Friday, September 11, 2020

September 12, 2020

 

 


Sho Sai Myo Kichijo Dharani 

My traveling Kuan Yin came with me during 8 days of evacuation. She is a gift from one of my sisters, only 2 inches high, but helped me center myself in a time of great uncertainty.

 There's a chant called a dharani that I chanted each morning after zazen called the 'Sho Sai Myo Kichijo Dharani' that is supposed to help avert disaster.  The way I've heard it done is to chant it three times with great energy, while the mokugyo* is beaten.

(*fish-drum, also used for the Heart Sutra)

-Kathleen Dickey


Sho Sai Myo Kichijo Dharani  

NO MO SAM MAN DA MOTO NAN 

OHA RA CHI KOTO SHA SONO NAN 

TO JI TO EN GYA GYA GYA KI GYA KI UN NUN 

SHIFU RA SHIFU RA HARA SHIFU RA HARA SHIFU RA 

CHISHU SA CHISHU SA CHISHU RI CHISHU RI 

SOHA JA SOHA JA SEN CHI GYA SHIRI E SOMO KO   


_____________________________________________________________________________

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 all those at Ashland Zen Center whose families have lost their homes in the recent fires in Oregon
  • 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
    • 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 11, 2020

 Difficult and Effortless Practice

by Jim Little

On the bike trail, I make a practice of observing what is on the road in front of me.  I mean directly in front of me.  The lizards lie out on the asphalt to keep their temperature up, and scurry away as bikes and runners approach.  Some lizards are better than others at recognizing on-coming threats.  My practice is to be aware of them (and ground squirrels, and smaller insects, and caterpillars) and avoid them, which I find to be fairly effortless.


In addition to the wild-life, I share that same trail with other humans.  Humans that are riding their bikes, humans that are running, humans that are walking on the wrong side of the trail, humans that are walking their dogs with leashes that extend THE ENTIRE WIDTH OF THE TRAIL, humans STOPPING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TRAIL TO HAVE A CONVERSATION.  Ugh!  And this is MY difficulty to practice with.  I announce "Rider up!" as I approach, and say "thank you, good morning" as I pass.

I guess for me, the effortless practice is one where I don't feel much friction between what I am trying to do and how I handle the unexpected.  Animals are doing what they do, and I am happy to make way for them.  Humans are also doing what they do, but for some reason I am just not as equanimous.  My small mind wants to have a nice uninterrupted ride, when “just riding” should be happening.  The gap between what I have and what I want.  Luckily I can keep practicing.

_____________________________________________________________________________

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 all those at Ashland Zen Center whose families have lost their homes in the recent fires in Oregon
  • 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
    • 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 9, 2020




Understanding nothing

We dive into the ocean

Trusting everything

Without reservation

Of just this as it is

One with the universe

This is our vow

This is our effort

Moment after moment

We have no choice

In this very choicelessness

Is our inconceivable joy


--Blanche Hartman, Roshi


Submitted by Sylvia Hawley: from “Mountain Seat Ceremony for Shunbo Zenkei Blanche Hartman” by Furyu Schroeder) http://www.cuke.com/pdf-2013/wind-bell/vol30-no2-96.pdf



_____________________________________________________________________________

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
    • 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 8, 2020

September 9, 2020

 Submitted by Alisa Tu - 


Zen practice has opened my mind/heart to poetry and the power of words to "leap clear" and suddenly the whole world is broken open to the beauty and dharma of it all.


This poem was a part of an interactive performance of poetry that my friends (non-Zen folks) put together last year. It was recited by Eliza Thomas (Peninsula clay teacher) in the middle of a room full of attendees in my mom's studio. She was walking around the room talking to us, looking at each of us to help us hear the words. The event is called Barefoot in Black (you can find it on Facebook) and was a pleasure to produce, collaborate and experience. We Zen practitioners are barefoot in black, the title of the poem is familiar too, the dharma is everywhere and in everything, beautiful and broken. : )

~Alisa

 

The Way It Is

 Over and over we break open, 

we break and we break and we open.  

 For a while, we try to fix the vessel – 

as if to be broken is bad.

As if with glue and tape and a steady hand we might bring things to perfect again.  

As if they were ever perfect.  

As if to be broken is not also perfect.  

As if to be open is not the path toward joy.

 

The vase that’s been shattered and cracked will never hold water.  

Eventually it will leak.  

And at some point, perhaps, 

we decide that we’re done with picking our flowers anyway, 

and no longer need a place to contain them.

We watch them grow just as wildflowers do – 

unfenced, unmanaged, blossoming only when they’re ready

– and my god, how beautiful they are amidst the mounting pile of shards        

- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

_____________________________________________________________________________

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
    • 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, 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)

_____________________________________________________________________

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

___________________________________________________________________________

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:

Posted by at No comments:
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