery (CALTENDAI.ORG)

Many Buddhists think that the practices and teachings of the Mahayana, Mantrayana, and Vajrayana were invented several centuries after Sh...

Anderson Creek on Dec 10, the day before the huge storms began. There are two all-year creeks and two seasonal creeks here. This i...

The man on the left in the crumpled wagesa is the great scholar-priest Ven Ichishima Shoshin. He reads, writes and speaks, beside his nati...

During the fire-safe season, roughly from November to April, this outdoor fire is lit and meditative liturgies are recited. The goma give...

Notice in the lower left corner the smoke wafting from the egoro (after finishing a goma).  The verse recited while placing the incense i...

"The Mahavairocana Sutra" (BDK edition). This is the single most essential text because it outlines the Vehicle of Mantras at ...

This 110ft high ponderosa pine marks the location for seclusion practice. At Cold Springs, on the back of the mountain, away from the mona...

This shrine has remained undisturbed at the top of Cobb Mountain since 1989, 15 years before the monastery land was purchased on another...

Sometimes guests participate in a 10AM goma on Saturday and stay for a vegetarian lunch

A photo from the past -- 43 years ago! From left to right: Baba Bert, chief disciple; Yogi Bhajan, a Sikh master; Dr Mishra, at his ash...

Technically, the "Ides" is the 15th, and it is March, not September, however . . .  the change of the seasons is here and thus b...

Two weeks ago the city of Napa (50 miles away) was hit with a M6.0 earthquake which damaged buildings and injured many people.  I recall...

Contemplating the Land of Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light in the western direction; watching the 300 prayer lanterns we had assemb...

A mantis walks up to the temple to pray. Unfortunately for him, a juvenile rattlesnake also comes here to prey -- on such things as ...

On the small island of Saipan (about the size of San Francisco) we participated in various services for WWII dead. In a ba...

The Japanese word 'EN' means 'relationships', and for the people practicing our Buddhist tradition, good EN is the foundati...

This is an icon of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva (Fugen Bosatsu, the All-Good Bodhisattva), along with his seed syllable (AN) and his mantra ...

As Gozen-sama told me, "These animals (in his case, the monkeys of Mt Hiei) have as much a right to be here as we do." Likewise...

The 'full moon of the fifth month' by the lunar calendar is most commonly cited as the Buddha's birthday as well as the day of...

Uehara Gyosho-sama, after finishing the 1000-day walking meditation, begins his healing work, stopping first in a formal visit to pay homa...

This photo is of DAI AJARI UEHARA GYOSHO's goma in Japan and shows the prayers written in Chinese characters, but here people will wri...

The story of Ven Ichishima Shinryu illustrates one aspect of Buddhist karmic connections, called EN in Japanese. Ichishima Shoshin and mys...

This calligraphy was brushed by the current chief of the Tendai school, the Venerable Zasu Handa Kojun. At 97 years old, he still produces...