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Mt Adams Zen Buddhist Temple

 

October 2013 Newsletter
Dear Dharma Friends, I was supposed to be having surgery on my right shoulder on October 1st., but after a fall last weekend I now must wait until after the 18th.  Laughing, the Buddha's teaching about impermanence becomes very real as we deal with out own mortality and life.  As my body nears its 64th journey around the sun, I appreciate the aches and pains that come from previous life adventures.  64 seemed so old when I was 16, now, in terms of trips around the sun, it seems so very short.  Laughing - what a wonderful journey life is! 

Dogen Zenji said it well,
"
Life and death are of supreme importance.Time passes swiftly and opportunity is lost.

All of us must strive to awaken, awaken! Do not squander your life."  May we all find peace.

The Northwest Dharma Association,
Open Gate Zendo,
& Mt Adams Zen Buddhist Temple

Invite you to join us for
 
Fall Retreat,
a 3-day live-in meditation intensive

October 18 - 20
(Friday - Sunday)

We are limited to 20 attendees so please register early.

We will practice several forms of meditation, and develop metta, loving kindness practices for ourselves and others.
Vegetarian meals will be served.

Please contact Abby for reservations at 509-637-4511,  
or e-mail her at abgale@embarqmail.com.

  Lord Buddhawww.mtadamszen.org 

Hope to see you here at the Abbey!           

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Dancing Spirit at the Mountain

Trout Lake Abbey, 46 Stoller Rd

Saturday, October 5,  2013

 

3:30 - 5:30  with potluck to follow

 

Come into the majesty of nature.  Simple interfaith dances are completely taught in a circle of open hearts - join together for community and inspiration.  $5 -10 donation.

Come earlier (2:45ish) and enjoy the beautiful grounds of this Zen/ Druid Nature Sanctuary and Organic Farm. 

Bring food to share and dinnerware for yourself -- we hope to keep this a trash free event. We will break for dinner about 5:30 and leave the Abbey sparkling by 7pm.  There is an oven for warming.

If desired, you can stay at the Abbey B & B (509 395-2030). 

The Dances of Universal Peace are simple, meditative, and joyous circle dances. They use sacred phrases, chants, movements, and music from the world's wisdom traditions. There are no performers, no audience members, and no experience is necessary! www.dancesofuniversalpeacena.org

One River Dances of Universal Peace meets in White Salmon  

on Third Fridays  at 7:30pm    509 493-2514

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We are a small Thien (Zen) Buddhist Temple practicing  "laughing farmer zen" - living our practice, sitting zazen, being here - right now!

Calendar

 

OCTOBER

 

NOVEMBER

 

 

DECEMBER 

1 Saturday Service 9am  

3 Kozen to CRCC Prison

7 Midnight meditation 

(11:00 pm -1:00 am)    

8 Saturday Service 9am

8 Bodhi Day - celebration of Buddha's birth - (Japan).  Temple gift exchange   

10 - 16 Ven. Kobai here  

15  Saturday Service 9am

20 - 27 Ven. Kozen Away 

22 Saturday Service 9am

22 Druid Winter Solstice  

at 3:30 PM - potluck after 

29 Saturday Service 9am 

31 Midnight meditation  

        (11:00pm - 1:00 am)   

 

 

Wisdom of  

Allen Watts 

 

"Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone." 


"The menu is not the meal."   

    

"We seldom realize, for example that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society."  

 

"To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float."  

 

"You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself."  

 

"This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play."  

 

"You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing."
"Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun."  

 

"Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth"  

 

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance."  

 

"The art of living... is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive."  

 

"Every intelligent individual wants to know what makes him tick, and yet is at once fascinated and frustrated by the fact that oneself is the most difficult of all things to know."  

 

"Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes."  

 

"The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless."  

 

"Try to imagine what it will be like to go to sleep and never wake up... now try to imagine what it was like to wake up having never gone to sleep."  

 

"Life is like music for its own sake. We are living in an eternal now, and when we listen to music we are not listening to the past, we are not listening to the future, we are listening to an expanded present."  

Is your group part of the Northwest Dharma Association? 
if not, it is time to join!  If you are a solitary practitioner or without a sanga you can still donate dana (money).  The are a clearing house for Buddhist Activity in the Northwest and need our support. 
 
read more about the NWDA at http://www.northwestdharma.org/ 

SPECIAL NEWS
and Congratulations

Ven. Kobai Whitney (Thich Minh Tam)
on his new home for himself and his temple.  May it be filled with peace and wonderful Dharma.

Dave Martin,
MSOM, LAc has moved into new offices in Hood River, Oregon.  We wish him success and happiness in his new location.

Sebastian Lewis, Ven Kozen's 15 year old grandson will be spending the school year at the Abbey.  Sebastian is from Denmark and had lived in Minnesota for 1 year prior to moving to Trout Lake.    
We need some help
We have located a temple bell - currently in Vietnam - that we can purchase.  We need to raise $5,000 to purchase it and ship it here.
A bell like this can be rung at the start of every day and also for special ceremonies.  We've been looking for one for some time.
 We would appreciate donations to the "buy a bell fund".  It will make a wonderful addition to our temple.
Several traditions merge for our Fall Retreat.

 

Since both hosting traditional communities are modern Western descendents of Zen, neither Japanese or Vietnamese, we are not bound to any specific ethnic style of practice.  The combination of old traditions holds many promises in the development of an "American Zen" form that is not of any specific tradition, other than the tradition of Zen itself. 

 

We are limiting attendance to twenty, so please remember to "register" by sending an e-mail to abgale@embarqmail.com to confirm your attendance.  Even though overnight accommodations will be indoors, please prepare yourself as if you were going on a camping trip, with sleeping bags and personal items.  For the most part we will be sleeping barracks style and meals will be provided within the retreat schedule.

 

It is recommended that you arrive Friday night to take full advantage of the full day schedule on Saturday.   

 

Friday Schedule

 

6:30 Evening Service  

7:30 walking meditation to follow. 

 

Saturday Schedule

 

5:45  Orientation

6:15 Sit

6:45 Informal Breakfast

7:30 Clean up and prepare for ordination ceremony

8:00 Ordination Ceremony

9:00  Morning Service

10:15  Two periods of seated meditation divided by walking meditation  w/ private meeting with teacher

11:45  Two periods of seated meditation divided by walking meditation  w/ private meeting with teacher

1:00 Lunch- Soto style Oryoki

2:00 Samu (work period)

3:30 Two periods of seated meditation divided by walking meditation

5:00 Half hour of walking meditation

5:30 Dinner-Soto style Oryoki

7:00 Meta practice

7:30 Two periods of seated meditation divided by walking meditation

8:45 Tea and Dharma talk

9:00 Time for Bed

 

Sunday Schedule

 

5:45  Metta

6:15 Two periods of seated meditation divided by walking meditation

7:30 Informal Breakfast

8:30 Clean up

9:00 Morning Service

10:15 Two periods of seated meditation divided by walking meditation  w/ private meeting with teacher

11:45 Two periods of seated meditation divided by walking meditation  w/ private meeting with teacher

1:00 Lunch-Soto style Oryoki

2:00 Samu (work period)

2:45 One period seated meditation

3:15 Tea and Group discussion

Wisdom from John Holmes
"There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up."    
"It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."
null FINDING PEACE, an original metal sculpture, has been donated to the Zen Center.  The artist, C.J. Rench, is well known throughout the Northwest and is growing in popularity.  We appreciate his kind donation.
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Ven Abby Layton gathers sunflowers from our gardens to keep the temple's alters filled with nature's beauty.


PO Box 487, Trout Lake WA 98650     www.MtAdamsZen.org

509.395.2030  (e-mail -put in the @ sign) kozen1 at embarqmail.com
Closing Headline
Thank your members for their active involvement in the organization. Tell them to look for more event emails in the coming months.