Buddhist Temple of Grand Rapids (Michigan) 6 September 2026

 

First impressions have limitations but sometimes can point to (surface) things easily overlooked by others regularly immersed in a place or practices, rooted in the context with layers of experiences, expectations, and personal connections. The following reflections and particular points drawing out my curiosity are written from a first time visit to the Buddhist Temple of Grand Rapids, a few blocks south of the city center of Rosa Parks Circle. The core of Buddhist tradition celebrated here is Zen (Japanese name for this school of teaching and practice), including elements of Tibet, Vietnam, China, Korea, and Japan. 'Sitting meditation' (zazen) forms the centerpiece of worship each week, along with chanting the Heart Sutra. Although seeing the worship hall and worshiping with the people attending the Sunday service on Labor Day weekend was my first time, during several years in rural Japan over the past several decades I have joined in with events during the year at a friend's Pure Land (Jodo) temple. As well, over 20 years ago, I did the overnight experience open at select times for the public at one of the head temples of Soto Zen Buddhism in the temple town of Eihei-ji, Japan. Other religion-related experiences shaping my perspective include a 3-week seminar on Shinto, the other prominent and earlier religion native to Japan, and several days walking pilgrimage in one segment of the Shikoku "o-henro" island circuit of 88 temples to round out my limited Buddhism experience, together with a few dozen social science readings. So while my visit on Sunday truly was a first impression, it comes not as total 'blank page', but with prior points of reference: it is wide but shallow expertise, by comparison to most city residents, though, many more kinds of prior experience.

IMPRESSIONS

It was a bright cool morning when I biked to the former commercial building remodeled into a sacred space. Bike lockup post was near the front door, but the discreet polite notice about the front door being locked at the start of the worship, I entered through the parking area in the back. The 50 or 60 adults and one or two children were seated on the floor cushions on which the zafu (meditation circular cushion) rested, or they sat in one of the 25 or so folding chairs along the back and side walls of the rectangular area, lit by some east window light from the street filtering above the curtain wall. Several large candles at the front of the worship hall added their light, too. 

Before proceeding inside, though, the greeter gestured to the shoebox shelving and the basket of clean footies, indicating the custom of shoeless worship and meditation. Then the greeter whispered brief instructions to choose between folding chair or floor cushion and also referred to the spiral-bound guide and texts used at certain points in the order of service. After a floor bell was rung by the teacher leading the morning's worship, worshipers were invited to stand and bow to one another in respect and reverence. From the booklets, the Heart Sutra was recited and another text or hymn was chanted in unison melody in English, together with a number of ?Sanskrit or Pali words originating in the Indian subcontinent whence came the historical Buddha. More than a dozen Buddhist artworks contributed to the sacred space of the hall. The guest worship leader was visiting from St. Joseph, 90 minutes south of Grand Rapids by car. He gave the weekly Dharma Talk (akin to a sermon for preaching/teaching familiar in church services) on the theme of fellowship among congregants. The title was "spiritual friends." Maybe another way of saying this would be "friends in the spirit" since the usage of 'spiritual' friends may inadvertently give the impression these surrounding worshipers are above oneself or already have attained some sort of self-realization: there are more regular friends, work friends, childhood friends, and by contrast these fellow worshipers are spiritual friends. On the other hand, saying "friends in the spirit," shifts the emphasis by separating the two pools of imagery: friends + spiritual travelers. 

Following the Dharma talk there was a period of maybe 15 minutes of seated meditation, focused on mindful, palpable inhaling and exhaling, watching thoughts come and letting them go. Then when the floor bell was struck and the sound died away the time for Joys and Concerns - things to share among the community - was held, including one from a person 2 hours away to the north who followed along online. Rather than world events, outrage, or municipal problems of justice and health and welfare, matters of a personal scale were introduced - mainly positive, but also some sources of suffering now being overcome. Since a new 3-month class was to begin soon after the worship ended with bows of respect to one another, the time of socializing afterward was abbreviated. Invitations were extended to study and worship opportunities during the week, and there was a reminder of the need for volunteers (most of the temple functions are unpaid) and the locations of cashboxes on the wall (Dana =donation) were also described. In sum, the main body of worshipers seemed to be a mix of men and women in their 20s-30s-40s with maybe 15-20% who were older than that. And since the temple seems to be less than a generation (20 to 25 years) old, probably most biographies of congregants would show they are first-generation, rather than having grown up in a society or culture of Buddhism. Thus there is a frontier or pioneer element, each looking to the others for leadership, experience, or precedent and authority/legitimacy.

REFLECTIONS - first some smaller observations

<>The former storefront on an economically depressed stretch of city street makes it accessible to unhoused and others in distress who gain some support from the several nearby social outreach service run by non-profits (churches and others) located in the neighborhood. Overhead is lighter when property value is depressed, too. Bringing worshipers into the city center can be motivating (causing gratitude for one's own conditions; sharply focused human condition; opportunity to interact on face-to-face basis with fellow citizens in distress).

<>Teachings and locus of control seems to be personal more than interpersonal. Although the surrounding neighborhood is socially/economically depressed with nearby 'mission' food and shelter enterprises, at the Buddhist Temple the main focus seems to be inward self-development within the adjacent Sangha/fellowship community circle of care. As a relatively recently formed institution, perhaps the first order of business is to establish a persistent mission and scope of action before taking on complicated, entrenched social problems involving others, within or without partnerships.

<>Looking briefly around the religious art and artifacts of the worship hall, it appears to be a collage of Buddhism traditions in this former commercial, main street building. On the ceiling are 'lucky' red lanterns, stone jizo (roadside bodhisattva), laughing Buddha of prosperity, the chosen central Heart Sutra chant-sung. Because Vietnam (prominently, the teachings and life example of Thich Nhat Hanh) figures into the readings and conversations, it makes sense that some of the visual flavor of SE Asia is present in the otherwise mostly East Asian forms and patterns. But most of SE Asia's Buddhism is the Hinyana/Theravada tradition. Seeing hints of it in the Grand Rapids worship space is mildly disorienting.

<>Looking around the room, I get the feeling that most attending (only 5 or 6 hands were raised to the worship leader's question about who is a 1st time visitor) were not brought up in a Buddhist society/culture or household. So not only is the worship site relatively new, so are the worshipers who bring curiosity and sincerity to the experience, figuring out the rituals and traditions as they go along. Even though I have no training or teaching in the subject, I sense that certain adaptations to source country methods overseas have been made to meet the life experience and premium in USA for convenience/consumerist habits.

<>Hearing joys and concerns, and interpreting self-introduction names and presentation-of-self (hair, clothing, accessories), the worship atmosphere --and by extension, the congregants-- seems to be open and affirming, welcoming of LGBTQ+ worshipers seeking teaching and support for living a way of peace.

<>Although people on this Sunday morning seemed to be mostly in their 20s to 40s, among the 60 floor cushions and surrounding 25 folding chairs (estimated number) there were maybe 10 or 12 people with gray hair - signifying older worshipers, not just mid-life and young adult practitioners. By contrast of mainline Protestant denominations, reports in general say that congregations are shrinking, leaving disproportionately retiree worshipers who know the worship traditions from having grown up in it.

Larger thoughts (bigger reflections)

<>To a newcomer there seems to be a lot of verbal dimension to the worship service, the emphasis on attending classes (learning ultimately is social no matter the context), the Q and A opportunities online and in person, and so on. However, the basis for the Zen method is sitting. That is prominent in this morning's order of worship, too, but (necessarily) quite a lot of verbal space is filled, too.

<>As in other religious traditions non-native to the English speaking world, much of the meaning and growth comes in translation. Just so, there are a set of central words and ideas integrated into the temple and the verbal channels there - almost entirely in English translation but with a few terms left in Pali or Sanskrit, perhaps. The Dharma talk referenced Tibetan terms, adding to the interplay of ideas and pronunciations. I can imagine that those keywords need special care and scrutiny so that, as an example, learners don't take the ordinary, everyday meaning when they see or say the word 'suffering' (for Buddhism there is both personal/acute troubles as well as chronic dimension of mortality that is meant by the original-language, I am supposing). Moving across centuries and between continents, it is likely that 2026 English carries unintended (surplus) meaning and at the same time fails to convey overtones from the original (deficit) meaning. Probably there are several primary (and secondary), foundational ideas with English labels that could productively be explored and teased apart - less by exegesis and more by parable, for example. Participating and observing so many 1st generation worshipers makes me worry that essential qualities of the ideas are not fully fleshed out. That same might be said of Judeo-Christian varieties of worshipers, too, of course; laboring under imperfect translations.

<>A subtext to the imagery spoken during the order of service-- rituals, but also announced programs and classes, resources and strategies, etc --is an emphasis on self-propelled growth and insights that may await the ones who persevere. Not just the same as the Theravada idea of 'making merit' (counting your good deeds for eventual benefit of self and others), an undercurrent to the morning's proceedings seemed to privilege (revealed) knowledge, esoteric lore, and revelations. The declaration about 'all sentient beings' always seems to cause me to reflect on pets, wildlife tiny and big, farm animals, zoo animals and so on. It is a noble sentiment, but what comes first is caring for yourself and those around you, then the temple community (Sangha), then the next wider ring of people. Other animate creatures never really seem to rank in that hierarchy in practice; although plenty of practitioners do avoid animal products.

<>The name given to one's sense of being out of one's depth (expertise) or one's element (stranger in a strange land) is "imposter syndrome." That pertains to individual cases and circumstances, but something like that comes to mind for a religion --ancient though its roots-- that is a newcomer to the USA society. In other words, compared to the pervasive religious assumptions and references from Judeo-Christian tradition on coinage, legal statutes, courtroom declarations, and so on, symbols and events and figures from Buddhism seem somehow less anchored or confidently well-established. 

    As a traveler to a new language and society, the depth of familiarity accumulates little by little until one is viewed as belonging in the eyes of surrounding people and organizations; equally in one's own eyes there is a feeling of ownership or responsibility/presence - no longer a spectator in the society but now a participant. Using that analogy for the arrival of Buddhism in west Michigan, with the passage of time and exercise of routines that same sense of belonging and abiding place/presence can be expected to grow. But at the moment, it feels like the fresh paint has not yet completely dried, to use another metaphor.

<>When it comes to the values expressed in the unison reading and chanted stanzas, as well as parts of the morning's Dharma talk, there seems to be heightened awareness and emphasis on mind-states or one's attention to self-awareness to be shaped in specific ways. In contrast to the Judeo-Christian injunction, "love God; love neighbor as yourself" in which the details about operationalizing this and seizing opportunities go unspoken, the English-language worship terms are focused on these psychological/cognitive details in order to create automatic responses and habits of the heart as well as routines of one's day and indeed arc of life.