The Cost of the Buddha-Dharma?

K. Ken Fujimoto

This is something that I do not enjoy discussing, but it can be considered part of Buddhist education as well since it is related to the operation and funding of our efforts to spread the Buddha-dharma to any and all who want to hear it. It is also a matter that requires serious attention. Many of you have been hearing talk about the dire financial situation of the temple and, as a member of our temple, you deserve to know what the reality is.

The situation is bad and is a real concern, especially in this economy. However, it is not a matter of being unable to pay our bills. We have funds, but we should be building up reserves rather than dipping into them. Just as any household would like to have savings, the temple would also like to do so. What are we to do if a natural tragedy that affected a majority of our membership’s ability to support our temple were to occur? We need reserves to carry us through those times.

Unfortunately, we have had to dip into the funds designated for savings because our income has not kept up with the expenses of serving our temple community. We need to cut expenses, but we must not cut our services to our members and extended temple community. Doing so will create a vicious circle of losing the people who we serve and who, in turn, fund our temple. In essence, we could end up cutting our income even more in the name of cutting costs if we are not careful.

Our major source of income is through the annual pledges made by you to our temple. The suggested minimum pledge may seem arbitrary to many, but it actually takes into account many costs of which many of you are not aware. We have the costs of operation of our facilities and staffing and communications with the membership, but we also have our dues to the national organization, the Buddhist Churches of America (BCA). This is an assessment of about $82 per member and is expected to be a little under $86 per member for the coming BCA fiscal year. This means that if a couple pledges $300 for the year, about $172 of that will go towards the BCA assessment, leaving $128 to cover our expenses. This may seem surprising to many of you, but even at that, we should be able to meet our expenses when our donations and others are added, if everyone pledged at the suggested rate of $300 per member.

This is a big if since many people may not have the means to pledge that amount. That is why we ask those who can afford to do so, to make a larger pledge to raise the average to the requisite level.

In many of your minds, this information will lead to the question of, “How does the BCA, our national organization spend the funds that we send?” There are many invaluable areas where those funds are spent besides the various national administrative tasks and the programs at the Center for Buddhist Education that you can read about in the Wheel of Dharma. There are also the Institute of Buddhist Studies where much of the education for future ministers is done, the scouting, chaplaincy (military, prison and hospital) programs, ministers benefits and continuing education and such that are coordinated and administered through the BCA.

As you can see, the spread of the Buddha-dharma is not simply a local temple activity. The primary interface with the people is at our local temple, but there is also a support and administrative system that needs to be in place for those activities to run smoothly and effectively. These are also supported by the generosity of the local membership.

We need you, our members, to take all of this into consideration when you make your pledges and donations and when you are asked to help or participate in our fund raisers. Again, it is a bad situation, but not yet critical. If we do not start taking steps to improve the situation, it could very easily become critical. We ask that everyone step up and do your best to help address this issue before it does become an issue of no longer being able to pay our bills.

On a completely unrelated topic, in his inaugural speech President Obama did not mention Buddhism when he referred to some of the world religions. Some people seem to feel slighted, but in the context of that section of his speech, I was glad that we were omitted. The oversight may have been due to the fact that Buddhists have not gone to war over doctrinal issues with other religions. When the Taliban destroyed the mountain carvings in Afghanistan, Buddhists did not go to war. An important cultural aspect of our tradition was destroyed and would be missed, but those statues were only manifestations of people’s faith and not the Buddha-dharma itself. I see it as a source of pride that we are not seen in that light and therefore were not included in that speech.

© January 23, 2009