Friday, July 15, 2011
GARLIC GALORE
Tenjin (JudyL ) has been culling some of her bumper garlic. Its now drying in the kitchen hall. The whole area smells like an Italian restaurant!
Monday, July 11, 2011
RED MAPLE WEEK JULY 11
RED MAPLE WEEK - JULY 11 Greetings to all, ***************************** Tenjin's Garden Hoe-strokes cleave the row, Expectant plant-roots reach for soil. Grass clippings tumble into the hungry composter. ******************************* 1. THIS WEEK AT RED MAPLE 1.1. JULY MAHASANGHA This coming Saturday, July 16 we celebrate our monthly Mahasangha. This month's theme is Amitabha Buddha. Innen will also have some comments on his recent presentation in Washington and 'gyo' (Tendai training period) at the Dharma Centre in New York. 1.2. MAHASANGHA REMINDERS Those who have not yet done so, let us know about attendance by Thursday, July 14. Late deciders should bring a vegetarian dish to serve 4. Friends, family and polite dogs are welcome for the breakfast. Suggested donations are * Service = $5.00; * Brunch = $7.00; * Donations to the Food Bank 1.3. FOODBANK Can we encourage people to make the next few months "bean free"? Last month, almost all of what we gave was canned beans in some form. Consider things like * crackers, peanut butter, jams * canned fruit and canned fish * cereal * juice boxes, fruit cups * all kinds of pasta * household cleaning products 1.4. PARKING For everyone's safety, we are moving towards eliminating all parking on the roadside (more on this later). Those who can, please put your vehicle in the small lot across the road (it should take 2 more vehicles). Those who need to park on the road, please only park on the house side, as much off the road-way as possible. The best place is the wider section a little back from the gate, closer to Pucker Street. 1.5. COMING PRACTICE REMINDERS: Next practice is July 23. This will be a Beginner's Mind session. 2. RELIGION EXPERTS Attached is this week's ARE feature, the other half of the two-part question on heaven and hell : " What is hell?"
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
RETURN FROM GYO
Hi everyone,
I am now returned from the Tendai gyo (training period). It was as enjoyable and rich as ever. We did some new practices and the weather was superb. The group was all 2nd year or more, so the level of discussion and quality of cooperation very high. I got to lead two services, one evening, one morning. This year the services included a dharma talk, so I got to have some fun with that.
More at our Mahasangha on July 16.
in the dharma,
Innen
Sunday, June 26, 2011
MORNING MEDITATION AT CONFERENCE
I offered to lead a morning meditation each morning before the conference. I found a quiet corner hallway, with a spectacular view of the campus and scrounged some chairs and cushions. There were groups of 2-4 folks who came along. I decided to present a different theme each morning.
Thursday: 3-part breathing
Friday : chanting and nembutsu
Saturday: loving kindness
These sittings were 30-40 minutes before breakfast. Nice way to start each day.
SUNDAY JUNE 26
I'm up early, as usual, and preparing to leave DC. Not sure whether I will have access again before home. I'm heading out late morning to Vermont for some hiking tomorrow. Tomorrow evening I'll join the gyo until Sunday.
On campus here is the largest Catholic basilica in the US. Architecturally it is stunning - elaborate tiled dome, stained glass rose window. I am going to go over and explore the interior before I go. There no mass until tonight so it should be OK to play the spiritual tourist.Enjoy the heaven and hell series in the ARE today and next week.
SOCIAL WORK AND SPIRITUALITY JUNE 25 DAY 3
SOCIAL WORK AND SPIRITUALITY JUNE 25
DAY 3
1. This final day began with a full conference presentation by a first nations speaker. She is a Mi’kmaq teacher and social work prof (Ryerson). She talked about the importance of the relationship between spirituality and the land. I recognized we don’t understand the origins of Akashaloka beyond the schoolhouse story. We need to find out more about who was there before.
2. I went to 3 sessions , one on GLBT spirituality and the lack of research on their experience; the next on addressing spirituality with young people. This was fascinating in that they reported that youth in fact are deeply concerned about spiritual issues and highly cynical/disaffected with organized religion. They described a model for engaging youth on their terms. The last one was an exploration of the cultural dimension of grief and loss counselling, particularly where non-Christian constructs of death, afterlife and deity are present.
3. The day concluded with an inter-faith service with song, dance and short pieces from Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Quaker, Hindu and Buddhist (me) reps. This was moving and an apt formal conclusion to the event. I read the Metta Sutra, a theme which fit in perfectly with the whole event and the mood in the room.
4. In the evening a group of 10 or so of us stragglers went out to a lovely dinner in a Latino area. We had to drive through a street festival in the Caribbean area and dine in a Latino area - quite other-worldly after the way I’ve spent the last few days.
DAY 3
1. This final day began with a full conference presentation by a first nations speaker. She is a Mi’kmaq teacher and social work prof (Ryerson). She talked about the importance of the relationship between spirituality and the land. I recognized we don’t understand the origins of Akashaloka beyond the schoolhouse story. We need to find out more about who was there before.
2. I went to 3 sessions , one on GLBT spirituality and the lack of research on their experience; the next on addressing spirituality with young people. This was fascinating in that they reported that youth in fact are deeply concerned about spiritual issues and highly cynical/disaffected with organized religion. They described a model for engaging youth on their terms. The last one was an exploration of the cultural dimension of grief and loss counselling, particularly where non-Christian constructs of death, afterlife and deity are present.
3. The day concluded with an inter-faith service with song, dance and short pieces from Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Quaker, Hindu and Buddhist (me) reps. This was moving and an apt formal conclusion to the event. I read the Metta Sutra, a theme which fit in perfectly with the whole event and the mood in the room.
4. In the evening a group of 10 or so of us stragglers went out to a lovely dinner in a Latino area. We had to drive through a street festival in the Caribbean area and dine in a Latino area - quite other-worldly after the way I’ve spent the last few days.
SOCIAL WORK AND SPIRITUALITY JUNE 24
SOCIAL WORK AND SPIRITUALITY JUNE 24
DAY 2
1. This was the main event for me - the presentation of the CYM workshop we worked so hard on. There were about 30 people (room was packed, we ran out of handouts and the volunteer had to make more) for this. Only 4-6 people had any knowledge or experience w/MBSR/CT, a surprise to me, considering the number of people talking about the benefits of mindfulness at various other sessions. All and all, went smoothly, the vid clips fit perfectly, the audience seemed delighted to have Kristy and Candice joining in. As usual and expected we had too much for the time slot. I had to snip and clip on the fly, but not diminishing the material at all.
It seemed that the thesis - that popular mindfulness-based models misrepresent the deeper social message of Dharma - was news to most. At the conclusion of the session a few nice reactions:
. An older woman took me aside and confided the session had sturck right to the heart of what she has been struggling with
. Another social worker came up and asked if she could buy the CYM Manual! She asked about leader training and how she could implement it right away. I told her about the plans I have been exploring with Kim S to develop all of these things
. Several people commented on how provocative the naikan was, even with the brevity of it.
. several people congratulated and thanked us for the session.
2. The other morning session I did was on spirituality and environmental justice. The presenter was John Coates. From Fredricton, who has been a leading voice in this. All through this I kept saying “ Kanzan should hear this”. In the afternoon, there was an interfaith panel with 5 different faith reps (Unitarian, Catholic, Jewish, Progressive Evangelical and Buddhist). The Buddhist speaker was a woman associated with IMS locally and she was very articulate about the need for social action to be grounded in personal awareness - a frequent theme expressed all through the event. The afternoon group event was by a spirited presentation by a poet/activist/pastor. She went through the Book of Genesis in the most amusing, insightful and entertaining way. I had difficulty relating to this Christian vision.
In the evening, a group of 10 of us went out for dinner and the ‘open mic’ show at a local Church-supported coffee house. Very 1960's feel. Amazing talent - from folkie/singer-song-writers to spoken word to hip-hop dance to soul.
An exhausting day both physically and intellectually.
DAY 2
1. This was the main event for me - the presentation of the CYM workshop we worked so hard on. There were about 30 people (room was packed, we ran out of handouts and the volunteer had to make more) for this. Only 4-6 people had any knowledge or experience w/MBSR/CT, a surprise to me, considering the number of people talking about the benefits of mindfulness at various other sessions. All and all, went smoothly, the vid clips fit perfectly, the audience seemed delighted to have Kristy and Candice joining in. As usual and expected we had too much for the time slot. I had to snip and clip on the fly, but not diminishing the material at all.
It seemed that the thesis - that popular mindfulness-based models misrepresent the deeper social message of Dharma - was news to most. At the conclusion of the session a few nice reactions:
. An older woman took me aside and confided the session had sturck right to the heart of what she has been struggling with
. Another social worker came up and asked if she could buy the CYM Manual! She asked about leader training and how she could implement it right away. I told her about the plans I have been exploring with Kim S to develop all of these things
. Several people commented on how provocative the naikan was, even with the brevity of it.
. several people congratulated and thanked us for the session.
2. The other morning session I did was on spirituality and environmental justice. The presenter was John Coates. From Fredricton, who has been a leading voice in this. All through this I kept saying “ Kanzan should hear this”. In the afternoon, there was an interfaith panel with 5 different faith reps (Unitarian, Catholic, Jewish, Progressive Evangelical and Buddhist). The Buddhist speaker was a woman associated with IMS locally and she was very articulate about the need for social action to be grounded in personal awareness - a frequent theme expressed all through the event. The afternoon group event was by a spirited presentation by a poet/activist/pastor. She went through the Book of Genesis in the most amusing, insightful and entertaining way. I had difficulty relating to this Christian vision.
In the evening, a group of 10 of us went out for dinner and the ‘open mic’ show at a local Church-supported coffee house. Very 1960's feel. Amazing talent - from folkie/singer-song-writers to spoken word to hip-hop dance to soul.
An exhausting day both physically and intellectually.
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