Weekly Temple Services
Monday - Friday 6:30 am and 6:30 pm
Meditation Saturday 9am full service + meditation
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Dear ones,
Many years ago, Sujanta, a village chief's daughter, fed Siddhartha his life saving meal. Siddhartha, who is our historical enlightened teacher, was suffering from malnutrition and dehydration after living as a mountain ascetic. The kindness of one girl allowed the future Buddha to survive, become awakened, and leave a teaching legacy of over 2,500 years.
May we see this girl's behavior as a role model for our own actions. May we remember to help the downtrodden, feed the hungry, comfort the suffering ones, and share the peaceful loving light of Buddha's teachings on all people.
You can read more about the Buddha's early life in "Old Path, White Clouds" by Thich Nhat Hanh
May we all know love and peace,...... in metta,......Thay Kozen
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The Four Noble Truths refer to and express the basic orientation of Buddhism in a short expression: we crave and cling to impermanent states and things, which are dukkha, "incapable of satisfying" and painful. This craving keeps us caught in samsara, the endless cycle of repeated rebirth and dying again,
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Responding, Not Reacting
by Emily Martin
Psychologists often talk about training one’s mind to separate a stimulus from a response. With mindfulness training, one cultivates space between the stressor and one’s reaction to the stressor. The hope is over time, one
responds
rather than
reacts.
A common example often cited in beginning mindfulness trainings is being cut off in a grocery store line. Instead of being conditioned into an immediate response, one trains oneself to respond--perhaps even cultivating loving kindness for the person who cut you off.
Naturally, with a full life of kids, teaching, and living in town, I have many opportunities to practice this technique. Sometimes I do better than other times. But what I’ve found most interesting is the reaction of others to my non-reaction. It’s almost as if some people I interact with are so conditioned for others to respond quickly, abruptly, perhaps even negatively, that they don’t know what to do when I don’t offer this mirror back to them. Instead of responding to my response, they
react
to my response. Often times, I experience them raising their voice, asserting more punishment, get angrier, seemingly to get a rise out of me or assert their authority over me.
Let me give an example. I was recently pulled over for a speeding ticket. I was speeding my way to relax at the beautiful Breitenbush Hot Springs! Lots of irony there! When I was pulled over, I didn’t try to defend myself, and I certainly didn’t cry. I released tension in my body by slightly smiling which got me “this is no laughing matter, ma'am.” Another recent example was of a waiter reprimanding me for letting my child climb on some outdoor rocks. When I didn’t show the immediate assumed response of jumping out of my seat, climbing up the rocks myself, and yelling at my child, the waiter took his authority one step further and threatened to throw my children and me out of the outdoor music event.
These are minor escalations of tension and anger in comparison to police brutality and other forms of institutionalized and systemic oppression. History and current events show us many examples of the conditioned negative responses of individuals and our institutions. As Buddhists, we must continue our work to cultivate our interior, hoping it spreads gracefully outward to others in our community and beyond. I know I have my work cut out for me: for as easy it is to have my initial response be one of equanimity, it’s hard for me to maintain my equanimity in the face of deeper levels of aggression and negativity.
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Study finds residue of pesticides, antibiotics
and growth hormone in non-organic milk
The study
examined the contents of organic versus conventional milk and found that the majority of samples of conventional, non-organic milk tested positive for certain low, chronic levels of pesticides, illegal antibiotics and growth hormones.
The organic samples tested at either much lower or non-existent rates in comparison.
According to
the study
published in peer-reviewed journal
Public Health Nutrition
, current-use antibiotics and pesticides were undetectable in organic but prevalent in conventionally produced milk samples, with multiple samples exceeding federal limits.
Antibiotic residue was detected in 60% of conventional milk samples. Among the antibiotics detected were sulfamethazine and sulfathiazole which have been disallowed in droppable-1561943356809milk-producing cows.
Are pesticides, growth hormones, and antibiotics OK for our health? Thay Kozen
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Tamara Thiel, Death Doula
in the Columbia Gorge
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A Death Doula is a non-medical person trained to care for someone holistically at the end of life and through death. My mission is to preserve the innate rights of families and communities to care for their own dying and dead in a personal, respectful, environmentally sound and culturally nurturing manner. I have been trained as a hospice volunteer and trained and certified as Death Doula and Home Funeral Guide and have co-founded the Gorge Living Through Death Alliance.
I am passionate about advocating in this reclaimed field of Death Doula and in guiding family-directed home funerals. A family directed home funeral is Lying-in-Honor in a home and a very personal process and an empowering and fulfilling experience. The nature of life includes the eventual miracle of death, a rite of passage that deserves dignity and loving care.
Community education presentations will begin soon and cover many topics on living and dying, end of life care, home funeral rights and rites, after death care guidance, green burials and many other topics. Look for coming announcements of places and topics on nourishing life and showing up for death from the Gorge Living Through Death Alliance and myself. I can be reached at
tcthood@gmail.com
for consulting.
I strongly support Hospice and Doula roles in dying. Thay Kozen
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Bodhi and Leilah, Sufi teachers, will spend one week here in July helping 70 aspirants grow and practice loving kindness.
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Deconstructing the ego and vanities of self is the Sufi path as they dance and sing the Universal Dances of Peace.
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Thich Minh Thien
Also know as (Thay Z)
Abbot of Budding Dharma
(Arlington Texas)
Befriending Your Life
I wonder if it is a part of the progression of time that results in more reflection on one’s own life and the experiences that make up the chapters of our story. As a much younger person, I didn’t have this much reflection about what had transpired as the hurried pace of life and the scrambling toward future took up much of my energy and time. As part of the practice of a Buddhist, we see that life doesn’t occur in the past and no one knows what the future actually holds. All we have is right here, right now. The present moment is where life occurs. Still knowing all of that, with the great majority of my life behind me, I find myself slipping into reverie and remembrance about people, places and events that created where I am right now. Some of those thoughts are filled with joy and happiness while a sufficient number bring some thoughts of regret, guilt and the proverbial “…I wish I had done that differently…”. There are mixed emotions about family, friendships and relationships that ended or changed, and some melancholy about those who are no longer here.
Buddhism centers on correct or right understanding of human nature and ultimate reality. The Buddha was, after all, called the “Enlightened One”. He taught the way to eliminate suffering began with understanding the true nature of the world. Instead of teaching doctrines to be memorized and believed, the Buddha taught how to realize truth for yourself. The focus of Buddhism is on the practice rather than belief.
Seeing the true nature of the world includes understanding your own life and how your experiences and actions contributed to your Life Story and where you currently are. Understanding that for those areas where you see and feel sadness, disappointment and longing, those area could be some of those attachments that the Buddha’s, “The Four Noble Truths” hinges upon. This is where Befriending Your Life comes into play. It seems we can only truly find peace with what was, by seeing all of the past … the good, the bad and the ugly … in the light of lessons that brings us into the present moment. Without all of it, right now would be different, and what we have is only right now.
For me, the practice of meditation, coupled with the teachings of the Buddha, help to put all of this into perspective. There was an expression I learned years ago that went,”…meet each new experience fully, and meet it as a friend…”. I find expanding that concept to the broader view of my entire life is most useful in addressing any of the attachments to past regrets I may be harboring that continue to support my current suffering moments. And so the practice for me now is about “…meeting and seeing my entire life up to this moment fully and completely, and see it ALL as a dear friend…”. This practice of Befriending Your Life can bring peace and the recognition that we cannot be who we are today without all that came before.
Each present moment provides an opportunity for any change or corrections that we may become aware of. It is in this beautiful practice that all sentient beings can realize the enlightenment and awakening as taught by the Buddha. We are all “buddhas to be” and celebrating and being at peace with our life…past, present and future… moves us that much closer to the great Awakening.
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
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Budding Dharma, Arlington Texas
Budding Dharma continues with our Wednesday service schedule of Zen-to-Go at 1pm and our full service beginning at 7pm.
The Zen-to-Go is designed to those individuals whose evening schedules are busy with family and or work. It lasts for about an hour and includes an opportunity for a
30 minute sit, recitation of a Sutra, and brief dharma conversation.
The full service lasts about 2 hours and includes Sangha check-in, a selected short reading, practice of the 14 point moving Buddha meditation, a 25 minute sit, walking meditation, some rudimentary Shibashi movements, a dharma talk and the sharing of wisdom from the Sangha members.
Our prison ministry at the Sanders-Estes Correctional Unit in Venus, Texas is moving forward after what appeared to be a rather slow start with the typical red tape of the prison system. The Sangha dana contributions purchased 12 yoga mats for the practice. Each Thursday, the offenders gather from 230pm to 5pm to learn about the teachings of the Buddha, meditation techniques and mindfulness practices. Soon I will meet with the new Chaplain to add Buddhist books to the Library.
I am moving forward with plans to join a local hospital chaplaincy as well as periodic visits to nursing homes in the area.
We are happy to be growing and busy and Budding Dharma Zen Buddhist Temple is so grateful to be associated with Mount Adams Zen Buddhist Temple. As we grow and mature, we hope to emulate the spirit and many of the good works already well established at MAZBT.
May All Beings Be Happy and Free.
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Poetry from Venerable Fa Sing
(Thich Tâm Minh)
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*Remembrance*
On this cold, foggy morning,
I hear voices in the mist,
Echoing through time.
...voices of the oppressed.
...voices of the enslaved.
...voices of the exiled.
...voices of the exterminated.
I hear the cries of despair
Of men, women, and children
Who have been condemned
By their own neighbors, friends, and family,
And I hear them as clearly
As I hear my own voice.
Because they're not calling from the other side of history.
They're calling from the other side of the fence.
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Sa Di Minh Phap's Column
journeys of a novice monk
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Minh Phap was offered an opportunity to not speak for one week. He accepted the training and here is is column for the month.
"I have been in silence for this last week - I would like to carry that over into my news-column"
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Spending time in nature boosts health
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A new UK study has found that spending two hours per week soaking up nature -- be it woodland, park or beach -- gives a positive boost to health and wellbeing, both mentally and physically.
The study, published Thursday in the journal
Scientific Reports
, draws upon interviews with around 20,000 people in England about their contact with the natural world in the previous week.
It found that among people who had spent little or no time in parks, beaches or woods in the past seven days, close to half reported low levels of life satisfaction and one in four said they were in poor health.
Among people who had spent at least two hours in the natural world, only one in three said they felt dissatisfied, while just one in seven reported poor health.
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Upcoming Months Schedule
Dates subject to change, other retreats may be added
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2018
Other Faiths, Days of Respect, and National Holidays
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May the Infinite Light of Wisdom and Compassion so shine within us
that the errors and vanities of self may be dispelled;
so shall we understand the changing nature of existence and awaken into spiritual peace.
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Mt Adams Zen Buddhist Temple 46 Stoller Rd., Trout Lake WA 98650 509.395.2030
www.Mtadamszen.org
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