Mountains and Waters Alliance Blog: Practicing with the News

Practicing with the News

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

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

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

Tuesday, August 8

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, August 15: 

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

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

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

What does spiritual practice look like here?

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

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

Can we have a conversation based on all of this?

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

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

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

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

Miscellaneous

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

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

farm news:

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

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

Love to all. Please be in touch.

Shodo

for Mountains and Waters Alliance

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

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

Here are a few other upcoming events:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mountains and Waters Alliance – July 1, 2023

Greetings from the land of summer!

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

Events:

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

There will be later events and talks, including

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

The Farm:

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

Reflections:

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

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

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

Third, a family vacation in the Carribean.

Fourth, an inipi (sweat lodge) ceremony.

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

Studying patterns:

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

The Thunder Beings have promised to help:

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

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

Love,

Shodo

for Mountains and Waters Alliance

Mountains and Waters Alliance: Summer Newsletter & online invitation

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

Events:

Online:

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

Farm:

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

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

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

Retreats:

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

Personal markers:

I’m noticing anniversaries.

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

Gratitude:

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

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

May it continue.

New possibilities

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

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

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

Donating and support:

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

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

Spring is here.

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

The world is doing what it does.

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

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

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

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.

Dharma talk January 21 at Hokyoji

I’m giving a talk online at Hokyoji, a Zen practice center in Southern Minnesota. You can find information and access the talk at https://www.hokyoji.org/sunday-talks/ The talk begins at 9:30 am Central Time; sitting meditation is offered at 8:30 and 9:00.

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.

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

Even In War

About two days ago, a shooting war began between Russia and Ukraine. Everyone knows who is right and wrong, except me. People have sent essays and speeches, and I can add a few bits of information or links. Here is just one source of many: a talk by Vladimir Pozner. There are some common themes in these alternative voices: that Western powers promised that NATO wouldn’t expand eastward, and then it did; that Putin once wanted to join NATO and was turned down. I do not support Putin or the invasion, but the media has gotten into that cheerleading mode that I cannot join.

War is never good. Claims of innocence are always suspect, though innocence does exist in the world. What to do? Praying for peace is always a good thing; meditating for justice is also safe. That’s all I’m going to say. You’re invited to add a comment with your favorite information source.

Meanwhile, life goes on here, far from the war. It’s a little disconcerting, being aware that all our lives are in the balance and not quite sure what to do. But really, not so different from dealing with global warming, or violent racism, or most things: what can we do?  Joanna Macy describes three kinds of action: holding actions, building the new future, and spiritual work. I’m mostly involved in the latter two, living in a present and working for a future spiritually based and connected with all of life.

It would be great if people who are doing things add a link or a short comment – especially about these very immediate events including the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

News at Home:

A local reporter came to do a story, and did this beautiful and wise description of what we’re doing here:

Local group uses Buddhist practices to to seek understanding

There seems to be a paywall. They told me people could generally access the article once or twice before the paywall came up, but some people are having difficulty. I am trying to arrange access.

In response to this welcome, I will offer some introductory afternoons later this year, summer or fall.

Spring 2022 Events:

• This spring, we have a 5-day sesshin March 18-22: silent sitting and walking meditation, shared meals, very simple. (Register soon please)
• On March 26, a Saturday morning, I’m giving a dharma talk “Together With All Beings: Understanding the Self” online at Heartland Zen.
• April 10, a Sunday morning, I give a talk online at Hokyoji Zen Monastery, no title yet.
• May 5-9 I will be attending the Genzo-e (teaching retreat) at Sanshin Zen Community, with my teacher Shohaku Okumura, available online.
• June 5, a Sunday morning, I give a talk online and in person at Clouds in Water Zen Community, no title.
• June 17-21 is the summer 5-day sesshin.
• Online groups continue, and are coordinated by email, newcomers welcome:
  • The Gift of Fearlessness, Sundays 4:30-6 pm Central Time, weeks 1, 2, 4, and 5
  • Zen study group, Wednesdays 6:30-8 pm Central Time
  • Monday morning zazen – sitting meditation, Monday mornings 5:55-7 Central Time

We expect to have construction in April, dates unknown, and there will be a chance for volunteers to help – especially with moving furniture, possibly with painting and other work.

Poem

Last, I want to leave you with this poem by Wendell Berry. It’s from 1977; I can’t say it’s still true 45 years later. I still offer it.

A Vision

If we will have the wisdom to survive,
to stand like slow-growing trees
on a ruined place, renewing, enriching it,
if we will make our seasons welcome here,
asking not too much of earth or heaven,
then a long time after we are dead
the lives our lives prepare will live
here, their houses strongly placed
upon the valley sides, fields and gardens
rich in the windows. The river will run
clear, as we will never know it,
and over it, birdsong like a canopy.
On the levels of the hills will be
green meadows, stock bells in noon shade.
On the steeps where greed and ignorance cut down
the old forest, an old forest will stand,
its rich leaf-fall drifting on its roots.
The veins of forgotten springs will have opened.
Families will be singing in the fields.
In their voices they will hear a music
risen out of the ground. They will take
nothing from the ground they will not return,
whatever the grief at parting. Memory,
native to this valley, will spread over it
like a grove, and memory will grow
into legend, legend into song, song
into sacrament. The abundance of this place,
the songs of its people and its birds,
will be health and wisdom and indwelling
light. This is no paradisal dream.
Its hardship is its possibility.

Wendell Berry

Sending blessings to you. Inviting you to pray for peace, love, and joy, for justice and freedom. Inviting you to stop by the nearest old tree, or meadow, or creek, to greet them warmly, bring an offering of any kind (a song? A cookie?) and speak to them the same prayers, share with them, consider them as friends and allies.

Love,

Shodo

Dharma talk January 23: Thich Nhat Hanh and teachings on self.

I had promised to talk about the Buddhist understanding of Self. But the great Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh has just died. I’ll still talk about self, through his teachings. You can find information and access the talk at https://www.hokyoji.org/sunday-talks/ The talk begins at 9:30 am; sitting meditation is offered at 8:30 and 9:00.

Some words from me:

On Friday the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh entered parinirvana, at 95 years of age. He wrote:

Instructions for the Continuation

“Please do not build a stupa for me. Please do not put my ashes in a vase, lock me inside, and limit who I am. I know this will be difficult for some of you. If you must build a stupa though, please make sure that you put a sign on it that says, ‘I am not in here.’ In addition, you can also put another sign that says, ‘I am not out there either,’ and a third sign that says, ‘If I am anywhere, it is in your mindful breathing and in your peaceful steps.’”

We think we have selves, and that they last, that they are more important than our bodies. This is a mistake. There is a self for each of us at every moment. It arises in the moment, given birth by our own karma from past actions, and by everything around us – everything in the world. Each self is instantaneous; they seem to last because the karma is similar and some of the surroundings are similar too. But a self is momentary.

The thought of speaking about self was triggered by reading this from Ivan Illich:

In oral cultures, one may retain an image of what has been …but the person exists only in the doing or the telling, as the suffix comes to life only when it modifies a verb. Like a candle, the “I” lights up only in the activity and is extinguished at other times. But not dead. With the retelling of the story, the candle comes to glow again. No pilot light gives continuity to the first person singular between one story and the next. The “I” can exist only in the act of speaking out loud – or to oneself.

The idea of a self that continues to glimmer in thought or memory, occasionally retrieved and examined in the light of day, cannot exist without the text. Where there is no alphabet, there can neither be a memory conceived as a storehouse nor the “I” as its appointed watchman.

We now live in a time and place that idolizes the self. A look at advertising will tell you that. We can’t imagine meeting each other except as selves. We worry about losing ourselves – and our protective actions create a suit of armor – heavy, exhausting, and inaccessible to the outside – inaccessible to life. We’re ready to fight to protect this self. Even if we know better, we imagine a lasting self.

Other things also seem to have selves: a family, a neighborhood, a group, a nation, a world. Imagining that they are permanent and thinking they can be annihilated, we arm ourselves and defend them. The idea of a lasting self causes suffering. Yet there is a self that arises and ceases, moment by moment, fresh and new. Here is an image of the way it goes with self, from writer Sharon Blackie:

We think that we imagine the land, but perhaps the land imagines us, and in its imaginings it shapes us. The exterior landscape interacts with our interior landscape, and in the resulting entanglements, we become something more than we otherwise could ever hope to be.

And my own story – I didn’t become a Buddhist, or receive the precepts or shave my head and become a priest. I didn’t walk for three months through the Great Plains. Something moved in the wholeness of things, and pushed this little personal self one way or the other, and I found myself in places I had never imagined. Doing things I can’t possibly do as a self.

Thich Nhat Hanh wrote this about losing his mother:

The day my mother died I wrote in my journal, “A serious misfortune of my life has arrived.” I suffered for more than one year after the passing away of my mother. But one night, in the highlands of Vietnam, I was sleeping in the hut in my hermitage. I dreamed of my mother. I saw myself sitting with her, and we were having a wonderful talk. She looked young and beautiful, her hair flowing down. It was so pleasant to sit there and talk to her as if she had never died. When I woke up it was about two in the morning, and I felt very strongly that I had never lost my mother. The impression that my mother was still with me was very clear. I understood then that the idea of having lost my mother was just an idea. It was obvious in that moment that my mother is always alive in me.

I opened the door and went outside. The entire hillside was bathed in moonlight. It was a hill covered with tea plants, and my hut was set behind the temple halfway up. Walking slowly in the moonlight through the rows of tea plants, I noticed my mother was still with me. She was the moonlight caressing me as she had done so often, very tender, very sweet… wonderful! Each time my feet touched the earth I knew my mother was there with me. I knew this body was not mine but a living continuation of my mother and my father and my grandparents and great-grandparents. Of all my ancestors. Those feet that I saw as “my” feet were actually “our” feet. Together my mother and I were leaving footprints in the damp soil.

From that moment on, the idea that I had lost my mother no longer existed. All I had to do was look at the palm of my hand, feel the breeze on my face or the earth under my feet to remember that my mother is always with me, available at any time.

These are very personal experiences, described by a great teacher who was once that young man whose mother died. So he gives us the same thought now: don’t think that I’m in the stupa, or outside of the stupa, but maybe think that I’m in your own mindful breathing and peaceful steps.

Don’t think that he is gone. He’s just moved on. Don’t think that you or I exist or can be destroyed. Think of yourself as lightly as a feather, a leaf on the wind, moved by something larger, carried by all beings, created every moment by Life itself.

This body is not me.

I am not limited by this body.

I am life without boundaries.

I have never been born,

and I shall never die.

Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars,

manifestations from my wondrous true mind.

Since before time, I have been free.

Birth and death are only doors through which we pass,

sacred thresholds on our journey.

Birth and death are a game of hide-and-seek.

So laugh with me,

hold my hand,

let us say good-bye,

say good-bye, to meet again soon.

We meet today.

We will meet again tomorrow.

We will meet at the source every moment.

We meet each other in all forms of life.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

They remind us of the Buddha’s teaching on death:

One day the Buddha asked the monks to leave and find other places to stay during the monsoon….After the monks had left, Ananda could see that his master was ill. The Blessed One, in great pain, found comfort only in deep meditation. But with the strength of will, he overcame his illness.

Ananda was relieved but shaken. When I saw the Blessed One’s sickness my own body became weak, he said. Everything became dim to me, and my senses failed. Yet I still had some comfort in the thought that the Blessed One would not come to his final passing away until he had given some last instructions to his monks.

The Lord Buddha responded, What more does the community of monks expect from me, Ananda? I have taught the dharma openly and completely. I have held nothing back, and have nothing more to add to the teachings. A person who thought the sangha depended on him for leadership might have something to say. But, Ananda, the Tathagata has no such idea, that the sangha depends on him. So what instructions should he give?

Now I am frail, Ananda, old, aged, far gone in years. This is my eightieth year, and my life is spent. My body is like an old cart, barely held together.

Therefore, Ananda, be islands unto yourselves, refuges unto yourselves, seeking no other refuge; with the Dharma as your island, the Dharma as your refuge, seeking no other refuge.

At Kushinagara, where he died:

Then the Blessed One said to Ananda, Enough, Ananda! Do not grieve! Have I not taught from the very beginning that with all that is dear and beloved there must be change and separation? All that is born, comes into being, is compounded, and is subject to decay. How can one say: “May it not come to dissolution”? This cannot be.

He said a few more things, then:

All compounded things are subject to decay. Strive with diligence. Then, serenely, he passed into Parinirvana.

Thich Nhat Hanh had retired after his stroke, and gone to live quietly in his home of Vietnam, surrounded by students who loved him. The Buddha continued teaching to the last, and even gave teaching from his deathbed, to one last beginner. Both let their lives go lightly and peacefully.

We have this teaching from Thich Nhat Hanh.

There is no birth, there is no death;

there is no coming, there is no going;

there is no same, there is no different;

there is no permanent self, there is no annihilation.

We only think there is.

May we receive this teaching. May we allow our lives to be lived. May we recognize that myriad things come forth and experience the self.

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