Buddhist Temple of San Diego

This is where I throw my hands up in there air!

Nice temple. Friendly and accommodating people. Everyone is welcome except for maybe Devil worshippers. Not exactly in the best neighborhood but what are you going to do ?
I’m Bhuddist just to make my mother happy. I dont go to the temple to pray and I certainly dont go to get blessed for any reason. If I fail at something then I failed. If I accomplished something noteworthy then more power to me, not a deity that I dont really believe in.
I suppose its good to believe in something and I’m not knocking anyones beliefs or religion as long as they dont try to force their views on me. I’ve read about Bhudda and his philosophy and there are alot of things that I do agree with.
I think by now my mother has figured out that religion isnt very important to me. When I purchased my first house in late 2001, I had a housewarming party and she shows up with four monks and about a dozen fellow believers to bless the house and drive away evil spirits.
ok.
I thought that they would come in, splash some holy water around, do a few chants, pray and go on their merry way but no… I had to be involved. I had to sit yoga style for at least an hour and every chance that I had I would go to the kitchen and do a shot of whiskey and then we would resume with the ceremony. haha
Theres alot of nice people here and I’m sure that they have the best intentions and they all strive to be a good person and all that but I just cant justify going to this temple when I’m not a true believer.

Not really a review on the temple itself. Sunday they had a Japanese cultural bazaar, which apparently they hold every year. It’s basically a fund raiser for the church.
All kinds of cool stuff goin on. There was a Taiko drum group there along with a Okinawan group singing traditional songs. An animé workshop with local Neko Press artist Billy Martinez. Folk Dancing, Kenpo demonstation, local traditional art and crafts.
Okay, let’s get down to brass tax. The food was great! They had teriyaki chicken which they were being generous for six bucks. A grip o chicken. The chow mein was recommended and that came in a mini bucket! I had the Tofu tacos. I know, I know… tofu tacos! They actually weren’t all that bad. But If you had to go there for one thing it has to be the strawberry mochi. The best mochi I’ve ever had! Seriously!
The great thing out of all this was that there was no one trying to recruit you into the church or trying to pawn off some religous pamphlets or books. Kinda like those Hairy Krishna’s at the airport. They ask you for what ever you can give and they’ll give you their book. Then they get all pissy if you give em 65 cents. Yes, I got suckered into givin them money and listening to their spiel. Hey bud that’s all I got, now go away. Well there’s none of that here. This was a church fund raiser though, and there was an introduction to Buddhism class, but like I said it wasn’t forced on you. I guess your Dharmic path will lead you to the Hondo prayer pavillion if that’s your higher truth. My Dharma led me to the tofu tacos.

Am I allowed to review a temple? I hope the lack of a 5 star review won’t cause any human suffering thereby delaying my attainment of enlightenment… I’ll risk it.
My roommate was taking a Buddhism class and had to visit a temple for an assignment. She thought it would be an awkward situation, and we all know that awkwardness is more bearable when a friend is by your side. So I tagged along to see if I could gain any insights on the meaning of life.
The service that week was actually the children’s service, which was actually okay because it was a simplified message for us pagans. What I was most impressed with was how welcoming the congregation was. Sure we got some stares because we weren’t regulars. But the temple really made an effort to welcome us. They gave us quite a few free materials and held a small question and answer session for all first time visitors. For anyone curious about Buddhism, I would say that this temple is a good introduction.