Manulani Aluli Meyer to speak at Betsuin's Earth Day Service on April 22

Manulani Aluli Meyer

Hawaii Betsuin presents its 2018 Earth Day Service at 10 a.m. on Sunday, April 22. The guest speaker is scholar-practitioner Dr. Manulani Aluli Meyer, back home on Oahu after 25 years in Hilo and 5 years in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The working title of Dr. Meyer’s talk is, “Ku’u Aina Aloha: Hawaiian Buddhism.”

Queen's portrait at the Queen Liliuokalani Tribute Service (A. Kubota)

Queen’s portrait at the Queen Liliuokalani Tribute Service, October 29, 2017 (A. Kubota)

The connections between Native Hawaiians and Jodo Shinshu Buddhists go back to the beginnings of Honpa Hongwanji in Hawaii. Two notable examples are the financial assistance Mary Foster provided for the original temple on Fort Lane and Queen Liliuokalani’s visit to the same temple in 1901 for a service commemorating the birth of Shinran Shonin. These and other connections are recounted in parts of Pat Masters’ recent book, Searching for Mary Foster. How do we nurture these connections today?

Placing Earth Day on our Buddhist calendars reminds us to seek guidance from the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha in our relations with the environment. As we look ahead to the challenges from a changing climate and economic precariousness, we can also learn about and reflect upon Indigenous understandings and practices that sustainably supported large populations for hundreds of years. We can observe and participate in contemporary expressions of Aloha ʻĀina (love of the land) and Mālama Honua (caring for our Island Earth).

We are very fortunate to have as our Earth Day speaker a world-wide Indigenous scholar dedicated to expanding views of knowledge to better address the needs of our time. Manulani Aluli Meyer earned her doctorate from Harvard in 1998 on the topic of Hawaiian epistemology (Philosophy of Knowledge) and has published on the topic in a variety of locations. She is now the Konohiki of Kūlana o Kapolei – a Hawaiian Place of Learning at UH West Oahu.

Please join us on Earth Day as we nurture connections, enrich our understanding, and open new pathways to a future that is kinder and gentler to every living thing and in which we all join to Mālama Honua. After the service, there will be refreshments in the Social Hall and an opportunity for dialogue with our speaker in the Annex Temple.

– David Atcheson, Hawaii Betsuin Green Team Convener

Note to first-time visitors to Hawaii Betsuin: Our temple is the white-domed building off Pali Highway near School St. Though our address is 1727 Pali Highway (see map), the entrance to our parking lot is on Lusitana Street. TheBus route 6 also stops at the temple on Lusitana St. There is parking on three sides of the temple.