“There is an ocean of bright clouds, there is an ocean of solemn clouds.”
Dogen
All members are invited to send pictures to Liz’s file for the newsletters. Pictures chosen might reflect that particular month, a present theme of the sangha, the world, or inspiration. Send to elizabeth.cramer51@gmail.com
Ongoing
5:15 Dharma Downstairs: before Monday night meditation, Shove Chapel
Every Monday evening, in the Sacred Grounds downstairs room from 5:15 to 6:00, some of us meet for informal Dharma conversation, led by Sarah Bender or other sangha members. Topics vary.
Anyone is welcome to join in on any Monday, and no registration, previous study or experience with our community is required. Our discussions bring each topic to meet exactly what is going on for us in our lives, in our world.
Place: Shove Chapel downstairs from the north entrance.
contact: Kelly McFarland S.Kelly.HLS@gmail.com
And for the remaining dates in October
October 22: Meditation cancelled due to a Shove Chapel scheduling issue
October 29: Simple Sit with an invitation to bring in reflections from the previous week’s practice (if you attended the retreat or not)
NOVEMBER
November 3: Zen Threads talk, Meredith Pate-Willig
November 12: Dharma Talk Andrew Palmer, Sensei
November 4, 18: Fall Koan Series continues
Fall Koan Series
November 4 and 18, Sundays
3:00-5:00 PM
Creek Bend Zendo with Sarah Bender
contact: sembender@gmail.com
Koans and koan practice are central to Open Source Zen practice, and the powerful experience of meeting koans together, in community, is one of the particular gifts of our Way. This series of five sessions will give you a chance to immerse yourself in this practice, meeting words from our ancestors with your whole being, verbal and nonverbal, and riding the resonances of our shared enlightenment.
There are many definitions of koans, and each of them touches some part of them.
Here are some words from our founding teacher, Joan Sutherland:
To discover the language we share with
grasshoppers and interstellar space: one
name for that is Zen, and the notes on
our conversations are koans.
All the words lead home.
Nov 11:
All-Sanhga Meeting
4:00 to 7:00 PM
Creek Bend Zendo
This is a Pot Luck!
Please bring a vegetarian dish to share that corresponds with the first letter of your last name.
A-I = salad, appetizers
J-S = entrees, sides, veggies
T-Z = desserts
We gather to share a meal, give thanks for a year of Dharma community – and, make some music together!. We conduct the brief but essential business of maintaining ourselves as a nonprofit, and envision turning our dreams for the Dharma into real happenings in our lives and wider community. This letter is from Steve Milligan, our steering committee chair.
Good evening,
My name is Steve Milligan, and, as most of you know, I am the chairman of the Springs Mountain Sangha Steering committee.
We are the people who get together and make decisions about the nuts and bolts of our community. We deal with questions about the viability of the sangha. Do we have enough resources? What would be the best use of these resources?
To that end, we assemble a budget annually and our treasurer, Brandy Lancaster, has put together a proposed budget for 2019. I have copies of it here and we will go over it line by line. Just kidding. Budgets are very important, but there is a big MEGO factor (My Eyes Glaze Over). We will approve this budget at our annual meeting at Sarah’s house on November 11. Of course, that’s not all we will do. Significantly, we will sup together. It will be a potluck and we generally have a jolly time. We will leave happy and sated.
Like I say, we as a steering committee concern ourselves with questions of sangha viability. How many retreats can we have? Where can they be most efficiently and effectively held? What will be next year’s calendar? How many dharma talks can we have? These are absolutely vital questions, but as you know, if we restrict ourselves to them, it’s mostly empty calories. There are, of course other questions lurking in the background that sometimes get eclipsed by administrative concerns.
Buddhism is a practice that is over 2500 years old, and it has moved from one culture to another, although not entirely seamlessly. How will our practice exist in contemporary modern culture? Can our practice have a creative, alive response to a consumer culture which seeks to commodify everything, including ourselves? We don’t want to swim unthinkingly in the swift currents of our culture, nor do we want to stand apart and define ourselves by what we’re against.
Is there a third way? Can we be subversive? That is Joan’s term, and I like it. Where do we want to go as a sangha? We exist as individuals. We practice as individuals. We also exist in relationship. We practice n relationship. But how do we practice in community? How do we practice in a way that nurtures our members and interacts responsively and creatively with the larger culture? Can showing up as a community be a valid part of practice? Joan has said that sangha is not just a duty, but the practice of sangha reveals the truth of inter-permeation.
As you might suspect, these questions go far beyond the steering committee concerns enumerated previously, and they are questions that need to be addressed, notice I didn’t say answered, by all of us.
We have our teacher, Sarah, to remind us of why we’re doing this. She is an indispensable member of the committee and the community. But we are not passive consumers of the teachings. Both the teachings and the community are created by us. Those of us who show up all the time, and those of us who attend retreats, and those of us who only drop in from time to time. All are welcome. We create our community. It lives in us and we midwife it all the time.
The Buddha said that everything is impermanent. The sangha is no exception, but that only makes it more precious. Both we, and it, exist in a parentheses of time. What do we want to do with it?
November 17: WITR with Sarah Bender
November 19: Dharma Talk Sarah Bender
November 26: Monday Meditation Cancelled due to Shove scheduling conflict
LOOKING AHEAD
DECEMBER
December 1st: Zen Threads by Robert King
Dec 8-9 Bodhi Day retreat with Sarah Bender
Creek Bend Zendo
Each year, at or near the traditional Japanese commemoration of Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, we gather in retreat. We’ll spend Dec. 8 together in silent meditation, (with a Dharma talk and silent shared meals) and those who are so inclined will sit through the night, to greet the dawn in meditation and share a celebratory breakfast.
For more information or to register: elizabeth.cramer51@gmail.com
Dec 10 Monday Sister Dhammadira is visiting speaker
SMS ACTION
Martin Luther King Day 2019 Buddhist Participation
“Activate Your Activism – Just Do It. If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl. But by all means, keep moving.”
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., October 1967
CALLING ALL BUDDHISTS
We are invited to participate in the All People’s Breakfast on Monday, January 21, 2019 at Colorado College as well as a march to follow in celebration of the 90th birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. Planning sessions are underway and there will be a number of ways we can support this event. Please contact me, Percy Pellerin at percy.pellerin@gmail.com if you are willing to help establish a Buddhist presence on this important holiday.
Thanks for you interest and your patience,
Percy
About Dana
We depend on the generosity of our members to support the work of our sangha. Donations are gratefully received in the Dana bowl in the alcove of the meditation hall in Shove Chapel. Also, everyone is invited to contribute flowers for the altar and cookies for Community Nights.
We now accept PayPal donations. You can get to the SMS PayPal link on the SMS web site at:https://www.smszen.org/donate.html or by selecting the donate icon:
Support for Cloud Dragon
An easy way to support Cloud Dragon, the Joan Sutherland Dharma Works
Amazon 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.
Also, we encourage you to visit the Cloud Dragon website: http://joansutherlanddharmaworks.org/Joan_Sutherland/
It’s a treasure trove of Joan’s teachings, and a place where you can purchase books, send a donation to support Joan’s work, become a subscriber.