Nettle Pesto – Recipe

By: Shodo

Comments: 0

Nettle Pesto – Recipe

  • ½ pound raw stinging nettles or wood nettles (about 5 cups)
  • 2-3 medium garlic cloves (or less)
  • 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts or walnuts
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • Salt
  • Pepper, finely grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Add nettles to salted boiling water for 1 minute. Drain immediately. (Save water for nettle tea.) Put greens in ice water to stop the cooking. Cool, strain and remove moisture completely (use a towel). Coarsely chop nettles. In a blender or food processor, blend with garlic cloves and pine nuts.

While pulsing, add olive oil, 1 tablespoon at a time. Season to taste with salt & pepper.

Option: Add grated Parmesan cheese and/or a touch of lemon juice at the end. Some day I’m going to make this with a mixture of nettles and basil! Or with garlic mustard.

Makes 1 generous cup.

15
Apr
Nettle Soup

By: Shodo

Comments: 0

Nettle Soups – Recipes

Nettles are known for being rich in minerals, tonic, builder of blood, bones, and connective tissue. Wood nettles taste much better than stinging nettles.

Handle raw nettles with tongs or leather gloves. Dried or slightly cooked, nettles are safe to touch. Before cooking, wash nettles until water comes away clear. Cover with cool water, remove with tongs or use sieve. Check to make sure water is clear.

Measuring nettles is a joke. You can cram them tightly into a space, or let them be loose. These recipes are organized around the packaging I’m using to sell them – half pound boxes.

Nettle Soup (Nässelsoppa)

The gourmet nettles, good with either wood nettles or stinging nettles. Found online, adapted slightly, seems to be a classic Swedish recipe.

Nettles, rich in vitamins, flavonoids, serotonin, and histamines, are a gift of Spring. Enjoy them in this delicately flavored soup.

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound fresh nettles (10-12 cups)
  • water to cover
  • 3 Tbsp. butter
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
  • 3 cloves finely chopped garlic
  • 1/4 cup chopped chives
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. white pepper
  • 1 tsp. dried thyme
  • 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
  • 2 cups light cream or half-and-half
  • 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped or cut into slices, for garnish (optional)
This is a Stinging Nettle
Stinging nettle

Method

Harvest, prepare, and wash about 10-12 cups of fresh nettle leaves, about one plastic grocery bag.

Use tongs or slotted spoon to carefully place washed nettle leaves in large saucepan, without touching them. Add water to cover, and bring to a low simmer. Blanch leaves for just a few minutes, until tender (Note: they’ll be safe to touch once blanched!) Place blanched nettles with one cup cooking water into food processor and chop finely (don’t puree them). Set aside the rest of the cooking water and use it in soups or drink as nettle tea.

Heat butter and flour together in saucepan over medium-high heat to make a light roux. Lower heat to medium, add chopped red onion, garlic, and chives, and sauté until onion is opaque. Whisk in stock, salt, white pepper, thyme, and nutmeg, stirring until roux is well-incorporated. Stir in processed nettle mixture, then gradually whisk in light cream or half-and-half. Heat until warmed through, about 10 minutes.

Pour into soup bowls, garnish with chopped or sliced hard-boiled eggs, and serve.

Yield: 4-6 servings.

Recipe: Simple Nettle Soup

Easy recipe for every day use. Many possible adaptations. Everyone who tried this liked it.

  • 1 pound nettles (about 10 cups)
  • 2 cups chopped onion (1 large onion)
  • 3 T olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 4 cups water
  • 1 cup nutritional yeast
  • 1 tsp salt

In large heavy pot, saute onions and garlic in oil. Add nettles and half of water; steam/boil until cooked. Blend. Add nutritional yeast, salt. Stir, taste, adjust seasonings.

Variations: Add celery, nutmeg, or other seasonings with onion. Add potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, or any cooked root vegetable along with nettles. Add cheese (any kind) at end, just long enough to melt. Omit nutritional yeast. Flavor with miso. Chop instead of blending. Add cream or yogurt. (Try nutmeg, potatoes, and cream!)

The arrogance of youth and health

By: Shodo

Comments: 0

April 14, 2018 pm: The arrogance of youth and health

I’m preparing to teach a class at the Northfield Buddhist Center. It’s an Introduction to Zen series, and this class is called “What’s it good for?” I actually didn’t know what I was going to say. I went looking in books. (Sure, the answer is there inside me. But it’s nice to have company, companions, and it’s nice to ask for help sometimes.)

First I found Sawaki Roshi (my Dharma great-grandfather) say  “transform your life from a half-baked, incomplete way to a genuine way.” And some more.

Then in Living by Vow, by my own teacher, I found a bookmark that took me to his story of when he was physically unable to sit zazen. in the way he had been doing for years. He says “My previous practice had been an attempt to satisfy a need for status and benefit. I wanted to live a better life than ordinary people.” Unable to do it because of his physical condition, he became perplexed and depressed. He was stuck. Then, one day, he sat down on a cushion for no reason. “I didn’t sit because of the Buddha’s teaching. I didn’t need a reason to sit; I just sat. … Finally I felt free of my understanding…free to be myself and nothing more.”

I’m still sitting with the arrogance of youth and health. Still living, acting, practicing in that way – wouldn’t have noticed it. I won’t say that he was fortunate to have a back injury in his 20’s, and I always think that I am fortunate to be vigorous and healthy in my 60’s. But the arrogance! May I soon be free of the arrogance of youth and health.

War, murder, and life

By: Shodo

Comments: 0

April 14, 2018: War, murder, and life

Maribel Barajas Cortes, 25, a Green Party candidate in Mexico, was murdered. Since last fall, 60 candidates in Mexico have been murdered.  https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mexico-Green-Party-Candidate-Becomes-Latest-Victim-of-Pre-elections-Killings-20180412-0020.html

The United States launched missiles at Syria yesterday, supposedly about the chemical weapons blamed on Syria’s president. Britain and France also sent weapons. Russia threatens to destroy the aircraft carrier from which the missiles were sent. People in the U.S. are organizing demonstrations: SpringAction2018.org

A poll on my facebook page asks “Which would you rather die of? Climate change or World War III?”

Republicans in Congress are retiring in large numbers. Maybe they hope not to be there for the impeachment vote. Unauthorized missile attacks is said to be an impeachable offense.
It’s mid-April, snow is coming down, and friends in Nebraska and South Dakota are in blizzards, some with power out. Climate change is really here. How many cities and countries now face water shortages? Floods? Hunger?

And the condition of the nation, of the world, of civilization is being exposed, even as the corruption of the current U.S. administration is being exposed.

Thich Nhat Hanh, via Maia Duerr:

In Vietnam, there are many people, called boat people, who leave the country in small boats. Often the boats are caught in rough seas or storms, the people may panic, and boats can sink. But if even one person aboard can remain calm, lucid, knowing what to do and what not to do, he or she can help the boat survive. His or her expression – face, voice – communicates clarity and calmness, and people have trust in that person. They will listen to what he or she says. One such person can save the lives of many.

Genjo Conway:

Hearing there are bombs in the air
I vow with all beings
To breathe them into my own body
And stop these madmen before it’s too late

There’s a temptation to cling as long as possible to the appearance of normalcy. But nothing is normal, unless lies, death, toxic food, rampant murder, extreme poverty with extreme wealth, and the destruction of the living world are what you call normal. I choose not to call them normal, but pathological. The veneer of civilization is coming undone. The brutality behind it already started appearing as refugees were refused everywhere, and with the violence at Standing Rock and in Gaza, and as the appearance of a safety net is destroyed in the U.S. – enough.

P.S. Study group entry – What do you love?

By: Shodo

activism climate change collapse cultural change

Comments: 2

I just wanted to invite you to look at the new writing. These will be about once a week, and will not have notifications except through the monthly newsletter (until we get the new website).

What do you love?

By: Shodo

Comments: 0

What do you love?

If you are reading here, you probably are aware of climate change, species extinction, long-term racism, and (to be brief) a disastrous political and economic situation.
I offer a poem by Andy Mahler, a friend and forest activist from southern Indiana.

Choose your metaphor

the fire
the storm
the tsunami
the shit hitting the fan
we have warned
and been warned
since at least the sixties
that if we did not find a more harmonious and peaceful way to live on this beautiful planet that this day would come
and now it is here
a clusterbundle of reasons for anger and fear
but that doesn’t mean we have to be angry or fearful
anger says do something
(hit somebody, hurt somebody, hate somebody)
fear says pay attention
(or run like hell)
anger and fear are the emotional equivalent of junk food
bacon fried coke
love is that strange paradox
where the more you give
the more you receive
you get it when you give it away
someone said to love your neighbor as yourself
said to love your enemy
said love the creator
love the creation
why are you here?
Did you ever wonder
why you are here?
Let me make it simple for you
what do you love?
Not as an abstraction or an ideal
What do you love enough to take action to defend it?
Know it
name it
own it
claim it
it is under immediate threat
by taking action to defend it, nurture it, grow it
you grow into the person you were meant to be
anger tempered by love becomes purpose
fear tempered by love becomes resolve
why are you here

Andy Mahler

Here is a mindfulness exercise for this week:

What do you love?

What do you love enough to defend it, to take action to defend it, to risk your life protecting and nourishing it?

Ask yourself this question at least once a day, and notice the answers. If you’re a person who journals, you can write down the answer each time.

There might be additional results of asking this question. You may want to spend more time with the beloved. You may want to tell them your love. You might find yourself contemplating what you see threatening them, what you wish to change, how you might take action.

All of this is fruitful. Trust that it will evolve and deepen as you go on.

You might want to give gentle attention to how it feels to ask this question and to answer it. To do that, come into a quiet and mindful state, away from distractions, and notice how your body feels. If you’ve ever done a body scan or guided relaxation, you can use those methods to help your awareness. Otherwise, let your attention move through your body – forehead, throat, shoulders, heart, belly, etc. – and just check for tension/relaxation, warm/cold, comfortable/not, and anything else. If you don’t like this part, just skip it.

Whatever you find can be private or shared.

If you would like to share something with the group here, please email it to me next weekend. I can share it here, or just respond to you, as you like. (When we have a better website you will be able to post directly.)

I’ll do the exercise along with you.

More:

It helps me to know who and how many people are here. Let me know, please.

Future study group offering will include small daily mindfulness exercises like this one, poems and other thoughts for your consideration, larger experiments, and recommended readings.

Suggested readings:

For people who are not familiar with Buddhism, look at this book online The Way of Liberation by Adyashanti – nonsectarian and succinct – for basic orientation.

For all: see if you can find a copy of this book: Kinship with All Life, by J. Allen Boone (1954!). This is a beginner’s primer for communicating with nonhuman animals. Those of us who grew up in civilization probably need something this simple. I got it through interlibrary loan. It might be hard to find.

Journal 2018-04-07 – Settler Privilege

By: Shodo

Comments: 0

Journal 2018-04-07

http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/decolonize/white-allies-lets-be-honest-about-decolonization

This note on what settler privilege means – yes, that includes me – and then some more good thoughts.

“Having settler privilege means that some combination of one’s economic security, U.S. citizenship, sense of relationship to the land, mental and physical health, cultural integrity, family values, career aspirations, and spiritual lives are not possible—literally!—without the territorial dispossession of Indigenous peoples.”

MWA April newsletter: A thousand true fans

By: Shodo

activism climate change collapse cultural change

Comments: 0

Mountains and Waters Alliance newsletter: April 7, 2018

The newsletter will include an essay, upcoming events, and major future events. I’d like to highlight two events: April 27-29 weekend in Columbus, and Land care retreat May 25-28.

Please see new thoughts at “Journal”, which includes ramblings, responses to things in the news, links, and miscellaneous – unedited.

“Study Group” will offer thoughts and support for living the conscious, engaged life as part of the family of life.

Neither will have notifications at this time. At the moment there are new writings in Journal.

A Thousand True Fans

This is an ask for money. It’s hard for me to do, but if I don’t ask you will never know.

The article was written for artists, who are famous for not having enough money. It proposed that rather than trying to make it big, an artist could survive with 1000 true fans – people who went to every concert or bought everything you produced. The idea was that such fans spend about one day’s income per year on your work. If that amount is $100, you have an excellent income.

My adaptation of it is like this: Instead of chasing foundation grants, which takes a lot of time and produces usually nothing, I’ve chosen to earn a living – which takes a lot of time and produces enough to live but not enough to move forward with the Alliance.

I’m inviting you to offer support to the Alliance, at whatever level would feel good to you. You can donate yearly, monthly, even daily. You can donate $5, $10, $100, $1000, any amount. Fees are small. There are over 200 subscribers to this blog; I don’t know many of you or even why you’re here. But if 20 people chose to donate one day’s income per year, and you averaged $36,500 income, I would have $2000, which would cover Internet fees, brochure printing, the accountant, and some more. If 200 people donated $20 per year, I would have $4000 and could actually move forward slowly. 200x$50 and I can go back to full time Alliance work – or we can pay our debts or something.

There are lots of other kinds of support (ask me, especially if you are good at internet stuff) but this is for people are short on time – perhaps for all those of you who send something every time I ask – would you consider making a commitment? Go here for more information or to make that donation. Here are some ways we would like to spend it:

  • Internet access, phone use, travel for meetings/teaching/study, printing brochures.

  • Growing food sustainably, restoring the land

  • Turning the farm into a gathering place; making it a place for residential practice

  • Repaying loans, beginning with the solar panel loan, then the loans from people, last loans from me.

So that’s it. I’m asking you for financial help if it works for you. The energy is growing, and I’m doing my best to give it what space I can.

Meanwhile at the farm – we have maple syrup and box elder syrup (this is less time-extravagant if we cook it inside on the propane stove; we are making vinegar from apples, pears, strawberries, pineapples, and pretty much anything that comes by, and drinking it for health and taste. “We” means me and T.R., a friend who is staying for several months. A different “we” is me and Perry, doing nursery plant stuff because he knows how to grow and also to sell. We’ll have more plants and hopefully some income. I’m trying to save my time for the deeper spiritual work, but the land tempts. We’re below freezing and snow-covered at the moment. Like lots of places. Climate change!

I hope you are all well.

Love,

Shodo

APRIL:

  • April 15 MWA potluck day including work 2-4, ritual 5-6, potluck supper and gathering

  • April 21 FARM 12-3 grafting workshop with Sarah Claasen, registration required, fee, two spots left.

  • April 21 FARM all day work day (might go to Earth Day celebrations late afternoon, might keep grafting until dark)

  • April 18 ZEN 6:10 Intro to Zen “What’s it good for?” – Northfield Buddhist Meditation Center.

  • 27-29 ZEN and MWA – Shodo is teaching in Columbus, OH. Friday evening workshop, Saturday morning sitting and discussion, Sunday all-day sitting with 2 pm talk. For more information contact Don Brewer.

MAY:

  • May 2 ZEN no gathering

  • May 1-5: studying with my teacher in Bloomington, Indiana.

  • May 16 ZEN 6:10 Intro to Zen – “Spiritual community” – Northfield Buddhist Meditation Center.

  • May 18 FARM all day work day

  • May 19 MWA potluck day including work 2-4, ritual 5-6, potluck supper and gathering

  • May 25-28 MWA Land Care Retreat – includes meditation, work as practice, dharma talks and discussions, community building.

2018:

Silent retreats are held almost monthly. If you would like to come to one of these, please contact Shodo directly. An Intro to Zen retreat will be arranged when there are a few requests.

  • Midsummer: I will be traveling to Colorado and could arrange to be available in Colorado, northern New Mexico, and points along the way from Minnesota.

  • Late September: I will be in upstate New York and could arrange to be available.

  • October 26-28: Land care retreat – same as May

  • For Zen and farm events, see here.

Journal 2018-04-06 – Nobody owns the land

By: Shodo

Comments: 0

Journal 2018-04-06

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbCar3aGadc&feature=youtu.be John Trudell on European tribes and what happened

How to forgive myself and my ancestors for becoming the colonizers – because we were the colonized. He describes how captured people first submitted their bodies, then submitted their minds and beliefs – and then all is lost.

http://mondoweiss.net/2018/04/israel-just-american/#sthash.F2e6PJXM.gbpl

American Jews are harshly criticizing Israel. Finally.

“Right to exist” is questioned. Well it should be. One nomadic pastoral people, Jews, millennia ago, decided to settle down on land occupied by another pastoral people, Palestinians whatever they called them then. I believe God told them to do it. They claimed ownership of the land.

Nobody owns the land.

This is the first and fundamental mistake.

Like Europeans entering the Americas, claiming it because the inhabitants knew better than to objectify and “own” it – it’s not exactly the same but worth mentioning. The Doctrine of Discovery is closer – Christians have the right to kill and dispossess everybody else… Jews, the Chosen People, have that right.

Like Europeans enclosing the commons, so a person could not live off the land as they had done for generations, – but here it’s by race, not only by class.

May this awakening continue. May American Jews remember what Judaism really means, and may they remember that we are wanderers on the face of the earth.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/04/04/news/transcanada-shuts-down-keystone-after-oil-seeps-surface

And the Keystone pipeline refuses to behave properly. I thought, “Is it possible that the earth herself is rising up?”

https://returntonow.net/2018/02/28/trees-talk/

Trees talk to each other and support each other. Forester Suzanne Simard. I look forward to the day she gets the Nobel Prize, because she already deserves it. EVERYONE IS A SENTIENT BEING!

https://www.gq.com/story/patagonia-trump-lawsuit

Patagonia is suing the Trump administration for undoing monument protection for several lands. There has never been a legal case on this before. I was just encouraged. And I’ll look into buying from Patagonia, the next time I actually buy new stuff.

Journal 2018-04-05 – the very source of the universe

By: Shodo

Comments: 0

Journal 2018-04-05

This morning, chanting the Dai Hi Shin Dharani, I brought my mind back from wandering to give full attention to what I was doing. Making sounds that are meant to produce magical effects, which translate to words praising Avalokiteshvara, the great being of compassion.

Suddenly it became real. With full attention, it became clear that my chanting was addressing the very source of the universe, the locus of all causes and conditions. Suddenly I was certain that there is nothing else I need to do. I can’t tell you what that means, I need to find out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq3wGkTqGjs

LINKS

Happening now in climate change:

https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/1/freakishly_warm_arctic_weather_has_scientists

Land care, agriculture, sentient earth, and the like.

Action – environment

Here are some groups – and approaches – that I think are effective.

  • Community Rights organizing – the explanation is right there on the website. http://communityrights.us/
  • Indigenous environmental action – Standing Rock, Honor the Earth, and others. Complicated because the communities are so challenged, but the vision of a whole culture, spirituality included, defending itself against colonization and genocide – it’s inspiring. I think Standing Rock changed the nation. (My European ancestors were colonized 1000 years before the North American peoples; we’ve forgotten too much about how to live.)
  • Climate Disobedience Center has my respect. Tim deChristopher is the most famous of them. They actually do material things to interrupt environmental destruction – like turning valves on pipelines. Mostly, I think they’re committed and serious; I respect them greatly. http://www.climatedisobedience.org/
  • Science and Environmental Health Network, and Women’s Congress for Future Generations – I’m watching them closely and participating a little. http://sehn.org/
  • Our Children’s Trust – suing the government on behalf of their own future. https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/
  • And of course this work, Mountains and Waters Alliance. Change culture, change consciousness, AND work together with the other conscious beings of the planet.

Those are all environmental groups. I’ve chosen to focus on climate change even though I don’t ignore the rest. I always choose to work with the cause.

Spirituality

How to Live (including anthropology, archaeology, fiction, and whatnot)

Ancient communities combined farming with wild food gathering https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/lets-go-wild-how-ancient-communities-resisted-new-farming-practices
David Abram – Alliance for Wild Ethics

Books:

  • “Against the Grain – A deep History of the Earliest States”
  • Sarahasia – Attempts to explain the origins of human violence. I was not pleased with their assumption that we all share the opinion that Muslims are particularly violent. Still interested.
  • Leonard Schlain – The Alphabet Versus the Goddess – neuroscientist looks at how writing contributes to human violence, including historical coincidences and discussion of brain function.
  • ‘Hills, Valleys, and States: An Introduction to Zomia’ – James C. Scott – with an excerpt here: https://www.facebook.com/decivilized/photos/a.689511507806772.1073741830.413697738721485/1594985267259387/?type=3&theater&ifg=1
  • http://peakmoment.tv/:  Locally Reliant Living for Challenging Times:
  • A half-hour online TV series exploring things people are actually doing for more resilient communities.
  • https://www.facebook.com/decivilized/photos/a.689511507806772.1073741830.413697738721485/1594985267259387/?type=3&theater&ifg=1
  • https://www.facebook.com/decivilized/photos/a.689511507806772.1073741830.413697738721485/1594985267259387/?type=3&theater&ifg=1
  • https://www.facebook.com/decivilized/photos/a.689511507806772.1073741830.413697738721485/1594985267259387/?type=3&theater&ifg=1
Mountains and Waters Alliance newsletter: March 12, 2018

By: Shodo

activism climate change cultural change

Comments: 1

We’ll begin with a few event announcements, then continue with guidance – this time, an introductory essay.

Events

Retreats in Minnesota:

May 25-28: Land care retreat – includes meditation, work as practice, dharma talks and discussions, community building.

October 26-28: Land care retreat.

To be determined: Intro to Zen retreat – a full day at the farm, or a half day in Northfield.

Silent retreats are on the calendar, not shown here.

Travel & Teaching:

April 27-29: Teaching in Columbus, Ohio.

Midsummer: I will be traveling to Colorado and could arrange to be available in Colorado, northern New Mexico, and points along the way from Minnesota.

Late September: I will be in upstate New York and could arrange to be available.

For farm events including workshops, volunteer days, and potlucks, please see the calendar.

For local Zen teaching schedule, please see the same calendar.

Guidance

We’ll begin with a few words on what Buddhist practice means, as a foundation for more later.

For me, Buddhist practice is about living as part of the earth, fully sustained and embraced in joy.

Usually we think of Buddhism as a philosophy – intellectual, disembodied – or a religion. “Religion” might actually fit, if we understand it correctly. It’s based on Latin words meaning “respect for the sacred” or “reconnecting with the gods,” and until the 1500’s religion was not separate from secular life – even in Europe.

Buddhism calls us back to the ancient or indigenous way of relating to the world and to the sacred. It asks us to let go of these ways of life and thought that have been trained into us from birth: humans as special, nature as resource, greed and hate as normal. In Buddhism, greed, hate, and the sense of separation are called the Three Poisons. They’re not natural at all, but it’s difficult to become free of them because of long training and the incessant harping of industrial civilization.

The way Life actually works is that each one of us is created by everything around us, past and present, and we in turn give life to everything else, present and future. We are a speck on the wave of Life, never lonely while in a way profoundly alone.

Knowing this is freedom. We can drop our burdens, whether those burdens are saving the planet or making a successful career. Life takes care of itself. Our job as individuals is to respond to the movement of Life in and around us. This requires dropping ingrained beliefs, which is why Buddhist practice can be arduous: before we can respond to Life we must be able to see/hear/feel it. Fortunately, even a glimpse is enlivening and energizing, and glimpses are common.

This way is joyful. Its hope is not the hope that something will change, but hope that embraces things as they are, joins with them enthusiastically, and responds in kind, with gratitude, creating resiliency without expectation.

This way is open to anyone who wants it.

Buddhism and Life

By: Shodo

Comments: 0

Buddhism and Life

For me, Buddhist practice is about living as part of the earth, fully sustained and embraced in joy.

Usually we think of Buddhism as a philosophy – intellectual, disembodied – or a religion. “Religion” might actually fit, if we understand it correctly. It’s based on Latin words meaning “respect for the sacred” or “reconnecting with the gods,” and until the 1500’s religion was not separate from secular life – even in Europe.

Buddhism calls us back to the ancient or indigenous way of relating to the world and to the sacred. It asks us to let go of these ways of life and thought that have been trained into us from birth: humans as special, nature as resource, greed and hate as normal. In Buddhism, greed, hate, and the sense of separation are called the Three Poisons. They’re not natural at all, but it’s difficult to become free of them because of long training and the incessant harping of industrial civilization.

The way Life actually works is that each one of us is created by everything around us, past and present, and we in turn give life to everything else, present and future. We are a speck on the wave of Life, never lonely while in a way profoundly alone.

Knowing this is freedom. We can drop our burdens, whether those burdens are saving the planet or making a successful career. Life takes care of itself. Our job as individuals is to respond to the movement of Life in and around us. This requires dropping ingrained beliefs, which is why Buddhist practice can be arduous: before we can respond to Life we must be able to see/hear/feel it. Fortunately, even a glimpse is enlivening and energizing, and glimpses are common.

This way is joyful. Its hope is not the hope that something will change, but hope that embraces things as they are, joins with them enthusiastically, and responds in kind, with gratitude, creating resiliency without expectation.

This way is open to anyone who wants it.

Mountains and Waters Alliance – commentary and our news

By: Shodo

activism climate change collapse cultural change wetiko

Comments: 1

We live in difficult times. Words fail. 2018 has seen seven significant school shootings in 55 days. For the moment, I am chanting on behalf of Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, Cameron Kasky, Jaclyn Corin, Alfonso Calderon, Sara Chadwick, founders of the Never Again movement. If you pray in any way, I invite you to join me in supporting these young leaders as they call us to take our children’s lives seriously.
We need to look deeply into the nature of our society. Why are we the only country on earth with this problem of mass shootings including children? It has something to do with our attitude toward guns, yet there’s more: 50 or 150 years ago guns were ordinary and mass shootings were unthinkable.
I’m looking at two long essays that describe how we got here. The first is a 2001 interview with Martin Prechtel, offering a completely different way of relating to the world. The second is notes on the concept of wetiko, described in Jack Forbes’ Columbus and Other Cannibals, and elaborated though not named in Kirkpatrick Sale’s The Conquest of Paradise. Both point to a profound dysfunction in society, and Prechtel makes it clear how this leads to destroying our own selves.

My question, and the business of the Alliance, is how we change this in ourselves and in the broader culture. For our own survival, it needs to change. I’m not yet ready to write, but will. Meanwhile, praying for the leaders, and doing my best to carry out the work that has called me, which faces and addresses the nature of our shared mind. Yes, it’s about climate change. It’s also about who we are.

Looking for those who are called to this same work

Everything I want to say is on this website page. Very briefly, if you feel like this work is your work, join this community for support in action, by becoming a member. If you would like to offer financial support there’s a discussion at the bottom of the page, and a link for single or repeat donations of any size. 
We’re quitting email lists in favor of blog posts. If you’re not already signed up, please go to the lower right corner of the page and “follow.” (If you can’t find it, email me and I’ll set you up.)
The blog will be more active, probably weekly. It will include events, essays, and teaching – guidance in ways to participate in this work. I’m gradually adding more information in other pages, and will announce when a new page is ready. Hoping to create a sort of library.

The 2018 schedule of events is coming soon, including farm retreats, Zen sesshins, potlucks and workdays – if you’re in the area, I hope you’ll come. If you’d like to spend time at the farm, please contact me. (A few items: next potluck is Sunday March 19, honoring the spring equinox; Intro to Zen class in Northfield, third Wednesdays at 6:10 pm through June; orchard grafting workshop Saturday morning April 14.)
And personal notes: we’re having winter storms, my car is snowed in, the house is comfortable, a second resident is in a try-out period, and my psychotherapy practice is going well.
Warmly and with thanks,
Shodo

Year-end letter from Mountains and Waters Alliance

By: Shodo

Comments: 2

Yesterday morning I was moved to offer prayers for calming the wildfires. What took me so long, I don’t know. My attention was on California and South Dakota, but I tried to include everywhere – and today learned about the New Mexico blaze. And I kept thinking of “the fires of war” raging alongside of physical fires. Seeing too many pictures from Gaza. So this morning I offered prayers for “peace with dignity for all.”
What do I mean by prayer? Well, nearly every morning I sit in meditation and follow it with chanting; the chanting is dedicated for the benefit of all beings and a whole list of specifics. I’ve written about that before. After that, I do an energy healing practice adapted from David Lasocki’s work:
Mentally invoke a powerful healing vortex. Strengthen and heal myself, then name a topic. What I did today was this:
Wrote: “Peace with dignity for all.” Underlined it and made a big circle. In the circle wrote supporting factors, as they were given to me. This was the list:

  • Zen ancestors and all deities (my religion and others)
  • Mountains and Waters Alliance members, and the entire earth
  • the entire human species
  • all sentient beings (includes animals, plants, and I don’t know)
  • all place spirits in the world (Many religions, including Zen, acknowledge local place spirits)
  • dispelling the demons of fear and hate
  • calming greed for power, possessions, and fame
  • Jesus and love (Who better expresses love?)

Then, mentally, I strengthened each one on the list, and their relationships with each other in twos, threes, and so forth. Continued until intuition said finished.
I started writing this letter at the full moon of December, 2017. The moon was brilliant. Since then, sun and moon together have been sliding gently toward the dark. Except for the quietness, it feels like a match for the state of the world: colder, harder, as the actions of “our” government instigate fear and disgust while relentlessly removing human rights and waging war on the natural world including many humans. I’m personally privileged and not much a target in this war, yet. Still, a part of me thinks my primary safety is in the land, the orchard, and the seeds – and in people. Not in laws, elections, governments, and the like, though I dare not ignore them. None of which means I assume I will survive when/if things get hard.
Daniel Quinn, in Ishmael, wrote about two kinds of peoples. One knows the difference between good and evil. The other lives in the hands of the gods. I wish to be one of the latter, but am not. I recall Einstein’s question: “Is the world a friendly place, or not?” My childhood answer was “the natural world yes, humans not” is still strong in me, even in my rational adult mind.
Yes, there have been terrible natural disasters this year, and many we haven’t even noticed. Puerto Rico is still too much without safe water and electricity, and damages to nearby islands are invisible to us in the U.S. Mudslides, floods, earthquakes, droughts, starvation, refugees – only the human response is visible. The last round of wildfires started after I first wrote, and they’re getting attention. Meanwhile the Oval Office provides a circus complete with death-defying acts, while Congress quietly removes civil rights and transfers money from poor to rich. It doesn’t look good.
Except for points of light here and there, acts of kindness, bursts of creativity. And except for a growing resistance to imperialism, to colonization, to oligarchy, to empire – most recently in the #metoo upwelling, but also Black Lives Matter, the indigenous-led pipeline resistance, and more. Here and there court decisions favor people and land: An Oregon judge allowed Our Children’s Trust to sue the federal government for their “constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property” about environmental harm. https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/us/federal-lawsuit/; a Minnesota court allowed the “necessity defense” for some peaceful water protectors https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/10/17/victory-valve-turners-judge-allows-necessity-defense-climate-trial; finally a court sentenced a police officer to prison for shooting an unarmed black man in the back during a routine traffic stop. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/us/south-carolina-officer-is-charged-with-murder-in-black-mans-death.html
More people are speaking in defense of the future, and a little support is showing in low and middle levels of government. There are elections next year and some dream of change. The future is not set.

Mountains and Waters Alliance in 2017
Here at Mountains and Waters Alliance, at Mountains and Waters Farm, we’re seeking to face this situation wholeheartedly and fearlessly. Our premise is that humans are not the only conscious beings, nor are we the only power. We are not alone in our wish to protect the living earth, in our intention to clean up our mess, our will for life to flourish. But as the ones who have done the damage, we need to abandon the colonial mindset and join with the other beings of the earth.
Our will is to listen to those other beings, to become their allies, and together to protect all of us. The whole thing began for me in 2015 when I walked the hillside here asking earth, trees, shrubs, and waters to protect this place from development – and felt their response. In 2016 flowers, trees, and mountains spoke to me during a retreat, and they have not stopped. In summer 2017 an ancient carving on an old hill said to me, “We’ve got it covered. We don’t need your help.” It turned my world upside down. I went home to lie in bed sick for a month, wondering what was left for me, this person, and all of us, to do.


The answer, of course, has not changed, though my identity as a change-maker has to go. My role now is to be part of that “we’ve got it covered” – neither to rest nor to take center stage, but to carry the task allotted me, which seems to be to keep talking and listening with beings of the earth, and to encourage other humans to join me. The morning “prayers” are the steady action, and the meditation is essential both as action and as sustenance.
(Meditation as action? In meditation, we withdraw attention from the workings of the world, and let everything rest. This is an action – call it a strike if you want. I withdraw energy from the workings of greed, anger, and ignorance, stop imagining that I’m a separate being, and allow the movement of the universe to go forward. Others have very different parts – from active resistance to running for office to growing food, caring for children, everything imaginable.)
Other events have shaken my identities as well. At the Sakyadhita (Daughters of Buddha) conference in Hong Kong (a major decision to travel so far; many of you helped that happen) I discovered how far my American Zen priest life is from the life of most Buddhist nuns, my commitment much less tangible than theirs, the freedom and joy equal. I received donations from lay people for no reason than being a nun – an amazing and moving thing every time. The world of Buddhism is amazing; I had a one week immersion, then went to the mountains and then returned to American culture.
A very important new thing is the monthly meetings of the Advisory Council. Five amazing wise and powerful people offer support, challenge me to stay focused, help with decisions – and edit my writing, remind me of the purpose, and let me know that this matters. They give me the confidence to move forward.
This year has been very much about personally slowing down, learning to actually take this work seriously and not jump at every other service opportunity. To believe my own vision, which fits neither mainstream politics nor frontline resistance, is a challenge. This work is quiet. It is intimate. And it is deeply connected with all the others. I feel special affinity for indigenous protection groups, for Climate Disobedience Group, and for the Women’s Congress for Future Generations. Every time an invitation comes up, at least daily, I have to ask myself whether to participate, and how. In 2017 I testified at pipeline hearings in Minnesota, but did not go to the resistance camp http://peaceatstandingrock.com/camp-makwa/. I went to the Women’s Congress and decided to participate in a small way, http://sehn.org/guardianship-of-future-generations/. I wrote about this work in an anthology by Soto Zen women priests, and have more writing and speaking to do.
I continue to teach Zen in Northfield, http://northfieldmeditation.org/upcoming-events-2/, but little else in this quiet year. Some visitors, some conversations with possible residents, taking up part time employment (https://www.therapy-mn.com/team-member/shodo-spring/), and taking care of the land. Learning patience, I remind myself of the Zen ancients who went to the mountains and decades later the students appeared. More patience please!
Last but central: in addition to daily sitting, chanting, and sending healing energy, I’m trying to go out on the land, to listen, to care, to be in relationship with it. The warm fall was a blessing, allowing me to be easily outside long after snow would usually come. We kept having one more warm day exactly when we had a group coming to work outdoors. And now it’s snowy and cold.
The Farm

Living on this land continues to be a miracle. I look for people who will make it theirs as well, put their dreams into it as mine are. In spring Perry and Amanda showed up, planted some things, found mushrooms, disappeared to earn money, and came back in the fall. In fall, anticipating an income, I hired Ryan for farm work, and quickly came to appreciate his intuitive permaculture understanding. So we mended the driveway culvert, protecting it from the next floods, using only what we had on hand (and shovels and a chain saw). He’s growing mushrooms here, will be back in the spring. Nick and Chris came around and left, local young volunteers, and a couple of groups of college students came for projects. We took on the outrageous project of building a deer fence for the orchard, using stakes, rebar, and T-posts (see pictures). The hard part is done.
And because while walking on the hill I got a strong urge to build a meditation hut up there, I invented a monthly potluck gathering with 2 hours of work dedicated to that, or to other spiritual, joyful non-emergency projects.

Reaching Out/Looking Forward
There are two directions. One is deepening, the other broadening. So while I continue to do my own spiritual work for the sake of the whole, there’s also an invitation outward. Early next year we’ll be offering membership in Mountains and Waters Alliance. Let me start now with a brief overview.

  • The core of membership is about being active in this alliance of many beings, and connected with each other. As we work this out, I’ll offer some suggestions for solo or group awareness practices, and will be available for support as you explore what this means for you. That exploration could happen here at the farm, or wherever you are. For those able to come here, there are retreats and short or long term residence is also possible.
  • There’s also volunteer help of many kinds – from farm work to Internet help to food prep, audio editing to construction work to volunteer coordination – your skills are welcome, or simply your energy and willingness.

Donations: Things require money. Right now, Mountains and Waters Alliance is a guest at Shodo’s home. It pays for Internet, paid the bulk of the solar panels, and not much else unless there’s travel to do for teaching or learning. To be more active will involve more money.

  • If you would like to make a year-end donation, please do so here. 
 And what can we offer in appreciation? The most important thing is to be a part of this work for the benefit of all beings. Some additional things would include being part of creating the farm as a sanctuary for many, a residence for some; making this your spiritual home; - creating a counterpart wherever you are, in community together. Last, we can create an online community where we encourage each other, foster creativity, share ideas, possibly have world-linking ceremonies and events, and relate to other communities of similar heart.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this work in the past – the Sakyadhita trip, the solar panels, and everyone who just sent or handed a check without even being asked. This inspires. As it inspires to have partners, allies in the work, mentors, supporters of all kinds.
Closing
May you be at ease, joyful and at peace.
May you be safe physically and mentally.
May you be protected from natural disaster, war, epidemic, and hunger. May you have work that gives meaning. May you love and be loved. May you be unafraid.
May you find yourself completely at home in this world, with our great and wide family of conscious beings.
With deep respect and love,
Shodo Spring

Farm news

By: Shodo

Vairochana Farm

Comments: 0

It’s mid-summer. We started strong, selling extra strawberry plants and a few raspberry starts, planting a garden, putting in some mushroom patches. John Hatch brought a barrel of biochar and a pint of wood vinegar, with instructions, and I used some of each. I set up a watering system, to water plants every day, and John came out and watered them and the house plants. Perry Post, who has dreams for this land, did a lot of work on the things mentioned above, then got busy at home. I went away to the conference – in midsummer: what kind of farmer does that? When I came back the critters had eaten most of the plants I’d started near the house, and reed canary grass was stronger than anything.
Fast forward: some watering, some weeding. Few tomatoes (too close to the box elder, maybe?), many black raspberries, and some red and yellow ones. The strawberries are starting their second round. There are more vegetables near the house than I thought. I’m trimming back the raspberries. AND…..
DEER FENCE TIME. Of all the essential things to do, I picked the deer fence because the deer really like to eat our

the prototype

little trees. Copying the one built by Peter and Keith, my permaculture teachers. I spent an afternoon with Nick, experimenting and planning. Then two days with students from the Heart of the Heartland program – they spent six weeks learning about small farms, having workshops and working on farms. They’re in the photo, and they were really a lot of fun. (On the rainy day they also cleaned my barn/garage, which desperately needed it.
DEER FENCE SATURDAY AUGUST 5. We have a half day, 1-5, to continue building the deer fence. It would be really wonderful to finish it – many hands and all that.

If you have questions, call me at 507-384-8541 or email me at shodo.spring@gmail.com. If you know you want to come, just tell me – the same way, or by signing up on the Facebook event page.

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