Dr. Benjamin Bruch — PBA teacher and Hawaii Betsuin board member
Inner Light and Infinite Light
A Dharma Talk for
Mō‘ili‘ili Hongwanji Mission
Honolulu, Hawai‘i
Sunday 19 August 2018
Dr. Benjamin Bruch
Pacific Buddhist Academy
bruch@post.harvard.edu
First, I want to thank Reverend Umitani and the community here at Mō‘ili‘ili Hongwanji for inviting me to speak to you today.
It is an honor to come to this beautiful temple and be welcomed by the sangha, and it is wonderful to see so many of the friends my family and I have made since we came to Hawai‘i and joined the staff at Pacific Buddhist Academy.
When I met with Reverend Umitani to ask about what he would like me to talk about today, he made two suggestions:
First, he said, I could talk about how I came to embrace Shin Buddhism, since my path to becoming a temple member is a little different from most people’s experience.
Second, he said, people might be curious about what it is like for me as a Buddhist to be married to someone from a different faith tradition.
You see, my husband Rüdiger is a Quaker—a member of the Religious Society of Friends—and a Christian. So it is fair to think that there might sometimes be tension in our home over values, beliefs, and practices.