Autumn appeal
“We have to seek God in error and forgetfulness and foolishness.” — Meister Eckhart I remember attending my first sesshin with Aitken Roshi in Hawaii as a younger man. I was drawn to be there because, well, it was Hawaii, but mostly because of Aitken’s encouragement, and my own deep questions about violence, injustice and suffering. However, after a few days I was sure I had made a great error. The rituals and chants were alien to me. The long hours of sitting wracked my body. The daily Dharma talks were incomprehensible. I had to...
read moreZazenkai, November 9, Engaging Lay Practice
This Sunday, at Dharma Gate, please join Three Treasures Sangha for a zazenkai, day of sitting & a dharma talk. The schedule will be: 9:00 Opening, Five Remembrances, Zazen 9:35 Zazen: Offering of selected lines of a reading from Dogen 10:30 Introductory words by Lee and/or Madelon, and discussion, Kinhin 11:30 Zazen 12:30 Informal lunch (Soup, bread & cheese provided. Please bring sandwich fixings or other food to share.) 1:30 Sutras 2:00 Zazen, Interviews 2:50 Closing, Great...
read moreBuddha Twirls a Flower: Or, Buddha Albert Einstein, and George Carlin walk into a bar
By Lee Shields The Gateless Barrier, Case 6: Once, in ancient times, when the World-Honored One was at Mount Grdbrakuta, s/he twirled a flower before her assembled disciples. All were silent. Only Mahakasyapa broke into a smile. The World-Honored One said, “I have the eye treasury of right Dharma, the subtle mind of nirvana, the true form of no-form, and the flawless gate of the teaching. It is not established upon words and phrases. It is special transmission outside tradition. I now entrust this to Mahakasyapa. This is an utterly simple...
read moreThis Sunday: Commemorative stone dedication, October 26
Please join us this Sunday, October 26, for a special ceremony to initiate an area on the grounds that honors our root teachers, Robert Aiken and Thich Nhat Hanh, and members of our sanghas who have passed on. We will start with a half hour of sitting from 10:00 to 10:30 A.M. and then walk outside to the commemorative area, where stones will be placed for late members of MCPS and TTS. Members of their families have been invited to join us for this ceremony. Friends and families will be welcome to say a few words about our loved ones who have...
read moreRegister now for Broken Raven sesshin, September 20-27
On September 20 we begin our 7-day sesshin – an intensive meditation retreat with Jack Duffy Roshi. Sesshin is a wonderful opportunity to deepen practice with seven days of silent meditation, teishos and dokusan (talks and individual meetings) with Jack. In sesshin, we pick up practice early in the morning, and carry it with us in formal sitting, chanting, eating, and rest periods through the day. The ritual is all designed to support practice in all activities without distraction. If you haven’t done sesshin with TTS before and want more...
read moreZazenkai, June 8: Even Prior to Heaven and Earth
Please join us on Sunday June 8 at Dharma Gate for a one-day zenkai with Madelon from 9am to 3pm. There will be an informal lunch, with soup, as well as brad & cheese for sandwiches, provided; please bring other sandwich fixings or other food to share. We will consider hints given in Daio Kokushi’s verse On Zen, settling in to the deep attraction that practice holds even in the presence of the contradictions of daily experience. The schedule will be as follows: 9:00 Opening, Five Remembrances, Zazen 9:35 Pointers: selected lines of...
read moreWild Sacredness: Floating through the Grand Canyon
Here begin the terrors Here begin the miracles ―The Legend of the Grail Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time? That the river is everywhere at the same time, and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future. ― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha “Oh, Eeyore, you are wet!” said Piglet, feeling him. Eeyore shook himself, and asked somebody to explain to Piglet What happened when you had been inside a river for quite a long time. ― A.A. Milne...
read morePoetry of Ancestors Retreat at Mountain Lamp – May 10 – 30
A three-week Poetry Study Retreat will be held from May 10-30 at Mountain Lamp. The retreat will be led by Jack Duffy and Eileen Kiera, and includes a weekend with Red Pine. For more information download the flyer: ML 3-Week Spring Retreat 2014. To register, visit mountainlamp.org.
read moreRain Chain
By Madelon Bolling I don’t know how to write frost melting to drip gold, wink red, clear — pinging the bronze cups chained under eaves, enticing fall of cold-trapped water from air to earth because there never was frost or bronze cups or eaves, let alone air or earth but in these words that freeze us to them until — a bumblebee lands right here on the page, fuzzy amber on black legs, ticking, ticking over these weed-scratches that will yield no pollen and we melt open in the hawk’s call, the horse-snorting rooster-crow...
read moreParticipate in Online Discussion on Zen Master Keizan’s Transmitting the Light
You can read Jack’s comments or post a comment at: rocksandstreams.palousezen.org Book currently under discussion: Transmitting the Light: Zen Master Keizan’s Denkoroku with translations by both Francis Cook and Thomas Cleary Schedule of Postings: 10/19: Nagarjuna, 14th Ancestor 10/26: Rahulata, 16th Ancestor 11/2: Gayasata, 18th Ancestor 11/9: Shih-t’ou, 36th Ancestor (Coincidence of Opposites’ Grass-Roof Hermitage) 11/14-17: Retreat at Kairos; Spokane (Please join us) 11/23: T’ung-an Kuan-chih 11/29:...
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