Dear Friends,
Perhaps those words, from China long ago, are the simplest expression I’ve met of what it is to create sacred space. You don’t have to know what bird, what song. This evening, with such hard news of deaths at the hands of a gunman in Colorado, after the hard news last week of the deaths of 8 people, six Asian women, by the hands of a gunman in Georgia, our simple acts—the ones that strengthen our hearts for the actions needed from us—our simple acts like creating a space for welcome in our hearts, these are the acts that can free us from paralysis and let the love under our grief flow out into the world as action.
It always seems odd how, just when times are hard and grief and bewilderment sit heavy on our hearts, at just those times, we can find it hard to turn towards our practices rather than away from them. Is it that we think of our Zen practices as hard work, as something more to try to do, rather than as a refuge? I wonder. Or is it just plain loneliness?
We are lucky, just now, to be in a practice period as a sangha. By coming together with dedication to provide many opportunities to meet, the sangha has created a time when it’s easier than usual to reach out to each other and join in shared meditation, study, conversation. Just deciding to sit when others are present on your screen can really help. And in your meditation alone, you can know that you are not alone. Keeping a green bough in your heart, what is that? What is alive there? It does not have to be some artificial aspiration towards hope. It can be simply the welcome that you offer to what appears, as you appear, right here.
Yours in the Dharma,
Sarah
March
Saturdays, March 20, 27, April 3, 10, 17, 24 Koan Meditation, Sarah Bender, Roshi
Monday, March 22, 6:10 PM: Meditation and Wayfaring Mind Talk, Van Warren
Thursday, March 25, 5:30 PM: Half hour Earth Walk with Debbie Stavish: contact her for location: gardenmail@msn.com
Saturday, March 27 6:30-8:00 AM: Conversations with Sarah Bender, Roshi by appointment
Monday, March 29, 6:10 PM: Meditation and Dharma Talk, Tenney Nathanson, Sensei
Wednesday, March 31, 12:00-2:00 PM: WITR with Sarah Bender, Roshi by appointment
April
Thursday, April 1 5:30 PM: Half hour Earth Walk contact Debbie Stavish for location: gardenmail@msn.com
Monday, April 5, 6:10 PM: Meditation and Sutra Service
Thursday, April 8 5:30 PM: Half hour Earth Walk contact Debbie Stavish for location: gardenmail@msn.com
Monday, April 12, 6:10 PM: Precepts and Community Night
Wednesday, April 14, 6-8 PM: Conversations with Sarah Bender, Roshi by appointment
Thursday, April 15 5:30 PM: Half hour Earth Walk contact Debbie Stavish for location: gardenmail@msn.com
Monday, April 19, 6:10 PM: Meditation and Dharma Talk, Sarah Bender, Roshi
Thursday, April 22 5:30 PM: Half hour Earth Walk contact Debbie Stavish for location: gardenmail@msn.com
Saturday, April 25, 9-11 AM: WITR with Sarah Bender, Roshi by appointment
Monday, April 26, 6:10 PM: Meditation and Qi GongTalk, Ellie Coriell
Thursday, April 29 5:30 PM: Half hour Earth Walk contact Debbie Stavish for location: gardenmail@msn.com
Friday, April 30 – Sunday May 2, Springs Mountain Sangha Integrative Retreat
Ongoing Meditation Schedule
Sundays: Candlelight Meditation 8 PM
Mondays: Meditation and evening starting at 6:10 PM
Wednesdays: Morning meditation 6:30-7:30 AM
Saturdays: Morning Meditation 6:30-8:00 AM, discussion 8-8:30 AM
Most Saturday mornings, a sangha member will kick off a discussion with a brief talk, pertaining to their own experience of practice right now. These conversations are rich and real!
Practice Period Early Morning Meditations
A simple, early morning candlelight sit is offered
during this period on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays 6:30-7:30 AM
Hakuin Happy Hour will take place on Fridays from 4-6 PM
A chance to visit with friends, share what it’s like for you right now.
Thursday afternoon Earth Walks starting at 5 PM
Thirty minute meditative walk, masked and physically distanced.
Join us as we put our feet to our earth and walk with her rhythm.
Upcoming Events
| For our ongoing schedule please see our website at smszen.org 2021 Calendar The Springs Mountain Sangha Steering Committee has generated our 2021 calendar which can be found here. There are a lot of exciting things planned for this year! Mark your calendars for the retreats. We are hoping to be able to gather in person for our Fall Retreat, October 18-24 and are planning more in person physically distanced things as the warmer weather arrives. Koan Meditation Series with Sarah Bender, Roshi Saturdays, 4 PM MST, March 20, 27, April 3, 10, 17 and 24 Koans are the particular gift of our Zen tradition. Collected over a very long time, under many different circumstances, they form an ongoing conversation with our ancestors about the deepest matters–life, and death; love, and loss; war, and peace. We pick up these shards of the great light that we have inherited and hold them in our heart-minds, where they join us in this particular time, these particular bodies of ours and enlighten us—light us up and lift us up, individually and together. Ellie Coriell Qigong Talk Monday, April 26th during evening meditation starting 6:10 PM We have invited Ellie Coriell to join us on April 26th to share a talk and discussion about qigong. Qigong comes out of the earliest Chinese healing traditions of Shamanism, Taoism and Buddhism. Wisdom Healing Qigong uses both ancient wisdom and modern science utilizing the mind’s creative power to transform our lives from dis-ease to health and well being. We use simple physical movements, sounds and visualizations to help reduce stress, heal disease, activate more energy, support overall emotional stability and create connection to Universal Source energy. Practice Period  Going Into the Mystery With Community 16 Bodhisattvas enter the bath SMS Practice Period March 8 – May 3 “Thich Nhat Hanh wrote that taking refuge in the community is a very strong and important practice. When I say, “I take refuge in the sangha,” it does not mean that I want to express my devotion. No. It’s not a question of devotion; it’s a question of practice. Without being in a sangha, without being supported by a group of friends who are motivated by the same ideal and practice, we cannot go far. So I’d like to suggest that the practice period provides a “structure” for us to be a sangha and an opportunity to support our practice and the practice of others, and the actual sangha comes about from real involvement/practice and then delineate opportunities to be a sangha and perhaps highlight the joy of appreciating art that has meant something special to a fellow sangha member. ” ~ Regan Arntzen Please visit the “Practice Period 2021” tab on our website for more details ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Express Your No-Self in the Practice Period Art Gallery Art Gallery facilitated by Fox Love Please email submissions to foxloveart@gmail.com Title your piece and date it. No explanation of your submission, please. It will be presented in the gallery along with others’ pieces. Here is where you will experience your and others’ art. rockcycleceramics.com The idea is to express yourself via art- your own (photos, writings, poems, dance…) all of this is your expression and valuable. It could even be something you see, read, eat- don’t think just do. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Practice Period Earth Walks!  “At first I wanted to talk, but as we moved along warming into a rhythm, in silence, a connection with my companions feet and the terrain arrived. I felt delight at seeing the large sand pieces in irregular circles made by ants. Then back to my companions foot sounds. Tall mullein stalks with yellow seed tops stood like flags above the dried grasses. Feet on mud then sand then rock, and soft earth, paying attention to footing, meditative movement. Fresh air, friends, feeling body breath and gratitude. Walked by a whinnying horse and goats and ducks at the stables. Quiet time allows delight and curiosity at other beings sounds and smells and gestures to meet me. I feel our quiet wonder. Glad we have this silent connecting experience together, without the usual words.” ~ Mary Montoya Come join us- Thursdays 5:30 walking by 5:45; contact Debbie for location- gardenmail@msn.com This earth-saunter with our companions, yes including grasses, sky and maybe a neighing horse, is for all of us. There are no heart rate monitors, no quick destination, just the movement of our feet on with this ground, together. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Open Source Email List If you’d like to join the info/discussion group for Open Source (which is a place for you to offer your insights, spark discussions, etc. as well as receiving notices) just email the address below with your name and email address. opensourcezen+subscribe@groups.io Online Presence Committee We are looking for volunteers to help with a discussion of our online presence, to include our website as well as our Facebook postings. Please contact Regan Arntzen: rrarntzen@gmail.com if you are interested in joining this new team. Steering Committee Minutes Steering committee minutes are available to all sangha members. If you are interested in receiving these monthly minutes, please contact Debbie Stavish at gardenmail@msn.com Newcomer’s Orientation Newcomer’s orientation is offered by request. This is a brief introduction to our meditation sessions and forms, which we pre-covid had offered on Community Night on the second Monday of the month. Please contact Kelly McFarland at s.kelly.HLS@gmail.com if you are interested in this orientation. Work in the Room Work in the Room by telephone or Zoom can be arranged with Andrew Palmer, Sensei at alpalmer128@gmail.com or with Sarah Bender, Roshi at sembender@gmail.com. Work in the Room is a close encounter of the sacred/ordinary kind—an encounter among you, a teacher, and the great matter that is most deeply real for you right now—and what clearly matters because it shows up in a conversation about the Way, whether, on the face of it, it seems sacred or ordinary. No special undertaking is required. Recordings of Talks Did you know that you can listen to previously recorded talks online? Sarah Bender, Roshi’s talks are available here. This link also includes talks she has given through Pacific Zen Institute. Andrew Palmer, Sensei’s talks are available here. Newsletter Additions? Do you have artwork, a poem or a volunteer story to share in our newsletter? If so, please send them to Kelly McFarland at s.Kelly.HLS@gmail.com. Many Arms of Guanyin Dear Friends, in early March we received an invitation to write a few words about creating a sacred space for meditation, for a blog posted by Redfin. Here’s what I wrote: Your sacred space will find you. Wander around, and then sit there. Honor and thank your sacred space by inhabiting it with all your senses: light incense or bring fragrance, light a candle, sing a little and say words of thanks, make a small food offering (and taste some), have a cup of tea, and then just sit down and trust your space to open the moment to your heart and mind. Today, I would send something different, thinking of Bodhidharma’s “vast emptiness, nothing sacred” and the way that recognizing the vastness in which we sit on one particular spot is enough blessing. Another koan includes the words “No place to set this big body down.” That seems like a good blessing also, today. This vast body, where does it sit down? This body that includes our grieving the lives lost in violence, and the victims of that violence, and also those who kill. This body that includes generation after generation after generation of Asian women who have brought our own beloved tradition to us, as teachers, as mothers and daughters, as the ones who fed the monks, as tea ladies and courtesans, poets and nuns, organizers of temple events, healers. Where do we set this body down? How do the hands of this big body reach out in the particular form of our own hands? What do we do about it?? This evening, I sat on a stone step outside the cottage on Second Peninsula, on the south shore of Nova Scotia, where I am in quarantine for two weeks before visiting my son, daughter in law and granddaughter(!)— watching the rim of the sky turn pink behind gnarled branches, over the still waters, under a waxing moon, wondering. But that’s what I wrote that day, and here’s a link to the posting in which it appeared. https://www.redfin.com/blog/creating-sacred-space-in-your-home/ A number of people had a number of things to say about creating a sacred space. Reading them was interesting to me, because they all seemed to be adding frost to snow. What do you notice about the place or places where you sit in meditation? How do you find them, care for them, thank them or tend them? One thing I notice for sure is that the places where we sit in meditation do hold somehow something of the the meditation. I don’t know how! But they do. ORDINARY MIND: EXPLORATIONS IN ZEN AND BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY BEGINS MARCH 18, 2021, 8-9:30 MOUNTAIN MEGAN RUNDEL, SENSEI  In this ongoing collaborative discussion group, we will take up Buddhist teachings on the nature of the mind, suffering, healing, and no-self from a Zen perspective. Each evening will open with a period of meditation, followed by a short talk on the topic at hand, and group discussion. There may be short readings from time to time. We will begin with an exploration of the Four Noble Truths and other aspects of the Buddha’s teachings. Each evening’s topic will be paired with a koan, in the spirit of weaving and unweaving the mind. If you would like to participate, or have questions, email info@crimsongatemeditation. This offering is donation based. To make a donation, go to http://www.crimsongatemeditation.org/membership.html. About the teacher: Megan Rundel, Sensei is a teacher in the Pacific Zen School, authorized by Joan Sutherland, Roshi. She is also a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in Oakland, CA. Megan has a longstanding interest in the uses of meditation to alleviate suffering and promote creativity and integration. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Aruna Dhammadhira will be offering Eco-Dharma and Permaculture Classes in February – April: Eco-Dharma Fridays 10:00-11:30 am February 5, 19, March 5, 19, April 2, 16 This is a course that will show the interconnection of the Dharma (spiritual teachings of the Buddha) and Ecology. We will explore ethical principles and the law of interdependence and how they can inform an appropriate response to our current environmental crisis. Aruna will be drawing upon the work of Joanna Macy, David Loy and Bhikkhu Analayo to present lessons which encourage inquiry and discussion. Permaculture in Practice Fridays, 10:00-11:30 am Feb 12, 26, Mar 12, 26, April 9, 23 This course is for anyone who wants to learn about the principles of permaculture and how to apply them. You will watch short videos on your own before coming together to discuss them once every two weeks . You will apply what you learn to a project of your own choice, either at Deer Park Community Garden or at your own home. Both courses will use the Zoom format as long as the Covid 19 situation prohibits group gatherings. Donations accepted on a sliding scale (see registration form). To get a taste of the content, check out Lesson One Video put together by the Women’s Permaculture Guild. To register for either or both courses, click on this link. ~~~~~~~~~~~ COVID-19 has exacerbated the food insecurity which one in four Americans have suffered at some point in their lives. Pets have indirectly suffered due to unemployment and financial crises abound. Consider learning more about the following local outreach groups : Colorado Springs Food Rescue: http://www.coloradospringsfoodrescue.org/ Westside Cares: https://westsidecares.org San Luis Valley Animal Welfare: https://www.slvaws.org Colorado Springs Humane Society: https://www.hsppr.org Family Promise Shelter of Colorado Springs: https://familypromise.org/ Wellness Committee Our sangha’s wellness committee is headed by Linda Hodges, who updates the committee regularly on needs of particular members so that we can reach out to each other when needed! If you could use a boost of any sort, or if you’d like to be available to respond when the need arises, please contact Linda at hikerhodges@gmail.com. Volunteer with SMS Are you interested in volunteering to help with a specific project within the sangha? Do you have a particular skill or enthusiasm for something that might be helpful? Would you like to help out, but not sure how? SMS truly values and depends on the many efforts given freely by the sangha to the sangha. This is dana and is so much appreciated. If you have questions or want to help, please contact Kelly McFarland S.Kelly.HLS@gmail.com |