Hawaii Betsuin invites you to our Buddha Day services on Sunday April 8. The English language service will be a combined adult and Dharma School service beginning at 9:30 a.m. in the main temple hall. Japanese services are offered at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Buddha Day (or Hanamatsuri / Flower Festival) is held to commemorate the birth of Siddhartha Gautama in Lumbini Garden. Siddhartha became the historical Buddha, Sakyamuni. Services often feature a hanamido, a miniature floral altar with a figure of the baby Buddha. Attendees use a dipping cup to bathe the figure in sweet tea.

The guest speaker for our combined service will be Dr. Benjamin Bruch, a teacher at Pacific Buddhist Academy and Betsuin’s Dharma School who recently joined Hawaii Betsuin’s board of directors. The title for Dr. Ben’s talk is “Leaving Lumbini Garden: Cultivating Ethical Young Leaders.”

More About Dr. Benjamin Bruch

Born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Benjamin Bruch moved to the East Coast to attend Harvard College, where he received his bachelor’s degree in English cum laude in 1997. Ben returned to Harvard for graduate school, earning an A.M. and Ph.D. in Celtic Languages and Literatures. Between 2007 and 2011 he lived and worked in Europe, where he studied medieval manuscripts, taught Celtic courses as a lecturer and professor at the Universities of Bonn and Vienna, and worked to help revive Cornish, the endangered Celtic language of Cornwall.

In 2011, Ben and his family returned to the mainland USA and lived on the campus of Scattergood Friends School, a Quaker boarding school in West Branch, Iowa, where Ben’s husband Rüdiger served as Director of Development. Three years later, the family relocated to Honolulu, Hawaii, where Rüdiger and Ben are both employed at Pacific Buddhist Academy. At PBA, “Dr. Ben” teaches courses in social studies, history, law, literature, linguistics, and Celtic music.

After moving to Hawaii, Ben and his family began attending weekly services at the Betsuin, and in 2017, Ben was confirmed as a member of the Jōdo Shinshū community during the Gomonshu’s visit to Hawaii, receiving the homyo Shigaku ‘one who aspires to learn.’ In addition to his work at PBA, Ben also serves as a member of the Betsuin Board of Directors and a Dharma School teacher.