Chùa Giác Minh

Ahhhhh how sweet are the monks here?! Because I come here so often with my family, the ladies are really close with us. We often come to pray then help around after. The monks here are just so generous and kind.
This place also sells vegetarian food. Cooked: for you to eat there or Uncooked: for you to take home and keep in your refrigerator/​freezer and cook whenever. They also make the BEST sesame balls! Gotta have it when it’s fresh (which they make every beginning of the week).
Overall, this place is a bit out of my reach but we’re not complaining and because we love the monks here so much we try to come often. The Buddha statues for this place are incredibly beautiful as well.

Took my Grandma and Daughter here yesterday. This place is called: Chua Giac Minh. For some reason my family and I only go to this one, Chua An Lac in East San Jose and Chua Ong in East San Jose. This particular one is different than the rest because the monks here are all males. the ones I mentioned in San Jose are all females.
There is a reading every Sunday. you must arrive slightly early to secure a parking spot as well as a spot for you inside this temple. The readings are done via the microphone; the monk in charge of that day reads passages from the Buddhist bible via the microphone and of course the attendees chant/​read along.
My Grandpa’s picture is here. My Great Grandma’s picture is here and I didn’t know that until my Grandma pointed it out to me. Upon parking we walked up the main staircase that leads to this huge, beautiful, and serene environment. Shoes needs to be off prior to entering and then the beliefs, the hopes, the faith is in your hands.
My Grandma bought oranges for my Grandpa and her Mom. she was praying and started to set those up on a plate. Since my Daughter attends a Christian church w/​her Father, I explained to her about the figurines and statues of the Buddhist figures and told her if she wants to pray, then she can do so in her heart, in her mind. I was very happy that she chose to pray along w/​me.
Since she was born, she has been in the Buddhist environment even though my ex husband at the time was Catholic. We both did not want her baptized because we wanted her to make her own religious choice when she is old enough. She was exposed to both the Catholic churches and Buddhist temples — even now when he’s converted to being Christian, she is exposed to that and still, the Buddhist temples.
We prayed at the main display first. «Phat» or «Buddha» and then we moved to the sides which consists of different Buddhist figures responsible for different sectors of your life (as we believe it). One was for overall well-​being, health (like a Guardian Angel) and the other one, I had no clue =(Then from side to side were the pictures of the dead. I showed my Daughter the pictures and she nodded that she saw it before and that she was surprised to see kids’/infants’ pictures on the wall too. I then explained to her that death happens to all at every age…
We were done and walking down those steps. I continued to help my Grandma down as I did when we were going up. When we got to the car, my Daughter ran to the passenger side to open the door for my Grandma, waited for her to get in, and then shut the door tightly before hopping inside.
Seriously. I was glad to take my Grandma and honored to learn stories about her and her family and what happened when Viet Nam became a war zone. I was also proud and glad that Tess chose to pray and opened the door for my Grandma.
Awesome.
Oh and the food which is served only on Sundays during/​after the reading is also awesome and has the most varieties of vegetarian dishes among the rest of the temples I mentioned above. Cash only, of course.

It’s a great place: beautiful, quiet, friendly nuns. I love it here!
They have chanting every Sunday from 11am-​12pm, and then free vegetarian lunch at 12:30pm. Their daily hours are 7am-​5pm.

This wasn’t my 1^st time here. I’ve been to this temple a couple times now. All temples are very beautiful to me, but the thing that stands out the most for me is the food. Since it’s a Buddhist temple they only offer vegetarian food, which I’m not a big fan of. The food was good. I would have never guessed it was vegetarian. I loved the sesame balls. They were oh so good.