Happy New Year

Dear sweet friends,

It’s the turning of the year. This past year has contained everything.

• Horrific attacks in Israel/Palestine/Gaza, and disagreements turned into hate. Chaos and uncertainty in the United States about our future government. Climate disasters and more covid.
• But also a long string of court wins for environment, climate, and humanity. More and more of us are finding our place as younger siblings in the family of life. More are taking care of the plants and beings where we live, and ever-more are saying no to the powers of greed and destruction.

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:

Loving-Kindness Meditation

May you be happy.

May you be joyous and live in safety.

May you be well in body and mind.

May you have enough food, clean water, fresh air to breathe.

May you live in loving family and warm community.

May you know the work of your life,

and may you do that work with others and with joy.

Whatever you plant, in the soil or in life, may you see it sprout, flower, and fruit.

May you love yourself just as you are,

allow the world to grow you to fullness,

and know the deep embrace of the sacred.

Love to all

Shodo Spring for Mountains and Waters Alliance

Mountains and Waters Alliance – quick note on upcoming class

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.

Mountains and Waters Alliance – calendar for 2024

Dear Folks,

You never know when evening sun will light up the sky. It happened tonight, and I offer it to you.

Here’s a calendar for next year’s events. It’s an outline, still subject to change, but pretty close. There’s a link for the January 3 class, because I hope people will sign up for it right now.

A note about fees and donations:

For the first time we’re suggesting fees. Donations were always welcome, yet mostly I earned my living as a psychotherapist, subsidizing the MWA work while leaving little time for preparation, study, and retreat. There are two things:

• First, a rigorous series of short classes in Zen, beginning with some key teachings by founder Dogen. Long ago, I would spend 6 hours preparing for one class. In order to do that again, I am cutting my outside work time.
• Second, I’ve become clear about a vehicle for Mountains and Waters Alliance. It is called Earth Apprentice Training, and will involve both weekend retreats and a series of Saturday afternoons on the land. I’ll write about it later. But it requires study time for myself, reaching out to co-teachers, and inviting people. Most co-teachers will have travel costs. In order to do this for the first time, I am cutting my outside work time. The success of the fundraiser allows a beginning.

For each event, then, there will be a scale of fees: the highest will cover all costs plus support for those who need scholarships. The second will cover costs, including teacher time, prep time, and travel, space use including rental, zoom, utilities, and food. The third is your own choice of fee, down to zero. Each event posting will have the suggested fee structure.

2024 calendar

Daily:

• 6-7 am zazen – without internet, just sitting together in the company of all beings

Weekly:

• Wednesday evenings Zen classes online. Register for individual classes at website.
• Most Saturday afternoons 1-5: Workdays in the spirit of Earth Apprenticeship. Register by phone or email. In warmer weather, but you never know.

January:

• 3, 10, 17: Zen class on Eihei Koso Hotsuganmon, Dogen’s vow as inspiration for our lives.
• 6: dharma talk, Treeleaf Zendo (online only)
• 12-14: closed for personal retreat
• 21: dharma talk, Hokyoji (online only)

February

• 7, 14, 21: online Zen class, Fukanzazengi (a zazen workshop)
• 9-10: evening talk and 1-day sesshin in Duluth, MN with Bluestone Zen Community
• 24: intro to Zen one-day retreat
• 25: optional continuation of intro retreat, with short work practice tapping maple trees

March:

• 7, 14, 21: online Zen class, Genjo Koan (“the matter at hand”) – the whole teaching, in short
• 10: dharma talk at Minnesota Zen Center, in person and online
• 15-17: sesshin (“to settle the mind”) – long quiet time for calming down in stillness
• 24: dharma talk, Hokyoji
• March 29-April 7: Visit to Atlanta, GA

April:

• 6: daylong retreat at Midtown Atlanta Zen
• 7: dharma talk at Red Clay Sangha, in Atlanta
• 3, 10, 17: online Zen class, Bendowa I (wholehearted way) – how to live completely
• 20-21: Earth Apprentice retreat (formerly Land Care)
• 27: Earth Day – community event in Northfield, MN

May:

• 2-11: Shodo attends Genzo-e (daily online classes with Okumura Roshi. Register at Sanshinji.org.)
• 1, 8, 15: online Zen class, Bendowa II (more of the same)
• May 17-19: Earth Apprentice retreat

June:

• 5, 12, 19: online Zen class, Tenzo Kyokun (instructions for the cook), in daily life
• June 21-23: sesshin (“to settle the mind”) – long quiet time for calming down in stillness

July:

• 3, 10, 17: online Zen class (TBD)
• July 19-21: Earth Apprentice retreat

August:

• 7, 14, 21: online Zen class (TBD)
• August 16-18: sesshin (“to settle the mind”) – long quiet time for calming down in stillness

September:

• 4, 11, 18: online Zen class (TBD)
• 14-15: probable wild ricing with Honor the Earth, northern Minnesota
• 21: International Day of Peace – community event in Northfield MN
• 23-26: SZBA – Shodo will attend and present at the Soto Zen Buddhist Association conference.

October:

• 2, 9, 16: online Zen class (TBD)
• October 18-20: sesshin (“to settle the mind”) – long quiet time for calming down in stillness

November:

• 6, 13, 20: online Zen class (TBD)
• (dates TBD) Shodo will attend online Genzo-e, as in May

December:

• 1-8: Rohatsu sesshin, traditional 7 days of silent meditation commemorating Buddha’s enlightenment.
• To be arranged: Dharma talks, retreats, and other events are scheduled from time to time by request. Private interviews can be arranged.

Remember this, as you undoubtedly do:

Let’s call it sadness in Gaza and Israel; and death. Call it controversy, anger and cold hate here in America. It feels to me like the world is breaking apart, and it’s happening most violently in the place many of us call the Holy Land.

If you support a ceasefire, please contact your elected officials about it. If you want to help suffering people in more direct ways, donate to an organization you trust. Perhaps Doctors Without Borders, but there are many good organizations bringing direct help now.

I’ve been chanting for everyone there: the innocent victims, and also for healing the hearts of all those committing evil.

These words are from the Metta Sutta: I offer them for your contemplation or prayer:

May all beings be happy.

May they be joyous and live in safety,

All living beings, whether weak or strong,

In high or middle or low realms of existence.

Small or great, visible or invisible,

Near or far, born or to be born,

May all beings be happy.

Let no one deceive another nor despise any being in any state.

Let none by anger or hatred wish harm to another.

Even as a mother at the risk of her life

Watches over and protects her only child,

So with a boundless mind should one cherish all living things.

Suffusing love over the entire world,

Above, below, and all around, without limit,

So let one cultivate an infinite good will toward the whole world.

Standing or walking, sitting or lying down,

During all one’s waking hours,

Let one practice the way with gratitude.

May you be happy, and at peace. And may you have the peace that comes with doing good.

With love,

Shodo

for Mountains and Waters Alliance

Mountains and Waters Alliance 12/16/23 – Celebration

Dear Friends,

I write to let you know that we’ve reached our fundraising goal. Thank you to those who have helped, or shared. It’s still possible to donate; I’m leaving it open into early January, as I finish notes to donors and share them to you.

This is a great shift in the energy of our work. During 2024, MWA will be my primary occupation: four days a week, including caring for relationships, working with other organizations, preparing thoroughly for classes, dharma talks, and retreats, and (finally) I’ll take care of administration, including keeping track of people, preparing an invited grant application, and the rest. I will take time for the rest and restoration essential to both teaching and leading. I’ll gradually wind down my other work to under two days a week, then less if all goes well.

Expect to get a post about 2024 plans, a year-end report, and a discussion of Earth Apprentice Training – in the next few weeks.

Offering

Last, here is an offering that I shared with the fundraising donors. It’s the meditation tonglen, used in Tibetan Buddhism for practicing with difficulties.

Find a quiet place where you can be undisturbed for a while. Sit comfortably erect, eyes closed or half-open. Settle into your breathing, allowing the nourishment of breath, body, and your surroundings. Notice your heart, imagining it as a radiant pure light, even though it may be clouded or shielded.

Bring your attention to the suffering, whether general or specific. Imagine it emits a stream of smoke – hot, dark, acid, toxic – and imagine drawing that smoke toward you, courageously breathing it into your heart. It is powerful enough to burn through the shield around your heart. As it enters the brilliant light within, watch it be absorbed by the brilliance until the flame burns even brighter and more pure.

Exhaling, send from your pure heart to the place of suffering. Imagine white smoke, or cool mist, a color of healing, a rainbow. Breathing in, receive pain and fear, breathing out, send calm and love.

Continue as long as you like.

What if we all practiced tonglen for the people in the Middle East conflict, or in Ukraine? What if we all practiced tonglen for the climate, for places of pollution, for dying species, for people caught in pain, fear, or even hate? Who might we become, if we welcome all that suffering into our hearts? I can’t say how this practice might change the literal suffering in those other places, but I am quite certain that when we change, the world changes.

With love,

Shodo

for Mountains and Waters Alliance

Mountains and Waters Alliance – a poem and a class announcement

Gifts

Poems

Surrounded by the generosity of donors, I find myself wanting to offer gifts., which mostly means teaching, or inspiration. Here I offer two poems and a class announcement. First, I refer you to the beautiful words of my teacher Shohaku Okumura, found on the front page of the website.

And then a sweet thought from modern poet Antonio Machado:

Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.

Teaching

Our first offering this year is an online Zen class studying the “Eihei Koso Hotsuganmon.” This remarkable document sets out the view of Dogen Zenji, founder of Soto Zen, which differed sharply from his contemporaries. “Buddhas and ancestors of old were as we. We in the future shall be Buddhas and ancestors.” We’ll explore the implications of this radical view for our lives and spiritual practice.

The class begins Wednesday, January 3, for 3 weeks. Each month will be a new class, addressing a different writing of Dogen. Here’s a link to the January class, asking you please to register in advance. By donation, as always.  https://mountainsandwatersalliance.org/event/january-zen-class-dogens-vow/

Donations

You probably know that we’re running a fundraiser, https://www.gofundme.com/f/qfwwbz-mountains-and-waters-alliance. At this point we have enough for more study and retreats, our own Zoom, and a start on freeing up my time for all we might do – like preparation and teaching. The dream is that I could spend most of my time in practice and teaching, rather than focusing on livelihood. If you would like to support MWA, please either donate what you can afford, or share this with people you know who might be interested. And while we’re looking for money, in the background is always the intention to gather more practitioners and members.

“Thank you for doing this on my behalf”

Dear Friends,

In 2006 I went on a pilgrimage that was funded by donations each of us solicited, and by begging food and shelter along the way. There were donors who said “Thank you for doing this on my behalf.” In 2013 I led the Compassionate Earth Walk, funded in the same way.

That’s in a long tradition in which some people do a needed thing and others support them.

In religions with monastic traditions, monastics engage in deep spiritual practice, follow a strict lifestyle supporting that practice, and offer teachings freely to lay people. Lay people have fewer ethical rules, live their lives as householders, and offer material support to nuns and monks, who share spiritual teachings with them.

In modern America and many other places that reject hierarchy, there are few instances of such full-time support. Yet congregations support ministers, Buddhist sanghas support teachers, and donors support many kinds of peaceful activism.

Nothing I do now is as dramatic as that walk was, and even that was less dramatic that the resistance to fossil fuel pipelines (and mining and other environmental causes) in which people use their bodies to block harm. Yet my whole life is given in that way. I loved living on the road, yet when I returned it was clear that there was something else to do, and that something is Mountains and Waters Alliance.

I planted myself in the earth, here in southern Minnesota, in 2014, and since then the direction has gradually revealed itself. A few years later I went back to work, to support the farm and its function as a learning/teaching center and residence. I spent most of the pandemic writing the book – will announce when I have a publisher – and am now ready to move into action. Something is clearly ready to be born. I long to give it my full attention.

If you would like me to do that – please use the GoFundMe to support me in doing so. There are more details there. https://gofund.me/cc0ded9b

If you’d like to do it with me, by all means get in touch.

With love,

Shodo Spring, for Mountains and Waters Alliance

Dharma talks and events

This is upcoming events, especially Dharma talks.

Two talks are coming up, both are available online.

Sunday, November 5, 10:00 am Central Time, in Northfield and online. Here’s the information: Dharma Talk November 5 – Northfield Buddhist Meditation Center – online and in person

Saturday, November 11, 11-12 Central Time, online only. https://mountainsandwatersalliance.org/event/dharma-talk-nov-11-2023-heartland-zen/

I’ve mentioned Rohatsu sesshin, Dec 1-7 all day, so won’t say more here.

Next class begins in January and will be announced when we have details.

There is no official online zazen, but we are always supporting each other. Please pray or chant for peace and justice, especially in the Middle East.

At the farm, Saturday afternoons are work events in the spirit of Earth Apprenticeship, which I’ve mentioned before. Be sure to check in, to make sure it’s happening. Usually 1-5 pm, with possibility of potluck and evening gathering, and indoor practice if weather is difficult.

Finding peace and bringing peace

I write to you in peace, during war in the Middle East and an ongoing catastrophe in American government.

Listening to the shouting about the disaster in Israel and Palestine, about atrocities and genocide, I recall that there has never been a country where Jews were safe, and that Muslims have been a target for a long time. Beyond that, I will not bring my opinions here. (You’re welcome to ask me personally, or check my facebook page.)

If we are to be of use, rather than part of the problem, we need to calm down and remember who we are. We belong to the family of life, to the ongoing co-creation of everything that is called Indra’s Net.

We have some ways to help us remember that.

The core practice of Zen Buddhism is sitting meditation, zazen, and the practice of taking a long retreat to allow the body and mind to settle down (away from both news and projects) and recover their wholeness, to allow the universe to create us even as we recognize that we also create what is around us in an ever-cycling relationship.

I invite you to join me in Rohatsu sesshin, December 1-7, for whatever part of it you’re able to attend. Register here.  I said a few words about it here.

For questions about sesshin or about anything I said, email me to set up a conversation.

While Rohatsu sesshin is usually a gathering of long-time practitioners, I’m inviting newcomers as well – and that means I’m willing to support you by explaining and by answering questions.

May our practice help the earth turn, even though it always does. May our practice help humans remember what humanity is, even though we often forget. My all beings be happy, joyous, and safe.

With love,

Shodo Spring

for Mountains and Waters Alliance

Chanting for peace and healing

What do do in times of war, hate, and brutality?

Since Hamas invaded Israel I have been looking for something to say. Finally I offer an action, created by my dharma sister Mary Thanissara of Sacred Mountain Sangha. I’ll be joining her every morning that I can, the coming two weeks (weekdays) until October 27. I encourage you to do the same.

My voice will return, and I’ll write again. Meanwhile I offer a quote from the Buddha that applies to all of us:

Hatred never ceases with hatred. By love alone is it healed. This is an ancient and eternal truth.

Guardians of the Sacred: Daily Meditation, Chanting, Mantra & Prayer Circle (Limited Time)

Mountains and Waters Alliance September 2023–Fall Events and Earth Apprentice Training

“Let the land tell you what to do,” said the advisor, and so I did. For at least two hours every Friday morning, I would go to a certain space and play, following instructions that I thought I received, digging and planting, pulling up, moving stones and earth, learning the ways of grasses, forbs, shrubs, trees.

Perhaps it was the next year that I walked the land asking it to protect itself from development? A stranger had gotten a building permit on what was part of “my” wild space, certainly my buffer from civilization, and I considered leaving.  On the last day of a five-day silent meditation retreat, I walked through the threatened woods asking them to protect themselves. By the last hour I could almost hear them replying, and my whole body felt safe again.

In 2018 the tornado skipped the house and tore through the woods, crashing giant oaks and obliterating my paths. On the first walk through, I was heartsick. On the second and third, I saw that the downed trees were ancient and rotting, and began to think about the cleansing nature of storm. At the 2019 Land Care Retreat, I asked two people to make a new path through the fallen woods. With no other plan, they cleared a path to the Central Altar, a complete surprise, now the spiritual center of this land.

Invitation to Earth Apprenticeship

Now I invite you to join me in learning from the land. We’ll start with three Saturday afternoons, 1-5 pm, here at the farm, and bring meditative awareness to the beings who live here. On the first Saturday, we’ll explore a space between house and creek, mixed garden and wild, and do practices of listening and opening, returning to the human circle, returning to the wild beings, supporting each other in finding the way, and do some small project requested by the land spirits. We’ll listen for where to work next, and on the second and third Saturdays, we’ll do the same. At the end of the third Saturday we’ll consider next steps for those who will continue. Saturdays: October 7-21, 1-5 pm. Details here.

Volunteer invitations

Saturday afternoons (1-5) will be occasions for seasonal work together, including sowing wild rice (September 30), harvesting hazelnuts, walnuts, acorns, grapes, and whatever is ready in garden or woods; possibly processing the same, or indoor work such as food processing. If you want to bring children, we can work it out.

The wild rice came from a rice camp September 8-10, at Honor the Earth’s camp in northern Minnesota. They were a center for resisting the dangerous and unneeded pipeline (Line 3), and now that is lost they are doing cultural work, remembering and teaching traditional ways, welcoming all people to learn. At this camp we were taught (“let the rice be your teacher”) to gather, parch, and winnow wild rice, and to return an offering of rice to the flowage where it was harvested. They gave away rice to some who wanted it, intending that it spread around the state, healing and returning balance to communities of life everywhere. They answered my questions and assured me that it would grow here. Besides, this is Rice County. So this planting is not only my own wish, but in relationship to my teachers, and to the land which longs for its traditional plants.

Monday mornings 9-1 are project time. Perry and I (the current residents) do things that may involve construction, digging, or whatever is most needed. Your labor is welcome, and your skills too. Chain saws and power tools happen here rather than Saturdays. No small children, for safety.

Potlucks and conversations sometimes happen at the end of these events; meditation instruction is always an option on request.

Online Dharma Talks:

• Sunday, October 1, Hokyoji Zen Community – details here.
• Sunday, November 5, Northfield Buddhist Meditation Center (also in person) – details here.
• Saturday, November 11, Heartland Zen Center – details here.

Retreats and sesshin:

December 1-7, Rohatsu sesshin, here at the farm, in-person only – details here.  (arrive evening of November 30; part-time participation welcome)

Future:

• Weekend sesshin/retreat near Duluth, Minnesota, with Bluestone Zen Practice Community. January or February.
• In 2024 I look forward to returning to a regular schedule of sesshins and retreats, including land care retreats and Earth Apprenticeship training.

Farm notes:

We’ve gotten some work done in the gardens; I have just a few photos. We did build an outhouse (composting toilet) and it’s functional though not cosmetically finished. Perry did a lot of work on the gardens, and planted things, but we underestimated the critters, so we’ve gotten less food than expected. Before next planting season, we’ll have better protection in place.

We’ve been working with abundance, and putting food by. To date we have canned plum butter, applesauce, apple butter, and frozen a great many food things. The local food shelves are amazing; we never know what they’ll have, but it’s almost certain that if I buy onions at the coop, two days later there will be a load of free onions.

There are lots of ideas about how to engage with the land – growing mushrooms, where to move the raspberry bushes, contouring the land for water collection and so forth – but I won’t start to describe because we intend to move forward in harmony with the land, listening to what it welcomes rather than imposing our convenience and our will. The Earth Apprenticeship program will help with this. It will still be a gradual process.

Money

Mountains and Waters Alliance currently exists by the grace of a few regular donors, and occasional gifts or speaking fees. This is possible because it owns nothing, and has no expenses except the occasional book, training, or conference. The farm is mine personally, though its whole purpose is to serve the work called MWA; MWA rents a bit of space. Covid interrupted the income from retreats, which I trust will return. I went ahead anyway and made improvements to make a better space for community and retreats, and I’m sure that helped attract a housemate – with room now for two more. Some day we’ll look for foundation funding, but there’s work we have to do first.

If you would like me to put more time into practice and teaching, Perry to put more time into plants, sustainability, and caring for the land, and other activities that move this work forward, you could help us by going to the donation page and making a one-time or ongoing donation, or by signing up to iGive with us as the recipient. All the details are on that page.

Otherwise, my paid work is rewarding and I have half my time for the work called MWA, including Zen practice and teaching.

Blessings to you all,

Shodo

For Mountains and Waters Alliance

Mountains and Waters Alliance Blog: Practicing with the News

Practicing with the News

As the disasters roll on, moderated by occasional happy surprises, I’ve wondered what to say here. Finally I saw it.

How do we do spiritual practice with the things that are happening too fast and too frightening? Including, how do we avoid blaming others?

A short list of this week’s news that unsettled my practice.

Tuesday, August 8

Maui: A huge fire destroys traditional native center Lahaina, kills over a hundred people and displaces hundreds.

• Backstory: The Polynesians arrived around 700 C.E.; whalers and missionaries arrived in 1820, sugar plantation people about 1860, and tourism in the 1960’s. The plantations took land from native people, filled in lakes and swamps, imported a  flammable desert grass, and took control of water. The fires that destroyed Lahaina are the result of both global warming and decades of mismanagement.  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/17/hawaii-fires-maui-water-rights-disaster-capitalism?CMP=twt_gu#Echobox=1692314080
• Now: Indigenous water rights are suspended, while a moratorium is placed on land sales to stop harassment by outside speculators. Luxury developments receive priority for water. This is called Disaster Capitalism: when a disaster happens, vulture capitalists swoop in to take advantage of the situation. Often they win.
• The number of fires and evacuations elsewhere just continues. Yellowknife, for one, but so many more, and impossible heat in other places.

Thursday, August 10: Florida requires school history teachers to include “benefits” to slaves.

Friday, August 11:  The Marion County Record, small town newspaper in Kansas, has its offices and the owners’ home searched and computers seized; warrant appears to be petty and nonsensical. The co-owner, 98 years old and a retired journalist, died the next day, possibly due to stress. Fear of losing a free press rises.  Lawsuits are flying in all directions.

Monday, August 14:  A Montana youth group won their lawsuit for climate protection, based on a clause in the Montana constitution: “The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations.” (Six other states and 150 countries have similar constitutional provisions.) Both ridicule and celebration abound. A Federal case started in 2015 is based on the Fifth Amendment “nor shall any person…. be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” They’re still struggling for the right to appear in court. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliana_v._United_States

Tuesday, August 15: 

• Georgia grand jury charges Donald Trump and 18 co-conspirators with racketeering charges for interference with the 2020 election. Someone publishes the addresses of jury members online, and there are threats against some officials involved in the case. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fbi-investigates-threats-to-fulton-county-officials-days-after-trump-indictment/ar-AA1fpKOL.
• ProPublica reveals more corruption involving Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas.
• Fifth Circuit Court placed severe restrictions on the abortion drug mifepristone, after 23 years of safe use.

Wednesday, August 16:  Multiple wildfires in Canada’s Northwest Territories lead to evacuation of Yellowknife.

Always: around the world wars, refugee disasters, corruption revelations, deaths, climate disasters, poverty, hunger, discrimination, and so forth. And this Facebook meme: To feed everyone in the world would cost $34 billion a year. The United States military spends over $71 billion a month.

What does spiritual practice look like here?

Going tentatively here, thoughts as they arise and then what follows:

• Be careful with news. Don’t jump to conclusions or choose your favorite villains and heroes. Try to read multiple sources, including historical background if relevant.
• Notice your feelings. In response to the five specific items from this past week (and the ones I read but did not include), I felt fear, anger, sadness, discouragement, hope, and more. We have ways of practicing with emotion, including simply noting, investigating through somatic awareness, curiosity about thought patterns involved, kindness toward the parts of ourselves involved in emotional response, noticing personal history that might make us over-react – and, always, equanimity.
• Add to the noticing, asking for help and support, from friends and family or from all sentient beings – such as a favorite tree, a flower, a creek, a meadow.
• Right action and right speech.
• Considerations for speech include:
  • Is it true? Is it helpful? Does it promote harmony and reduce tensions? Is it timely?
  • Speech based on deep listening is truly beneficial communication, nourishing relationship.
  • In these times, we often hear or read combative words, and anger may prompt us to jump in and either argue or agree.
  • Wisdom suggests listening, and perhaps using the Four Immeasurables to moderate our response: Compassion, Loving-kindness, Sympathetic Joy, Equanimity.
  • Thanks to the writers here: https://www.learnreligions.com/right-speech-450072.
• Action is normally guided by the precepts,
  • particularly the first five, which are stated negatively: not killing, not taking what is not given, not misusing sexuality, not lying, and not selling intoxicants.
  • Zen adds five more about relationships within community, such as not causing division. These help us examine each action we take.
  • Thich Nhat Hanh added a positive side to each of these, to think in terms of what we might do rather than just what we avoid. For instance, as a white American, benefiting from multiple forms of privilege and from the exploitation of other people, what might be appropriate response to the way my comfort is based on exploitation and even killing? And what is appropriate response to any one of the news items above?
• As a Zen practitioner, I live with the Four Vows: Beings are numberless; I vow to free them. Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them. Dharma gates are numberless, I vow to enter them. Buddha’s way is unsurpassable, I vow to realize it.
  • I say “live with” rather than “keep” because it’s impossible to keep them in a literal way. Rather, they shape our relationship with the world around us.

Can we have a conversation based on all of this?

Which are the most useful in your particular life? Is it the practice of compassion, for instance, or the specifics of the precepts?

• For a long time I found “not stealing” to include all the precepts: not stealing someone’s life, or their self-esteem, or their labor by under-paying; not stealing from plants or animals (eating became a little difficult there, but I never became a fruitarian, who literally accepts only what is given).
• Now, it is vow that guides me. The concept of freeing all beings – even though all beings are not separate from myself – gives me a way to relate to everyone.
  • I can think of [someone I dislike] and consider the suffering they are having, or creating for themselves even if they are not aware of it, and I can offer loving-kindness, wishing them well.
  • Probably first I must forgive myself for the rush of anger and judgment that arises without invitation, and settle down, calm my mind and remember that this too is a sentient being entitled to happiness.
  • Remember that wishing harm to someone is a form of killing, and the energy turns on me as well as them.

I will not start a list of tangible activities that seem to me like “right action;” that list would go on forever. But I will invite you to notice such actions in your own life.

• Acknowledge your own beneficial actions, and also the ones that call to you that you’re not ready to do yet.
• Notice the actions of people around you, and consider that you are surrounded by appropriate, compassionate, kind and fearless acts – alongside the anger, violence, and everything sad and frightening.
• As Mister Rogers said, “look for the helpers.”

Miscellaneous

a request on behalf of a friend:  Cory Clemetson is a long-time friend of Mountains and Waters Alliance and a serious dharma practitioner. He’s a member of Common Ground Meditation Center, and has given time and energy to justice movements both at home. Cory is recovering from surgery for an infection in his spine, and will be unable to work for several months. There is a GoFundMe with more information, here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/cory-as-he-recovers-from-spinal-surgery.

upcoming study group:  This is a repeat of my mention from last newsletter: We’re studying Ayo Yetunde’s Casting Indra’s Net, Wednesday evenings starting September 6, and registrations are required (free).

farm news:

• We have an outhouse now, built by Perry and friends. Near the gardens.
• Monday mornings 9-1 will be work time at the farm, with a focused project each time. Email to say you’re coming or to ask what the project is. (Volunteers are welcome other times, but this will be pretty regular.) Sometime a chance to learn a lot, other times just hands in dirt or peaceful time in country. When we can, we’ll do some trail building and outdoor sacred space making.
• Things feel good here. And people are starting to come again.

Free fundraising:  We’re listed on iGive, which uses your online shopping to support us at no cost to you. Right now they have a special deal: Sign up by September 30, make any purchase within a month, and we get an extra $5 in addition to the percentage. (It’s easy to use.) If a dozen people signed up and used iGive just for air travel, we would really notice the addition.

Love to all. Please be in touch.

Shodo

for Mountains and Waters Alliance

“Casting Indra’s Net” study group begins September 6

“To start repairing the world, and ourselves” writes Dan Harris about this book by Ayo Yetunde. theologian, spiritual counselor, and activist. In this spirit, we begin a fall study group with Casting Indra’s Net, exploring our lives in relation to Yetunde’s offering. The ongoing study group is welcoming new member at this time. More information is at this link. You can register by email. No fee, but donations are welcome.

Here are a few other upcoming events:

August 12, community day at the farm, from afternoon through evening, concluding with meteor showers and moonrise. Click for information. Registration encouraged.

Every Monday morning, online zazen (sitting meditation), 6 am Central Time. Registration encouraged.

These events are coming, but do not yet have registration access yet.

September 21, in Northfield MN: We’ll be at the International Day of Peace, 5-7 pm, participating in a community event.

October, date TBD, weekend sesshin (meditation retreat) in Duluth, MN.

November 5, dharma talk at Northfield Buddhist Meditation Center – online and in person.

December 1-8, Rohatsu sesshin – 7 days of sitting meditation, at the farm. Partial participation welcome.

August 12 invitation – blessing ceremony, meteor shower and more

Dear Friends,

This post is about the August 12 day/night at the farm, involving afternoon work, potluck, ceremony, and stargazing/meteor shower. Here’s the full description. Starts mid-afternoon, goes into the night, come and go as you like.

This is my first time to offer the actual work of Mountains and Waters Alliance: a ceremony connecting humans with plants, earth, water, sky, all beings – for the well-being of the earth. It’s embedded in a day of things we do often,  potluck and land care, and something new, the meteor shower, an opportunity worth sharing.

In a way this is a response to the climate crisis, to the wildfires and heat domes and all of that frightening and uncomfortable news. In another way, it’s just finding a way to live in harmony within our family, all beings.

I hope you can come, if you’re near. Many people have come and gone here. This summer we’ve been quiet – no retreats or workdays, just one party at my birthday. The next few events will be online, and then some retreats this fall and winter.

Soon I’ll post the other things that are coming up. And I hope your summer is being as beautiful as the one we’re having here.

Shodo

Mountains and Waters Alliance – July 1, 2023

Greetings from the land of summer!

This newsletter includes a short event listing, plus some reflections on learnings from recent retreats and travels.

Events:

• July 2, online Dharma talk at Hokyoji Zen Practice Center. https://www.hokyoji.org/sunday-talks/. The talk and discussion are 9:30-10:30 am Central Time; please join for zazen beginning 8:30. The link gets you to the Hokyoji page with a zoom link plus explanations.
• July 5, 19, and first and third Wednesdays at 6:30 pm, drop in for Q&A about Zen, spiritual practice, or related matters. We’ve been talking about real Zen community and how it works. I’m there at 6:30 pm Central Time, and stay until 8 or end earlier if the energy is done. https://us06web.zoom.us/j/91552957428 Passcode Zen.
• September 6 and the first three Wednesdays each month: study group with Casting Indra’s Net by Pamela Ayo Yetunde. I had promised a read-and-discuss format, but on working with the book I think a lecture-and-discuss format will work better. The August newsletter will have a registration link. The Zoom link is above.
• Monday mornings: zazen continues weekly, but here is this detail: if you would like to join online, please email Shodo by Sunday evening. Otherwise, we can sit together without electronics, each in our own locations. I will be sitting 6-7 am Central Time.

There will be later events and talks, including

• November 5, Sunday morning Dharma talk at Northfield Buddhist Meditation Center
• November or December, TBD: “Awakening to love this world / insight and kinship with all life”. A day-long retreat with me and Insight teacher Rosamaria Seguro, sponsored by Insight LA. I’ll share more information when the date is finalized.
• December 1-8, Rohatsu sesshin, in person at the farm.
  A note: I’m still working on the book, and taking care of my job, my health, and the farm; few formal events are scheduled until the book is ready.

The Farm:

We have space now for two more residents. Perry is now leading on farm and outdoor work, and there’s plenty of room for both labor and creativity from new residents, long-term guests, and short-term helpers. Just contact Shodo. We’re not scheduling work days, but welcoming you at times that work for all of us.

Reflections:

The past few months I’ve been in learning mode. I’d like to share a little.

First, in March I took a week for a writing retreat, then a week in a cabin up north (very cold). I thought I would sit zazen and walk outdoors, but mostly I slept a lot and recovered from exhaustion. I gave a dharma talk at Bluestone Zen Community in Duluth, and went for a walk on slippery rocks above Lake Superior.

Second, Kincentric Leadership Training, a week in Colorado at Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, with a group of people who share a love and respect for beyond-human beings.

Third, a family vacation in the Carribean.

Fourth, an inipi (sweat lodge) ceremony.

Then it was time to settle down and ground myself in ordinary life before any more adventures.

Studying patterns:

• First, alone with the North, walking on the ice, reading, sitting zazen, and admitting human frailty as I slept, got sick, and all of that.
• Second, surrounded with people who share something about our relationship with the natural world, and then a solitary day on a high rock, facing the Continental Divide, sitting with sun, clouds, thunder, hail, rain, and sun again. Much of that time I was in an altered state, talking and shouting and listening with a whole range of beings – not much to say about that. I asked for help with the healing and protection of the world. …. At first I thought it was the mountains who called me there. But I came back with a sense of reconnecting with the Thunder Beings, beings of my personal spiritual journey and more known to the Lakota people. These words came for me to share: “The Thunder Beings have promised to help.” Now I’m studying how to ask, especially to clarify shared ceremony. First I need to do some personal ritual, and deepen myself with more zazen. I’ll write more later. If you wonder about the group, here is their website, and it’s possible to register for their training retreats at Findhorn, Scotland (September 9-16), and at Auroville, India (later).
• Third, the family vacation with warmth, sun, and sky, in luxury, connecting with people very different from myself: it was calming and restful, and I was glad to be warm. I gave zazen instruction twice, on request. And this happened: During a day on a boat, when they stopped for snorkeling and play, I saw a cave and was called there. Dark, wet, deep; the opposite of mountains and sky. And coming back from it was hard, paddling against the waves and finally towed back to the boat. The challenge of the journey, and human helpers, there too. I don’t have words yet, just a shift in my body.
• Fourth, inipi (sweat lodge) an hour away in Wisconsin. I’d recently reconnected with an old friend, was invited, and went. Hot, dark, steamy. It feels private, and still mysterious to me. But somehow I’m breathing easier.
• Here is another thing: My Zen teacher, Shohaku Okumura, retired. People came from all around the world for the ceremonies, and I went too. It was just a weekend, but a time out of ordinary life, connecting with my Zen roots as well as old friends.
• Maybe we could say the fifth was returning to ordinary life, going to work and seeing clients, catching up on long-ignored tasks putting one foot in front of another in ordinary life. We’ll see what manifests. Right now, I don’t need more adventures, these are still digesting.

The Thunder Beings have promised to help:

What I can see now is how easy it could be to do the original vision of Mountains and Waters Alliance, in which groups of people get together and do ceremony connecting with their local plants, waters, soils, animals, everything beyond human, asking for help with this incredible task about climate and environment – including healing the way humans are harming each other and the natural world. If doing this calls to you, let me know; it will encourage me to move forward sooner.

I’ll say farewell for now, and be back in about a month. Be sure to write if you want to connect. And if someone shared this with you, you can subscribe at the website, bottom of front page.

Love,

Shodo

for Mountains and Waters Alliance

Mountains and Waters Alliance: Summer Newsletter & online invitation

Hello and welcome. Here’s catching up with a little of everything.

Events:

Online:

• Summer Wednesday nights will be in semi-vacation mode: First and third Wednesdays, drop in for Q&A about Zen, spiritual practice, or related matters. Hopefully we’ll have some good. discussions. I’ll be there at 6:30 pm Central Time, and stay until 8 or end when the energy is over. Latecomers please arrive by 6:45.
• Fall Wednesday nights will return to the read-and-discuss format, starting September 6. We’ll be exploring Casting Indra’s Net by Pamela Ayo Yetunde.
• Monday morning zazen continues but we might change the time. If you think of coming, please ask about details.

Farm:

With new resident Perry Post, there’s lots of activity in the garden. Perry is a permaculturist and experienced gardener and landscaper, and he welcomes help.

• Volunteers will find this a good way to learn; I’m enjoying helping and learning instead of managing by guess.
• Visitors for days or weeks will also find opportunity to learn.
• Occasionally we hire help.

The best way to get involved is to let me know so we can get in touch when there’s an appropriate opportunity. After conversation so we know what you’re up for.

Retreats:

I’m holding the schedule until after I return from the Kincentric Leadership Training (late May) because I expect to have new ideas. But there will be land care retreats, ceremonies, work days and work retreats, and sesshin.

Personal markers:

I’m noticing anniversaries.

• Last week marked 75 years since my birth. It’s been an amazing journey.
• It’s just over 10 years since I received dharma transmission, authorization to teach in the Soto Zen tradition. Which in a way marks the beginning of my adulthood – accepting the work that is mine to do. I didn’t know that before.
• And it’s about 10 years since I set off on the Compassionate Earth Walk, through the Great Plains, along the KXL route. That journey not only brought me into deep connection with the land itself, but also began my connection with indigenous people, as individuals, with their collective struggles, and embracing their spiritual and political leadership.
• Mountains and Waters Alliance is not quite 8 years old; that story is here.

Gratitude:

This is for the many people who’ve supported Mountains and Waters Alliance through the years; I won’t name them individually for reluctance to miss someone, but we have these groups:

• The Advisors, who meet with me monthly, help with decisions, and help me believe in what I’m doing.
• Donors, who have faithfully sent money every month, with the result that MWA can afford things (though it can’t yet afford to pay me), or who have given tangible things that we use daily.
• Farm volunteers and supporters, some of whom have donated valuable professional time, others who have put in hours digging, cutting, hauling, weeding, cooking, painting, cleaning, sewing, and the like.
• Practitioners and students, who have joined in the many kinds of spiritual practice, here and online and in every way.
• Residents, who have given a try at living this life and exploring what community might mean.
• Of course, the land, the river and creeks, the weather, the soil. And also spiritual tradition, both the Soto Zen Buddhism of my training, and the many others that have offered their gifts here.

May it continue.

New possibilities

I’ve been invited to participate in the Kincentric Leadership Training, which will begin next week. I know just these things about this:

• The leaders involved are people I have read and quoted for years, and have longed to study with.
• The language they use matches my understanding of how the world works and how we need to interact with it, as we go forward.
• I am too easily tired and discouraged, even though I feel strong hope that healing and change are possible. Both networking and leadership training would be helpful.

The book is nearing completion. Working title is Being Earth: Unleashing the power of the natural world.

Donating and support:

It’s going like this: donations support the land and facilities. I’ve never been paid, but MWA rents space at the farm, and covers some of my retreat and study travel. Working  half time makes that harder but supports the whole thing. In 2022 I borrowed money to upgrade the house to have space for four residents. Four would pay the loan down fast, but there’s one plus me. So I’m working extra, and doing less study and teaching.

• If you’d like and are able to offer financial support, look at this page.
• If you don’t have extra money, look at iGive, on the same page. This is a program that automatically sends us a small percentage of purchases from participating online stores, at no cost to you. It includes several airlines and some bookstores plus a lot of smaller stuff. (It’s automatic once you’ve set it up.) There’s a special offer right now, doubling the payment for purchases in May.

Spring is here.

Warm and cold, sunny, rainy, blossoms everywhere, spring ephemerals; the fiddleheads have come and gone, the nettles are offering themselves for eating, and when the rain stops we should find morel mushrooms in the woods.

The world is doing what it does.

Looking at the violence and polarization all around, I think societal collapse is well along the way. That thought helps me forgive the individuals involved. At the same time I see a thousand – no, a million signs of renewal. Reasons to be Cheerful is a pleasant place to hang out to see encouraging news. One of these days I’ll write about world issues again. Maybe.

• Meanwhile, if you have time to support Thacker Pass  please do. They are getting ready for an indigenous-led camp on the scale of Standing Rock, bodies and prayers in the way of the bulldozers, protecting land, beings, and sacred spaces. Or engage with your own people or cause, closer to home.
• If you like politics watch your local elections or run for office, and support the National Popular Vote program when it comes to your state.
• And if you pray, or chant, or do energy work – please bless all of us. If you like, use some words from my chant dedication. (Last page at the link.)

What else is there to say? Life is good. Even when it isn’t.