Dear Members and Friends of Red Cedar,

The grand kick off for this year’s November Membership Drive is a heartfelt thank you to all our Members, Friends and donors.
Many of us have felt the ongoing impact of the economic downturn and the culture of fear surrounding it, yet the combined goodwill and generosity of
our support community continues to keep Red Cedar afloat in these troubled times. Thank you, all, for providing this backbone and support.

At this time last year we were questioning both our financial future on Forest St. and our direction as a Sangha. Should we go back to being a small
sitting group or expand to include public offerings? Should we consider a residential training facility? Should we move to a more affordable building?
These were some of the questions we considered. After a round of surveys and Sangha meetings, a clear consensus emerged to stay put in our current
building and to offer public programs to the broader Bellingham community. Fortunately, our landlord has supported our decision to stay and has agreed
to a somewhat reduced rent beginning in the fall of 2012.

However, a broad base of support from our Members and Friends is still our lifeline. It covers our basic operating and program expenses, retreat
scholarships, and a stipend for our Spiritual Director. To keep our 2012 budget consistently in the black, we are hoping for a modest increase of $200
a month from our Members and Friends. Adding a few more Sustaining Members could make this goal a reality, but contributions
at all levels are welcomed and appreciated. As you review the enclosed forms and reevaluate your contributions for the coming year, please consider how
you prioritize and value the mission of Red Cedar to bring mindfulness and compassion into everyday life.

Please see our online Membership and Friends’ forms at www.redcedarzen.org to renew, join or increase your
pledge and to check out your Membership benefits. Note that this year’s benefits include a discount for Zen retreats held at Red Cedar!

Thank you again for your generosity; for your dollars and volunteer efforts, your practice and your commitment to sharing the Dharma. Your
contributions are a benefit to us all.

Kate McKenna

for the Membership Workgroup

PS We appreciate your online response and pledge. It helps to save postage and paper.

Dear Sangha,

Another year comes and goes in our sangha life. Life keeps flowing. Babies are born, people die. The sun comes up and sets again. What are we to make
of this world? On the one hand the world is burning with wars and famines and it’s all a big disaster, and on the other hand kids are walking to school
and a great blue heron just flew over our house on the way to the creek. A recent book by social scientist Steven Pinker makes a well documented claim
that there is less violence in the world than any other time in history. How are we to live with a little peacefulness and grace in the midst of it
all? What will truly support us in being helpful and kind?

For nearly 21 years now we’ve worked together to offer one tool in that helps.

Zen meditation and practice is hard to make sense of in our usual ways of making sense. It doesn’t make us smarter or more give us a good workout.
Sometimes when we practice there’s even a sense of opening a Pandora’s box or two in the mind that we’d rather not open!

And yet there’s something to it that helps us to see beyond our usual boundaries: those boundaries of our ideas of who we are; those boundaries of
self and other; those boundaries that separate and isolate us so deeply. As we engage in deep contemplative practices like Zen there is an opening and
a softening. We see that our problems and worries are less real, less scarey, than we thought. And we find ourselves more present for the joys of life.
And we will never be able to fully answer the question “why” about how it all works.

Brain science and psychology are fast catching up with many of the benefits of meditation practices. Even new meditators show beneficial changes in
structure and function of the brain after an 8-week course in mindfulness meditation, for example. And so we are pleased to offer 5 weekly meditation
sessions for our members and the broader community at our home base of Red Cedar Dharma Hall. It’s so pleasing to me that newer people consistently
mention that they feel welcomed and supported.

But there’s something about the practice we offer in the context of sangha life, ritual, and study that is much more than just a support for regular
meditation practice. There’s so much more going on as we do our best to engage this traditional way of practice that comes to us through many centuries
of experimentation and steady, steady engagement. What we are offering and sharing can operate on many levels, from coming occasionally to meditation
to making Soto Zen practice in our Everyday Zen family style a deep and integrated part of our lives. The potential and reality of transformation are
right there. I have only to look around the zendo on a Wendesday night to see this unfolding. It’s awesomely beautiful at times.

Thank you for being a part of of this journey at whatever level is helpful to you. I am honored to be in partnershp with you as we try to unfold this
particular way of liberation and peace in the 21^st century America.

Nomon Tim Burnett, Spiritual Director

Red Cedar Zen Community 2011 Financial Summary

(January 1 – September 30, 2011)

Please see the Finance Workgroup’s section of the Workgroups Website for more details on our finances and budget using standard income and expense
accounting. Note that several financial categories were combined and monthly averages are in this summary for simplicity.