Beloveds,
The United States has an election in just a few days, and we don’t know what will happen. Predictions are everywhere, but it is impossible to know. People are afraid.
We cling to the hope that our way of life will continue.
If you’re Buddhist, you may know that clinging is part of the causal chain that leads to suffering. If not, pay close attention and you can see it working.
We do not know the future. Our actions have results, yet we can’t guarantee what those will be. This means that both despair and hubris are foolish wastes of energy. The future is unknown, and thus we can move into it with full hearts.
As I write today, November 2, 2024, the new moon has just passed and grows again. The turning known as Halloween, Samhain, All Souls’ Day, Day of the Dead, and other names throughout the world, honors the entry into dark and cold, fallow time, a rest for minds as well as farms. This year, storms and floods ravage places people thought were safe, climate change is undeniable, autumn finally turns cold. War rages, genocide expands, hate and fear flourish in the public realm. Night is like that, sometimes.
People have lived through such times before. Sometimes they return and thrive, sometimes they go forward reduced. As gently as I can, let me mention that our future must consume less than our present, yet every year we increase. (The alternative energy produced is simply being added to the supply demanded by our ravenous society for AI, internet, advertising, self-driving cars and other absurdities.) I encourage you to live in such a way that your well-being does not require increasing mining, child slaves, endless war, and the extermination of the wild. Please be ready to thrive without the gadgets. People have done so, everywhere before modern industrial society with its billionaires and without its soul.
I’ve been reading and now listening to Timothy Snyder, who has studied authoritarian regimes for years, who wrote On Tyranny and now On Freedom. He’s both more worried and more hopeful than one might imagine. I recommend listening to this short talk now, before voting if you haven’t.
He says
“I lived in eastern Europe when memories of communism were fresh…. I have spent decades reading testimonies of people who lived under Nazi or Stalinist rule. I have seen death pits, some old, some freshly dug. And I have friends who have lived under authoritarian regimes, including political prisoners and survivors of torture. Some of the people I trusted most have been assassinated.”
There are many voices of encouragement, and of sanity. I can’t post them all.
Remember to research issues and local candidates, before you find yourself without a local library, or with a school that censors original thinking. If you can find time to volunteer for someone who speaks your mind, please do it.
I’ll be working the polls on election day, and gathering with others for calm and support afterward. If there is violence after the election, know that there are people preparing for a strong and nonviolent action afterward, and if that’s needed, I’ll pass along what I know for those who want to help.
In the face of the Uncommitted Movement, which refused to vote for genocide and now seems to risk of electing a dictator – I propose a Committed Movement. These folks would promise to show up on Inauguration Day to pressure the new President Harris to stop funding genocide. Walking a fine line: (and it’s illegal for me to recommend a candidate anyway.) The whole thing doesn’t end with the election, it begins here. We can’t disappear. Guess I’d better plan for a trip in January.
Sweet friends, please spend as much time in love and beauty as you possibly can. Join group prayer and meditation. Pray to whoever you like, or ground
yourself in the deep peace that sustains us all, or join me in asking for help from all our relatives whether forests or eagles, prairies or mice, even thunderstorms. There is an awakening happening. Don’t miss it by feeding the monster with fear or anger.
and that will include news, events and such. Right now I’ll just mention: Zen-style meditation on election day, online: November 15-17, work weekend here; December 1-8; December 21. All the local events are described here. And there’s space for two residents, long-term or short-term.
Love and commitment,
Shodo
I’m thinking about how we prepare spiritually for the U.S. election (if we’re involved) and all the rest of what’s happening – which changes every day, and has been painful even to watch.
The election is just over two weeks away. I promised to work the polls, and have not yet done the training, but I will.
Unlike many people, I don’t know the answers about the election. I’m afraid of what Trump or Vance would do – and it breaks my heart to seem to approve the genocide in Gaza, Lebanon, and wherever else. I’ve made a decision for myself: I’m voting for the most workable opponent, and then doing the real work, all year, every year. Still, elections have effects. Please consider all the races – Congress, state offices, judges, school boards, library boards, county soil & water – all of them. So many races that are officially nonpartisan have been filled with people who have strong partisan agendas, and if we don’t pay attention we may lose things we’ve taken for granted for entire lifetimes. Please pay attention and vote.
There’s a thing called hope, which is in short supply these days, and is criticized for misleading people into complacency. I want to talk about what hope means for me.
Hope means the future is not known. Hope means there is a chance, however tiny, that we may survive, may come to our senses collectively, listen to the warnings of hurricanes and floods, abandon our commitment to profit for the wealthy, turn toward providing clean air, water, food, shelter and safety for our children and grandchildren – and for the children of Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, Syria, Western Sahara – I would have to name every country in the world to be complete. This aching wound that is the world right now!
The story of chrysalis comes into my mind. Caterpillars go into chrysalis and completely dissolve before becoming butterfly. I cringe a little. When my family and I are safe and well, and others are dying, I have no right to put on rose-colored glasses. I have no idea what will be born from those who are going through the fire right now, those who survive fire and flood and genocide. But this, here, in this country called United States, this needs to disintegrate o rebirth can happen. And that needs us to be willing to fall apart, to be hungry, and to lend a hand just as we’re hearing from western North Carolina right now – and watching in Gaza and Lebanon – the commitment to all of us – even if that hand is just offered to a neighbor in a snowstorm, or a child with a hurt.
I found this poem. Adrienne Rich, 1978
Nearly fifty years ago, it looked like this. More is lost now than I ever imagined then, and still the power of life arises in us. This afternoon I helped my neighbors plant three hundred willow trees, to hold the bank by the creek, and felt the power of community. We continue to act. Please, whatever you expect, whether you think hope is real or a delusion, cast your lot with those who reconstitute the world.
I’m sending a separate post with fall events and our news.
will be November 15, 16, and/or 17. If interested in coming for any part of this, email Shodo for more information and to make arrangements. We have several small projects, outdoors or indoors, depending on weather. Average temperatures would be in the low 40’s, which suggests short outdoor work alternating with indoor work or rest. Outdoor possibilities include adding a railing to the stairs, creating a better landing for those stairs, other small repairs, and firewood in its many aspects.
silent long days of sitting meditation, minimal shared work, staying onsite encouraged. We’ll gather Saturday evening Nov 30, and close Sunday morning December 8, Buddha’s Enlightenment Day. Please register soon. Ask questions now, ask about partial participation and whatever you need to know.
three parts. Register by emailing Shodo. Mention plans, number of children and adults, and rides offered/needed.
Each month has a different kind of farm work, including tapping sugar maples, planting pines, garden prep, garden planting, foraging, and so forth through the season. Sesshins and retreats will be announced, beginning in early February in Atlanta.
2025 calendar will appear in November. Also, that will be an invitation to membership and fundraising appeal, with plenty of information.
In fall 2025, I expect to be doing a book tour. If you think your group might like me to offer a talk, a reading, or a workshop, in person or online, now would be a great time to talk with me about how to make that happen. Of course, you’ll wonder what the book is about. Working title is The Shape of Reality Is Open: Walking Together Through the Polycrisis. I can send information.
We currently have room for two more residents. If you’re attracted to the thought of living collectively, shared work, spiritual community, good conversation, activism in its various forms – and stars, trees, grasses, creeks and rivers – we’re interested in talking with you. It’s a gradual process. We also accept short-term and long-term guests as interns or while considering residency.
We’ve hired someone part-time, and it’s looking good. If you know someone who has professional-level experience with a marketing program called Hubspot, who would be interested in a few hours per week, send them to me.
This is a brief update plus announcement of a part-time job opportunity with Mountains and Waters Alliance.
The Zen study group is returning to Wednesday evenings, 6:30-8 Central Time. You are welcome to join or to visit. We are just finishing “Instructions for the Cook.” In late September or early October, we’ll start a new study topic. We’re planning to work with a recording; I won’t post it until we actually have it. We meet the first, second, and third Wednesdays each month, except for holidays and such. There’s an email list for notices, sharing of class recordings, and so forth. When there is a fifth Wednesday, we decide by group consensus.
There is no wild rice trip as previously hoped.
October 19-20 Shodo leads a retreat in Atlanta.
Rohatsu sesshin will be December 1-8, here at the farm.
Work days or work weekends are not yet scheduled, but things happen along the way. Email Shodo to be in touch.
Part time, flexible. Primary purpose is office support, so I can focus on other tasks. Up to $800 per month, depending on how things evolve.
Well-organized, thinks clearly, creative, good at coordinating.
Comfortable with social media and able to do minor website updates.
Communicates well, verbally and in writing. Is willing to use email.
Ideal:
If interested, send an email telling me about yourself, including expected salary range, time availability, goals for working with us, and a resume or equivalent.
Thank you all.
With love,
Shodo Spring
Since I last wrote, the United States has changed. The Democrats have a new presidential candidate, a vice-presidential candidate (my Minnesota governor), and enthusiasm abounds. It’s a relief.
Also war, killing, starvation and sickness continue in Gaza; Israeli media report literal torture within Israeli prisons, but U.S. mainstream media says nothing. In Bethlehem, Combatants for Peace resists illegal settlers taking their homes – and some foreigners join them in the old tradition called accompaniment – but this time they’re shooting Americans too. https://www.dropsitenews.com/
Some voters imagine that Harris/Walz will do it differently, others don’t. Some refuse to participate in an election with no peaceful alternative, others plan to organize after the election. I don’t know how many just don’t care.
Climate catastrophe is in our faces – floods, droughts, wildfires – and it’s getting a tiny bit more attention, but most people aren’t yet ready to consider giving up their conveniences. Even when driven from their homes by floods, storms, or fires, they try to resume normalcy as much as possible.
I ask because I don’t know the answer. Today, even though I have a list of what practice means to me now, I’m leaving this space blank.
We just keep going here. We continue at the slower pace required by Shodo’s medical situation, still expecting full recovery. Summer retreats included a weekend Earth Apprentice retreat, in which we spent time with the white pine grove and developed a plan to turn an old shed into a small, screened zendo.
Summer classes included our regular weekly class plus a joint class at Zen Center North Shore (Massachusetts) co-taught with Joan Amaral and Catherine Gammon, both dharma sisters from Shodo’s time at San Francisco Zen Center.
Summer is in full abundance, flowers and green plants, the first tomatoes, more flowers.
UPCOMING
August sesshin will be August 16-18, almost here.
September (dates unknown) there will be a trip for wild ricing with the Honor the Earth camp at Palisade, Minnesota. October 19-20 Shodo leads a retreat in Atlanta, and Rohatsu sesshin will be here December 1-8.
Work days or weekends are not yet scheduled, but things happen along the way.
ALWAYS
We have two rooms available for residents, short or long term, please ask. (You will need outside income.)
I’ll tell you when the book finds a publisher.
It’s a magnificent summer day and I can’t bear to be indoors at the computer. So I’m sitting on a bench outside in the shade, warm breeze, scent of trees and flowers and grasses, sounds of insects and birds and squirrels, wondering what to say to you.
July 19-21, Earth Apprentice Retreat: a combination of meditation, community time, and work with the land guided by the land itself. You can come for part or all, give financial support or ask for a scholarship, stay in the house or camp or commute. We have three people coming so far, and could easily include several more. Depending on weather and inclination, recreation might be hiking, swimming, bonfire, talking about Zen, playing in the kitchen. Music? Star-gazing? Please register now, or give a hint if you’re not sure. It’s two weeks away.
August 16-18, Sesshin: basic sitting meditation for several hours a day, in the cool basement, with flexibility about breaks for outdoor walking and such.
Dharma talks July 28 and September 8, Hokyoji, Sunday morning online.
Study group continues Monday evenings through August, then returns to Wednesdays. If interested please email me.
The book is written and almost ready to seek a publisher. I have a description:
The Shape of Reality Is Open: Walking Together Through the Polycrisis speaks to the world behind and underneath our daily collective trauma. It offers creative support for today’s vibrant and multi-dimensional movements for environmental regeneration, spiritual healing, and peace with justice. Looking at how today’s dominant hopeless narrative was created, the book opens possibilities for moving forward into a shared, flexible culture that knows the natural world both as family and as working partner. The new narrative is based on history, anthropology, and archaeology, as well as current psychological, spiritual, and activist experience.
Stopping: After six years focusing on writing, ten living at the farm, eight creating Mountains and Waters Alliance together with an incredible group of advisors, and nine earning a living in psychotherapy – while my grandchildren moved through their teens – and facing another year of post-surgery partial disability (shoulder surgery) – I find myself stopping, reflecting on what I’m doing, before plunging further into more actions, more teaching, etc.
I’m doing more of going to retreats, less of organizing them, and still happy when people join me. During this time, until the way is clear for me, you won’t hear from me as much. That’s already happening, and will continue for at least the rest of the year, maybe until the book has come out. I dream of long retreat time, of spending month walking across the country, of reading voraciously, and of course of lying on a beach in the sun. I’d like to retrieve the vigor of my body, beginning with the shoulder and continuing to tennis, basketball, and all of that. And more time with children, grandchildren, and friends. (Today my truck died, leaving me with one less thing to take care of – and one less thing to use.)
There’s a kind of panic in the world these days, that I have to mention. I would like to be saying more here, but not until I can speak from the calm place. Thus, I will just encourage you to find your own calm place, and I offer you this poem by Wendell Berry:
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Notice that he wrote this in 1980. We were worried then too. Now we’re living through it and, perhaps, can feel the beginning of the next phase – whatever that is. And the world is still there in its beauty and grace.
I offer photos from the land, from this day, and some from actual farm work.
Love to you all.
Warmly,
Shodo
Life continues to be uncertain. It seems more so than usual these days – with climate change, U.S. politics and fears, the actuality of genocide, and civil liberties issues. Relatively safe, I don’t know what to do. Some people have chosen a course and are pursuing it wholeheartedly, and I thank them. Meanwhile, Zen Master Dizang’s “Not knowing is most intimate” is here for me. My advisory group recommends avoiding distractions, sitting more zazen – a lot more – and waiting for clarity, intimate with uncertainty, allowing Life to create me.
I can’t say much more to you. If your direction is clear, please follow it with all your heart. If you are like me, you’re welcome to join me in allowing intimacy, waiting for clarity. If you’d like to connect in that space, feel free to send me your name. I’ll chant for you, as I do for myself: may we find wisdom, peace, and commitment. May we know our next step, and be willing to take it.
You’re also invited to morning sitting, 6 am Central Time: no zoom, just sitting together wherever we are. Any morning; I’m usually there, and others may be too. We might even call or email each other, for support and encouragement. Or we might take a walk in the woods, or put our hands in the dirt, and listen inwardly and physically, allowing all beings to create and teach us. Here, now, the lilacs are blooming and the iris promise; nettles are offering food and morels are already done. Green and blue, bird song and sun and shade, everywhere says summer.
June and July: Classes Monday evening again, on Dogen’s writing about the work of the Zen cook. Registration please, donations encouraged but not required.
Thursday evening classes, co-teaching at Zen Center North Shore, Beverley, Massachusetts, Mountains and Waters Sutra. June 6-August 1. Note that the times for zazen and talk are in Eastern Time. In Central Time, zazen begins at 5:30 pm and the talk starts at 6:15 pm. You are strongly encouraged to register and make a donation to support ZCNS, which will give me an honorarium.
Zen classes here will return to Wednesdays in September; we’re not quite sure about August.
Saturday, June 15: online talk with No Barriers Zen. Two half-hour zazen periods starting at 9 Central Time, followed by talk and discussion. There will be an ASL interpreter; this group is committed to inclusivity. Having spent a year working within the Deaf community, I’m delighted to spend the morning with them.
July 19-21: Earth Apprentice Retreat. (fee, registration required)
August 16-18: Weekend sesshin. More information later.
Nov 30-December 8: Rohatsu sesshin, sitting in silence, honoring Buddha’s enlightenment. More information later.
June 19-23, “Practicing the Way in this very moment” Zen retreat at Hokyoji (SE Minnesota) https://hokyoji.org/event/practicing-the-way-in-this-very-moment-2/ registration required
September, wild rice gathering in northern Minnesota with Honor the Earth. More information later.
November 1-10, online class with Shohaku Okumura, ten days, 2 hours each day.
With love,
Shodo
For Mountains and Waters Alliance
Dear friends,
Forgive me for not writing more deeply. I’ve been distracted by the Middle East and the response in this country. Finally I have a way to participate: there is an encampment at a local college. I dropped in yesterday, and am invited to offer some support in the form of meditation instruction. This give joy: it’s the best I have to offer, and they want it.
Other reasons for being slow: My recovery from surgery is going well but far from complete.
Zen talk, “A Blazing Light: notes on Bendowa”, Saturday May 11, online at Heartland Zen Community. Bendowa is translated “wholehearted way” or “negotiating the way” or “on the endeavor of the way” – many expressions. It may be my favorite Zen writing.
Monday evening classes on Bendowa – through the end of May.
Zen classes return to Wednesday evenings in June.
May 18, 1-8:30 pm, Biochar workshop. Making biochar from start to finish in our home kiln.
May 17-19, July 19-21: Earth Apprentice Retreat. (fee, registration required)
We’re starting spring cleanup and garden projects. Volunteers are welcome. Specifically, Saturday afternoon volunteering, in the spirit of Earth apprenticeship, will start when weather and my body allow. Contact me to get on the email list for when we get started.
June 19-23, “Practicing the Way in this very moment” Zen retreat t Hokyoji (SE Minnesota) https://hokyoji.org/event/practicing-the-way-in-this-very-moment-2/ registration required
As weather is crazy, politics are frightening, and violence overseas is unthinkable, please do a few things:
Pray, or chant, or ask for help from the many living beings who make our world. We are not alone here. Even in this scary election year. Volunteer for candidates, issues, and situations that make sense to you.
I mentioned donations last month; you can look there.
With love,
Shodo
For Mountains and Waters Alliance
Dear Folks,
We have rescheduled the online Zen study group to Mondays. If this allows you to come, we’d love to have you.
The next class will start April 15 and continue through May 20. Register here, ask questions here.
Earth Apprentice Retreats are currently scheduled for April 20-21, May 17-19, and July 19-21. The April one is in doubt due to Shodo’s medical situation, but if this is when you can come, ask and we can see. May and July are still planned, as are sesshins in August, October, and December.
Thank you.
Dear all,
Here are a few notices as we head into spring. I’m still in recovery from shoulder surgery, keeping typing to a bare minimum. This takes us through June and begins July.
Sunday morning dharma talks online, March 24. April 7.
Wednesday evening classes, starting April 3 and May 1: Bendowa, or “The Wholehearted Way.” Please register.
April 6, daylong retreat at Midtown Atlanta Zen, no online. For more information email here. Topic: Zen practice in challenging times: We’ll talk about fear, hope, despair, and how to practice when the world seems to be falling apart.
April 20-21, May 17-19, July 19-21: Earth Apprentice Retreat. (donation requested, registration required)
We’re starting spring cleanup and garden projects. Volunteers are welcome. Specifically, Saturday afternoon volunteering, in the spirit of Earth apprenticeship, will start when weather and my body allow. Contact me to get on the email list for when we get started.
March 24 (11 Central Time, after my dharma talk): free showing of the short film, The Opening, and discussion, likely with the filmmaker.
March 26, 10:30 Central Time, presentation on the Congo to a climate discussion group, by David Albert. I know him, it will be good, and email me for the link, which I don’t have yet.
May 2-11, (2 hours every morning), Virtual dharma study intensive (9-11 Central Time, 10 days) online with Shohaku Okumura. Registration required.
June 19-23, “Practicing the Way in this very moment” Zen retreat at Hokyoji (SE Minnesota) – registration required
Please look at the annual schedule for further events.
Pray, or chant, or ask for help from the many living beings who make our world. We are not alone here. Even in this scary election year. Volunteer for candidates, issues, and situations that make sense to you.
If you have donations to give, please do.
I’ll mention https://bodhicitta-vihara.com/, which is literally changing the lives of girls and women in India, helping them from poverty and half-slavery to education and a workable life. Of course, sending money to https://www.unrwa.org/, the most reliable provider of food relief in this desperate situation. In the U.S., Censored News is an independent and honest news source for Red Nations news, surviving on donations for over 20 years.
I will stop here, skipping fine organizations in many tribal nations, states, and countries, because I don’t want to go on forever.
To support Mountains and Waters Alliance, I encourage you to sign up with iGive.com, but we also accept money. Everything is here: https://mountainsandwatersalliance.org/donate-support/.
Thanks for following. May your life be joyous and your heart peaceful.
With love,
Shodo
For Mountains and Waters Alliance
Dear Friends,
This is just a brief summary of coming events, with registration links. The schedule has been reduced slightly while Shodo is recovering from minor shoulder surgery. We expect a full retreat schedule summer and fall.
Focus is on Dogen’s Genjo Koan, “The matter at hand,” a succinct statement of the core teaching of Dogen’s Zen. Registration and more information here. Please register early, with or without payment. If you have questions, contact me.
The first three Wednesdays of each month are study group. We’re currently reading some key writings by Dogen. April and May will both focus on Bendowa, “the wholehearted way.”
3343 East Bde Maka Ska Parkway, Minneapolis. Sitting 9:10, Dharma talk 10 am
Also available on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87103057402?pwd=bnZQYlNJZWk1eHNmZjFvekNBUHlRQT09
If you would like to come and sit quietly together for part of the weekend, please contact me. I’ll be happy to have your company. At the farm, Faribault, MN.
Sunday morning, info here. No registration required.
This is a one-day retreat including a dharma talk, formal zen ceremonies, optional individual meetings, sitting and walking meditation. To register contact Daiki Barlow at https://www.midtownatlantazen.org/
9-11:30 am Eastern Time includes sitting, chanting, and talk. In person at 3315 Chamblee Dunwoody Rd, Chamblee, GA, or online – click for the link.
Dear Friends,
I’ve had to modify my schedule because of some medical issues requiring minor surgery. Here’s a reminder of offerings for the next couple of months.
In 2024 we’re doing a series of 3-week classes addressing core teachings. The next one begins this Wednesday, February 7, and focuses on the practice and meaning of zazen, or sitting meditation. It’s still possible to register and receive a copy of the text before we begin. Information here.
The March online class begins March 6, and focuses on core Zen teaching through the well-known Genjo Koan – “the matter at hand.”
April class begins April 3, on “Bendowa” or “The wholehearted way.”
The rest of the 2024 schedule is found here.
Friday, February 9: It’s still possible to attend the in-person talk in Duluth, Minnesota. Information here.
Sunday, March 10, 10 am: I’m giving a dharma talk at Minnesota Zen Center, both in person and online. Information and link here. Keep clicking until you find “Sunday talk” on March 10.
Sunday March 24 is an online dharma talk at Hokyoji (also in Minnesota, and part of my Zen history). Information and link here.
Sesshin – a silent weekend retreat – will be March 15-17, here at the farm in southern Minnesota. Registration is essential. (Also in August)
Earth Apprentice retreats – combining spiritual relation with land and in meditation – April 19-21, May 17-19, and also July. More information later, feel free to ask.
Other land-based activities (such as work days) will be clarified as my physical recovery progresses.
Then I offer this call for a ceasefire in Gaza, Israel, and the Middle East. It became impossible to say nothing, so here it is.
We call for
· immediate and lasting ceasefire in the Middle East.
· Immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas or in Israeli prisons, the term hostage including anyone held without charge or with only political charges;
· A negotiated settlement providing peace, security, human rights, and dignity for all inhabitants of the region known variously as Israel or Palestine, and moving to establish the same on a long-term basis;
· A Truth and Reconcilition Commission comparable to that of South Africa after apartheid, seeking restorative justice and building a path forward, while not excluding consequences for harmful actions;
· Reparations to individuals, families, and organizations that have lost people, health, home, livelihood in this region. Reparations for events occurring elsewhere (such as the Nazi holocaust) shall be sought from those who caused them.
And a note: the history is so long and the injustices so many that rather than trying to address them, I choose simply to point toward resolution.
Dear Friends,
Ending the fundraiser, grateful for support, I wondered what to say. I chose poetry.
It’s winter in 2024, here in North America. Cold and snowstorms are driving people indoors. Around the world storms, cyclones, typhoons, and all the rest are doing what they do in this time of climate change. Here at home, the storms skipped us but a few hours away people are snowed in, sometimes without power or heat. Bombs continue to fall in Gaza, in Ukraine, and in other places we don’t hear about so much. This is our life.
It brings to mind a simple poem by Dogen, founder of Soto Zen, my school of Buddhism.
All my life false and real, right and wrong tangled.
Playing with the moon, ridiculing wind, listening to birds.
Many years wasted seeing the mountain covered with snow.
This winter I suddenly realize snow makes a mountain.
For myself I will say,
All my life looking for the truth, trying to do good,
seeking to uncover the real world from under civilization’s gloss.
But the world is right here among us.
Nothing is hidden.
The paradox of trying and hoping to stop climate change, seeking causes and power to change them, while the world does what it does. Even if it shakes us off like fleas, cooks us or drowns or freezes us, still we are just here, embraced by it all. The only thing we can count on is that things will be as they will be. And our actions together with that framework create our lives, and create the whole. We do not turn away from our own pain, that of those close to us, and the enormous suffering of the world, including humans dying and ecosystems failing. Do not look away. Take it into your heart, and recognize it as your own life. Love it dearly, madly, beyond reason or hope. Do not judge right or wrong, only love.
It’s too long since I’ve written poetry, but as I say good-bye to this phase of our connection, it seems like the right thing to offer. The mountain is not covered with snow: the covering makes the mountain. Same for our lives in every detail.
I had not seen that for myself before.
The fundraiser succeeded beyond my dreams. Asking for $15,000, receiving $21,580 – I am still amazed. Also amazed at the power of connections. I made myself reach out to everyone who has ever helped me (as far as I could remember) to send my thanks to them, not to ask for more. There were some lovely reconnections, and more important was the growing awareness of how well and thoroughly supported I have been, for so long. That deep knowledge is worth more than any dollars.
Borne on that energy, I planned offerings – teachings and retreats and talks – for the coming year. The list always changes, so here it is now. Please notice there are several online talks in the next few weeks, plus an in-person talk and retreat in Duluth MN, an “intro to Zen” day-long retreat in February, and a new Wednesday night class beginning February 7.
As for the things on the fundraiser list, here’s a photo of the new meditation cushions.
Full disclosure on the winter photo: That was last January. Our snowstorm did not materialize yet.
With love,
Shodo Spring for Mountains and Waters Alliance
Dear sweet friends,
Celebrating that sweetness, I also celebrate all of you who were somehow drawn to support this dream, that we can ally ourselves with the others of this planet. We’ve passed the goal. Because of you, now I become paid staff of Mountains and Waters Alliance, and this work will have my first and best, most creative, completely joyful engagement.
2024 has a vigorous schedule of teaching, talks, retreats, and events, shown here.
Here is my gift for you today:
Love to all
Shodo Spring for Mountains and Waters Alliance
This is just a quick note about the upcoming study group, beginning January 3, Wednesday evening. If you would like to come, please do register so I can send the text. Do not be deterred by the suggested donation. Here’s where to register.
Topic is Eihei Koso Hotsugammon, Dogen’s vow, as encouragement in hard times.