Dear Sangha and Friends,
This morning I attended a monthly Repentance Ceremony at the Dharma Rain Buddhist Temple, where our friend Rev. Pho Khai is Abbot. It’s a very beautiful service, with chanting in Vietnamese and 108 bows. The chants include, Purification, A Compassion chant, Refuge, and then a Commitment chant: “I commit myself to….the Universal Enlightenment Buddha, and 107 other names of Buddha,” followed by the Heart Sutra, The Ten Vows of Samantrabhadra Bodhisattva, and the Verse of Transference of Merit. A delicious lunch of Pho was served afterwards.
My legs will forgive me by tomorrow for the 108 bows, and meantime, to make them with the community and immersed in the chanting was very moving. So worth it!
We are also invited to hold an in-person meditation of our own using our own SMS forms, in the beautiful and spacious Dharma Rain Temple. Tentative date set for this is Sunday, June 13. Stay tuned for more information.
I will be meeting with Rev. Pho Khai and some others at 5 PM on SATURDAY, June 5 to begin planning for an interfaith event that will allow us to raise our voices in response to hate crimes committed against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders recently, and against others, as well.
If you are interested in joining in this project, please let me know.
I’m also a member of the Pikes Peak Interreligious Clergy group, which is currently planning a multifaith event as part of the Colorado Springs SesquiCentennial celebrations.
This evening, as the plants of this particular stretch of earth are soaking up nourishing rains, leafing out, pushing upward, flowering and filling our eyes and lungs with their aliveness, it’s a time for tending life, life in the midst of the small and huge uncertainties, the losses and the joys of the time. It’s a time for allowing this enlivening to soak deep, deep into us as well. Healing and courageous collaboration are both essential and possible in our time, as in all times. Best we get about it.
Yours in the Dharma,
Sarah
MAY
This time we’ll sit for one period, walk, and then, as a continuation of our conversations about the roots and shoots of our Open Source Koan Way, we’ll talk about where our particular refuge vows and precepts come from, how they’ve developed in our time, and what happens when we take them up individually and together as a life-long inquiry. How does your practicing precepts in the koan way form, inform and transform your particular awakening with all beings? What is its relationship with service? With your core vow? Sarah Bender will lead off the conversation, then open the Zoom floor.
June
Tuesday, June 1, 6:15 PM: Steering Committee Meeting, all welcome
Sunday, June 6: One Day Open Source Retreat online
Monday, June 7, 6:10 PM: Meditation and Sutra Service
Monday, June 14, 6:10 PM: Community Night: Meditation and Conversation
Friday, June 18, 6:30 PM: Movie Night—Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a film based on August Wilson’s play. Watch ahead of time, BYO popcorn. On the sangha Zoom.Monday, June 21, 6:10 PM: Meditation and Dharma Talk, Sarah Bender, Roshi
Monday, June 28, 6:10 PM: Meditation and Koan Exploration, Sarah Bender, Roshi
Ongoing Schedule
Sundays: Candlelight Meditation 8 to 8:30 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!
Additional Early Morning Meditations will continue
A simple, early morning sit is offered on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays
6:30-7:30 AM. On Fridays, there will be no designated leader, but the Zoom Zendo will be left open and available for those who would like to join. There will be no morning sits on Sundays. As before, Please leave your camera off while the meditation is in progress.
Upcoming Events
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 Open Source Retreat, October 18-24 and are planning more in person physically distanced things as the warmer weather arrives.
Cloud Dragon Website
Have you visited our Founding teacher, Joan Sutherland, Roshi’s website? The Dharma Works is the place to access Joan Sutherland, Roshi’s published writings, videos, and the audio archive of her talks, as well as a growing body of transcripts of those talks. You can find our Sutra Book, reading list, and descriptions of our ceremonies. It is truly a gift to us, awaiting our exploration. Take a look at https://joansutherlanddharmaworks.org/index.html
New Book from Joan Sutherland, Roshi!
Joan Sutherland, Roshi has been working a book that will be published by Shambhala next year. The nucleus of the manuscript is Acequias & Gates, published in 2013. As she reread it, it became clear that the world had changed a lot in the years since and the book needed to, too. So the manuscript is mostly new content, including commentaries on some key koans that are interspersed among the assays. In the end, the book has about doubled in size, with every section rewritten and many new ones added. Become a Subscriber and receive all the recordings of Joan reading her new book!
Here is a link for getting the new audio files from the book in progress when you subscribe (good for the rest of the year).
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Special-Spring-Subscription-Offer.html?soid=1102775044253&aid=9G9RHV0-5oY
Steering Committee Meeting
Tuesday, June 1st, 6:15 PM
All are welcome to join us at our monthly steering committee meeting if you would like to share thoughts with the steering committee or take a more active role in the business side of the sangha. No commitment is required, feel free to drop in. We typically meet the first Tuesday of the month, but at times this changes due to steering committee members’ schedules. Due to this, it may be a good idea in future months to email Kelly McFarland, s.kelly.HLS@gmail.com, if you plan to attend and she will let you know if there have been changes to the dates of the meeting.
June One-Day Open Source Retreat
FLOWERS RAIN DOWN
A ONE-DAY RETREAT
WITH SARAH BENDER, ANDREW PALMER, TENNEY NATHANSON, AND MEGAN RUNDEL
JUNE 6, 2021
9-5 PACIFIC/10-6 MOUNTAIN
THE ZOOM TEMPLE
The Goddess “makes herself visible and showers flowers on everyone. The flowers rain down.”
– from Vimalakirti & the Awakened Heart by Joan Sutherland
Join us for a day of meditation and exploration of what it’s like when flowers rain down on us, a taste of early summer. It’s a day to deepen into your meditation practice with our beautiful community! There will be silence, dharma talks, sitting and walking meditation, and conversations with companions of the way. All are welcome!
Cost: Sliding scale: $75/50/25.
Register here:
https://www.desertrainzen.org/retreat-registration.html
Fall Retreat – Save the Dates
The Open Source will be offering a retreat from October 18-24th. We are currently planning for this to be an IN PERSON retreat at Pueblo Mountain Park in Beulah, CO. If you would like to help plan this retreat, please contact Kelly McFarland at s.kelly.HLS@gmail.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
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
We are invited to join Rev. Pho Khai and the Vietnamese Community
for a Repentance Ceremony, followed by refreshments the last Sunday of each month
at Dharma Rain Buddhist Temple
Please contact Sarah Bender if you plan to attend, at sembender@gmail.com
Rev. Pho Khai has built this temple almost entirely with his own hands.
He continues to build and expand it, and it is truly beautiful.
Sarah will also be meeting with Rev. Pho Khai and any interested others on Saturday, June 5, 5 PM at the temple, to plan for a way to raise our voices about anti-Asian hate crimes in America. Please contact Sarah if you are interested in joining in this interfaith effort.
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