Open-air Coffee hour in 2008
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Open-air Coffee hour iSeptember 21th, 2008j
@This event was held at Genki-mura, Shiga Prefecture.
Contrary to the weather forecast warning for heavy rain, the sky was clear, and made for a perfect outdoor day. We had a cookout, cooking rice over a log fire, and the barbecue of beef, seafood, and lots of vegetables! The air was fresh, the water was good, and so was the food. It was great to see everyone enjoying the event. The kids had a ball playing in the outdoors.
The Chief Priest shared this story with the Group members:
"Did you enjoy today's delicious rice cooked over a real fire? I hope you did not waste any of the food we cooked today. I want to share with you a story of 'A Grain of Rice'. Once upon a time, a family lived at a fancy mansion. From its kitchen, after every meal, leftover food, particularly cooked rice was disposed of. A neighborhood frugal old lady who saw this and thought, 'how wasteful!' She decided to take those rice with her, dried them, and kept them in a jar. She continued doing this everyday. At the end of three years, the family who lived at the mansion lost a lot of money and became bankrupt. The frugal old lady cooked rice from the dried rice she picked over the years, made them into rice balls, and gave them to the family who now had hardly anything to eat. The father of the family was stunned that such poor-looking woman would give them the food, and exclaimed, 'Do you eat this delicious food everyday?' She quietly replied, 'No, I dried the rice from your leftover and stored them for a rainy day. This is the rice you've wasted for many years.'
Nichiren Daishonin states, "A drop of water runs off to create a great sea, and a speck of dust accumulates to create Mount Sumeru." Our faith too should be like running water, we should not be impatient and arrogant, be mindful and not slacken in faith. The small deeds we create each day is really important in our lives."
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Speech of The Chief Priest@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@The boiled rice is made
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Barbecue@@@@@@@@@@@@@@Coffee hour
