Giving, upcoming classes and talks, and communications

Giving:

This is the season of fundraising appeals. I’ve been invisible, underground, working on the book, occasional talks, and leading one study group and one discussion group. With nothing to see, I make no claim to your dollars. Still, if you would like to support this work here is a window. Gifts make it possible to give more time to teaching and writing, and ultimately to center my life on our mission. https://mountainsandwatersalliance.org/donate-support/

Currently I work more than half time as a psychotherapist. It’s good work and also demanding, and helps me repay the loan I took out to expand the house and make space for a beginning community. (There will be three of us here by January, with one space open for an additional resident.)

Classes

An online study group will begin Wednesday, January 4, 6:30-8 pm, on Dogen’s writing “Being Time” through Dainin Katagiri’s Each Moment is the Universe. Registration is necessary, preferably by December 15; donations are requested but not required. More information here.

There will be an in-person “Introduction to Zen” on a January Saturday morning, not yet scheduled. If interested, you’re encouraged to contact me; it will help planning.

Retreats and Farm events

The general monthly pattern is a retreat on the third weekend, a workday on the second weekend. Retreats are either sesshin, an intensive meditation retreat, up to five days long, or “land care retreat” including meditation, dharma talk and discussion, and mindful work on the land. There’s a flexible fee, registration required, and I love doing these.

Workdays are usually informal and involve whatever is needed, mostly farm and land work. Lunch and snacks are provided, and no money changes hands. Sometimes people stay after for dharma conversation.

Speculative schedule (that’s even less than tentative, and none of these are event listings yes.)

• January 14: workday indoors, either sewing or construction of the painting/rehab sort.
• January 21: intro to Zen, which could be followed by a half-day of sitting meditation.
• February 11: workday, tap maple trees
• February 18-19, land care retreat, maple trees and meditation
• March 11: just possibly a workday involving maple syrup
• late March: closed for a personal walking retreat
• April 15-16: something involving fire – burning fields to make prairie, biochar, remove\calm invasive plants.
• May closed: I’ll be at my teacher’s last teaching retreat, then various family occasions.
• June 10: possible workday, gardening
• late June: probably no events due to travel for ceremonies at Sanshinji, my teacher’s temple
• July-December: similar pattern, no details yet. Except that I will sit Rohatsu sesshin, December 1-8, either here or with another sangha. There will be at least one or two sesshins and land care retreats.

Talks

November 27, this Sunday, I’m giving a dharma talk online for Hokyoji Zen Practice Community in southern Minnesota. The talk starts at 9:30am Central Time; zazen begins at 8:30 and you can join at any time.Here’s the link: https://www.hokyoji.org/sunday-talks/

December 10, Saturday, I’ll talk online with Heartland Zen about the text Sansuikyo (Mountains and Waters Sutra) and the book I edited for Okumura Roshi. 11:00 am, meditation 10:30. Link is at https://www.heartlandzen.org/

Communications:

At the end of this year I will discontinue the Facebook page for Mountains and Waters Alliance. If you have been following there, you might sign up for blog posts (bottom of this page), or switch to my personal page (Shodo Spring) if it’s not too crowded for you. The reason is that organizational pages keep becoming more and more difficult to use, and I don’t think the page is that useful.)

In Memoriam:

On this day in 1963, an assassination took the life of John F Kennedy, a courageous leader in many ways. It’s 59 years, and the world has changed incalculably. Or perhaps just its appearance has changed, except that now we face climate disaster and open fascism and so much else. We also have great upwellings of humanity, love, and creativity. I imagine a great event at the 60th anniversary, a celebration of life and humanity. My part in that celebration will be to honor the gifts of trees, mountains, rivers, oceans, prairies, meadows, mycelia, all of life – and to ask for their continuing participation.

I’ll follow that with acknowledgment of how it goes in our world today. I’ve given too much attention for too long to external events. December’s post will look outward at it all, hopefully from a calm place.

Mountains and Waters Alliance: a blessing at the Celtic new year

I just want to send you a blessing, as the Celtic year shifts toward winter, and as we move toward the elections and other unknowns. This poem is from John O’Donohue. At the end, you can listen to him reading it.

Beannacht

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.
And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

Blessings.

Please Vote. And Breathe.

Voting is an exercise of political power. Self-expression has nothing to do with it. We vote all the time for people we don’t prefer, in order to avoid potential disasters. If you’re worried about possible disasters of any kind, please vote in addition to your other actions.

To make sure you’re still registered correctly: https://www.usa.gov/confirm-voter-registration. It also has information on how to register in each state, and whether you need ID.

Quoting an email from my friend Bob Ciernia:

“In Mein Kampf, Hitler said what he would do if his party came to power. People didn’t believe him. Let’s not make the same mistake …. Despite losing the popular vote by over 7 million votes (and losing the Electoral College vote 306 to 232), a majority of Republicans believe they won the 2020 Presidential election. What does it say about your view of the world if you think the only way you could ever lose an election is if it is rigged? Again, please take them at their word ….

“If you want to do something… there is still time to affect the outcome of the 2022 election. I [Bob] am a member of this group: https://www.fridayaction.org/projects/#current   [They identify critical races and send postcards, sometimes increasing voter turnout by 10%. Of course there are many options for action.]

“Please remember the words of Martin Niemöller (1892-1984), a Lutheran minister who spent eight years in prisons and concentration camps between 1937 and 1945.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Remember that local candidates matter, Secretaries of State control voting, and school boards make a difference for our children.

And still there is this:

From Edna St. Vincent Millay, over a hundred years ago.

O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!

   Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!

   Thy mists, that roll and rise!

Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag

And all but cry with colour!   That gaunt crag

To crush!   To lift the lean of that black bluff!

World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!

Long have I known a glory in it all,

         But never knew I this;

         Here such a passion is

As stretcheth me apart,—Lord, I do fear

Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year;

My soul is all but out of me,—let fall

No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.

A bit of news:

September sesshin had 3 participants, and was a gift. Even though I spent my free time protecting the garden plants from the first frost, as well as building fires to warm the zendo, at the end my heart was lighter and I was able to engage wholeheartedly with daily life having released some kind of burden.

Here are some photos from that daily life:

Next summer when the garage gets hot, it will be like our own kiln. (This lumber was milled from our own trees. There’s more of that to come.)

For upcoming events, see last month’s post. Except this update: the Wednesday night Zen group is on hiatus, and will begin January 4 with an organized class on Dogen’s writing “Being Time” using Dainin Katagiri’s Each Moment is the Universe: Zen and the way of being time. We’ll meet at 6:30 pm on the first three Wednesdays of each month January through April. It will be more formal than our past reading/discussion, and a donation is requested at a level that works for you.

And there will be at least one introduction to Zen event – a day or a half-day – probably January 21.

There’s space for two more residents.

I wrote last month; now I’m keeping it simple. Please email me if you have interest in either a short-term visit or a long-term stay.

Being Earth

The book is nearly done and has a working title: Being Earth: What to Do With the Time that is Given Us. The initial description: “A Buddhist response to the crisis of our times, Being Earth draws on history, anthropology, archaeology, biology, and psychology to invite new perspectives and possibilities.”

Money is tight

because of the construction, inflation, medical expenses, and life in general. I’m working more hours, but also encouraging donations, tax-deductible, either on the website or by mailing a check.

There’s also a free way to support through www.iGive.com. You set things up with them, then automatically a small percentage comes to MWA when you buy online from one of their sellers. Most airlines and many major companies are on it.

If you’re experiencing problems with wildfire, flood, drought, storm, covid, or social crisis, my heart is with you. Ask if you would like us to chant for your well-being.

Warmly,

Shodo Spring

for Mountains and Waters Alliance

Mountains and Waters Alliance September news and thoughts

Please forgive the long silence. I’m back and will try to be more regular.

First, upcoming events:

Sesshin, September 23-27

(arrive Thursday night, end Tuesday noon)

The term sesshin means “to settle the mind.” We sit quietly together, 6 am to 9 pm with breaks for walking meditation and for meals. It’s a gentle time, and if you haven’t done it before please call and talk with us first. I love this way of just sitting together, but for most people it’s best to explore gradually. Partial participation can be arranged.

Details are here, registration is required. There is no extra charge for staying here.

Workday, October 8

followed by a potluck supper. (There is not an event post for this.) Work is 9-4, break and socializing 4-6, potluck about 6.

Most likely projects involve garden and land care. If there are enough of us, moving wood and other heavy projects are offered. Lunch is provided.

Register by email; say whether you will come for work, potluck, or both.

Introduction to Zen October 14 – Friday evening 7-9

Stands alone or leads into land care retreat. Includes instruction in sitting and walking meditation, brief discussion of chanting and ceremonies, and questions and answers. By donation. If you would like to come just to this and not the land care retreat, please email.

Land care retreat October 15-16 (Friday evening to Sunday afternoon)

This weekend begins with introduction to Zen, then combines meditation, dharma talks, and outdoor work in the spirit of being one with the earth. Registration is required, there is a fee, and more information is here. You may also begin Saturday morning after breakfast, at 9 am.

Online groups continue:

• Zen study group, Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm Central Time.
• Gift of Fearlessness, Sunday evenings 7 pm Central Time
• Monday morning zazen is still at 6 am Central Time. 50 minutes of sitting followed by a short chanting service and conversation.

These are all coordinated by email rather than website. If you are interested in joining any, email me.

Dharma talk online October 2, Sunday morning

This is at Northfield Buddhist Meditation Center The talk is in person and online. For online, use this link   The password is “med” followed by “55057” sitting is 9:30-10, talk is approximately 10-11.

Residents

Having finished major construction, upgraded to four bedrooms, and long work with  volunteers outdoors in garden and woods, I find myself talking with several potential residents. If you are tempted to come and practice here, please

contact me soon. Here are a few basics:

• I hope for people interested in joining in morning zazen and retreats. Zen background is helpful because we share a language, but it’s not required at all.
• Most people pay a modest rent, a share of what it costs to have this beautiful place. There are people who could make that from the land, and welcome to do so: farmers and gardeners, especially permaculturists; herbalists; woodworkers; and possibly basket weavers and other traditional skills.
• Community matters. A weekly house meeting is essential. We share decision-making, yet as owner (until that becomes shared) there are responsibilities that are mine.
• There is no incense or fragrance indoors, because of my chemical sensitivities. We will try to honor other disability needs as well.
• This is an incredibly beautiful place, and it needs care. Everyone who lives here shares in that.(There are photos throughout the website.)
• I hope eventually to share ownership.

Some thoughts on Zen and action:

Tuesday I had a lovely interview with Siddhesh Mukerji, who is writing a book about Buddhism and activism. His questions brought out my thoughts beautifully. Here is a recording of our conversation, unedited.

Last Monday, I learned of an opportunity to support Lakota-led prayer action protecting the Black Hills, He Sapa. My friend Karen Little Thunder and others gathered for prayer outside a Federal courthouse where there was a hearing on violations of the laws regarding new lithium mining. I emailed and used social media to reach whoever I could, and spent an hour at the Central Altar on this land, offering chanting, meditation, and energy. The Black Hills Clean Water Alliance will know what happened.

Blessings in the fall. Please remember to breathe.

Warmly,

Shodo Spring

for Mountains and Waters Alliance

Appropriate response – and some ordinary news

The United States is falling apart. Forgive me for not writing sooner.

A few months ago I started saying “This is what societal collapse looks like,” and I don’t see any reason to take that back. You can look at the list of symptoms if you need to be convinced, but otherwise don’t bother. The Supreme Court seems determined to disassemble every good thing that has happened in the past century or so.

I’m aware that I keep saying this. It continues to be true, and the emergency is escalating.

The question is what to do? The conversation is happening in a lot of places.

First thoughts:

• Elections:
  • Working on electing candidates is not enough, but you might find it necessary. In a year when the media has decided Trump wins Congress, and is reporting in a way that just about guarantees that, there are Senate races and House races. State governments are also very important for what actually happens. Hopelessness is not a good plan.
  • The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact changes the rules to bypass the Electoral College. It’s three-fourths of the way there.
  • Ranked Choice Voting is being used in more places, and it allows people to vote for the candidate they want without risking electing a monster.
  • In the ordinary world we have right now, there’s becoming an election judge (honest pollworkers matter), supporting a local candidate or a chosen one elsewhere, sending postcards with the Unitarians or an organization of your choice. Donating wisely, of course.
• Then what? Strikes and general strikes, sure. We just had a 3-day shopping strike in response to the cancellation of Roe; hastily planned; there will be more.
• Masses in the streets, sure; parades in front of SCOTUS buildings and homes, sure.
• Prepare for disaster by storing food, practicing kindness, getting to know your neighbors …

Looking for what might add to all of this:

The basic understanding of Mountains and Waters Alliance is that we are not the only ones here, and we are not the only ones with agency. By “we” I mean humans, especially industrial humans, especially members of the American capitalist economy, including those of us who consider ourselves progressive, radical, or better than others in any way. Thus these proposals:

• Ask for help from others.
  • World-wide prayer and meditation events. Humans everywhere can gather and send energy (prayer, loving-kindness, ceremony, every kind of healing and life-giving energy) to the whole world, to the centers of destruction in particular (the U.S., Canada, Europeans, every dictatorship and oppressor around the world) to open up and become human again. And to those who are being harmed (Western Sahara, Palestine, Ukraine, and the whole list of people affected by militarism or climate disaster or tyranny).
  • One form is going to a natural place close to you, a sacred place if there is one you recognize, and asking for help from that place, just as you would ask for help from a friend, because we are not the only ones here, nor the only ones conscious. You might bring an offering of some kind – incense, tobacco, food, water, candles, flowers, or chanting, dance, making yourself beautiful – approaching with respect and asking in sincerity.
• Accessing wholeness through meditations that invoke the deep nature of existence.
  • Allowing your awareness to settle into your own physical self, then expand to the area around you, then larger and larger, to city, state, country, continent, world, solar system, galaxy – all impartial, all neutral, just what is. From the largest place, there can be perspective on our fears, faults, and angers. They dissolve. And when you return to this embodied self, allow the wide perspective to come back with you. How small we are; how vast the universe; how vast our being which is the universe itself. (I can write and record this; today I simply propose it.)

Yes, I admit to still dreaming of escaping climate disaster and political catastrophe. But I only propose work that will help us regardless of what happens in the so-called outside world.

There will be a date for this work, or a series of dates, but meanwhile go ahead. I’m looking for people to help, or to co-create. Email me.

Ordinary life goes on.

Here’s a list of upcoming events. Please respond by email to anything that does not have a link.

Ongoing groups online:

• Sunday evenings, 7 pm Central Time, The Gift of Fearlessness. We are discussing current events, appropriate response, and effectiveness.
• Wednesday evenings, 6:30 pm Central Time, Zen study group. We are currently studying Zen Questions by Taigen Leighton. We’ll start a new topic at the beginning of September, for a 6-10 week session, and another in January.
• Monday morning zazen, 6 am Central Time. This will be re-evaluated at the end of August. We may start a group sitting at another time. You can come now using at the link on the front page, or express interest to be informed about changes.

Dharma talks (hybrid)

I will post links and titles on the website as soon as I have them.

• August 28, Sunday morning, talk at Hokyoji Zen Monastery in southern Minnesota.
• October 2, Sunday morning, talk at Northfield Buddhist Meditation Center
• November 27, Sunday morning, talk at Hokyoji.

Farm events:

• Workdays at the farm – unspecified, but possible dates include July 16, August 13 or 20, September 10.
• September 5, 1-4: open house at the farm. See progress on new construction, gardens, and paths, enjoy being in the country. Likely will include some music/poetry reading/open mic time. (Covid safety will be planned as appropriate to the time, with special arrangements for those who are vulnerable.)

Retreats:

• August 1, in Atlanta at Midtown Atlanta Zen, 9-5, one-day retreat.
• August 27, at the farm, Introductory retreat:
  • Saturday morning 9-12, formal instruction in zazen, style, and basic teachings, with time for questions and discussion.
  • Saturday afternoon 12-5, lunch, work practice, mindful engagement with plants and wild spaces, closing circle.
• September 23-27 (Thursday night to Tuesday noon) Sesshin at the farm: silent sitting and walking meditation, simple meals, residential option. Private meetings possible after sesshin.
• October 14-16 (Friday night to Sunday afternoon) land care retreat – combining zazen, dharma talk and conversation, private meetings, and engagement with the land; residential option.
• December 1-8 (Wednesday night to Thursday noon) Rohatsu sesshin at the farm, 7 days, as in September, honoring Buddha’s enlightenment.

There will be some reports later about progress on the farm and buildings – moving closer to sustainability, and more comfortable for both guests and multiple residents.

Emailing is always a good way to start. It’s also fine to register for an event that has registration set up.

Love and respect,

Shodo Spring

And a poem to finish.

Do not try to save the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create a clearing in the dense forest of your life
and wait there patiently,
until the song that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know how to give yourself
to this world
so worthy of rescue.

—Martha Postlewaite

Mountains and Waters – April announcements and notes

Events

On April 10, 2022, I’m pleased to invite you to a dharma talk online at Hokyoji Zen Monastery. Hokyoji is dear to my heart from early practice and also a year of individual retreat in the early days. They are now a thriving community, and because of internet they’re able to invite speakers. I’ll be talking about the well-known lines from the Genjo Koan: “To study the Buddha Way is to study the self.”

Here is information and a link: https://mountainsandwatersalliance.org/event/dharma-talk-sunday-april-10-2022-hokyoji/

There are some other schedule changes, mostly shown on the website.

Changes and uncertainties are for two reasons: I’m nearing the end of writing the book, and the house is under construction.

• May will have some opportunities to come to the farm and practice with the land, including the land care retreat May 20-22. Things are a little flexible because of the construction. Watch for further information, and if interested be sure to email me.
• In June, instead of a 5-day sesshin here at the farm, I will be leading sesshin at Sanshin Zen Community, my home temple, June 1-5. Information is here: https://www.sanshinji.org/sesshin.html. You can join online (no fee, donations welcome); in-person spots are limited due to covid cautions.
• There will probably be an event at the farm June 18-19. With luck, we might be celebrating both book and the new look of the place.
• Monday, August 1, is a one-day retreat at Midtown Atlanta Zen. Zazen, talk, private interviews, outdoor walking meditation – this is not on the website yet.
• The next 5-day sesshin here at the farm will be September 22-27, and then December 1-8, Rohatsu sesshin. May and November I will be at teaching retreats with my teacher, Shohaku Okumura.
• Email me for Wednesday online Zen group, Sunday online “Gift of Fearlessness” group, occasional local potlucks, and general volunteering – including gardening and heavy labor!

Notes

The war between Russia and Ukraine is still going on. The stories are heartbreaking, People around the world are mobilizing in amazing ways. A few people are pointing out that most of us have been complacent about tragedies in other places in the world – perpetrated by the U.S. or our allies, or against Black and brown people. It’s overwhelming. As is the change in the weather, the likelihood of widespread hunger in the coming year or soon after, the level of polarization within the U.S., and a lot more. My personal Facebook page tracks a lot of these things, and hopeful responses, if you care to follow. Here, I try to avoid distractions and encourage wholehearted engagement in each one’s life.

And last night, after a week of rain, I stepped out the door to a clear night sky with a last-quarter moon shining brilliantly above. Just a breath.

With love,

Shodo Spring

for Mountains and Waters Alliance

Mountains and Waters – December 31, 2021

Let’s be quiet now, for a little bit – a few hours, or a few days or months or maybe a whole year. Anyway, just now, a little while.

One of the gifts of Buddhism is an understanding that discomfort, inconvenience, and even pain are part of life – and that it’s possible to be at peace anyway.

The last few years of our shared life have seemed like one crisis after another, with little personal moments of sweetness mixed in. Here’s one of mine: In the first months of the pandemic, my youngest grandchild would get together with her best friend and spend the day playing together in a park a long walk away. Like my own childhood summers. The way childhood should be, in my mind.

I won’t list the hard things that have happened; we all know. We’re in the Age of Consequences. Things are falling apart. Even understanding they need to change, it’s uncomfortable to the luckiest of us, painful to most, deadly to some. We don’t know what’s next. Renewal, a way of being together full of life, harmony and spirituality and blessing? Dictators? Slow death by climate change? Don’t ask to know, just work toward the well-being of all life.

Inner peace does not come by positive thinking or by hope, though they may help us mobilize. We are called both to complete acceptance and to wholehearted engagement. (Meditation and prayer are forms of engagement, as are farming, civil disobedience, and so much more.)

With Ram Dass:

We’re all just walking each other home.

Looking Back, 2021:

This year’s work has been focused mainly on writing the book. The subject was climate change and consciousness, but it grew to include everything. How did we become the people who insist on consuming the earth, at the expense of animals and plants, indigenous people, and our own grandchildren? That was in aid of the real question: “How do we become the kind of people who bless the earth instead of destroying it? That is not an individual inquiry; if the Kochs and Bezoses, the Enbridges and Peabody Coals and Nestles and Lithium Americas of the world continue to devour the earth, our personal actions will be like a teaspoon of salt in the ocean. Political/cultural/economic/spiritual change is needed. I’d like to think the book will help that movement.

I have a working title rather than a final one: Alliance: becoming the people who can bless the earth.  The book is with the editor right now, then revisions, then finding a publisher.

There have been three long silent retreats, with two or three people each, as well as a land care retreat outdoors, a few workdays, and the online groups. The Zen group started early 2020 has settled into a steady community and my home base. The Gift of Fearlessness group is a creative space and also community; we’ll open it up after a bit of clarification. Monday morning zazen moves steadily along with two or three of us each week.

This has been the year of action for water protection/pipeline resistance at Line 3 in northern Minnesota. I’ve felt my absence keenly. In early spring I offered quarantine space to a group that had been doing active resistance and then needed a place to go. In summer Sawyer and I went to the Treaty People Gathering as part of Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light, and of course there was support with letters, calls, donations, and the like – but I wished I could go up to the action, and I couldn’t.

Looking forward, 2022:

We’ll have four long silent retreats – March, June, September, December – and some kind of retreat or offering on the third weekend of the other months: land care retreats, Introduction to Zen, solo retreats. The online offerings will continue.

Visiting remains an option, and I’m still open to discussions about residence here. There’s also a possibility of Zen training periods here (3-6 months) in the future, coordinated with my teacher’s temple.

Construction is planned to renovate the house to create community living space, early spring this year.

We made a Covid policy for the farm, beginning January, linked here. It will change as needed. The main point is that people can feel safe coming here, so it’s a conservative policy.

Personal notes:

Working on the book, I spent much time at the computer and not as much outside as I would like, but the richness of reading and research and the challenge of making words has been a joy. I’ve had medical difficulties, and am seeing a doctor and an acupuncturist in addition to my homeopath. Trying to upgrade a lifestyle I’d always thought was healthy. In 2022 I look forward to more time outdoors, more sitting meditation and formal Zen study, less news, less facebook, more social time, slowing down. From time to time I talk with someone who might move here and start community with me.

My children and their spouses are delightful adults, my grandchildren moving through their teens with grace.

This life is so precious and beautiful. I can’t believe my good fortune, to live where I can see the stars and listen to the birds, greet violets in spring and milkweed in summer, blazing colors in fall – and to have safe food and water and enough of them, warmth, shelter, physical safety, a body and mind that work well, and love. And a calling, a path, a work to do. That last would serve, if I lost the rest.

With love,

Shodo

a gentle reminder in giving season

It’s donation day here in Minnesota, a little noisy, but we’re staying calm and quiet. This note is simply to ask that, as you consider where to give your support dollars, remember Mountains and Waters Alliance as a possibility.

During the pandemic, we’ve offered classes, groups, and sitting meditation online, had a few small retreats in person, and worked writing a book.  Next year we expect to do more.

In the Buddhist world we speak of dana, giving, as a spiritual practice. Most of our activities are offered as gifts, or at-cost; we gratefully receive gifts of time, work, and money. Our next intentions for money are to add to guest space and to begin financial support for the teaching work.

Who we are:

Mountains and Waters Alliance exists to heal the deep cause of the climate emergency in the rift between the dominant human culture and the whole of life on earth. Together with all beings, we protect and restore the living earth.
We create and nourish communities, rooted in meditation and ceremony, that practice farming as activism and defend land, water, and life as healing work; we learn, teach, and invite others to join us.

With love and encouragement,

Shodo Spring, founder

Land event this weekend, and a recorded talk

Dear Ones,

If you would like to come and spend some time with the land this weekend (Oct 9 and/or 10) here is the information and registration link. It’s a work weekend and there is no charge; the schedule is loose and you can come for part of it.

The real reason for this note is to share a beautiful interview with Tenzin Palmo, about practice and emptiness. She is the nun who spent 12 years in a cave in Tibetan Buddhist practice; she is also an absolute delight to meet. She is talking (at this moment) about the importance of foundational practice, which would be calming or mindfulness practice. And about practice in daily life as well.

I recommend this interview very highly. It’s about an hour, and you could listen to it in small pieces if you like.

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo: Emptiness, Dzogchen, and Women in Buddhism (#126)

With love,

Shodo

Ordinary life – Mountains and Waters Alliance, fall 2021

“When the crowded Vietnamese refugee boats met with storms or pirates, if everyone panicked all would be lost.

But if even one person on the boat remained calm and centered, it was enough. It showed the way for everyone to survive.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

Rather than talking about any of the kinds of fear people are feeling these days, I’m going to invite you to spend some quiet and calm time with us, in the crisp cool days and nights, glorious fall colors, harvesting, transplanting, bonfire, good conversation…as much or as little of the weekend as you like.

Work weekend: Saturday and Sunday, October 9 and 10, with more information and registration here.

That’s my invitation right now – ordinary life and community.

The next official event after that is Rohatsu sesshin, seven days of silent sitting meditation beginning the evening of November 30. Mostly it’s serious Zen people who like this – but talk with me if you’re tempted, everybody has a first time.

For both events, we’ll take care of Covid safety as appropriate to the time.

We have a couple of photos: a new altar cloth, hand woven by Kathleen Quinn (in the picture). And I started bringing in firewood for the winter – though to heat with wood throughout would take a lot more labor power than I have alone.

There is still space for extra people who want to live here. Reading the website gives you an idea. A couple of interested people are coming for the work weekend, which is a great time to get the feel of things.

Last – if you would like to support us:

At no cost to you, iGive.com gives a percentage of your online shopping to us. You go here, fill out the forms, put a button on the gadget you most use for shopping, and name Mountains and Waters Alliance. The rest of it is basically automatic. If you do this by November 15 and actually buy something by December 1, we get an extra $5. But mostly, it’s a steady trickle, with a burst of cash for big shopping events or plane tickets etc. Lots of stores are on it – just go to their website as you would otherwise. (Don’t ever stop supporting your locally owned stores!)

Love you all.

Shodo

Personal Action: response to the IPCC Climate Report

The IPCC climate report triggered a lot of thoughts about how to get to action.

1: Getting to Political Will

Given the scale of the problem – climate change is being driven by enormous corporate, military, and government offenses, while our personal consumption has very little effect – why bother changing your own life?

This is why: so you can be ready to live without the destructiveness of fossil fuels and much more.

• If I drive a car to work and do not have another way to get there, driving that car becomes a: “need” rather than a want. This makes me an ally of fossil fuels (or lithium mining, if my car is electric) rather than an ally of the planet.
• If my children or grandchildren live thousands of miles away and I want to see them, this makes me “need” airplanes, trains, or at least cars. This makes me an ally of fossil fuels rather than an ally of the planet.
• If I heat my home with fossil fuels, without them I will freeze in winter. This makes me an ally of fossil fuels rather than an ally of the planet.
• If I heat my home with firewood cut with a chainsaw and split with a power splitter, and don’t have a backup plan for cutting and splitting, I will freeze without whatever powers them. This makes me an ally of fossil fuels (or lithium mining, if my tools are electric) rather than an ally of the planet.
• If my water comes from the city, or from a well on an electric pump, when that system fails I will have no water for drinking or bathing. Without water people die. This makes me an ally of centralized electricity systems even if they come from mining or fossil fuels that devastate the planet.

That’s enough examples. If our lives depend directly on use of fossil fuels, lithium mining, or the like, nearly all of us will protect our lives first. And our children’s immediate lives, even if we are sacrificing their futures to do it. We need to get off that dependence – every one of us – or we will not be free to interfere with the system that is plunging us into climate disaster.

That’s about it on personal lifestyle – and it’s a lot to do. Every single person who claims to be worried about climate change needs to get rid of this dependence, or they will be an enemy at crucial moments.

There is more.

2: Material Disruption

Roger Hallam, a founder of Extinction Rebellion, gave an in-your-face talk about what it takes to make change. First, effective strategy involves material disruption of the machine – political or industrial machine, that is. Protests and marches raise energy, feel good, help with networking – but they don’t interrupt the machine. Interrupting the machine actually does interrupt the machine. Like that well-known tactic of the strike. Like the Valve Turners who safely shut down the pipelines bringing Canadian oil into the U.S. Like every person who has ever blocked a road or locked themselves to a drilling rig.

When you begin resisting, the authorities call you ridiculous, terrorists, and your demands unthinkable. If you’re effective, they arrest you. At some point, they quietly begin negotiations.

Hallam suggests that 500 people in jail or 3000 arrests is what it would take (for the UK); he gave historical examples including the US Civil Rights Movement. He points out the difference between a protest and actual disruption: it’s disruption that works.

Right now in Minnesota at Line 3 (StopLine3.org) people are showing up, disrupting the drilling of the pipeline under the rivers. They’re also filing court actions, publicizing the leaks, pointing out the disastrous social consequences of man camps, pointing out the many ways the drilling is illegal, petitioning any public official who has clout, pressuring the banks that fund these projects and the insurance companies that protect them – materially interfering with the pipeline construction in every possible way.

People specialize in things they can do. Some people physically block the machinery, which gets them arrested and often abused. For each such person there are five or six support people. Some people write letters or phone their legislators.Some send money, or raise money. And everything you can imagine in between. Look at your options – and get ready to live without fossil fuel. Stop thinking electric cars will save our way of life: they won’t.

If we’re going to stop fossil fuels, we have to want to actually stop them. That means some of us have to be doing the other work, securing food, transportation, health care, education, community, shelter, and safety for after we succeed.

Hallam observes that, just like in military strategy, it works to focus on one target at a time, and be overwhelming there. Line 3 is happening now, the team is strong, and although Minnesota’s official actions are closer to its worst stereotypes than its best, it’s far from the worst place to be in jail. (Maybe it’s not possible, maybe we are strong enough to overwhelm them in multiple places at once – the point is to think strategically and work together.)

Finally, Hallam says there are practically no excuses for not getting out there.

I’ll  say, about this other work, that the only people excused are the ones at the front lines or those working 80 hours a week (yes, they do that) on legal, lobbying, fundraising, and the like. The rest of us – well, do we want to be allies of the earth or allies of fossil fuels? Let’s get to work on that sustainable infrastructure called food, shelter, transportation, health care. And community.

Spring, peace, welcome

Spring has burst forth in the past two weeks. Everything in me welcomes it. So today  just this, with Wendell Berry:

“The Peace of Wild Things”

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Activities and events

the Covid disclaimer:

We don’t know what will happen next, though things seem to be improving as more people are vaccinated. We discuss expectations at the beginning of each event (and in advance by email). Summer activities are mostly outdoors. We expect people to be responsible if they’ve been exposed, recently traveled, have vulnerable people to protect, and so forth. Expect standard safety protocols appropriate to the situation.

Gardening:

May 15, Saturday, we will be planting the garden, which has been prepped by several people on May 1 and other days. Tomatoes, potatoes, butternut squash, green peppers, canteloupe, and some herbs. Morning, afternoon, or both. Send an email to Shodo, and we’ll coordinate start and stop times, lunch, what you might need, directions, and carpooling. If we get everything in, there are a few other projects involving berries, fruit trees, and foraging.

Future dates to be arranged.

Construction:

We probably start in June, depending on the building permit. I’m gathering names of people, and their availability and skill levels. (Support staff is good too – for instance cooking.) Email me here, and I’ll keep you posted. We expect coming and going of people, with enough stability to help it flow smoothly.  Morning zazen is offered at 6 am, optional.

The project is opening up the main floor of the house, for added sun, more space, and an extra bedroom. The main point is to create a good south wall so we can attach a solar greenhouse and stop heating with fossil fuels. A second point is an additional nice bedroom for long-term guests or residents. Because the plan is still six residents.

Retreats:

June 17-22 is planned for a sesshin – an intensive meditation retreat in complete silence. This may be shortened or altered in some way if construction is still going on; advance registrations will make sure that it remains in full.

Land care retreat, August 13-16, sesshin September 16-21, sesshin November 30-December 8.

For all retreats: if interested, please either click above to register, or email for information.

Online:

Wednesday night study group, Sunday afternoon discussion group, and Monday morning zazen continue as usual.

Offerings:

I’ve had some lovely conversations about the world. Here are links to one talk, two four-way discussions, and one interview:

Dharma talk, Everything around me is my refuge

The “Dismantling Conquest” conversations, organized by Katherine Jordan: Part I and Part II (90 minutes each)

“Simple Sacred Solutions” is a series of dialogues from Green Yoga Project. Two interviews are posted each day May 1-7, and on their website afterward. Mine will be available Wednesday, May 5 (any time). Register here; you’ll receive an email with a link, to access the talks on the given day.

And if you are engaged in the struggle for justice and human rights; if you are embraced by soil and water and growing food; if you are deep in silent meditation; if you are disheartened by your own life or discouraged by the changes in the world; if you are filled with gratitude; if you are afraid; if you are angry – whoever you are and in whatever state, know that you are held.

If you would like us to chant on behalf of yourself or a loved one, someone in danger, sick, missing, in prison, passed over, or for a cause or a concern, please ask.

With love,

Shodo

Minnesota, Life, Death, a Call for Support

I wanted to post spring flowers and updates on the garden. But too much is happening here.

I was following the processes at Line 3, the not-yet-approved pipeline that is being built rapidly anyway, to take tar sands oil through Minnesota to a Wisconsin refinery for export. Indigenous-led resistance is meeting harsh police action, paid for by Enbridge. (It’s like a cash cow for the local police.) If you want to make one phone call, or do more, here’s the link for information. (The simplest action is a call to President Biden)

And I hosted some activists for a couple of weeks after their arrests, while they quarantined for the Covid that eventually two of them had. They were ultra-cautious about contagion, extremely respectful, volunteered some labor. I learned just a little about how much work it is to be arrested, and the lives of those who make it their primary calling. Sonja Birthisel, Johnny Sanchez (taking the photo), Leif Taranta, Cody Pajic, Julie Macuga, Darius Jordan (not in picture).

Remember George Floyd, killed May 25, 2020? The next day’s peaceful memorial march was met by police brutality (and right-wing violence) and a worldwide summer of protests followed, including a lot of property damage and continuing police brutality. Next week the jury on the Derek Chauvin trial (he killed George Floyd, in Minneapolis) will receive final instructions and produce a verdict. Officials prepared for the trial and protests by erecting barricades and calling in extra forces.

It never stops. Last Sunday in Brooklyn Center (a Minneapolis suburb) Daunte Wright was shot in what should have been a routine traffic stop. This four-minute video shows a peaceful and spiritual march two days later. Every day there were protests at the police station, and on Friday with hundreds of people.

The next morning, Louie Tran says on Facebook “to my white friends who still don’t get it”

“Can’t sleep because of what happened in BC last night.

1.  Police kettling protesters swiftly causing panic and chaos like a blitzkrieg
2.  Police using chemical warfare, rubber bullets and flash bang stun grenades on protesters, medics and the press
3.  Police driving their vehicles quickly through streets where protesters are running because they caused the panic.
4.  Surrounding a church that was providing safe sanctuary for the protester community. (Tried to get a warrant to entree but was denied)
5.  Macing a photojournalist in the face, tackling him down and pushing his head to the dirt and ripped his Press credential off throwing out to the ground. This was shortly after a Federal District judge granted a temporary restraining order against the State Troopers from harassing, arresting and physically assaulting the press.
6.  Detaining the Press/Media and taking photos of their credentials, IDs and face before letting them go.
7.  Arresting medics [Apparently prioritizing medics in arrests]

Please make a phone call or several. I would think that out-of-state calls would have extra impact as they recognize it’s a national issue. It doesn’t take long, you’ll probably talk to a machine. Here:

• Gov Walz 800-657-3717 (answering machine takes message)
• Att. Gen Keith Ellison 651-296-3353 (M-F 8-4:30 only; no email found)
• Sheriff Hutchinson 612-348-3744 (not taking calls as of Sunday noon)
• Mayor Mike Elliot of Brooklyn Center 612-460-1765 (mailbox full as of Sunday noon, try Monday?)
• Ilhan Omar 612-333-1272 MN Representative for that district (no mailbox, try later)
• Tina Smith 651-221-1016 MN Senator (mailbox full Sunday noon, try Monday)
• Amy Klobuchar 888-224-9043  MN Senator (answering machine takes message)

So there we are. I’m remembering a long-ago spring that included tulips by the sidewalk and a nuclear power plant (Three-Mile Island) at risk of melting down – and what would we do to be safe? This spring feels the same. I’m not directly in danger, but this mentally ill society, this white supremacist society endangers all of us.

Be well, be at peace, and quietly consider your own contribution to the well-being of the planet.

You’re already doing something – acknowledge yourself for it,

and if you want to do more, please do.

With love,

Shodo

MWA March 27, 2021 – Sorrow, shock, new life

As we weary of the pandemic and look forward to spring – forgive my rambling. And note the recording and the events at the bottom of the page.

A gunman has shot and killed ten people in a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado. Less than a week earlier a gunman shot and killed eight people in massage parlors in Atlanta. Now, the state of Georgia has passed a draconian voter suppression law, and yesterday arrested a Black legislator for knocking on a door so she could witness the governor’s photo op. In Washington DC The US Senate cannot organize itself to stop minority rule (the filibuster). The Voting Rights Act is moving strictly on partisan lines, because Republicans admit they can’t win an election honestly.

The State of Minnesota has seated a jury for the trial of Derek Chauvin, who was filmed killing George Floyd, which started enormous protests, some violence, and became the occasion for more violence by police against protesters and journalists. The State has invested enormous sums in policing, fencing.

Official violence continues against people resisting Line 3 in northern Minnesota; sheriff departments are raking in the cash as Enbridge makes the mandated payments for pipeline “protection.” Line 3 is in court again and there’s some hope of legal victory. At Thacker Pass, the protest against lithium mining enters its third month of calling environmentalists to account along with mining companies.

Geneen Marie Haugen writes “I am stunned each time another hideous event exposes human depravity or psychosis or indifference for the lives of others. Every time, I (perhaps foolishly) anticipate some kind of collective awakening. …My belly aches with longing to mend what has gone awry, if only I could identify it. I want to be able to say, ‘Here is a way.’

Me too.

I’m reading a book called They Thought They Were Free: the Germans, 1933-45. The stories of ordinary individuals who joined the Nazi party are chilling; the way they manipulate truth and memory is uncomfortably familiar. But here is a comment from the author’s academic friend about his own choices. On taking the loyalty oath, “That day the world was lost, and it was I who lost it.” Although it had enabled him to hide fugitives and save lives, he said “If I had refused to take the oath in 1935, it would have meant that thousands and thousands like me, all over Germany, were refusing to take it. Their refusal would have heartened millions. Thus the regime would have been overthrown.” He speaks about not being ready, not having enough faith that he might make a difference, and so he took the easier path.

We know people who took the harder path. Daniel Ellsberg escaped life in prison (unlike Reality Winner, Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, and even Edward Snowden in exile). Others have paid a different kind of price: Peter Norman, Australian runner supporting Carlos and Smith’s 1968 Olympic protest, lost his career and more – depression, alcoholism, and painkiller addiction after an injury. In 2000 he had no regret for standing up. Hugh Thompson, after stopping his soldiers from participating in the My Lai massacre, “was denounced as a traitor, and spent much of his life suffering from depression, PTSD, and nightmares.” And young Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans were executed by the Nazis. “Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go.”

What is appropriate action? What does each of us do, in a time when things are so ? And then how do we become the people who can take the risk? When I walked along the KXL route in 2013, there was no way to predict what the results would be – and it is still not possible to say what we contributed to the eventual protection of the land. But doing it made me alive. It was hard. Afterward it was hard to go back to ordinary life. Mountains and Waters Alliance, here on the farm and writing online, feels more mundane. But if I abandoned it, I would no longer feel alive.

Spring is in the air; amid the ruins of authorized violence and voter suppression, life renews. Line 3 protests with sacred ceremony mixed with arrests and legal battles. Buddhist Justice Reporter  looks deeply at the Derrick Chauvin trial. Protect Thacker Pass asks hard questions and confronts the self-deception of the environmental movement. Part of the great upswelling on behalf of the earth and our humanity, Mountains and Waters Alliance asks us to become allies with forests, mountains, and rivers instead of trying to be gods.

It’s a frightening time. So always is labor and birth. Be alive.

Announcements:

Here’s a recording of a dharma talk called “Refuge,” given at Red Clay Sangha in Atlanta. Here’s a link for a talk Sunday morning, March 28, also called “Refuge.”

Partial re- opening:

The months of April through June will be a work-practice period at MWA; come for what time you can, join us in zazen and in work. Covid safety continues as a priority,including quarantining in place, limited numbers, etc. In May we do construction, the first step toward solarizing the house. Meditation retreats and work retreats follow through the year; online groups, classes, and zazen continue.

Take heart. Something is rising. We are part of it, we are alive.

With love,

Shodo-

Spring practice period and events

Dear Friends,

In spite of Covid-19, we will offer some in-person options for this year. Things may change if the pandemic worsens. Meanwhile we have online events.

Online:

• Sunday evenings, 4:30 Central Time, online discussion group called “The Gift of Fearlessness”
• Wednesday evenings, 6:30 Central Time, Zen study group.
• February 20 one-day retreat with Red Clay Sangha in Atlanta
• February 21 Dharma talk at Red Clay Sangha in Atlanta
• March 28, Dharma talk at Clouds in Water Zen Center, 8:45-10:30 Central Time
• April 11, Dharma talk at Northfield Buddhist Meditation Center, 9-11 Central Time

Spring

Spring Work/Practice Period is an extended time for meditation, dharma discussion, and work as practice, in the context of community and the natural world. We’d like to welcome two or three people for an extended time, with more later when the weather warms. You can arrive April 1 or later, and stay to late summer. Well, for the hardy March is an option; we have plants to start indoors and maple trees to tap. Please read the more detailed description here, and plan to talk with me before you actually come. Also take a look at the visitor information.

Self-quarantine on site for up to two weeks, depending on individual circumstances. That self-quarantine can be done mostly outdoors, or in your room, with meals and other activities organized in a safe way. Like the traditional Zen tangaryo (which consists of simply sitting meditation all day), it provides a chance to get settled in this place while not having a lot of obligations. After a few days we’ll likely be able to find some kinds of solo work for you.

Volunteers are also welcome during this time.

Main Projects:

• construction – adding space and light – carpenters & support people
• gardening, cooking, general help, and, if there are enough hands, woods repair

This includes a volunteer weekend April 16-20 (come for part or all). Schedules are still in flux with weather, there will be other weekend opportunities.

Please see the calendar for later events:

• land care retreat August 13-16.
• Sesshin (meditation) June, September, December

Even in this pandemic time, I hope several of you will be able to come.

With love,

Shodo Spring