When I was young growing up in San Francisco, Rissho Kosei Kai was not here yet. My parents forced us children to go to a Buddhist church and we hated it. So as I grew up, I pulled away from it.
Later my parents converted to Rissho Kosei Kai. They had in-home meetings and I was the babysitter. When I became an adult, I started to search for Buddhism again.
I attended Rissho Kosei Kai in SF about once a month. Everything was taught in Japanese. But after they got a reverend that spoke English, I started to go every week. He was a good teacher and I learned a great deal and I enjoyed it. When I moved to Los Angeles, Jim Hodgkins expanded my learning at RKLA.
I became interested in Buddhism because it was a search to want to go back to the teachings. When I was searching, I wanted to find out how to go forward, to look for better ways to do things, and why we react the way we do to certain situations. It's great to be able to look beyond and look at my ego and see what's causing a reaction. The teachings are very important.
--Doris Hasegawa, July 2022
