Dear Friends,
It’s a stormy morning in Voglers Cove. White capped waves even here in the cove, the small boats bouncing on their moorings, the high tide pushing seaweed into bumper-shaped mounds; and the huge elms across the street rattling all their leaves. Earlier, torrents of rain, and me dry and cozy in my metal-roofed Duck. The crows seem to revel in pushing against the gusts, but what do I know? Little kingfisher is nowhere to be seen, maybe hunkering down inside a spruce tree.
Tucked up in bed with a cup of tea, listening to the waves washing against the wooden cribs under the house, the doors and windows rattling with the gusts, this morning thoughts ran like this: Happy. And lonely or maybe I need a new word, alonely, which has some lonely in it but mostly the tang of aloneness. And sad. And content. And these sloshing through me like the waves coming ashore, permissible. No obstacle to them, no objection. They are honest. They bear me no ill will.
I read stories of devastation, courage, unbelievable stupidity, cruelty and greed, unstoppable creativity and joy, determination, and I’m so grateful for these! The whole array of human experience seems to appear in the morning’s news, poems and letters, and face to face with it like this, I have to bow.
At the beginning of the Diamond Sutra, when someone asks the Buddha how a person of the Way should sit, and stand, walk and lie down, he answers with something like this: “At every moment, give birth to this thought: However many beings there are in infinite forms, times and places, I vow to save them—-and so saying, I constantly recognize that there are no such beings to save, there is no I to save them, and there is no saving.” This is not an intellectual game. To me, it seems of essential importance. The thought itself may not even be the vow. Perhaps the vow comes before it: the vow to give birth to the thought, again and again, which would mean without even thinking it. The minute you think it you have to erase it, anyway, or release it to the sky the way we release incense smoke. And most minutes, when the thought occurs, it might be something like, “Oh yeah, I forgot to think that. Can I even think that? But I’m brushing my teeth right now, or I want a cookie, or the phone is ringing, or I’m just so angry….” So it doesn’t seem to me to be about virtue, at all, because if it’s about virtue then I’ve already forgotten that second part about “no…”. Then what is it about?
I wonder if the movement of my heart, the giving birth part, is allowing—just as giving birth, when you are in the middle of it, is just allowing. Allowing what? This morning it feels like allowing this life, this world, to appear within my own heart with everything that it is, and to love it, with and in spite of all. The realness and the dreamness, the impossibility and the possibility; the horror and the beauty.
And here’s how we, this particular community of wayfarers, are so lucky! Because in all of our sorts of connections: our sutra singing, our koan encounters both individual and collective, our conversations, our talks, our meditations and studies, our retreats and our action groups, we are doing this: we are rubbing shoulders and entangling eyebrows with the ancestors and with each other. Awakening happens in relationship—and each time we meet, in whatever form is possible, this awakening is present to us and is strengthened in us. Each time we are with each other we are enacting, realizing that vow.
The community flourishes as we show up for each other, both literally and figuratively. I encourage you to build sangha times into your lives, as Autumn begins, and to consider even taking a stretch of days to take a deep dive into meditation and inquiry together in retreat, October 19 to 24. We’ll be online, the schedule is made to leave ample offline times and you can flex it as needed, scholarships are available…so come, let’s get together and have this odd sort of awakening party that we have!
Yours in the Dharma,
Sarah
For our ongoing schedule please see our website at smszen.org
We have moved all of our gatherings to the zoom zendo for now.
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
September
Wednesday, September 29, 7-8:30 PM, Zoom: Open Source Koan Ancestors Series
October
Monday, October 4, 6:10 PM, Zoom: Meditation and Sutra Service
Tuesday, October 5, 6:15 PM, Zoom: Steering Committee Meeting
Wednesday, October 6, 7-8:30 PM, Zoom: Open Source Koan Ancestors Series
Monday, October 11, 6:10 PM, Zoom: Community Night: Meditation and Conversation
Wednesday, October 13, 7-8:30 PM, Zoom: Open Source Koan Ancestors Series
Monday, October 18, 6:10 PM, Zoom: Dharma Talk, Sarah Bender, Roshi
Tuesday – Sunday, October 19-24, Zoom: Open Source Retreat; Entangling Eyebrows, Rubbing Shoulders
Wednesday, October 20, 7-8:30 PM, Zoom: Open Source Koan Ancestors Series
Monday, October 25, 6:10 PM, Zoom: Koan exploration, Sarah Bender, Roshi
Wednesday, October 27, 7-8:30 PM, Zoom: Open Source Koan Ancestors Series
Ongoing Meditation 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
Thursdays: Meditation and Practice Conversation 7-8 PM
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
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.
Koan Ancestor Series
Wednesdays 7 PM Mountain Time
With Open Source Teachers
Andrew Palmer, Megan Rundel,
Sarah Bender and 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.
To make a donation, please go to https://www.desertrainzen.org/residential-retreats.html . You’ll see a way to donate for this series. Donations will go to all four teachers.
Please note – for this series we are using a different Zoom link. That link is below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84468205285?pwd=TnM4VC84YUdxWHdyNTFSb3ZhNk9Vdz09
Meeting ID: 844 6820 5285
Passcode: 540935
Dial by Phone: 669 900 6833
Meeting ID: 844 6820 5285 Passcode: 540935
SMS Hiking Group
SMS is forming a hiking group! We will create an email distribution list, whose members will receive and create occasional invitations to join the group on hikes around the area. We plan to have outings available for all levels of comfort and experience. If you would like to be added to this group, or have questions, please email Brandy Lancaster at bdl0824@gmail.com.
Steering Committee Meeting
Tuesday, October 5, 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.
Ceremony for the Beloved Dead
Monday, November 1, 6 PM
We will be offering a ceremony for the beloved dead on Monday, November 1 at 6 PM during our traditional Monday evening time. This ceremony, created by Joan Sutherland, is similar to a Dia de los Muertos or All Souls Day though includes elements of a Mahayana Forty-nine Day Ceremony. We will have an opportunity to light a candle and remember those who have passed.
Save the Date – All Sangha Meeting
Please save the date for our All Sangha Meeting scheduled for November 7th at 4 PM on Zoom. While the steering committee loves to hear feedback on how things are working and what needs attention throughout the year, this opportunity is set aside for you to share your musing on what the sangha might want to do in the coming year. This is also when we approve our annual budget and elect the steering committee. Please ponder whether or not joining the steering committee might be something in which you are interested.
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
We’ll be holding a newcomer’s orientation on August 19 at 6 PM. This is a brief introduction to our meditation sessions and forms, and a chance to ask questions and begin to get to know us. 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
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