End of summer, end of retreat, interim, what's happening, and what's to come...
Hello Everyone,
As many of you know, we’ve just completed our August retreat. (See some end-of-retreat happiness photos below.) The Dogen Study Group will meet this week, continuing our reading of “Mountains and Waters Sutra,” followed by a ten-day interim. We return to our Monday/Thursday schedule on September 11 and continue until the equinox (September 23), after which our new fall schedule starts with a half-day sitting on Sunday morning September 24. Details of the new schedule are below, along with notes on other upcoming events and links to a couple of recent talks.
Finally: Save the dates for Rohatsu — we’ll hold our Rohatsu retreat December 1 – December 5.
August Retreat
Many many thanks to all who contributed to the retreat — your presence in sitting, your gifts of time, food, resources, and talents—cooking, chanting, keeping time, ringing bells, and all your ungraspable light. We saw some old friends (welcome home, Jane!) and renewed and extended our practice together.
Ten of us participated in the retreat, not all for the whole five days or the whole of each day, so a few are absent from our last-day photos — thank you, Varun, Gabrielle, and Patrick! — missing from the photos but not from our celebration of upright sitting in silence and sangha.
And we had fun!
New Schedule Starting September 24
Sunday Half-Day Sittings, Monthly
Our new schedule will start with a half-day sitting on Sunday morning September 24, 7 a.m. through noon, with morning service, shared breakfast, a dharma talk or reading, noon service, and tea. Formal Sunday morning half-day sittings will continue monthly through the fall: September 24, October 22 , November 19, and December 17.
Tuesday Zazen and Dogen Study Group, Weekly starting September 26
Replacing Monday evening zazen and discussion will be Tuesday evening zazen at 6 pm, followed by Dogen Study Group at 7:15, continuing our reading of “Mountains and Waters Sutra.” Everyone is welcome to attend either or both parts of the evening.
Wednesday Morning Zazen, Weekly starting September 27
Two twenty-five-minute sittings with kinhin, zazen starting at 7:30 a.m. (arrive 5-10 minutes before starting time).
Thursday Zazen, Weekly starting October 5
Thursday evening zazen will begin at 6 and end with refuges at 7. (Please note there will not be a Thursday evening sitting on September 28.)
Sign-ups in advance will be necessary for all sittings, as usual. If you need help accessing the sign-up sheets, please let me know.
Stillpoint Retreat with Shohaku Okumura Roshi
From October 12-15 Shohaku Okumura Roshi, lifelong student of Dogen and founder and abbot of Sanshin Zen Community, will be leading a retreat at the Villa Maria Education and Spirituality Center, sponsored by Stillpoint. Public registration will open soon and I encourage all who can participate to do so. Let me know if you’re interested as soon as possible. Registration will be open until September 15 at the latest, but the organizers expect the retreat to sell out before that date.
From the Sanshinji website
Shōhaku Okumura, founder and abbot of Sanshin Zen Community, stepped back from day to day leadership in June, 2023. He was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1948. In 1970, he was ordained by the late Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, one of the foremost Zen masters of the twentieth-century. He received Dharma transmission from his teacher in 1975 and, shortly after, became one of the founding members of Pioneer Valley Zendo in Massachusetts. He returned to Japan in 1981 and began translating the works of Dogen Zenji, Uchiyama Roshi and other Soto masters from Japanese into English. In 1993, he moved back to the United States with his wife, Yuko, and their two children. He has previously served as teacher at the Kyoto Soto Zen Center in Japan and at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis, and was Director of the Soto Zen International Center in San Francisco for thirteen years.
Today, Okumura Roshi is recognized for his unique perspective on the life and teachings of Dogen Zenji derived from his experience as both practitioner and translator, and as a teacher in both Japanese and Western practice communities. He has given lectures on the Shobogenzo and other foundational texts; transcriptions have appeared in Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly, Dharma Eye, and Buddhism Now. He has also written or contributed to a number of books; the complete publication list is available from our Dogen Institute.
Some Recent Talks in our tradition
Tenshin Reb Anderson at No Abode
Reb at his most expansive, introducing and transmitting his joyful enthusiasm for the Avatamsaka Sutra and its teaching of Buddha’s light as conversation.
Zenju Earthlyn Manuel at Tassajara
A message from Awaken Pittsburgh about Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness Instruction Training
Awaken Pittsburgh is offering an online training for considering the ways trauma can impact the experience of practicing mindfulness. The course is intended for those who give mindfulness instruction. They write: “The 9-week course is an opportunity to engage in deep practice, reflection and discussion with others who recognize the importance of bringing mindfulness and healing to the world.” More information and registration can be found HERE.
And finally, Theo suggests that we all rest well …
