Monday, November 30, 2020

November 30, 2020

 (Submitted by Kat Haimson)

From the prologue to John Lewis's memoir:

"About fifteen of us children were outside my Aunt Seneva’s house, playing in her dirt yard. The sky began clouding over, the wind started picking up, lightning flashed far off in the distance, and suddenly I wasn’t thinking about playing anymore; I was terrified…

Aunt Seneva was the only adult around, and as the sky blackened and the wind grew stronger, she herded us all inside.

Her house was not the biggest place around, and it seemed even smaller with so many children squeezed inside. Small and surprisingly quiet. All of the shouting and laughter that had been going on earlier, outside, had stopped. The wind was howling now, and the house was starting to shake. We were scared. Even Aunt Seneva was scared.

And then it got worse. Now the house was beginning to sway. The wood plank flooring
beneath us began to bend. And then, a corner of the room started lifting up. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. None of us could. This storm was actually pulling the house toward the sky. With us inside it.

That was when Aunt Seneva told us to clasp hands. Line up and hold hands, she said, and we did as we were told. Then she had us walk as a group toward the corner of the room that was rising. From the kitchen to the front of the house we walked, the wind screaming outside, sheets of rain beating on the tin roof. Then we walked back in the other direction, as another end of the house began to lift. And so it went, back and forth, fifteen children walking with the wind, holding that trembling house down with the weight of our small bodies.

More than half a century has passed since that day, and it has struck me more than once over those many years that our society is not unlike the children in that house, rocked again and again by the winds of one storm or another, the walls around us seeming at times as if they might fly apart.

It seemed that way in the 1960s, at the height of the civil rights movement, when America itself felt as if it might burst at the seams—so much tension, so many storms. But the people of conscience never left the house. They never ran away. They stayed, they came together and they did the best they could, clasping hands and moving toward the corner of the house that was the weakest.

And then another corner would lift, and we would go there. And eventually, inevitably, the storm would settle, and the house would still stand.  But we knew another storm would come, and we would have to do it all over again.

And we did. And we still do, all of us. You and I. Children holding hands, walking with the wind. . . . “

(Photo by Pixie Couch)

_________________________________________________________________________

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
  • M-F: 7-7:30am - zazen
  • Saturdays: 8:00-10:15am - zazen, short service, tea, discussion/study
  • For more information:  www.zenheartsangha.org) 
_____________________________________________________________________

Special bows for today: 
  • Please continue to offer bows in honor of:
    • Dan Pomeroy, a friend of dharma brother, Dainuri Rott, who died on 11/20/20
    • Ofelia Mendez, Lilliana Mendez-Soto's aunt who died  on 11/12/20; her relatives Jorge and his sister were able to be with her at the end
    • Phyllis Merrill, Misha's mother, who died on 10/18/20
    • Charles Kennicott Leech, Nancy's father who died on 10/9/20
  • Please offer bows of well-being for Jim Little's daughter, Meara, and her boyfriend, Cody Mauser, who have contracted COVID
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Flip Dibner, who has been diagnosed with lymphoma and is currently undergoing chemotherapy but living at home with wife, Diane Renshaw
    • David Shaw, who suffered a stroke; he is home now with his wife, Nancy, and beginning the long slow process of rehabilitation
    • Rev. Les Kaye, Misha’s Zen teacher, who is recovering at home undergoing chemotherapy; he is in the final month of his treatment.
____________________________________________________________________________

Wonderful links shared by sangha members and friends:

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Saturday, November 28, 2020

November 28, 2020

 From our dharma sister, Gulia:

I never liked winter even though the winters of my Russian childhood were glorious in the beauty of furious blizzards and unrelenting snowfalls. This  Bay Are winter which has no snow feels the darkest yet because of the pandemic.  On the days when I feel that this winter will never be over, I remind myself of what Albert Camus said:  

"In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”

___________________________________________________________________________

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
  • M-F: 7-7:30am - zazen
  • Saturdays: 8:00-10:15am - zazen, short service, tea, discussion/study
  • For more information:  www.zenheartsangha.org) 
_____________________________________________________________________

Special bows for today: 
  • Please continue to offer bows in honor of:
    • Dan Pomeroy, a friend of dharma brother, Dainuri Rott, who died on 11/20/20
    • Ofelia Mendez, Lilliana Mendez-Soto's aunt who died  on 11/12/20; her relatives Jorge and his sister were able to be with her at the end
    • Phyllis Merrill, Misha's mother, who died on 10/18/20
    • Charles Kennicott Leech, Nancy's father who died on 10/9/20
  • Please offer bows of well-being for Jim Little's daughter, Meara, and her boyfriend, Cody Mauser, who have contracted COVID
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Flip Dibner, who has been diagnosed with lymphoma and is currently undergoing chemotherapy but living at home with wife, Diane Renshaw
    • David Shaw, who suffered a stroke on 9/30/20; he has been taken home by his wife for rehabilitation
    • Rev. Les Kaye, Misha’s Zen teacher, who is recovering at home undergoing chemotherapy; he is in the final month of his treatment.
____________________________________________________________________________

Wonderful links shared by sangha members and friends:

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Wednesday, November 25, 2020

November 26, 2020

 A Day of Thanksgiving:  

Zen Heart Sangha writes what we are thankful for...


T
Pixie Couch: I am grateful for sangha and sangha and sangha.

David Shaw: I am most grateful for still being on this planet and able to proceed with my stroke recovery, experiencing the dharma as it unfolds before us, and I have a safe home, a helpful wife , and ZHS support.
Thanks to this beautiful world and my place in it.  All the flora and fauna here and everywhere that populate it.I ask for patience and forbearance as I struggle with such appalling lack of neatness and even legibility as I attempt to write in pen.  

Dainuri Rott: I am grateful for the Zen teachings of Bodhidharma, translated by Red Pine.

(photo by Misha Merrill)



Sue Jensen: When I was very young, my dad told me I would always have enough. Perhaps, someone had stolen something and it was a teachable moment, but he meant something far beyond. I‘ve often fallen back on those words — and I am grateful — that I have enough strength, enough love, enough food to share — and that through this I came to understand that everything would always be alright.


Randy Komisar: I am grateful for simply being part of it all.


Rick Moss: I am grateful for science. This week, to take one shining example, making Covid vaccines in under a year from scratch. To the extent that humanity is better off today than it was a century or a millennium or a kalpa ago, it is due to this method for ascertaining reality - removing a bit of that “dust in the eyes”, our fundamental misperceptions, that Buddha talked about. Whether you temperamentally favor mind science, physical science, biological science or social science, we cannot deny that despite the existential threats we face, we are in general living the best (and longest, healthiest, most secure) lives in human history because of this cultivable potential of human nature.

Sylvia Hawley: I am grateful for this life.

Kathleen Dickey: Today I am thankful that I am alive, that I can see the beautiful autumn light, that I can hear the radio bring me news and music, that I have shelter and hot water, that I can feel the breeze and the warm elbow bumps of friends and family.


Wing Ng: Diane is grateful for my health and occasional feelings of optimism.

Patty Pecoraro: I am grateful every day for my practice… It strengthens me… It really does help me make sense out of the nonsense in my brain.

Hiromi Kurahashi: Grateful to encounter Buddha in three different ways


Mary Lou Lacina: Grateful  for Nature and all that she provides, may we remember to be respectful. For the animals, wild and domesticated, who live in the skies, on Earth and in the oceans, all who bring us love and beauty.  For the challenges, hardships and betrayals, which are my great teachers. To family and friends, present and those no longer with us, for their love, support and patience, during the highs and depths of misery.  To this Sangha, Eternally grateful.


Misha Merrill: Grateful for beauty, art, music, and all of my teachers known and unknown

(Photo by Pixie Couch)

Bill Clopton: After walking into Mt Alverno twenty plus years ago, November 1999, then sitting with and meeting you both my gratitude for our practice of the dharma, our long time friendship, and our time together is a treasure that has nurtured who I am today . Plus there at Mt Alverno is where I met Nancy. I’m so grateful for you three .

Gulia Bekker: I am grateful for my partners Gayle and Chris, my sons Nicki and Aaron, and for being alive.

Kat Haimson: I am here because of so many causes and conditions, so many people,  that have made it possible for me to be here now.  My mother used to say that we stand on the shoulders of others, and there are countless others.  How can I begin to list them?  I am deeply interconnected with all of them.  At this time I am deeply grateful for the Sangha and the teachers who have made sure to keep us together through this challenging time.

Merrill: My gratefulness is being able to be in touch with my mother in her very old age as she sits in a nursing home mostly alone

Jim Little: I am grateful to have my love with me during quarantine, to be able to breathe and to stand up for those who cannot, and for Impermanence.  For all that can be tragic about change, there is also great hope, and I am grateful to be able to see each moment.

Lidia Luna: Grateful for my lovely daughters.  

Shannon Bergman: As I sit here at 4:00 in the morning, with a husband who can't sleep because of medication side effects (hallucinations, extreme pain) and a daughter with newly diagnosed diabetes and now neuropathy due to other medication side effects for medication she takes for mental health... Right during my morning meditation, I get the text "Mom, I can't sleep and now my foot is numb along with my hands blistering."

I'm tired and exhausted from all the health issues with the people I love the most in this world and not being able to wave a magic wand and heal them, but am so very thankful they are still with me and they are of sound mind... and in the grander scheme of things, everyone is still in relatively good health.  (BTW, help is on the way for all the medication problems. It's just going to take a few days for the medication to leave their systems.)  I am also VERY thankful for my health...that I am well enough to take care of them in their time of need. I love being a wife and mom to these two spectacular individuals that truly give my life meeting.

I've accomplished so many things in this lifetime -- pretty laudable things, but the thing that I take the most pride in and the thing I am most thankful for is my family (which of course includes our two greyhounds and turtle (that we inherited with the house when we bought it that lives in our atrium). And I thank you, too, dear Sangha. Your love and support have been the bedrock that has held me together through these last three years. I truly feel like I've found my home and am enjoying building individual relationships with each of you. Thank you for welcoming me with non-judgmental open arms.


Jill Kaplan submitted this poem 
by Mary Oliver: 

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, 
there the hummingbird—
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; 
there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still half-perfect? Let me keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still 
and learning to be astonished.

The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,
which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.

(Photo by Jill Kaplan)




































_____________________________________________________________________

Special bows for today: 
  • Please continue to offer bows in honor of:
    • Dan Pomeroy, a friend of dharma brother, Dainuri Rott, who died on 11/20/20
    • Ofelia Mendez, Lilliana Mendez-Soto's aunt who died  on 11/12/20; her relatives Jorge and his sister were able to be with her at the end
    • Phyllis Merrill, Misha's mother, who died on 10/18/20
    • Charles Kennicott Leech, Nancy's father who died on 10/9/20
  • Please offer bows of well-being for Jim Little's daughter, Meara, and her boyfriend, Cody Mauser, who have contracted COVID
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Flip Dibner, who has been diagnosed with lymphoma and is currently undergoing chemotherapy but living at home with wife, Diane Renshaw
    • David Shaw, who suffered a stroke on 9/30/20; he has been taken home by his wife for rehabilitation
    • Rev. Les Kaye, Misha’s Zen teacher, who is recovering at home undergoing chemotherapy; he is in the final month of his treatment.
____________________________________________________________________________

Wonderful links shared by sangha members and friends:

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Tuesday, November 24, 2020

November 24, 2020

Case 35 in the Book of Serenity

When Luopu called on Jiashan, without bowing he stood right in front of him.  Jiashan said, “A chicken roosting in a phoenix nest—it’s not of the same species—go away.”  Luopu said, “I’ve come from afar to find out your way, Teacher; I beg you fo a reception.”   

Jiashan said, “Before my eyes there is no you, here there is no e.” Luopu then shouted.  Jiashan said, “Stop, stop, now don’t be crude and carefless.  The moon in the clouds is the same, valleys and mountains are different.  It’s not that you don’t cut off the tongues of everyone on earth, but how can you make a tongueless man speak?”  Luopu had nothing to say; Jiashan hit him.  From this Luopu acquiesced.


Koan commentary by dharma brother, Rene Netter: 

Too casual
what do you want?
please teach me.
nothing to teach, just this
Nice try but too crude
no distinctions necessary,
yet when it comes to living even the smallest speck of dust makes a difference.
if you don’t make any distinctions you might as well be dead.
please, tell me how was your day?
If you don’t have something to say you are like a ghost


Rene's commentary on the Koan process:

I try to work on one koan case per week. I usually sit down not in Zazen but on a sofa and read the whole case which usually consists of an introduction, the case, comment(s) and a verse. I usually focus on the case and try to just sit with it connecting to my breath. Usually something comes up about the dharma and how whatever is going on for me connects to it.

I used to meditate with a case in the back of my mind when in sesshin. But right now I am just studying Koans out of the traditional Koan collections like the "Blue Cliff record", the "Mumonkan" or like in this case the "Book of Serenity".  I try not to think about a koan too much. They often use the regular words but are saying something completely different. So for a person not familiar with the Dharma they don’t make sense, but for somebody within the Dharma they seem to always have several helpful pointers. 

I think it is important to find one’s own language otherwise we’d be just “parroting” what our teachers told us. That way the Dharma really comes to life which is part of my motivation to write about some of these koans.  Often the koans lean more toward one side--like they emphasize the emptiness side of things or they emphasize the “being right in the middle of life” point of view. And sometimes they playfully go back and forth between both of these viewpoints, pointing out that really there is no difference between the two of them and that all it takes is flexible presents to be somewhere in the middle or to allow for something completely different which is beyond and becomes alive in a totally new and wonderfully adapted way.  

(Photo by Shannon Bergman)

_______________________________________________________________________

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
  • M-F: 7-7:30am - zazen
  • Saturdays: 8:00-10:15am - zazen, short service, tea, discussion/study
  • For more information:  www.zenheartsangha.org) 
_____________________________________________________________________

Special bows for today: 
  • Please offer bows fin honor of Dan Pomeroy, a friend of dharma brother, Dainuri Rott, who died on 11/20/20
  • Please continue to offer bows in honor of:
    • Ofelia Mendez, Lilliana Mendez-Soto's aunt who died  on 11/12/20; her relatives Jorge and his sister were able to be with her at the end
    • Phyllis Merrill, Misha's mother, who died on 10/18/20
    • Charles Kennicott Leech, Nancy's father who died on 10/9/20
  • Please offer bows of well-being for Jim Little's daughter, Meara, and her boyfriend, Cody Mauser, who have contracted COVID
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Flip Dibner, who has been diagnosed with lymphoma and is currently undergoing chemotherapy but living at home with wife, Diane Renshaw
    • David Shaw, who suffered a stroke on 9/30/20; he has been taken home by his wife for rehabilitation
    • Rev. Les Kaye, Misha’s Zen teacher, who is recovering at home undergoing chemotherapy; he is in the final month of his treatment.
____________________________________________________________________________

Wonderful links shared by sangha members and friends:










 

 

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Sunday, November 22, 2020

November 22, 2020

Polarization and Reunification: a family story
by Shannon Bergman, ZHS member

In these polarized times, we've talked about the necessity of showing lovingkindness to all people, not only those we agree with -- even if we don't understand them. I thought I'd share some of the things I've learned through these last two election cycles. I am the only Democrat in my immediate family and our family actually has an unwritten agreement not to talk about politics at the dinner table. But here's what I've learned:

 1. My husband -- the Republican that voted for Trump twice (mostly due to the deregulation of the laws that restrict small businesses) -- and whose reduction in taxes has helped keep our family business alive). He is also the man who generated 10's if not 100's of thousands of dollars to pay for my daughter's uncovered medical expenses and never complained once about where the money was going even though Lilith is Gil's step-daughter and not even his blood. He is also the man who has held my hair back as I've gotten sick in the toilet after getting food poisoning.

2. My 101 year old grandmother is a staunch Republican -- mostly because she's been brainwashed by Fox news...but I have never met a woman more deserving of Sainthood in her true Christian beliefs to love and help others. She was the organist at her church for over 60 years before she had to quit in her 90's because she could no longer play. She also played at the retirement home in her town in what they called her weekly hymn sing and started "Kids Club" in her church where NO child was turned away for bad behavior. My grandmother was always there for me when my mother (because of her mental illness) could not be. She has been the strongest female role model in my life and had her Christianity was what was preached and lived by most Christians, I never would have questioned it or started seeking another religions/practices that better served my belief systems.

3. My grandmother's caretaker -- and one of the most staunch Republicans I know that I've sparred with a couple times, loves my grandmother so much that she has committed to stay with her until the very end. And even though my grandmother can't walk long distances anymore, Tammy takes my grandmother out on these beautiful drives seeing areas of Oregon that my grandmother has never seen and absolutely loves exploring.

4. My brother is a staunch Republican, who is best described as a 'don't fence me in' Republican, is also putting three stepsons through college and spending many, many weeks away from his wife to be able to afford it.

 5. My sister in law is a school teacher that works with handicapped children every day and is now struggling with how to teach these children she dearly loves online and holding down the household while my brother is away making money.

 I think it's when we start thinking of people as black and white and label them that we get in trouble. I think we all are a combination of bad and good, and if someone were to take my inventory, it would be a lot darker than any of my family members.  I think we have to hold dear and search for the humanity in all people instead of falling into judgement. I do not profess to be close to mastering that skill, but it helps to look at those closest to me and that I love dearly to see examples of people that can have different opinions than I do, but that are still good people.


___________________________________________________________________________

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
  • M-F: 7-7:30am - zazen
  • 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, Lilliana Mendez-Soto's aunt who died from complications of COVID on 11/13/20
  • Please continue to offer bows in honor of:
    • Phyllis Merrill, Misha's mother, who died on 10/18/20
    • Charles Kennicott Leech, Nancy's father who died on 10/9/20
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Flip Dibner, who has been diagnosed with lymphoma of the central nervous system and will be undergoing chemotherapy
    • David Shaw, who suffered a stroke on 9/30/20
    • 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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Friday, November 20, 2020

November 20, 2020

 

The Monk Budai


A bag on the left,

Another on the right

I put down all the bags,

How at ease I am.

 

- submitted by Jim Little

 




__________________________________________________________________________

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
  • M-F: 7-7:30am - zazen
  • 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, Lilliana Mendez-Soto's aunt who died from complications of COVID on 11/13/20
  • Please continue to offer bows in honor of:
    • Phyllis Merrill, Misha's mother, who died on 10/18/20
    • Charles Kennicott Leech, Nancy's father who died on 10/9/20
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Flip Dibner, who has been diagnosed with lymphoma of the central nervous system and will be undergoing chemotherapy
    • David Shaw, who suffered a stroke on 9/30/20
    • Rev. Les Kaye, Misha’s Zen teacher, who is recovering at home undergoing chemotherapy
__________________________________________________________


Wonderful links shared by sangha members and friends:
Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

November 18, 2020

 

Such Silence

By Mary Oliver

As deep as I ever went into the forest
I came upon an old stone bench, very, very old,
and around it a clearing, and beyond that
trees taller and older than I had ever seen.











Such silence.
It really wasn’t so far from a town, but it seemed
all the clocks in the world had stopped counting.
So it was hard to suppose the usual rules applied.
Sometimes there’s only a hint, a possibility.
What’s magical, sometimes, has deeper roots
than reason.
I hope everyone knows that.
I sat on the bench, waiting for something.
An angel, perhaps.
Or dancers with the legs of goats.
No, I didn’t see either. But only, I think, because
I didn’t stay long enough.”

 - submitted by Pixie Couch

________________________________________________________________________

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
  • M-F: 7-7:30am - zazen
  • Saturdays: 8:00-10:15am - zazen, short service, tea, discussion/study
  • For more information:  www.zenheartsangha.org) 
_____________________________________________________________________

Special bows for today: 
  • Please continue to offer bows in honor of:
    • Phyllis Merrill, Misha's mother, who died on 10/18/20
    • Charles Kennicott Leech, Nancy's father who died on 10/9/20
    • Takiko Kawakami, Fumiko Arao's mother who died 9/2/2020
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Flip Dibner, who has been diagnosed with lymphoma of the central nervous system and will be undergoing chemotherapy
    • David Shaw, who suffered a stroke on 9/30/20
    • Rev. Les Kaye, Misha’s Zen teacher, who is recovering at home undergoing chemotherapy
__________________________________________________________


Wonderful links shared by sangha members and friends:
Posted by at No comments:
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