Monday, September 7, 2020

September 8, 2020

 EVEN IN THE STRUGGLE

Even in the struggle, you are loved.

You are being loved not in spite of the hardship, but through it.

The thing you see as wrenching, intolerable, life’s attack on you,

is an expression of love.

There is the part of us that fears and protects and defends and expects,

and has a story of the way it’s supposed to turn out.

That part clenches in fear, feels abandoned and cursed.

There is another part, resting at the floor of the well within, that

understands:

This is how I am being graced, called, refined, by fire.

The secret is, it’s all love.













It’s all doorways to truth.

It’s all opportunity to merge with what is.

Most of us don’t step through the doorframe.

We stay on the known side.

We fight the door, we fight the frame, we scream and hang on.

On the other side, you are one with the earth, like the mountain.

You hum with life, like the moss.

On the other side, you are more beautiful:

wholeness in your bones, wisdom in your gaze,

the sage-self and the surrendered heart alive.


© 2011 TARA SOPHIA MOHR

(submitted by Camille Spar)

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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
  • 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 Takiko Kawakami, Fumiko Arao's mother who died 9/2/2020
  • Please offer bows for Jacob Blake, shot and paralyzed in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and for the protesters shot and killed in Portland, OR last weekend
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Phyllis Merrill, Misha's mother, who is dying
    • Ofelia Mendez, Jorge Luis Mendez, Lazara and her mother, relatives of Lilliana Mendez-Soto who have contracted COVID
    • 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, September 6, 2020

September 7, 2020

 In honor of Labor Day...

(which is not a Hallmark holiday)

Labor Day may be a day of rest for some--a trip to a park or the beach, a sharing (at a safe physical distance!) of a meal with friends and family, or just a day to relax and read a book...but it is also a day to honor and thank those who are laboring on our behalf: whether or not by choice, whether or not it feels personally safe to them, whether or not they would prefer to be doing something else.  

We offer our bows of gratitude for the individuals in our lives who are putting their personal safety on the line every day in order to make the daily existence during the pandemic, the fires, the smoke, the heat, and the utter uncertainty of our lives a little more bearable: 

Firefighters

Farm laborers

Garbage collectors

Distribution/assembly line workers

Postal carriers

Local sheriffs

Grocery and department store clerks

Truck drivers

Gas/water/electric crews

And the entire medical community.


with immense gratitude, Zen Heart Sangha

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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
  • 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 Takiko Kawakami, Fumiko Arao's mother who died 9/2/2020
  • Please offer bows for Jacob Blake, shot and paralyzed in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and for the protesters shot and killed in Portland, OR last weekend
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Phyllis Merrill, Misha's mother, who is dying
    • Ofelia Mendez, Jorge Luis Mendez, Lazara and her mother, relatives of Lilliana Mendez-Soto who have contracted COVID
    • 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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September 6, 2020

 From our Saturday morning discussion...

Ordinary Mind, Buddha Mind



Buddha in its true sense is not different from ordinary mind.  

And ordinary mind is not something apart from what is holy. 

This is a complete understanding of our self.  

When we practice zazen with this understanding,

 that is true zazen.

(from "Not Always So" by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi)

____________________________________________________________________________

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 Takiko Kawakami, Fumiko Arao's mother who died 9/2/2020
  • Please offer bows for Jacob Blake, shot and killed in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and for the protesters shot and killed Portland, OR last weekend
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Phyllis Merrill, Misha's mother, who is dying
    • Ofelia Mendez, Jorge Luis Mendez, Lazara and her mother, relatives of Lilliana Mendez-Soto who have contracted COVID
    • 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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Saturday, September 5, 2020

September 5, 2020

From the writings of Chuang-tse:

On his way back from the K’un-lun Mountains, the Yellow Emperor lost the dark pearl of Tao.

He sent Knowledge to find it, but Knowledge was unable to understand it.  

He sent Distant Vision , but Distant Vision was unable to see it. 

He sent Eloquence, but Eloquence was unable to describe it.

Finally, he sent Empty Mind, and Empty Mind came back with the pearl.


 (Excerpted from The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff)

 - Submitted by Jim Little


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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
  • 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 Takiko Kawakami, Fumiko Arao's mother who died 9/2/2020
  • Please offer bows for Jacob Blake, shot and killed in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and for the protesters shot and killed Portland, OR last weekend
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Phyllis Merrill, Misha's mother, who is dying
    • Ofelia Mendez, Jorge Luis Mendez, Lazara and her mother, relatives of Lilliana Mendez-Soto who have contracted COVID
    • 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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Friday, September 4, 2020

September 4, 2020


 Why Bother


Because right now there is

 someone out there with

a wound in the exact 

shape of your words.


 by Sean Thomas Dougherty 

from The Second O of Sorrow, 2018 





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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
  • 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 Takiko Kawakami, Fumiko Arao's mother who died 9/2/2020
  • Please offer bows for Jacob Blake, shot and killed in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and for the protesters shot and killed Portland, OR last weekend
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Phyllis Merrill, Misha's mother, who is dying
    • Ofelia Mendez, Jorge Luis Mendez, Lazara and her mother, relatives of Lilliana Mendez-Soto who have contracted COVID
    • 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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Thursday, September 3, 2020

September 3, 2020

 The Wisdom of Uncertainty

One day Ajahn Chah held up a beautiful Chinese tea cup, “To me this cup is already broken. Because I know its fate, I can enjoy it fully here and now. And when it’s gone, it’s gone.” When we understand the truth of uncertainty and relax, we become free.


We may lose our best piece of pottery in the firing, the charter school we work so hard to create may fold, our start up business may go under, our children may develop problems beyond our control. If we only focus on the results, we will be devastated. But if we know the cup is broken, we can give our best to the process, create what we can and trust the larger process of life itself. We can plan, we can care for, tend and respond. But we cannot control.  Instead we take a breath, and open to what is unfolding, where we are. This is a profound shift, from holding on, to letting go.  As Suzuki Roshi says, “When we understand the truth of impermanence and find our composure in it, there we find ourselves in Nirvana.”

This excerpt is taken from the book, ” “The Wise Heart” by Jack Kornfield

 (submitted by Camille Spar)


___________________________________________________________________________

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 Takiko Kawakami, Fumiko Arao's mother who died 9/2/2020
  • Please offer bows for Jacob Blake, shot and killed in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and for the protesters shot and killed Portland, OR last weekend
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Phyllis Merrill, Misha's mother, who is dying
    • Ofelia Mendez, Jorge Luis Mendez, Lazara and her mother, relatives of Lilliana Mendez-Soto who have contracted COVID
    • 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, September 1, 2020

September 1, 2020


 Being Time

“As the time right now is all there ever is, 

each being-time is without exception 

entire being time. . .  

Entire being, the entire world, 

exists in the time of each and every now. 

Just reflect: right now, 

is there any entire being or 

an entire world missing 

from your present time, or not? “

- Dogen Zenji


(From a lecture by Shinshu Roberts on 8/31/20 as 

an example of particularity as moment/place/being)


____________________________________________________________________________

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 John Lewis, civil rights leader, who died on July 17th
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Phyllis Merrill, Misha's mother, who is dying
    • Ofelia Mendez, Jorge Luis Mendez, Lazara and her mother, relatives of Lilliana Mendez-Soto who have contracted COVID
    • 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:

Posted by at No comments:
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