Mountains and Waters Alliance – Land Day with Clean River Partners – May 3

This is our first time to work with Clean River Partners, and we’re very excited about it. It looks like a beautiful day, and a good time for lots of people.

While the world goes on, land and earth do too. So we’re spending a day – making biochar, which is an amazing way to enrich the soil, capture carbon, and all the rest. And we’ll give the afternoon to supporting a part of the woods near the creek – mostly removing invasive plants, making space for natives.

Come for the day, or for part of it, as you like – and please register. Clean River Partners needs that, for things they’re helping with, and we do too. Don’t just phone! Make it real. Thank you. (Okay, bring along a friend at the last minute. But give us a chance to have tools and food for everybody.)

Everything else you want to know is on the event page. (Our next big land event is in June.)

Mountains and Waters Alliance – March 29, 2025 – Announcements

Upcoming events, and the book is ready for pre-order.

Local events:

Land: April 4, 3-7 pm, at the farm. We will dig and move some small pine trees, to a new location for privacy around the future outdoor zendo. If you want to take a tree home, should be easy. Please register.

Activism: Hands Off march, April 5, noon, at your state capitol or Washington DC. (I’ll be at the gathering in Northfield, MN.) For local information look here: https://indivisible.org/.

Land: Saturday, May 3, all day (9:30-3); rain date May 4, at the farm, cosponsored with Clean River Partners. More information and registration here:

In the morning we will make biochar – this involves playing with fire, and a lot of learning, led by Perry Post. After lunch we’ll work with removing invasive species from one area of land we want to restore. Register through Clean River Partners. Also email Shodo, so we can plan food and labor. There’s a chance of finding morels, which would involve staying after the work day. If interested, mention that in the email to Shodo.

Community retreat – Earth Apprentice – June 13-16

Retreats in June, July, and possibly August. Look here for a preview of the year.

Volunteering: Land care or otherwise, please get in touch about specific dates or topics. (We’re still gathering sap and cooking maple syrup.)

Online events:

Sunday March 30, dharma talk at Hokyoji. No registration, but information is here. also May 25, June 22, July 13.

The Book is available for pre-order.

Here’s the link from the publisher; you can pre-order now and receive it probably late August. When/if I see you, I’m happy to sign it. Pre-orders are said to be very important in helping the book get sold.

I’m planning a book tour this fall: Minnesota, Midwest, East Coast. I can give online talks or readings any time, and I’m collecting possibilities for next year – California, Southwest, wherever. Please contact me with any suggestions or requests, including dharma talks, retreats, workshops, bookstore readings, college presentations, churches, environmental and activist groups, and any other groups that might be interested. (I can provide a review copy as needed.)

There will be e-books; I’ll announce when they’re available. Probably September.

Open Reality: Meeting the Polycrisis together with all beings.

Only modern humans have imagined ourselves as gods… And come to the edge of destroying life on earth.

Open Reality speaks to the world behind and beneath our daily collective trauma. It opens practical possibilities for creating a shared, flexible culture that knows the natural world both as family and as a working partner. It invites the reader to a world of possibility. What if industrial civilization isn’t the best that humans can do? What if we weren’t alone in the world, but embedded in a universe of conscious, intentional, powerful beings?

Please remember to breathe, stay close to the ones you love, and let the earth embrace you.

Love,

Shodo

For Mountains and Waters Alliance

Mountains and Waters Alliance – October 2024 – Fall events and news

Online study group

• Wednesday October 23, 6:30 pm Central Time, through Oct 30, Nov 6, 13, and 20. Focus will be on engaged Buddhism, based on a dharma talk “Trauma, Suffering, and Liberation” by Beth Kanji Goldring. I’ll send a copy of the talk to participants, and we’ll listen to it in class, piece by piece. Please register through the link above. If you have difficulty, email shodo@mountainsandwatersalliance.org.
• December 11 and 18 IF four people commit. Otherwise we will take a break for December.
• In 2025, study group will be January 8, 15, and 22 if four people commit.  Same for February 5, 12, and 19, March 5, 12, 19, and so forth. Topics and texts are not yet determined.

On-site events:

November work weekend

will be November 15, 16, and/or 17. If interested in coming for any part of this, email Shodo for more information and to make arrangements. We have several small projects, outdoors or indoors, depending on weather. Average temperatures would be in the low 40’s, which suggests short outdoor work alternating with indoor work or rest. Outdoor possibilities include adding a railing to the stairs, creating a better landing for those stairs, other small repairs, and firewood in its many aspects.

Rohatsu sesshin, Dec 1-8,

silent long days of sitting meditation, minimal shared work, staying onsite encouraged. We’ll gather Saturday evening Nov 30, and close Sunday morning December 8, Buddha’s Enlightenment Day. Please register soon. Ask questions now, ask about partial participation and whatever you need to know.

Winter solstice gathering, Saturday December 21 –

three parts. Register by emailing Shodo. Mention plans, number of children and adults, and rides offered/needed.

• • • The shortest day: Come any time to join us in preparing food and fire. If you come at sunrise (7 am) or the night before, you can join us for meditation and breakfast.
    • Bonfire, and potluck, arrive about 4 (sunset is 4:34 pm), sharing circle around the fire, and potluck when we’re ready – probably indoors. (Moon rises 11:44 pm, but stars will be out.) In case of terrible weather, the fire will be indoors.
    • Longest night: If you love sitting meditation, please join us for an all-night sit or a sleepover and greet the morning together.  Indoors or out depending on weather.

Looking ahead in 2025:

Each month has a different kind of farm work, including tapping sugar maples, planting pines, garden prep, garden planting, foraging, and so forth through the season. Sesshins and retreats will be announced, beginning in early February in Atlanta.

2025 calendar will appear in November. Also, that will be an invitation to membership and fundraising appeal, with plenty of information.

Book tour:

In fall 2025, I expect to be doing a book tour. If you think your group might like me to offer a talk, a reading, or a workshop, in person or online, now would be a great time to talk with me about how to make that happen. Of course, you’ll wonder what the book is about. Working title is The Shape of Reality Is Open: Walking Together Through the Polycrisis.  I can send information.

And news:

We currently have room for two more residents. If you’re attracted to the thought of living collectively, shared work, spiritual community, good conversation, activism in its various forms – and stars, trees, grasses, creeks and rivers – we’re interested in talking with you. It’s a gradual process. We also accept short-term and long-term guests as interns or while considering residency.

The job posting:

We’ve hired someone part-time, and it’s looking good. If you know someone who has professional-level experience with a marketing program called Hubspot, who would be interested in a few hours per week, send them to me.

Mountains and Waters Alliance – staying steady

Since I last wrote, the United States has changed. The Democrats have a new presidential candidate, a vice-presidential candidate (my Minnesota governor), and enthusiasm abounds. It’s a relief.

Buddhist practice is to keep going, whatever seems to be happening.

Also war, killing, starvation and sickness continue in Gaza; Israeli media report literal torture within Israeli prisons, but U.S. mainstream media says nothing. In Bethlehem, Combatants for Peace resists illegal settlers taking their homes – and some foreigners join them in the old tradition called accompaniment – but this time they’re shooting Americans too. https://www.dropsitenews.com/

Some voters imagine that Harris/Walz will do it differently, others don’t. Some refuse to participate in an election with no peaceful alternative, others plan to organize after the election. I don’t know how many just don’t care.

Buddhist practice is to keep going, whatever seems to be happening.

Climate catastrophe is in our faces – floods, droughts, wildfires – and it’s getting a tiny bit more attention, but most people aren’t yet ready to consider giving up their conveniences. Even when driven from their homes by floods, storms, or fires, they try to resume normalcy as much as possible.

What does practice mean, in such a situation?

I ask because I don’t know the answer. Today, even though I have a list of what practice means to me now, I’m leaving this space blank.

What does practice mean to you, now?

UPDATES

We just keep going here. We continue at the slower pace required by Shodo’s medical situation, still expecting full recovery. Summer retreats included a weekend Earth Apprentice retreat, in which we spent time with the white pine grove and developed a plan to turn an old shed into a small, screened zendo.

Summer classes included our regular weekly class plus a joint class at Zen Center North Shore (Massachusetts) co-taught with Joan Amaral and Catherine Gammon, both dharma sisters from Shodo’s time at San Francisco Zen Center.

Summer is in full abundance, flowers and green plants, the first tomatoes, more flowers.

UPCOMING

August sesshin will be August 16-18, almost here.

September (dates unknown) there will be a trip for wild ricing with the Honor the Earth camp at Palisade, Minnesota. October 19-20 Shodo leads a retreat in Atlanta, and Rohatsu sesshin will be here December 1-8.

Work days or weekends are not yet scheduled, but things happen along the way.

ALWAYS

We have two rooms available for residents, short or long term, please ask. (You will need outside income.)

I’ll tell you when the book finds a publisher.

Zen talk May 11, plus classes, retreats, and a biochar workshop

Dear friends,

Forgive me for not writing more deeply. I’ve been distracted by the Middle East and the response in this country. Finally I have a way to participate: there is an encampment at a local college. I dropped in yesterday, and am invited to offer some support in the form of meditation instruction. This give joy: it’s the best I have to offer, and they want it.

Other reasons for being slow: My recovery from surgery is going well but far from complete.

Zen events:

Zen talk, “A Blazing Light: notes on Bendowa”, Saturday May 11, online at Heartland Zen Community. Bendowa is translated “wholehearted way” or “negotiating the way” or “on the endeavor of the way” – many expressions. It may be my favorite Zen writing.

Monday evening classes on Bendowa – through the end of May.

Zen classes return to Wednesday evenings in June.

Land events:

May 18, 1-8:30 pm, Biochar workshop. Making biochar from start to finish in our home kiln.

May 17-19, July 19-21: Earth Apprentice Retreat. (fee, registration required)

We’re starting spring cleanup and garden projects. Volunteers are welcome. Specifically, Saturday afternoon volunteering, in the spirit of Earth apprenticeship, will start when weather and my body allow. Contact me to get on the email list for when we get started.

Things I’m going to attend that might be of interest:

June 19-23, “Practicing the Way in this very moment” Zen retreat t Hokyoji (SE Minnesota) https://hokyoji.org/event/practicing-the-way-in-this-very-moment-2/  registration required

As weather is crazy, politics are frightening, and violence overseas is unthinkable, please do a few things:

Pray, or chant, or ask for help from the many living beings who make our world. We are not alone here. Even in this scary election year. Volunteer for candidates, issues, and situations that make sense to you.

I mentioned donations last month; you can look there.

May we find spring in our hearts and peace in the world. May we be bringers of peace.

With love,

Shodo

For Mountains and Waters Alliance

Mountains and Waters Alliance – spring 2024 notes

Dear all,

Here are a few notices as we head into spring. I’m still in recovery from shoulder surgery, keeping typing to a bare minimum. This takes us through June and begins July.

Zen things:

Sunday morning dharma talks online, March 24. April 7.

Wednesday evening classes, starting April 3 and May 1: Bendowa, or “The Wholehearted Way.” Please register.

April 6, daylong retreat at Midtown Atlanta Zen, no online. For more information email here. Topic: Zen practice in challenging times: We’ll talk about fear, hope, despair, and how to practice when the world seems to be falling apart.

Land things:

April 20-21, May 17-19, July 19-21: Earth Apprentice Retreat. (donation requested, registration required)

We’re starting spring cleanup and garden projects. Volunteers are welcome. Specifically, Saturday afternoon volunteering, in the spirit of Earth apprenticeship, will start when weather and my body allow. Contact me to get on the email list for when we get started.

Things I’m going to attend that might be of interest:

March 24 (11 Central Time, after my dharma talk): free showing of the short film, The Opening, and discussion, likely with the filmmaker.

March 26, 10:30 Central Time, presentation on the Congo to a climate discussion group, by David Albert. I know him, it will be good, and email me for the link, which I don’t have yet.

May 2-11, (2 hours every morning), Virtual dharma study intensive (9-11 Central Time, 10 days) online with Shohaku Okumura. Registration required.

June 19-23, “Practicing the Way in this very moment” Zen retreat at Hokyoji (SE Minnesota) – registration required

Please look at the annual schedule for further events.

As weather is crazy, politics are frightening, and violence overseas is unthinkable, please do a few things:

Pray, or chant, or ask for help from the many living beings who make our world. We are not alone here. Even in this scary election year. Volunteer for candidates, issues, and situations that make sense to you.

If you have donations to give, please do.

I’ll mention https://bodhicitta-vihara.com/, which is literally changing the lives of girls and women in India, helping them from poverty and half-slavery to education and a workable life. Of course, sending money to https://www.unrwa.org/, the most reliable provider of food relief in this desperate situation. In the U.S., Censored News is an independent and honest news source for Red Nations news, surviving on donations for over 20 years.

I will stop here, skipping fine organizations in many tribal nations, states, and countries, because I don’t want to go on forever.

To support Mountains and Waters Alliance, I encourage you to sign up with iGive.com, but we also accept money. Everything is here: https://mountainsandwatersalliance.org/donate-support/.

Thanks for following. May your life be joyous and your heart peaceful.

With love,

Shodo

For Mountains and Waters Alliance

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.

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

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: 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.

Mountains and Waters Alliance – land care retreat, notes, and a poem

Dear Folks,

Land Care Retreat April 14-16

Next weekend is the Land Care Retreat: arrive Friday evening, leave Sunday afternoon. About half meditation and discussion, generous time outdoors in the warm weather (predicted 50’s and 60’s, some showers but not steady rain) including garden work Saturday afternoon, expecting a small group. (You might want rubber boots.) I’ll be in touch with people who register.

If the fee is an issue, email me and we’ll work something out. I’d love to have you if possible.

This is the last practice-related event for a couple of months, due to commitments I have elsewhere.

A Few Thoughts

I puzzle over what to say about the news. Sometimes I’m encouraged, sometimes outraged. Today I have more hope about fascism, because of public response to some outrages.

I’m less encouraged about climate change. It’s still true that we have the technology (mostly biological) that we need, and it’s still true that we need to completely change our expectations about “standard of living” and we need fewer people on the planet. The resistance to both is fierce. Still, there are a few hopeful notes:

The UN addresses climate responsibilities

The Vatican repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, which had been used to excuse genocide and destruction around the globe for centuries. (no link)

And A Poem

All That Is Joy –

by Rabindranath Tagore

Let all the strains of joy mingle in my last song —

the joy that makes the earth flow over in the riotous excess of the grass,

the joy that sets the twin brothers, life and death,

dancing over the wide world,

the joy that sweeps in with the tempest, shaking and waking

all life with laughter,

the joy that sits still with its tears on the open red lotus of pain, and

the joy that throws everything it has upon the dust,

and knows not a word.

Blessed spring. I hope to see you soon.

Love,

Shodo

Farm events and residence – Mountains and Waters Alliance – March 5 and later

Here’s a quick note to share some opportunities coming up.

Workdays:

Sunday, March 5, 12-5: coppicing black locusts.

We planted black locust trees in 2015, and it’s time to manage them – cutting back and trimming. Black locust wood is highly valuable as firewood and fence posts; it’s also an invasive species and we’ll probably be managing it forever.

Two or three helpers would be good. The trees have thorns, so heavy leather gloves are a good plan, but I can lend. Skilled or unskilled volunteers are both welcome.

Saturday, March 11, 10-4, maple sugaring.

We’ll gather sap and cook it, from trees already engaged, and tap some additional trees. There will be some tromping in the woods, and there’s a fire to build; dress accordingly. Lunch provided.

For both of these, register by email, and I’ll send a reminder with directions and parking information. Leather gloves and good boots are recommended (ask me about loaners), dress in layers, and there will be hot soup at the end or at a break. Weather looks good.

A note: When we do these projects, we’re asking for gifts from the land. I’ll be talking with the trees in advance, asking their understanding and consent, and we may open our day with such a conversation as well.

Land care retreat:

April 14-16, weekend. There will be meditation, dharma talks, and discussions, with afternoons spent in work-as-spiritual-practice projects. Work details are unknown, but likely may include garden prep work and/or more tree work, coppicing or whatever. There’s a fee, and please register through the website.

Summer work practice:

We’re inviting people to join us to work in garden, farm, and land care, living here for two weeks or more, spring to fall. Meals and housing are provided, private or semi-private room. No money changes hands. If interested, email or call Shodo for more information.

Residence:

We have two spaces for longer-term residents; one opening is now, the other probably October 1. There’s a process for joining that includes discussion and a two-week trial period; you’ll need a part-time job; and I’m hoping for people interested in both Buddhist practice and farm/outdoor work. The website tells you what it’s like. Currently we have three residents, looking to have four.

February Events at Mountains and Waters Alliance – corrected

Dear Folks, this is embarrassing. The date is February 11, not February 4th. Forgive any confusion. This is correct!

Introduction to Zen:

February 11 at 10 am. This two-hour program includes meditation instruction, meditation (zazen), a talk about Zen, and discussion. You need to register; directions and more information will be sent.

Tapping Maples and other trees:

1-5 pm February 11. If you come for the morning, we’ll provide lunch and you can spend the day. Or just arrive by 1 pm. Be sure to register by email in advance. We have extra warm things, but dress for being outside in the weather and ask for help if you need extras.

(If weather is completely impossible, we’ll do indoor projects instead. But the forecast suggests weather in the 20’s, and sap will be flowing very soon.)

Weekend Sesshin

February 17-19. Just sitting meditation. Probably just a few of us, but you’re welcome to come for part or all. It’s okay to register by email.

It’s likely that the next event will be a workday on March 11, but we’ll see about that.

Blessings and love,

Shodo

Mountains and Waters Alliance, January 2, 2023

Entering 2023: waxing moon first quarter, daylight growing, snow paused

I greet you from the land of cold and snow, entering the next winter storm, knowing that the erratic weather is from climate change. Imagining Mother Earth shaking us off, freeing herself – and dreaming that we can still make peace, become friends, live in the hands of the gods again, in the hands of all beings.

I asked for a poem for the time, and here is what came.

Eight years here now,

listening to the birds,

asking the trees and hills and sometimes feeling their reply,

just barely beginning to know my welcome,

to take my place.

The next step is to ask for help.

Oh yes, I’ve asked –

for the earth, for this land itself,

for water protectors at Line Three

and land protectors at Thacker Pass,

wherever my attention landed.

But now,

learning so slowly,

I will ask for myself.

For health, and rest, and human community.

It seems as if she’s moved in spite of me,

calling people here, helping with work and softening my heart.

I forgive myself for being so slow.

After writing, I went down to the altar at the creek, and asked for my health to improve. I could feel an answer. Still a mystery.

The river has two names, Dakota and English. Inyan Bosndata (Standing Rock River) and Cannon River (from the French for canoes).

The creeks have no names. People ask their names. But I honor their wildness and their changing, and don’t want to burden them with a fixed name. The state DNR calls them “intermittent streams,” which seems to acknowledge their wildness.

Perhaps some day they will tell me their names; until then I leave them to themselves.

Changes:

There are now three residents, with space for one more now, probably an additional space this fall. Pleae write if you’re interested in joining us.

One of us will be focusing on the land; we expect more activities, more workdays. Watch here for announcements.

The Facebook page for Mountains and Waters Alliance is now closed, and will be shut down. There are two ways to stay connected. You can subscribe to the blog at the website, and receive emails. Or you can follow my personal Facebook page (Shodo Spring), where the blogs are always posted.

Some online events, old and new:

• The Wednesday night Zen group becomes a class, beginning January 4; you can still register.
• Monday morning zazen continues online.
• The Gift of Fearlessness has moved to 2nd and 4th Tuesdays each month, discussing current events.
• I’m giving a dharma talk at Hokyoji on January 22.
• On January 21, 2-4 Central Time, I’ll be attending “Climate Change as Spiritual Teacher” a council led by Adyashanti, a well-known spiritual teacher whom I respect a great deal. No cost; here’s a link.

Local events:

• Talking circle, Sunday January 22, 4 pm with potluck at 6. You probably know talking circle by now: deep listening, opening to wisdom, clarifying intention. “What is mine to do?” could be our guiding question for this meeting. If we choose, then, we may meet again, monthly or as we are guided. Location at the farm; in-person only. (There could be support and encouragement to do the same in your own place.) Please register by email.

Retreats and Farm events:

If there are additions, we’ll announce them here.

• February 11, morning: Intro to Zen, 2-hour workshop
• February 11-12, either a land care retreat or a simple work day, tapping trees for sap for maple syrup.
• February 17-19: sesshin – silent meditation retreat.
• March 11: work day including processing maple syrup and other seasonal activities.
• late March: closed for a personal walking retreat
• April 14-16: land care: Meditation plus dharma talks and conversation, plus work with the land, probably involving fire – biochar, and/or burning fields to make prairie or to calm invasive plants.
• May will be closed, no weekend events.
• June 10: maybe a workday, focused on gardening
• July to December: to be announced.