Rain 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:...
read moreBranching Moon Sesshin Haiku
Amidst the downpour, Sitting drenched and solitary– The red umbrella –written by Larry Keil, 2013
read moreFailure is a Friend by Madelon Bolling
Hakuin Zenji said, “They translated prajna as wisdom. All people have it. No one’s excepted. It’s faultlessly perfect in each one of us…” [Dokugyo Shingyo: Acid comments on the Heart Sutra] We go to extraordinary lengths to arrange our lives around this practice. We come to the zendo and sit, hear the Dharma as recorded and passed down for centuries. But it all comes down to this: this inexplicable thing we are looking for – It… is… here. Not just in this building or this room or in the presence of this group,...
read more2013 Practice Schedule
Here is the complete listing of the opportunities to practice Zen with Three Treasures Sangha in 2013. Of note: there will be three, more intensive (longer) Zazenkai’s with Jack Duffy Roshi; and new teachers Lee Shields and Madelon Bolling will be leading monthly zazenkais and be present on one Wednesday evening per month. January 12-13 Zazenkai (Madelon Bolling) Saturday 6:30pm – 8:30pm Sunday 6:00am – 1:30pm January 23 Wednesday 6:30 – 8:30 pm (Lee Shields) February 9-10 Zazenkai (Jack...
read moreBranching Moon Sesshin Teisho’s Available
Jack Duffy’s sesshin teishos are now available on on mountinlamp.org. If folks only have time to listen to one, please start with the talk “On Precepts” Please send comments as I am re-working some of the ideas in there. Warmly, Jack
read moreThe Flip Side of Camp Indianola
Stare at a wall long enough and it reveals itself. The Flip Side of Camp Indianola (during sesshin) Doors open themselves and shut, invisible fingers rattling the knobs, the opposite of “good” children, unseen but heard. The giant fireplace of stones, islands in the rough lagoons of mortar. Faces rising from the rocks– a British colonial in Kenya, thickly mustached, sherry-reddened nose; a buzzard’s gaping jaw; Saint Theresa in a sad but fearful vision, dark eyes and the open “O” of her mouth emerging from...
read moreKaren Rosenstiel 1946-2012
From Grace and Family With a saddened heart, I want to let you all know that mom passed away this morning just before 10:45. My sister, Marian, arrived this morning from Japan, and we had around an hour together as a family, talking, chatting and having our usual family banter. My sisters left to get Marian settled and a nap, and about half an hour later, mom ended her journey. I want you all to know that during her decline this past week, she did not suffer, and all the way to the end, she did not appear to struggle against what was...
read moreVerses on the Faith Mind
“Nothing hangs in the mind,/There is nothing to remember./Boundless, clear, self-illuminating–/The mind does not make efforts./ This is the place of non-thinking,/Difficult to fathom with intellect or feeling.” Hello Everyone, I’d like to start today by saying something about the 16 Bodhisattva precepts. Our lineage looks at the precepts from 3 different vantage points–the hinayana, the mahayana and the essential. The hinayana view is quite literal. Not killing means just that. We may attempt to fulfill this vow by eating a vegetarian...
read moreBibliography
Bibliography of Suggested Readings By Robert Aitken, Rōshi Encouraging Words: A collection of talks and essays offered by Aitken Rōshi to his students at meditation retreats “sesshin”. These concise transcriptions are clear windows into Zen practice, covering topics such as attention, emptiness, diligence, death and the moral path. Mind of Clover: Essays in Zen Buddhist Ethics: Addresses issues of appropriate personal and social action through an exploration of the philosophical complexities of Zen ethics. Morning Star: Includes...
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