Farm, MWA Newsletter, Zen, -  Jun 07, 2025

Mountains and Waters Alliance – summer events 2025

Dear Friends,

I’m not writing about the news right now, but I’m paying attention and participating as I can. Right now I just want to get you an update on events that MWA is doing or I’m doing.

Summer events

June 13-15 was planned as an Earth Apprentice retreat. Instead, we’ll be attending the local No Kings rally in Northfield, MN. If you would like to spend some time outdoors with the land, email me and we can have an informal gathering late Saturday afternoon, or Sunday.

Thursday evening June 19, 5:30-7 pm Central Time:  Online Dharma talk based on the book, at Sanshin Zen Community, my home temple. https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/r/day/2025/6/19 

Sunday morning June 22: Online Dharma talk at Hokyoji Zen Community, a country practice place I’ve known and loved for a long time. https://mountainsandwatersalliance.org/event/june-22-hokyoji/

Sunday morning July 13, Online Dharma talk at Hokyoji. https://mountainsandwatersalliance.org/event/july-13-hokyoji/

July 18-20, Friday night to Sunday, Sesshin at the farm.

This is an intensive retreat experience, described here. Registration is required, and you’re invited to talk with me in advance if you haven’t done this before. https://mountainsandwatersalliance.org/event/sesshin-at-farm/

Late summer and fall:

My new book, Open Reality: Meeting the Polycrisis Together With All Beings, will be published September 2.

I’ll be doing a book tour, and event information will be on the book page at www.shodospring.com. Meanwhile, I welcome your invitations to

• give a talk, retreat, or workshop at your sangha or other group,
•  offer a reading at your local bookstore,
• talk to a college class, a study group, an activist group, a church – or
• just take a day off with friends. Or a mini-retreat in the land you call home.

The general plan:

September will include various locations in Minnesota, including Northfield, a retreat in Duluth, a talk at Minnesota Zen Center, and a reading at Fair Trade Books in Red Wing. Plus some online events. Information will be on the book page.

September 26 I go on the road, beginning with a talk and a book table at the Women & Spirituality Conference in Rochester, MN, then going east through Chicago, Cleveland, etc, to New England where I have a few events including a 3-day retreat with Zen Center North Shore, Wenham, Massachusetts.

I’ll travel down the East Coast through New York City, Washington DC, and then head for Atlanta where I have a workshop commitment. There are a lot of places I might stop either before or after Atlanta; afterward I hope to visit Bloomington IN, Columbus OH, and some folks in Michigan and Wisconsin.

If you’re on or near that path, conversation is welcome and a place to stay much appreciated.

If you’re not near that path, there’s always online. Or 2026; I’ve been asked to see some folks in the West and Southwest then.

I had a dream

of small groups of people gathering to call in the spirits and the support of the natural world, each in their own place and their own way. After deciding to do this trip, I realized that this in an opportunity to do that – meet with people and do ceremony, prayer, ritual, everywhere I go. As the Compassionate Earth Walk was a blessing and an embodied prayer, this may be the same. I would rather walk, but I know how long that takes and it won’t happen this fall.

If you would like to send financial support

for this journey, please make a tax-deductible donation to Mountains and Waters Alliance. We appreciate all sorts of support including chanting and prayers.

With love,

Shodo