Second Sangha Sunday a Smashing Success

On Sunday April 26, 2009 we held our second Sangha Sunday at Elk Lake.

Sangha Ball involved a plethora of rowdy all-ages team activities, including water balloon relay toss, group soccer, backwards croquet, musical performance, blindfolded gummy worm eating, animal drawing, and...well...carrying water in long PVC pipes and trying not to dump it on your team-mates. Many thanks to the 24 people (and 2 dogs) who came for the morning and for the picnic afterwards, sharing laughter, good company, and yummy treats.

Photos of the day's activities and videos of music performances are online at http://www.flickr.com/photos/37799529@N02/sets/72157617265553919/

We hope to see you and your loved ones at the Buddha's Birthday celebration in May! The next Sangha Sunday will be June 21 -- mark your calendars.

Photo Scavenger Hunt...

What a wonderful, sunny day for such a fun event! We split up into different teams and had to take photos of different items on a list. Here are some of photo's that were taken:

"Crazy Kid"
Cory, Joshua, Ruth, Isabel & Maggie









"Joke"
(Monk walks into a bar...)
Eshu











"Someone Kicking a Ball"
Emma & Gwen














"Love"
Ben & Emily


















"A Loud Noise"
Eric Jordan














"10 People Jumping"
Jundo, Eshu, Mitra, Matteo, Joe, Darius, Alizeah & Kigen

Upcoming Sesshin - Posted by Sei-in

As everyone probably knows, we have a sesshin coming up from May 2-8th. A friend had posted this comic on Facebook and it seemed fitting...

I did not make this comic. I am merely reposting it. Enjoy!

On balance - Chris Holt

About a year ago whilst I was writing my own blog I wrote a small bit about the balance that came to me physically because of meditation practice. I thought I'd share that here as it is still relevant today.

I recently had a blood test to assess the state of my liver. For many years I have had significantly elevated enzyme levels which if untreated over time would lead to a deterioration in my liver. The difficult thing has been that for years the doctors have scratched their heads at not being able to find out why the enzyme levels stay high. We have switched medications, diet, drinking alcohol, no drinking alcohol, no smoking, change diet, exercise and nothing worked until I lost significant weight at which point two of three enzymes balanced out, but the GGT which is sensitive to alcohol did not. I don't drink (or at least didn't drink until I went to Italy and enjoyed the Chianti).

This particular enzyme has a normal reading of between 35 and 50 (on whatever scale they use) and mine has been as high as 400 somewhat significantly out of range. Just over a year ago I was in the 200 range still four times higher than the maximum, with no good ideas as to why from anyone. So for the last year, you will have noticed that I have been doing a lot of meditation, more than at any other time in my life.

The meditation is the one consistent thing over the last year. I have not been drinking, then have had wine, I've played with diet and gone up and down in weight and hover now about in the middle between overweight and feeling a little emaciated. I have had work changes and written a lot of haiku, but only the meditation has been consistent...and I am happy to report that in the last reading of my blood, all enzymes are within normal range and the GGT enzyme is now in the 90s only about double the normal range. This is a marvelous outcome or turn of events as I was looking forward to liver disease in a few years.

We still do not know the cause, but I attribute the change to the meditation..can not prove it, but intuition gives me the signal.

Thought this might be of interest as I have always felt that the sitting practice works as much if not more in the background than it does in the conscious mind to balance one's being.

Balance - Soshin Ruth McMurchy

A couple of things come up for me, thinking about balance. One is from early days getting to know Doshu, we often spent time in playgrounds on the teeter totter. What he taught me was that the farther out you are on the arm of the teeter totter, the more power you have. As any child with an older brother will know, the temptation to misuse one's power on a teeter totter is overwhelming. Lessons learned here with simple physics have a myriad applications in everyday life, and so we were able to balance our disparate weights and simultaneously learn to harmoniously share the power.

In my family balance doesn't look like it 'should'. My mom often reminds me to use my new buddhist name, whereas another family member refuses to use it and doesn't want it used in their presence.

A beloved aunt is worried by the new name and fears that I will become someone she won't recognize. So we made a pact together just the two of us, never to change - that may seem like a comforting fantasy, but it's also true - the outer personality stuff may come and go, but the deep love I feel for her will remain, until it dissolves along with this body sometime within the next few decades, but that will have been long enough.

Balance looks like days of bliss after a particularly deep one-day intensive, followed by irritation at my computer as it becomes unmanageably slow.

My early experiences with Zen practice - Frances Bryan

I went to my first sit in August 2006 after chatting with Venerable Eshu for a while one day about the Lotus Sutra and the sometimes contrasting beliefs of different Buddhist traditions. I found the "form" rather intimidating and the focused look of the participants ominous, but I was intrigued by the silence. The tea circle was a bit of a relief because suddenly everyone loosened up, and I was allowed to shift and move again.

I don't remember anything significant about my next few sits, but the practice and community interested me, and in December I found myself asking Eshu, "How can I learn more?" The next step was to take the introductory course at the Zendo, so there I was, early one Saturday morning in January 2007, setting off to Sooke wearing a black gi. I snuck out of my house that first morning because I was sure my partner would laugh at my outfit (he did). Over the course of the eight-week intro course I developed a great respect and affection for my classmates and the practice, and enjoyed observing my increasing comfort with sitting on the floor.

Early in 2007 Venerable Eshin came from Vancouver to speak at a Tuesday night sit and there were a lot of people there to hear him. The walking meditation was challenging because the room was so full and people were getting out of step. I forced myself to really let go and follow the person in front of me, and I had my first experience of oneness. I felt that our hip joints were linked, and that I was flowing along completely in sync with him. What a cool feeling!

A year later I am now often playing the role of Shoji. One of my favourite parts is working with Jikijitsu to do the call and response drumming and bell ringing that starts many of the chants. If both of us are listening well and feeling the musicality and the beat I can have that experience of flow and unity I had in the walking meditation, and I just love that.

I'm not sure what I expected from practicing Zen; probably some sort of undefined "peace". My motivation to continue with sitting (and chanting and kinhin), has been my enjoyment of the practice itself rather any clear goals about outcomes. But there have been some wonderful outcomes. The first was that I started sleeping a lot better. (I have a long history of insomnia). Recently I have found that if I get involved in an argument I'm not able to summon up the desire to continue to argue. It feels as if I am no longer attached to being right. It's really interesting to see "peace" manifesting itself in my life in these subtle, unexpected and specific ways. I'm looking forward to seeing what else is around the corner (while of course, being fully in the present!)

I Want It and I Want It NOW - Sei-in Remy Jordan

My thoughts on balancing life and practice...

Last week - Mitra has been working so hard on her thesis. I have taken a week and I am only working a bit. The rest of the time I am taking kids to school, picking them up, making dinner and putting them to bed. Mitra is out late almost every night.

It is Saturday night after a week of this. Mitra is out working again and I haven't had a break. We were going to get together with friends for a playdate and then they had to cancel. The kids are not happy, so I take them out for what I hope will be a quick shopping trip to Bolen Books for some new books that we can read.

While we are there, Kiran finds this Spiderman toy. It is expensive, and not a book. I tell him that I will not buy it for him. He goes on and on and on about it. He is loud in the store. He tells me that he is going to run away. He tells me that he doesn't like me. He tells me that he wants it NOW.

Slowly (very slowly for me), he accepts that I am not buying the toy. He let's me take a picture of him with the toy to email to Mitra. We agree to put it on his wishlist. He goes through so much suffering trying to get this thing that he can not have at that moment. He puts me through suffering as he pushes for what he can not have at that moment. As Seishin says, this is one breath at a time territory.

Go back to summer 2004. I am working at PureEdge. Mitra and I have two kids and I discover Buddhism. It was like a switch going off. All I want to do is throw myself into this new world of meditation. But I can't.

It is summer 2005 and now I have been practicing with the Victoria Zen Centre for a year. We have just sold our company to IBM. I have been working virtually non-stop for about 5 months. I have barely had any time off. At the same time we have had Kiran and he is now a few months old. The company is finally sold and after 12 years, I now only have a few more months before I can leave. I spend those few months thinking about what to do. What I want to do is to go live in a monastery. I want to fully dive into Zen. But I can't. I have three kids and a wonderful wife. Instead we choose to go to South East Asia for 6.5 months. We travel around and have an amazing time. We get to see Buddhism practised in many different cultures (Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore). It is an amazing time for our family. But I still wish to be by myself and deeply involved with Buddhism.

It is now 2006 and I am committed to being as involved with the VZC as I can. I want to do the Eldership program. I want a name and fancy robes. I want it now, but I have to go to two sesshins. I can not join the one in Dec 06 because it overlaps with Darius' birthday. I believe I ask Eshu to move the dates, which he does not. I ask Eshu if I can audit the eldership program (sit in and be involved without credit, even when I do not have all of the pre-reqs). He says I can not.

So I wait until May 2007 to participate in my first sesshin. On this sesshin, I look at two individuals. One has taken his time. He has not rushed and he seems so at home in his robes. I admire him and his approach. The other has rushed and on one evening I am looking at him. He seems confused and lost in his robes. The robes are too big for him.

In that moment I realize that I have a wonderful life, just as it is. I do not need to be a monk. I can integrate Buddhism into my life without meditating all of the time. I am not going to be able to go live in a monastery, so I should just get over it.

In that moment, I realized that what I should do is just focus on living my life as best as I could. I should focus on being authentic and not worry so much what image I present to the world. I had wanted to look like a monk to everyone else. I was grasping for it. But I was actually fine just as I was - just as I am today.

That moment dramatically changed my relationship to Buddhism. I accepted where I was in my life and what choices were open to me. Being a good Buddhist no longer meant copying Eshu and being a monk.

I had learned this lesson about wanting. I am sure that there are lots of other lessons around wanting to learn, but I had let go of something that was getting in the way of my connection to Buddhism. It took me three years. During the painful 15-20 minutes with Kiran in the store wanting the Spiderman toy, it was so obvious to me the suffering Kiran was putting himself through. Yet I was so blind to what I was doing. Kiran only did it for 15 minutes or so and I did it off and on for three years.

Fastforward to Apr 2009... I have found so many ways to integrate Buddhism into my life. We were at dinner with friends recently and as my kids and I explained parts of Buddhism, I realized how deeply Buddhism was part of our lives - even if I rarely go to the Zendo or do interview with Eshu. Mitra is so busy with her Masters degree that my place right now is to be there and support her and my family. Even if I can't copy Eshu or Doshu, that doesn't mean I can't find my own rich and deep interaction with Buddhism.

Pimp my Zendo - Sonja deWit

So here’s my idea for Sangha Sundays. I’m just throwing this out, O.K., but once you get what I’m saying, I’ll bet the ideas come flooding in.

Our Zendo is so Twelfth-Century Japanese minimalist. No one’s going to disagree with me on that one. My point is, it’s time to move into the moment.

Start with the walls. The walls of this place are simply begging for something. Kids with finger paints, kids with crayons, kids with felt pens. I would personally go for those big brushes they use in pre-school, loaded with goops of gorgeous colour. Go nuts, kids!

The top half of the walls we give to the young men in the Sangha. Each one gets a couple of spray cans. To keep with the Zen theme, they do a tag from the Final Instruction of Daito Kokushi. I’d like to see a few Mr. Natural cartoons in the bathroom, which is, I suppose, my generation showing.

Next, the zabutons. They are so black. What’s with all the black everywhere? We need to revisit black as the no-colour of choice here. As a decorator statement, what is it saying? Like, this is the true expression of our fundamental no-self? At the very least, I’d like to see a few sequins, a bit of appliqué. OK, say it: colour! Ditto for the zafus. Braid, tassels, brocade – these are style choices that say cushion, and possibly they say zafu as well.

We are going to banish the word “tacky” from our vocabulary. After all, “to set up likes and dislikes is nothing but the mind’s disease”.

The next thing I’d like to tackle is the black martial arts suit. I see a lot of sloppy fits. Also, the black again. Black is pretty dark, when you think about it. This is the fashion statement we want to make? It’s enlightenment, people, not enblackenment!

Then of course, the Buddha figurines. This will be an individual thing. I see something psychedelic, but again, I am at home in the Sixties. What we do, we plaster-cast a couple of trays of Buddhas, and each member plus family and/or friend paints his or her own. Why limit yourself? Do two or three! Buddhas everywhere!

These are just a few suggestions but you see where I’m going with this. There’s a lot of areas I haven’t even touched on, that can use a little sprucing up. It’s the perfect activity for Sangha Sundays. With a little imagination, we’ll have enough to keep us busy for years to come.

The Smart Aleck - Sean Holland

Click to Enlarge

Meditation on Death - Rivkah Moore

Hello all you Zen bloggers. Mary Oliver is an extraordiary poet with a true zen soul. Here is one of her bleaker poems for you to contemplate: It is named "ENCOUNTER"

I lift the small brown mouse
Out of the path and hold him.
He has no more to say,
No lilt of feet to run on.
He's cold, still soft, but idle.
As though he were a stone
I launch him from my hand;
His body falls away
Into the shadowed wood
Where the crackling leaves rain down,
Where the year is mostly over.
"Poor creature," I might say,
But what's the use of that.
The clock in him is broken.
And as for ceremony,
Already the leaves have swirled
Over, the wind has spoken

Meanwhile, in the Kootenays, it is still snowing-on the first day of April-and I think of you all amongst the daffodils and the sea breezes..............Rivkah