How a California boy became a Shin Buddhist minister

Q-60pxWhat led to your decision to become a minister? Was religion/Buddhism very integral in your life as a child?

 

A-60pxBuddhism was not a big part of my life as a child. I went to Sunday School (what Dharma School was called at the time). It was just something to do and a place to see my friends. Then it became a requirement to be part of the church basketball and baseball teams.

By high school, church and Sunday School fell by the wayside for me. But, later, when I was in college at the University of California at Davis, I became active in the YBA (Young Buddhist Association) and this led me to questions about Buddhism.

At UC Davis, I started out studying engineering. But I was not able to keep up. So I switched my major to history— because it was easy for me. As a history major, the career path looked like I would become a school teacher. But for some reason that did not appeal to me, so I started to look around.

At this time, many things came together: While I was searching for some path, I stumbled upon the Institute of Buddhist Studies. It was there that I became interested in Buddhism and a whole lot of other things.

I started down the path of IBS and, you can say, things just fell into place. I ended up studying to be a minister. I was able to transfer to UC Berkeley and then went to Ryukoku University to earn my master’s degree in Shin Buddhism.

 

Q-60pxWhat did you hope to accomplish as a minister? And has being a minister been what you had hoped for and expected?

 

A-60pxI had no expectations when I became a minister. Looking back, I can’t believe how unprepared I was. I had a great academic type education, but I had no training for the practical aspects of the ministry. Fortunately, I was assigned as the associate minister under the late Rev. Gyodo Kono who helped me in so many ways.