August 2021 Newsletter – Springs Mountain Sangha

“In the center of the cosmos, inside heaven and earth, there is one treasure,
hidden in the body.”
“*It picks up a lantern and walks into the meditation hall*.”

Dear Friends,

I’ve been thinking about twirling, and refuge.

When I was a little girl I loved to twirl, and I loved to swing on the wooden seated swing under the tall tall tree in the woods behind the house. I would twirl for quite a while sometimes.

Recently I asked my older sister, the only one of my siblings who is still alive, what my twirling seemed like to her. She said, “Comforting,” and I noticed that that’s certainly present in it, in my memory. The other sensations I remember are a sort of wild freedom of the body, and a letting go. There was the feeling of almost but never quite losing balance, just dizzy enough to be exciting but not dizzy enough to fall. Letting go while everything spun around me, and I, while turning, was also still, in the middle. Arms out, braids flying.

From this vantage point, in the memory of it, I notice how reciting vows and returning to vows has a bit of that same visceral feel of refuge and freedom. I release the tension of the too-nearness of human difficulties into the wonderment of the vow. The largesse of the vow. “I take refuge in awakening.” I can do that? Someone thinks I can. I think I can at the very same time that I think I cannot. “I vow not to do harm.” Really? “This is the cave where the teachings of all the Buddhas have their source.” How dizzyingly comforting!

And “I vow to wake all the beings of the world.” At this moment, in the twirling, everything past is stirred into the vastness, and possible or not possible is not present. What is present is the incredible aliveness of being here. From that, the vow just extends like my little arms flying out from my body.

Here’s August already, and, like someone spinning, your sangha is practicing change: we get a quick look to be clear about something, and then there’s a blur for a bit as things turn again, and we get another quick clear look….something like that.

I hope your August includes moments of simple delight as well as moments of dismay and deep questioning. Surely there are moments of loneliness and moments of connection; moments of clarity and moments of disorienting deep darkness, that cave of a vow, not to do harm. It seems our hearts are tender, these days, in both senses: easily wounded, and quick to love. My practice is to stay close to the tenderness.

There’s a lot of info packed into this newsletter! And to reward you for reading, there’s a brief talk by Regan Arntzen, SMS member, down the page.

Yours in the Dharma,

Sarah

Coming This Month

KOAN MEDITATION SERIES WITH SARAH BENDER, ROSHI

This series will begin on Saturday, August 7 and run through September, meeting Saturday mornings via Zoom. All are welcome to attend, and no previous koan experience is needed.
Our first session will run 9:30 to 11:00 AM, but following ones will be 10AM to noon.
For more information, please contact Sarah at sembender@gmail.com.

THURSDAY EVENINGS AT CREEK BEND

These will be in person, from 7 to 8 PM outdoors, for those who are fully vaccinated. We will sit together for one 25 minute period, and then have open, informal conversation about the things that are on our minds, which we will take up from the perspective of our lived Dharma.
For directions or more information, please contact sembender@gmail.com.

BEGINNING WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 7 PM Mountain Time:
MEETING THE ANCESTORS, WITH OPEN SOURCE TEACHERS
ANDREW PALMER, MEGAN RUNDEL, SARAH BENDER, TENNEY NATHANSON

This will be a series of presentations and koan explorations, running through December 8, where we will focus on the lives and teachings of a number of our ancestors in Ch’an and Zen, spending more than one session on each so that we can really get a taste. All are welcome. Watch for more information, coming soon!

For our ongoing schedule please see our website at smszen.org

We are continuing our zoom and in person gatherings. Some gatherings will be via zoom only while others will be in person. We’ll resume hybrid meetings as soon as we can get a bit more skillful with the technology

We will continue to use the 2021 Zoom link from month to month. If there is a need to change it, we will send out an email.

All times listed below are Mountain Time

All gatherings are via zoom unless otherwise noted

August

Thursday, August 5, 7-8 PM: Evening Meditation and practice conversation at Creek Bend (in person, outdoors)
Saturday, August 7, 9:30 to 11:00 AM: Koan Meditation with Sarah Bender via Zoom
Monday, August 9, 6:10 PM, Zoom: Community Night: Meditation and Conversation, connecting with vows. “Take the lamp into the Buddha Shrine,” says a different translation. Is this a vow? A comment says, “True friends do not wait to be asked….”
Thursday, August 12, 7 PM: Evening Meditation and practice conversation at Creek Bend (outdoors, in person)
Saturday, August 14, 10 AM to noon (Zoom): Koan meditation with Sarah Bender, Roshi
Sunday, August 15, 5 PM (In person): Social gathering and shared meal, restaurant to be announced in the future; pending current covid guidance and regulations
Monday, August 16, 6:10 PM, Zoom: Meditation and Dharma Talk, Sarah Bender, Roshi
Thursday, August 19, 6 PM: Newcomer Orientation
Thursday, August 19, 7 PM: Evening Meditation and practice conversation at Creek Bend (in person, outdoors)
Saturday, August 21, 10 to noon (Zoom): Koan Meditation with Sarah Bender
Monday, August 23, 6:10 PM (Zoom): Meditation and Koan Exploration, Sarah Bender, Roshi
Wednesday, August 25, 7 PM (Zoom): Meeting the Ancestors with Open Source Teachers
Thursday, August 26, 7 PM: Evening Meditation and practice conversation at Creek Bend (in person, outdoors)
Saturday, August 28, 10 to noon (Zoom): Koan Meditation with Sarah Bender
Monday, August 30, 6:10 (Zoom): Meditation and Wayfaring Mind talk with Piper Leigh

Ongoing Meditation Schedule

Sundays: Candlelight Meditation 8 to 8:30 PM – Online

Mondays: Meditation and evening starting at 6:10 PM – Online

Wednesdays: Morning meditation 6:30-7:30 AM – Online

Thursdays: Meditation and Practice Conversation 7-8 PM – In Person

Saturdays: Morning Meditation 6:30-8:00 AM, discussion 8-8:30 AM Online

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 – Online

A simple, early morning sit is offered on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, 6:30-7:30 AM. There will be no designated leader, but the Zoom Zendo will be open and available for those who would like to join. Please leave your camera off while the meditation is in progress.

Upcoming Events

2021 Calendar

Our 2021 calendar can be found here. Save the dates for our Fall Open Source Retreat, October 19-24 . Details and registration info coming soon.

Steering Committee Meeting
Tuesday, September 7, 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. Please email Kelly McFarland, s.kelly.HLS@gmail.com, if you plan to attend; she will let you know if there have been changes to the dates of the meeting.

Trekking group forming

More info on this coming soon. Meanwhile, if you are interested, you can contact
Brandy Lancaster at bdl0824@gmail.com .

Fall Retreat – Save the Dates

The Open Source will be offering a retreat from October 19-24th. Given the current pandemic uncertainties in all of our lives, this will now be a Zoom retreat. Watch for more news, cost and registration info coming very soon! If you would like to help plan this retreat, please contact Regan Arntzen at rrarntzen@gmail.com.

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

Newcomer’s Orientation

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.

Work in the Room

A TALK GIVEN BY REGAN ARNTZEN, SMS MEMBER, ON A RECENT SATURDAY MORNING

John Lennon wrote 50 years ago-“I read the news today, oh boy…”. Fun fact- John Lennon has been dead longer than he was alive.
I read the news today, oh boy…
It seems to be the mantra of my current life
“I read the news today, oh boy…”
Flood in Germany- over 160 dead and more missing.
Non thinkers, reactionaries on the right, condemning critical race theory while clearly displaying they don’t know what the heck it means.
Far Left Woke folks with seemingly no sense of gray or the ability to see improvement or the allowing of innocent mistakes in verbalizing views. Holding to an inane sincere desire that the past somehow reflect current sensibilities.
Lake Mead at it lowest level since 1930, and virtually no one seeing a path of recovery.
The moon will wobble as per usual every 18 or so years, but in the 2030’s will escalate impact of changing ocean levels with unusually high and low tides.
We are almost out of Afghanistan- long overdue, but the Taliban is poised to make women second/third rate people
Africa getting decimated by the corona virus, while we have vaccines sitting on shelves because we choose to follow politics not science.
My dear friend is dying of cancer today.
“I read the news today, oh boy…”
I, like anyone, read the stories of heroism, the sweet acts of kindness to somehow offset the rest, but candidly- it does not. All the wonderful stories- right now- just don’t seem to balance the hatred, division, pain of this world.
I have wonderful parts of my life- my wife, my daughter, incredible friends, my practice, fly fishing, the sangha, golf, riding a bike. I notice the wild flowers. I walk my dogs. I laugh and cry with videos of my niece’s 16 month old daughter as she begins her life with joy and errors.
I am not oblivious to the joy.

Buddha gave voice to the inner truth known intuitively by all- in life there is often found a lack of contentment, a certain lack of satisfaction, an emotional suffering. It is like a cart that rolls, but a cart which has one wheel not quite round. Facing this reality- a way to see the root causes and to understand one’s own suffering was provided, resulting in a path to freedom.

Pema Chodron made a beautiful case, which I concur with, for giving up the usual concept of hope.
I sit today and contemplate a koan- “Within heaven and earth, through space and time, there is a jewel, hidden inside the mountain of form. Pick up a lamp and go into the Buddha hall; take the triple gate and bring it on the lamp.”
Reading the book Soul of the Octopus I am simply stunned about what I didn’t know about this creature and how they “know”. I am transfixed by the question of what it would be like to experience the world as that creature. Realizing my reality is a mirage, or perhaps just one of millions of realities.
I read the news today, of my life, oh boy… Courage seems necessary. Running away, looking the other way, albeit tempting, seems like folly. To try to fix it all seems even more foolish.
I sing the vows, like a toad who was not asked to join the frog choir.
I will read the news tomorrow.
Courage is needed- David Whyte wrote- Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work; a future. To be courageous is not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of those consequences. To be courageous is to seat our feelings deeply in the body and in the world: to live up to and into the necessities of relationships that often already exist, with things we find we already care deeply about: with a person, a future, a possibility in society, or with an unknown that begs us on and always has begged us on. To be courageous is to stay close to the way we are made.
To be courageous is to stay close to the way we are made. There is a jewel hidden in the mountain of form. And with apologies to Pema- I, for no apparent reason-have a type of hope-there is a jewel.

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

One Nation Walking Together

From Executive Director, Kathy Turzi

Dear Friends,

It is hard to believe summer is here! I am so thrilled with the wonderful outpouring of help with the food drive, and I rest easier knowing the stomachs of the families and children we serve will not feel the pains of hunger thanks to you! We have shipped items via box trucks and mail for over a year and we are now happy to report that we are working on our fourth semi-truck load in six months as well as just delivering a box truck load full of much needed items. I am so excited about being able to send the semi-truck loads again as this allows for a much larger impact!

As we plug our way through the summer months, we will be collecting and loading school supplies to be delivered. Again, the everyday necessity of school supplies is needed as well as the other vital items for a home that we ship with your help. Now, more than ever, other items are needed to provide a safe and healthy home for the children, and I believe these items are just as vital as school supplies for learning. Beds for a good night sleep, table and chairs for a meal for a healthy body and mind, clothing, shoes and coats to wear to school, hygiene items to allow for a clean body, and now more important than ever, the cleaning supplies and sanitizers to continue to reduce the risk of the virus as children await the availability of the immunization and for families with members who have health issues and cannot, for whatever reason, receive the vaccine.

Please consider helping support our work and allow us to continue to ship these much-needed items. Your financial donations allow families and children to have much healthier and brighter futures and for us, helps us reach our goal of making that positive difference.

Essential donations of school supplies and goods are always needed. Monetary donations, especially recurring monthly donations, help us get our trucks on the road, to bring these vital items to the People we serve. No amount is too small to make your monthly difference. If you would like to host a school supply drive at your office, church, civic organization, or in front of your home for a no-contact drop off for friends and family, we are happy to provide you with a box, a list of needs, and a poster. To obtain a complete list of needs or for more information, please give us a call at 719-329-0251 or send an email to: laura@onenationwt.org Donation drop off may be done at our office Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. To make your one-time or monthly donation, please mail to, ONWT/3150 N. Nevada Ave./Colorado Springs, CO 80907 or go online HERE

You may bookmark our donate page at www.onenationwt.org/donate Credit card donations may also be made by phone, 719-329-0251 during our business hours.

Thank you for your caring heart!

Kathy Turzi, Executive Director

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

About Dana

During these times when we cannot meet in person, you can donate to Springs Mountain Sangha through our PayPal account. You can get to the SMS PayPal link on the SMS web site at: https://www.smszen.org/supportsms/

You can also mail donations to Springs Mountain Sangha, P.O. Box 2613, Colorado Springs, CO 80903.

We depend on the generosity of our members to support the work of our sangha.

If you want to make a donation to Sarah Bender specifically, for example, dana for classes, group meetings or work on the phone (suggested donations for these are $10 per class, or $20 for a 20 min. individual meeting) you can do this by sending a check directly to her.
Sarah Bender
7528 Jenkin Place
Colorado Springs, CO 80919

Support for Cloud Dragon

An easy way to support Cloud Dragon, the Joan Sutherland Dharma WorksAmazon shoppers, sign in at smile.amazon.com and choose Cloud Dragon Dharma Works as the charity you would like 0.5% of your purchases to go to. It costs you nothing extra. We’re grateful for your generosity.

See also Joan Sutherland’s Patreon site,
https://www.patreon.com/posts/do-you-trust-yr-31567633

This is another good way to support Joan’s work and receive fresh teachings from her.