Special bows for today:
- Please continue to offer bows for Jeff Ghazarian and his family, friends of Lilliana Mendez-Soto’s nephew who died on March 19th 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 a friend of Misha’s for joy, music, and birds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMXD4h5w8D8
- From our dharma sister, Kathleen Dickey: a page of resources for volunteering: https://haas.stanford.edu/news/community-care
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From Jill’s dharma talk, “The Inner Pilgrimage” on Monday the 30th:
The koan/teaching story:
Two Zen students
met up one day. One asked the other: "Where are you going?"
The other student replied: "Around on pilgrimage."
The first student asked: "What is the purpose of pilgrimage?"
He replied: "I don't know."
The first commented: "Not knowing is most intimate.”
The other student replied: "Around on pilgrimage."
The first student asked: "What is the purpose of pilgrimage?"
He replied: "I don't know."
The first commented: "Not knowing is most intimate.”
Building
resilience: Here are ways to find our
grounding in groundlessness for this time of inner pilgrimage, gleaned from
many of you and from zazen:
- Breathe
- Ground yourself in this moment – what else is going on?
- Acknowledge your fears, anxieties, anger, concerns – naming them, being with them
- We aren’t alone in this
- Perspective – taking another view
- Sustain yourself in community
- Make art, be creative; garden, journal, make music, listen to music, dance!
- Go Outdoors!
- Sleep, diet, and especially exercise
- Practice gratitude
- Practice Kindness – before you know what kindness is, you must lose things – the Indian by the side of the road, he had plans – we too had plans, we have lost so much, but as Sawaki Kodo Roshi said, loss is gain – through loss we gain compassion for others.
These
practices, actions, resources are our ground when there is no ground, when the
rug is pulled out, when we see the tsunami of illness, death, huge changes in
our social landscape. Please, practice physical distancing, but do not practice
social distancing. Continue with us in practice. Attend our virtual sesshin. Tend your garden, paint or draw or write
poetry.
Take this inner
pilgrimage of not knowing, as far as you can, as deeply as you can.
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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
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