Category Archives: Outreach

A discussion with Myokei Shonin about her experience with NSA (Nichiren Shoshu America), SGI (Soka Gakkai International) and the path to Nichiren Shu Buddhism on the Rowdy Buddhist Channel. Part One Part 2 https://youtu.be/E2afmr9R-c0  

A Discussion with Myokei Shonin about her Prison Ministry In this Nichiren Buddhist Discussion, Kanjin Cederman Shonin of The Rowdy Buddhist Channel talks with Myokei Caine-Barrett Shonin about her Prison Ministry. She shares her experience and what she has learned from this mission.

Reposted with permission from Lion’s Roar Meet a Teacher: Myokei Caine-Barrett, Shonin BY LION’S ROAR STAFF| JULY 4, 2017 Myokei Caine-Barrett, Shonin. Photo by Jan Luoy. Buddhist teacher Myokei Caine-Barrett, Shonin gets personal with theLion’s Roar readership. I was born in 1951 in Tokyo, Japan. I grew up in a military family, and over the years we lived in Okinawa, Germany, and El Paso, Texas. I encountered Buddhism for the first time in about 1963. A friend’s mother took her to Soka Gakkai meetings, and my parents allowed me to go so I could keep my friend company. My parents told me not to join, but of course I did. Don’t ever tell a teenager not to do something! By the 1990s, after thirty-six years of practice, my questions and concerns led me to leave Soka Gakkai International. I was able to connect […]

The mission of the Prison Mindfulness Institute is to provide prisoners, prison staff and prison volunteers, with the most effective, evidence-based tools for rehabilitation, self-transformation, and personal & professional development. In particular, we provide and promote the use of proven effective mindfulness-based interventions (MBI’s). Our dual focus is on transforming individual lives as well as transforming the corrections system as a whole in order to mitigate its extremely destructive impact on families, communities and the overall social capital of our society. The purpose of the Navasota  sangha is to provide a foundation for individuals seeking to change their lives. We also provide support for understanding the cause of their circumstances and developing a means of taking responsibility for their actions and their lives. Through sharing the teachings of the Lotus Sutra and the writings of Nichiren Shonin, we endeavor to […]

By Myokei Caine-Barrett Published at https://tricycle.org/magazine/the-great-divide/  during the Summer of 2017 In the search for diversity, have the meditation-centered traditions been asking the wrong questions? A Nichiren priest weighs in. A few years ago I attended a gathering of mostly white Buddhists, where I was met with a stunning lack of community. It seemed to me that there was very little warmth and little awareness of the need for intimacy. At the time, I remember wondering why it had felt so cold to me but apparently not to others: Was it that I was one of the few people of color there? Or was it the fact that in a group of meditation-centric practitioners, the tradition in which I practice—Nichiren Shu—was little understood and didn’t seem to have a place in the discussion? The Western Buddhist sangha has been engaged […]

April 3, 2017 Thirteen leading Buddhist teachers, joined by more than 120 additional signatories, call on Buddhists and all people of faith to take a stand against policies of the new administration that will create suffering for the most vulnerable in society. As published in the May 2017 Lion’s Roar magazine. By Bhikkhu Bodhi, Norman Fischer, Joan Halifax, Mushim Patricia Ikeda, Jack Kornfield, Ethan Nichtern, Roshi Pat Enkyo O’hara, Lama Rod Owens, Greg Snyder, Gina Sharpe, Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Jan Willis And Myokei Caine-Barrett| Read more at https://www.lionsroar.com/stand-against-suffering/

Diversity in the Dharma: Buddhist Women Engage Race and Exclusionary Politics in America Co-Sponsored by University of the West A One-Day Conference Saturday, April 1, 2017 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m For more information visit http://americanbuddhistwomen.com/winter-2017.html

A Nichiren priest resists the idea that meditation is the uniting factor across Buddhist traditions. By Myokei Caine-Barrett Published at https://tricycle.org/magazine/our-common-thread/ during the summer of 2016 When I first began to practice Buddhism, I knew very little about it from an intellectual, academic standpoint. The only thing I did know was that the sound of chanting the Odaimoku [sacred title] of the Lotus Sutra, as well as various portions of the sutra itself, captured my heart and my spirit. I was immediately drawn to the chanting and the ritualistic aspects of practicing—the smell of incense, the greenery, the flickering candlelight, and the rhythmic sounds all provided an avenue to explore myself from the inside. After a half century of practice, I’m still chanting. But I also learned quickly that faith, practice, and study were prescriptive for a deeper experience and understanding […]

On The Myoshoji Tonight Nichiren Order of North America Bishop Myokei Caine-Barrett joined us at Myosho-ji to speak about diversity. During this time with us she not only used her personal life experiences and insights but also called on those who joined in live to speak about their own experiences. Also tonight she set the stage for part two dealing with those difficult conversations we may have experienced or may experience as we strive to become healers of self and others in a society which has many difficult conversations to engage in.

Updated 9:10 am, Thursday, November 20, 2014 Originally posted on THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Greater Houston cosponsored a Thanksgiving Service at Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism, 801 Bering Drive, Houston, on Nov. 17. Rabbi Steven Gross of Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism gave a welcome address. Then, each speaker briefly spoke about their respective religions and offered prayer of thanks. Speakers were Anand Gupta from the Hindu community, the Rev. Nell Green from Christianity, Sarosh J. Collector from Zoroastrianism, Professor Sukchain Singh from Sikhism, Myokei Caine-Barrett Shonin from Buddhism, and Imam Mubasher Ahmad from Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Houston. The guests represented a diverse faith community that included Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Christians, Muslims and Sikhs totaling around 167 men, women and children. “For some it was a first time meeting of someone from another faith and what better way than to mark that experience in the spirit […]