by Nomon Tim Burnett
November 10, 2006
Dear Sangha friends,
With the blessings of the Leadership Council, I am undertaking to write a letter and update to everyone once per month about goings on with our sangha, my studies, and notes about Zen practice.
Introduction:
The idea of this monthly letter was inspired by my recent collaboration with the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship. The Unitarians very generously provided their church at half of the usual rental rate for our Buddhism in Bellingham 2006 lecture series last month. It was helpful and inspiring to see their very organized operations. They provide their members with a weekly email newsletter on current happenings in the church and a bit from the Reverend about the upcoming sermon.
Once a week is too often for us, but wanting to increase communication in the sangha and start using some of the additional time for dharma work that my new stipend will provide, writing a monthly letter seems like a good idea. I'm not sure yet what it will contain. Musings about the dharma, my practice, sangha news and events, excerpts from texts I'm studying. We'll see. I welcome your feedback on what is helpful to you.
Initially I will send this to everyone on our email list, but as our new 2007 memberships get organized I think I will switch to just sending these notes to members so as not to inundate everyone's inboxes and also to make this letter a kind of benefit of membership as well. I also hope at a later date to be able to post these on our web site so that if you prefer not to have these notes in your email you could have the option of periodically checking in on them on our site.
Upcoming Events:
Seattle Soto Zen talk - this Sunday, Nov 19th, 9am to 11:30am
I will be in Seattle this Sunday morning (the 19th) giving a dharma talk and answering questions. Info on the group including directions to the Aikido dojo where they meet is at www.seattlesotozen.org. Zazen starts at 9am.
Rohatsu Retreat at the Dharma Hall - Saturday Dec. 2nd, 6am to noon
Rohatsu is the annual Zen celebration of Buddha's enlightenment. This is a beautiful little retreat. A real taste of formal Zen sesshin in an accessible format, leaving us the rest of the weekend for other activities. We start before dawn in order to be up before the morning star that Buddha saw just before his awakening. There's a really great ceremony before breakfast, which is provided. Zazen continues with a dharma talk after breakfast until noon. We'll try to have this on our website soon so you can register. Hope to see you there.
Recent Events:
Loon Lake Sesshin
A few of our sangha were able to go up to Mountain Rain Zen Community's 5-day sesshin at Loon Lake this last week. Loon Lake is a conference center in the midst of a British Columbian rain forest above Maple Ridge (an hour up the Fraser Valley from Vancouver). It takes about 2 hours to drive up there (and of the many possible routes, John Wiley's is the best - talk to him if you go). The site is austere and beautiful. Dark, cold and wet in November, a great setting for really settling deeply inside. Mountain Rain took up the wonderful traditional Zen way of eating from a set of nested bowls wrapped in cloth called oryoki for their sesshin at Loon Lake. It takes a little getting used to but it's such a great way to continue mindful practice through the meal.
I was really moved this time by the breath-taking beauty of the formal Zen way of life at this retreat. Sitting still. Letting the mind settle and practicing patience as the mind bumps around through it's courses. Walking slowly through the rain from building to building. Being with everyone in silence. Just sitting quietly during the breaks with nothing special to do. Sipping a cup of tea. Retuning to the zendo, returning to the breath.
I felt great gratitude and also a sense of obligation to keep it going. Yes, it can seem strange at first, and sesshin can be very difficult for us, but as we work with this powerful dharma gate so much opens up, true peace and acceptance of all that is is really there. I highly recommend sesshin going to sesshin when you can.
The sesshin ended with the hossenshiki ceremony, the shuso (head monk's) dharma inquiry ceremony. For each practice period there is a senior student doing extra training and serving as a central point for the sangha. Mountain Rain completed a 6-week practice period with this sesshin and the shuso was Onshin Michael Newton. "Onshin" means warm heart and Michael really showed how apt the name Norman picked for him is. Each student asked Michael a dharma question and he responded with great warmth and a clear heart. These ceremonies at the end of each practice period are open to all sangha members, whether you go to the sesshin or not. Really good to go to if you can. Both to support the shuso and to express the dharma together as a community. We will have our next one at the end of the March sesshin at the Dharma Hall (March 1-4). The ceremony will be on Sunday afternoon, probably about 2pm. Our shosu this year will be Sandy Taylor from Seattle who is a priest studying under Norman as well.
Sangha news:
A jisha for me:
The Leadership Council decided to create a new leadership position of a jisha or assistant for me. I am very happy that Laurel Vogel has accepted my request to be my assistant. Whenever Laurel is in the zendo she will assist me at the altar and outside of the zendo Laurel has offered to do 2 to 3 hours of work with me each week. This is a huge help! Laurel will be initially helping me catch up on processing the backlog of recorded dharma talks. Burning them to CD and hopefully making them available for download also. Laurel was also a big help to me in creating our Zen-inspired workshop "The One Who is Not Busy" at Woodstock Farm on Sept. 29th. Her help opens up a lot of possibilities that will benefit the sangha.
Looking for a Treasurer
The Leadership Council is also looking for a Treasurer. Bob Penny has done a wonderful job creating in a job description and a list of important tasks that we are having trouble attending to as they don't fit into anyone's current role. If you are interested please let us know, you don't have to be an expert in finances by any means. You'd need to be willing to spend a few hours a month, work closely with our excellent bookkeeper, Marti Bartlett, and attend Leadership Council meetings with an awareness of our financial state and an eye on the budgets. There will be plenty of help and support but we really need someone who can make this their focus as a sangha volunteer.
Dharma thought:
I ran into some excellent advice from Dogen on what to do about resistance, well it's written Dogen-style so you have to spend a little time thinking about what he's getting at. The most interesting thing to me is that he does not say "try harder" or "figure out a better technique" but to practice repentance, and to develop a "mind of faith." So what is repentance is a good question for us. Not the usual slant we put onto Zen. Is it letting go of sense pleasures? Is it letting go of something the things we busy ourselves to allow more time and space for practice? Is it a shift in our attitude towards people and things in our life? All of the above maybe. For me repentance seems to mostly have to do with lightening up - lightening up our grip on things. Allows our life to be our life and to unfold how it will. It's something I'm just starting to study and I'm interested to talk with you about what your understanding of repentance is.
Whatever you think about repentance, that Dogen took up this topic is a good reminder that resistance to practicing regularly and thoroughly is universal. It's just the problem that comes with having our mixed up minds and hearts. There is a deeply held resistance that gets expressed in all kinds of ways, some we're aware of and some we're not aware of. There is a part of us that does NOT want to let go of being our usual mixed up self and enter more deeply into Buddha's way of life. So we have to be very patient.
Sangha relations can really help too: sometimes you can hear someone spinning out a justification for resistance - maybe there's a way you can gently support that person in turning back towards practice. Tricky and rewarding business, sangha relations.
Anyway here's what Dogen says:
When you are lazy of doubtful, repent before buddhas with sincere mind. If you do so the power of repentance will purify and save you. This power will nurture faith and effort free from hindrance. Once pure faith emerges, self and others are simultaneously turned. This benefit reaches both sentient and insentient beings.
Repentance is: "Although my past unwholesome actions have accumulated, causing hindrance in the study of the way, may buddhas and ancestors release me from these actions, and liberate me. May the merit of practicing dharma fill inexhaustible phenomenal worlds. May compassion extend to me."
Before awakening, buddha ancestors were like us. Upon our awakening, we will become buddha ancestors. When we look at buddha ancestors we see only one buddha ancestor. When we look at their aspiration for enlightenment, we see only one single aspiration. Fully working with compassion, we achieve the facility and we drop off facility. Thus Longya said:
If you did not attain enlightenment in the past, do so now.
Liberate this body that is the culmination of many lifetimes.
Before enlightenment, ancient buddhas were like us.
When enlightened we are like those of old.
This is the understanding of a realized buddha. We should replace on it. With repentance you will certainly receive invisible help from buddha ancestors. With mind and body, you should repent to the buddhas. The power of repentance melts the roots of unwholesomeness. This is the single color of true practice, true mind of faith, true body of faith.
from Dogen's Valley Sounds, Mountain Colors (Keisei Sanshoku) in Enlightenment Unfolds, ed. Kaz Tanahashi, p 66-68
yours in the dharma,
Nomon Tim
Resident Priest Nomon Tim Burnett has been a student of Zoketsu Norman Fischer since 1987 when he was a resident at San Francisco Zen Center's Green Gulch Farm. After sitting practice periods at Green Gulch and Tassajara Zen Monastery, Tim helped found the Bellingham Zen Practice Group in 1991. Tim was ordained as a Zen Priest by Norman in June, 2000. Like his teacher, Tim is interested in the possibility of deep and complete practice by lay people.
A person of wide-ranging professional interests, Tim has been a botanist, elementary schoolteacher, writer, and computer programmer. In addition to his work at the Resident Priest of Red Cedar Zen Community, Tim works as a software developer.