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<\/a>From 22 to 24 September 2017, Togo District had the honor and the privilege of hosting Rev. Jozen Suenaga, Assistant Priest of Hokkeji Temple, and the Koto, Dr. Kwame Odame Boamah. This visit was the second and the last for this year, within the framework of the achievement of the district shakubuku target. It is to be mentioned that, the shakubuku target for the District was 153. Before Rev. Suenaga\u2019s visit, 134 have been already achieved and with 19 remaining.<\/p>\nAssistant Priest and Koto were welcomed at the Togo-Ghana border in the afternoon of 22nd<\/sup> September, 2017 by the District Leader, Mr. Koffi Et\u00e9kpo and the Assistant District leader Mr. Mensan Ay\u00e9na. The delegation was taken to the activity center and then to \u201cHotel la Concorde \u201c.<\/p>\n This report outlines the activities carried out during the Assistant Priest\u2019s stay in Togo.<\/p>\n In the evening of 22nd<\/sup> September, the Assistant Priest visited Jikoku 1 sub-district. This sub-district is located in the south of Lom\u00e9, at an area called Kagome, close to the harbor. It has two (2) blocks (Kagome<\/strong> and Ichiban<\/strong>).<\/p>\n The meeting started at 6 pm with 30 minutes shodai followed by Gongyo. Rev. Jozen Suenaga read Chief Priest\u2019s lecture, the “Parable of the Four (4) Women” which highlights the importance of accumulating the treasure of the heart as Nichiren Shoshu believers.<\/p>\n According to this parable, we must cultivate our heart by accumulating good deeds and keeping the precepts, because the heart follows us throughout the three existences of past, present, and future.<\/p>\n He reminded us that actions such as encouraging others to practice the correct Law, chanting Daimoku, being able to transmit this practice to those we encounter in our lives, and helping them to take faith in this Buddhism will remain as the only memory from this present existence.\u00a0 We will not be able to take your possessions or social status to the next life.\u00a0 Only the virtues gained from Buddhist practice will appear in your future lives, and thus, our practice is the highlight of the present life.<\/p>\n Rev. Jozen Suenaga concluded with 68th High Priest Nichinyo Shonin’s guidance: “We must know for certain that exerting our utmost efforts toward accomplishing our mission and repaying our debt of gratitude to the Law are essential to attaining enlightenment and the well-being of others.”<\/p>\n Members and guests present at this meeting asked questions for better understanding. The attendance was 85 participants including 10 guests.<\/p>\n On Saturday morning, September 23rd<\/sup>, 2017, Reverend and his delegation left Lome at 8:00 Am, to Ts\u00e9kpo, a village located at about 55 Km north-east of Lome, which is the second sub-district visited by the Assistant Priest.<\/p>\n The meeting started at 9 am in accordance with the program, with 30 minutes Shodai followed by Gongyo. 8 new members received gojukai. \u00a0However, after Reverend lecture on the same topic, the “Parable of the Four (4) Women”, which was followed by a very interesting question-answer section. This prompted another 11 guests to accept Gojukai, thus the total number of 19 gojukai was achieved in Ts\u00e9kpo. The meeting closed around 11:45 a.m.<\/p>\n With the 19 gojukai achievement at Ts\u00e9kpo, the Togo District achieved its shakubuku target for the year.<\/p>\n The meeting attendance was 74 people including 21 guests.<\/p>\n In the evening of 23rd<\/sup> September, 2017, there was leaders\u2019 meeting which started at 6 p.m., at the activity center in Lome. The meeting was led by Rev. Jozen Suenaga.<\/p>\n A guidance of High Priest on the importance of shakubuku and nurturing the new members was at the heart of the Assistant Priest’s message.<\/p>\n Reverend urged leaders to do what the Buddha always did (shakubuku). In addition, the leaders will have to teach new members to do Daimoku and Gongyo, which is the basis of our faith.<\/p>\n They have to “show them<\/strong>, teach them<\/strong>, let them do it<\/strong> and praise them<\/strong>“.<\/p>\n He also emphasized on leaders attitudes in the following points:<\/p>\n chant a lot of Daimoku to accumulate virtue);<\/p>\n 23 leaders were present at this meeting. The meeting closed around 8:20 PM<\/p>\n On Sunday, 24th<\/sup> September, 2017, the general all members meeting was held at the activity Center in Lom\u00e9.<\/p>\n The meeting started at 9:00 a.m., with 1hour Shodai followed by Gongyo and Gojukai. The Gojukai achievement for the meeting was 54. Thus the total number of Gojukai achievement during this visit is 73. In all, Togo shakubuku target achievement for this year is 207.<\/p>\n The same lecture was given, followed by questions and answers.<\/p>\n Koto, Dr. Kwame Boamah, in his message, at this meeting, congratulated Togo district for its shakubuku target achievement. He encouraged Togo members to challenge themselves to have many of them, participate in the special Tozan pilgrimage of April 2018. This pilgrimage will take place under one condition, \u201cif the whole Hokkeji Chapter is able to achieve its shakubuku target before Oeshiki ceremony\u201d.<\/p>\n He also encouraged Togo district to participate in the Oeshiki Ceremony with 500 Togo memebers, because it is the most important ceremony of the Nichiren Shoshu and that it coincides with the Kick off meeting of the 20th<\/sup> Anniversary of the Temple.<\/p>\n The Koto ended his message by encouraging members to seize the opportunity to offer gokuyo to the Head Temple for the construction Saemon Gate in preparation for 2021 General Tozan.<\/p>\n During these shakubuku meetings, the lecture “Parable of the Four Women\u201d presented by Rev. Jozen Suenaga, there was series of questions including:<\/p>\n Rev. Suenaga answered these questions. He asked us, as a believer, to control the other treasures (desires) and to accumulate the treasure of the heart. Buddhism, which teaches the eternity of life through the three existences, exhorts us to feel concerned about our future life. To understand the three existences means to understand the law of cause and effect. Only our heart will follow us into the future, hence the importance of accumulating the treasure of the heart. How to achieve it? To accumulate the treasure of the heart, we must:<\/p>\n Togo District, following the visit of the Assistant Priest, undertakes to participate massively in the Oeshiki ceremony, the most important ceremony on Nichiren Shoshu calendar. The district is determined that at least ten (10) Togolese members will participate in the Special Tozan in April 2018.<\/p>\n From 22 to 24 September 2017, Togo District had the honor and the privilege of hosting Rev. Jozen Suenaga, Assistant Priest of Hokkeji Temple, and the Koto, Dr. Kwame Odame Boamah. This visit was the second and the last<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":973,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.senmyozanhokkejitemple.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.senmyozanhokkejitemple.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.senmyozanhokkejitemple.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.senmyozanhokkejitemple.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.senmyozanhokkejitemple.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=949"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.senmyozanhokkejitemple.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":977,"href":"https:\/\/www.senmyozanhokkejitemple.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions\/977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.senmyozanhokkejitemple.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.senmyozanhokkejitemple.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.senmyozanhokkejitemple.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.senmyozanhokkejitemple.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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