Tuesday, July 28, 2020

July 28, 2020

The Buddhist Second Precept

Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression, I vow to cultivate loving kindness and learn ways to work for the well-being of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I vow to practice generosity by sharing my time, energy, and material resources with those who are in real need.  
I am determined 
not to steal 
and not to possess 
anything that should
 belong to others.  
I will respect the 
property of others, 
but I will prevent 
others from profiting 
from human suffering
 or the suffering 
of other species 
on Earth.

- Thich Nhat Hanh
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Our ZHS on-line schedule:  
  • 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
  • For more information:  www.zenheartsangha.org) 
_________________________________________________________________

Special bows for today: 
  • Please offer bows for Ofelia mendez, Jorge Luis Mendez, Lazara and her mother, relatives of Lilliana Mendez-Soto who have contracted COVID
  • Please offer bows for John Lewis, civil rights leader, who died on July 17th
  • Please offer bows for Gail Boreman Bird, Stephen' Boremans sister, who died on June 27th at age 75
  • Please offer bows for Harada Sekkei Roshi who died on June 20th at age 93
  • Please offer bows for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and others who have died from police brutality
  • Please offer bows for Dottie Kelly, Misha's family member, who died of lung disease on May 20th
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Sherril Miller, Shannon's aunt, who has a broken humerus
    • Brent DeNardo, Aaron's brother, who has contracted COVID
    • Rev. Les Kaye, Misha’s Zen teacher, who is recovering at home undergoing chemotherapy
____________________________________________________________________________________

Wonderful links shared by sangha members and friends:



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Monday, July 27, 2020

July 27, 2020

The Buddhist First Precept

Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, 
I vow to cultivate compassion and learn ways to protect the lives 
of people, animals, plants, and minerals.
 

 I am determined not to kill, 
not to let others kill, 
and not to condone 
any act of killing in the world, 
in my thinking, 
and in my way of life.

- Thich Nhat Hanh











_______________________________________________________________________

Our ZHS on-line schedule:  
  • 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
  • For more information:  www.zenheartsangha.org) 
_________________________________________________________________

Special bows for today: 
  • Please offer bows for Ofelia mendez, Jorge Luis Mendez, Lazara and her mother, relatives of Lilliana Mendez-Soto who have contracted COVID
  • Please offer bows for John Lewis, civil rights leader, who died on July 17th
  • Please offer bows for Gail Boreman Bird, Stephen' Boremans sister, who died on June 27th at age 75
  • Please offer bows for Harada Sekkei Roshi who died on June 20th at age 93
  • Please offer bows for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and others who have died from police brutality
  • Please offer bows for Dottie Kelly, Misha's family member, who died of lung disease on May 20th
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Sherril Miller, Shannon's aunt, who has a broken humerus
    • Brent DeNardo, Aaron's brother, who has contracted COVID
    • Rev. Les Kaye, Misha’s Zen teacher, who is recovering at home undergoing chemotherapy
____________________________________________________________________________________

Wonderful links shared by sangha members and friends:






















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Sunday, July 26, 2020

July 26, 2020


From Jill Kaplan's dharma talk on July 20, 2020:

When I look inside 
and see that I am nothing, 
that is wisdom. 

When I look outside 
and see that I am everything, 
that is love. 

And between these two, 
my life flows.”


- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj







________________________________________________________________________

Our ZHS on-line schedule:  
  • 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
  • For more information:  www.zenheartsangha.org) 
_________________________________________________________________

Special bows for today: 
  • Please offer bows for Ofelia mendez, Jorge Luis Mendez, Lazara and her mother, relatives of Lilliana Mendez-Soto who have contracted COVID
  • Please offer bows for John Lewis, civil rights leader, who died on July 17th
  • Please offer bows for Gail Boreman Bird, Stephen' Boremans sister, who died on June 27th at age 75
  • Please offer bows for Harada Sekkei Roshi who died on June 20th at age 93
  • Please offer bows for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and others who have died from police brutality
  • Please offer bows for Dottie Kelly, Misha's family member, who died of lung disease on May 20th
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Sherril Miller, Shannon's aunt, who has a broken humerus
    • Brent DeNardo, Aaron's brother, who has contracted COVID
    • Rev. Les Kaye, Misha’s Zen teacher, who is recovering at home undergoing chemotherapy
____________________________________________________________________________________

Wonderful links shared by sangha members and friends:
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Tuesday, July 21, 2020

July 21, 2020

From our dharma brother, Jim Little:  

Here in Salinas in the summer (my first), the weather is pretty much the same; 60s in the morning, 70s in the afternoon, and high clouds most if not all of the day.  Grey days, one after the other, after the other.  Add to that the routine of work from the same room in this "shelter in place" world, it starts to seem like Groundhog Day where each day seems to mimic the day before.  And much like Bill Murray in the movie, the redundancy of each passing day starts to get old fairly quickly.  What was it about the same day over and over again, that was grinding on my mind?  And then I stopped looking at what was the same, to notice what was different.

As the distractions of a varied routine diminished to become more of a backdrop or canvas, I began to see what was in fact different.  I could see that I was letting "the shiny things" distract me from eating healthy, being active and paying attention.  I think of this like being able to hear the spaces between the notes, or all of us bowing "the same way" such that our teacher can see how we bow uniquely.  Or even the perfection of a single flower.

Perhaps no more striking example of this sense of the "luxury of austerity" is the story of Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi's visit to the teahouse of Rikyu. Hideyoshi was astonished at the glorious color and sheer magnificence of the field of purple morning glories nearby. He remarked upon them, and brashly asked if Rikyu would provide a tea ceremony for him. Considering his importance and position, Rikyu could hardly refuse, and the two set a time for tea the next day.

The shogun arrived at exactly the appointed time and was aghast to find the field of glories completely razed. Shaken, he continued up the quiet stone walkway to Rikyu's tea room, poured water over his hands from the beautifully made ladle and bucket, and, bending his body downwards, entered through the lower portion of the two part doorway.

When he was inside the small, intimate tea room, warmed from the steam hissing from the kettle over the brazier, he saw Rikyu kneeling in front of the brazier, an exquisite tray on the mat to his side, holding his finest tea utensils and a small caddy of precious tea.

Looking at the alcove, the shogun immediately understood why the field had been razed. There, in a serenely plain vase was a single, perfect purple morning glory, the like of which the shogun had never seen.  (excerpted from 
https://www.teamuse.com/article_020202.html)

This "shelter in place central coast COVID-19" world is presenting to me what Sen no Rikyu insightfully (yet destructively) crafted for Hideyoshi; the opportunity to see the familiar with new eyes and the space to appreciate it.

________________________________________________________________________

Our ZHS on-line schedule:  
  • 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
  • For more information:  www.zenheartsangha.org) 
_________________________________________________________________

Special bows for today: 
  • Please offer bows for John Lewis, civil rights leader, who died on July 17th
  • Please offer bows for Gail Boreman Bird, Stephen' Boremans sister, who died on June 27th at age 75
  • Please offer bows for Harada Sekkei Roshi who died on June 20th at age 93
  • Please offer bows for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and others who have died from police brutality
  • Please offer bows for Dottie Kelly, Misha's family member, who died of lung disease on May 20th
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Sherril Miller, Shannon's aunt, who has a broken humerus
    • Brent DeNardo, Aaron's brother, who has contracted COVID
    • Rev. Les Kaye, Misha’s Zen teacher, who is recovering at home undergoing chemotherapy
____________________________________________________________________________________

Wonderful links shared by sangha members and friends:
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Sunday, July 19, 2020

July 20, 2020

From our dharma brother, Rick Moss:  Part 2



In the middle of the pandemic Jill and I have been drawn into the maelstrom of change that has followed the death of George Floyd, so agonizing amid so many others’ suffering in a society off the rails in so many dimensions of inequality, lies and cruelty, values of so many fellow citizens so egregiously askew from those the Buddha taught with his life and words. Sometimes hope seems hopeless; but there is, as teachers like Joanna Macy and Joan Halifax proclaim, a refuge of “active” and “wise” hope. To speak to that hope on this day of the death of John Lewis, I want to share Seamus Heaney’s poem: 

“The Cure at Troy”
Human beings suffer, they torture one another,
They get hurt and get hard. No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong inflicted and endured.
History says, don't hope on this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime the longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up, and hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change on the far side of revenge.
Believe that further shore is reachable from here.
Believe in miracle and cures and healing wells.
Call miracle self-healing: the utter, self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there's fire on the mountain or lightning and storm
And a god speaks from the sky, that means someone's hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry of new life at its term.
It means once in a lifetime that justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.

_________________________________________________________________

Our ZHS on-line schedule:  
  • 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
  • For more information:  www.zenheartsangha.org) 
_________________________________________________________________

Special bows for today: 
  • Please offer bows for  Brent DeNardo, Aaron's brother, who has contracted COVID
  • Please offer bows for Sherril Miller, Shannon's aunt, who has a broken humerus
  • Please offer bows for Gail Boreman Bird, Stephen' Boremans sister, who died on June 27th at age 75
  • Please offer bows for Harada Sekkei Roshi who died on June 20th at age 93
  • Please offer bows for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and others who have died from police brutality
  • Please offer bows for Dottie Kelly, Misha's family member, who died of lung disease on May 20th
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Rev. Les Kaye, Misha’s Zen teacher, who is recovering at home undergoing chemotherapy
____________________________________________________________________________________

Wonderful links shared by sangha members and friends:


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July 19, 2020

From our dharma brother, Rick Moss:  Part 1

Like a cat with more than one life, I officially retired twice – the first time in 2010, but (according to
methods obscure to others squirreled within Stanford University’s labyrinthine faculty policies) as planned was rehired the next day, transitioning my formal title from Professor to Professor Emeritus in the School of Medicine in the specialties of allergy, immunology and pediatric pulmonology. The second time I retired was in 2017. In my academic career there has been a lot of joy, a ton of satisfaction, and not a little stress and heartbreak. Zazen and ZHS have been a big part of maintaining whatever equanimity I’ve had and whatever moments of awakening I’ve glimpsed, since I first sat in 1995.


Since late 2017 I’ve continued to volunteer time at Stanford Children’s Health to collaborate on research, to teach and write, and to supervise students and trainees in pulmonary clinic. I was sort of planning to give all that up about now, capped by attending and speaking at what I thought was my last medical conference, a biennial event that I’ve helped organize and run since 2004, in Lugano Switzerland, at the end of February. A funny thing happened while I was there: I almost didn’t get back, as the gateway city was Milan, in Lombardy (where I stayed before and after the conference), watching the region collapse under Covid-19’s early European assault. After a scramble to reschedule a canceled flight I made it home before lockdown. Planned trips to Spain, Chile and elsewhere have gone down the tubes. Instead, Cystic Fibrosis Research Institute (CFRI), where I’ve served on the Board since 2015, asked me to field queries about CF and Covid-19. That developed into a series of popular videos on YouTube and Facebook. It’s been a whole new education with a lot of homework, but it feels good to give some hope to a beloved community. I’ve been consulting with biotech companies for years, but now with a group of other Stanford biomedical faculty have designed a clinical trial of a CF drug which we believe can be repurposed for early (outpatient) Covid-19 treatment; we hope to be able to begin this trial in August. Science-based medicine still gives me hope as well as engagement.  (Part 2 tomorrow...)


_________________________________________________________________

Our ZHS on-line schedule:  
  • 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
  • For more information:  www.zenheartsangha.org) 
_________________________________________________________________

Special bows for today: 
  • Please offer bows for Gail Boreman Bird who died on June 27th at age 75
  • Please offer bows for Harada Sekkei Roshi who died on June 20th at age 93
  • Please offer bows for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and others who have died from police brutality
  • Please offer bows for Dottie Kelly, Misha's family member, who died of lung disease on May 20th
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Rev. Les Kaye, Misha’s Zen teacher, who is recovering at home undergoing chemotherapy
____________________________________________________________________________________

Wonderful links shared by sangha members and friends:
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Wednesday, July 15, 2020

July 15, 2020











Emotions


writes the Zen philosopher, D.T. Suzuki, "are just the play 
of light and shadow on the surface of the sea."


Which doesn't mean we don't feel them, 
only that we're unwise to take themto be something they are not.

Pico Ayer, A Beginner's Guide to Japan


_________________________________________________________________

Our ZHS on-line schedule:  
  • 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
  • For more information:  www.zenheartsangha.org) 
_________________________________________________________________

Special bows for today: 
  • Please offer bows for Gail Boreman Bird who died on June 27th at age 75
  • Please offer bows for Harada Sekkei Roshi who died on June 20th at age 93
  • Please offer bows for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and others who have died from police brutality
  • Please offer bows for Dottie Kelly, Misha's family member, who died of lung disease on May 20th
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Rev. Les Kaye, Misha’s Zen teacher, who is recovering at home undergoing chemotherapy
____________________________________________________________________________________

Wonderful links shared by sangha members and friends:
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Monday, July 13, 2020

July 13, 2020

Zen is not a passive path. 
It's a practice of
complete engagement. 
A zendo is profoundly
still and quiet
during zazen. 
But then the bell rings. 
There's work to do,
relationships to navigate,
dishes to wash. 
And there's no dividing
experience into what
matters and what doesn't.

It all matters.

From 'Fire Monks' by 
Colleen Morton Busch

_________________________________________________________________

Our ZHS on-line schedule:  
  • 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
  • For more information:  www.zenheartsangha.org) 
_________________________________________________________________

Special bows for today: 
  • Please offer bows for Gail Boreman Bird who died on June 27th at age 75
  • Please offer bows for Harada Sekkei Roshi who died on June 20th at age 93
  • Please offer bows for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and others who have died from police brutality
  • Please offer bows for Dottie Kelly, Misha's family member, who died of lung disease on May 20th
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Rev. Les Kaye, Misha’s Zen teacher, who is recovering at home undergoing chemotherapy
____________________________________________________________________________________

Wonderful links shared by sangha members and friends:
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