After more than a year of forced online-only services, it was nice to witness the return of the hybrid service. Sunday’s service from Nichiren Buddhist Kannon Temple of Nevada marked the official return to in-person services in Las Vegas. While the camera was fixed and didn’t allow a view of the attendees, it was nice to hear their voices and the uchiwa daiko drumming during Daimoku chanting.

While a hybrid service may seem new now, back in 2015, when I first joined Nichiren Shu, a combination of local and online attendees had been commonplace for years for Rev. Ryusho Jeffus at his Charlotte, NC, temple.

Today’s service in Las Vegas was the monthly purification ceremony combined with a jukai service (lay person taking of vows) and gohonzon bestowal.

Rev. Shoda Kanai used the illustration from Lotus World to show how the 10 Worlds are all depicted in the Mandala Gohonzon. Back when I was with Soka Gakkai I had studied who was represented on their Gohonzon. Missing from that Gohonzon is Devadatta, who represents the hell realm. SGI said it was no big deal, but it always struck me as significant since the Gohonzon without Devadatta cannot represent the 10 realms of existence.