Q-60px Why come to MBT?

 

A-60pxAt the Midwest Buddhist Temple, we encourage people to come as they are and stay a while.

As Shin Buddhists (Jodo Shinshu), there are no requirements to come to the temple and become a member. We would like to share the Dharma (Teaching) with everyone.

As Shin Buddhists, we don’t have a dogma (no set required beliefs), and we want everyone to be just the ordinary people that we all are.
As a Sangha (a group of “fellow travelers”), we learn from each other and we come to treasure some simple values: Profound Gratitude, Great Kindness and True Humility.

It is most interesting that these are values that cannot be taught as such. One can read about them, but it does not mean anything without the experience.

We learn these things by observation and by coming close to these experiences. For example, there are people who have turned sorrow and anger into gratitude when perhaps a young daughter passes away before the mother. The mother can transform that sorrow into gratitude for the few years her daughter shared (Profound Gratitude) … we know there are children as young as 8 years old who would use their allowance, without prompting, to purchase shampoo to donate to the Sarah’s Circle shelter (Great Kindness) … and there are people who can bury their ego and just say “thank you” for just a smile (True Humility).

These are things that come about only by being part of MBT. The organization allows the Sangha to be the vehicle to share the Dharma. We are “fellow travelers” on this path of life.