March 30, 2020

Special bows for today:

• Please continue to offer bows for Jeff Ghazarian, a friend of Lilliana Mendez-Soto’s nephew who died on March 19^th at the age of 34 from COVID-19
• Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:
• Lisa McCrossen, Dainuri Rott’s niece, who is recovering from COVID-19
• Carmen Ibanez, Lidia Luna’s mother, who is recovering from surgery for sciatica
• Rev. Les Kaye, Misha’s Zen teacher, who is undergoing chemotherapy for bladder cancer
• Brendan, Kate Haimson’s son, who is recovering from surgery for a brain aneurism
• Lilith Armitage, Shannon Bergman’s daughter who is recovering from knee surgery
• Michael Tieri Ricaud, Dainuri Rott’s brother, who is suffering from MS

Our new ZHS on-line schedule (go to our website for more information: zenheartsangha.org):

• Mondays: 7-8:30pm - zazen, short service, lecture/discussion
• Tuesdays-Fridays: 5:30-6:10pm - zazen, offering of merit/bows
• Saturdays: 8:00-10:15am - zazen, short service, tea, discussion/study

 Wonderful links shared by sangha and friends:

• From our  dharma sisters, Jill Kaplan and Pixie Couch, for all you readers out there: https://archive.org/details/nationalemergencylibrary 
• For those of you with young children at home: https://vimeo.com/398366506/273862b196

 Please read Shannon's comment from March 27th!

_________________________________________________________________________

An Adjusted Syllabus (slightly edited for relevance) from Brandon Bayne,University of North Carolina:

1.            Nobody signed up for this.

·  Not for the sickness, not for the social distancing, not for the sudden end of our collective lives together

·  Not for an online class, not for teaching remotely, not for learning from home, not for mastering new technologies, not for varied access to learning materials

2.            The humane option is the best option.

·  We are going to prioritize supporting each other as humans

·  We are going to prioritize simple solutions that make sense for the most

·  We are going to prioritize sharing resources and communicating clearly

3.            We cannot just do the same thing online.

·  Some meetings/events are no longer possible

·  Some expectations are no longer reasonable

·  Some objectives are no longer valuable

4.            We will foster spiritual and intellectual nourishment, social connection, and personal accommodation.

·  Accessible asynchronous meeting times for diverse access

·  Optional synchronous discussion/study time to learn together and combat isolation

5.            We will remain flexible and adjust to the situation.

·  Nobody knows where this is going and what we’ll need to adapt

·  Everybody needs support and understanding in this unprecedented moment (emphasis mine!)

____________________________________________________________________________

Many thanks to those of you who are sending links and making comments…it is a gift beyond measure. Please know that you can either leave a comment on the blog itself, or send something directly to me and I will be happy to paste it in.  Here is a quick video on how to comment; it's from 2017, but should work:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T4RflO5Wgg

____________________________________________________________________________