by Nomon Tim Burnett
August 16, 2007
Dear Sangha,
We find ourselves at the height of summer. Here in Bellingham the days are pleasantly warm. But already they are getting shorter. Getting up a little earlier than I have been lately this morning, at 5am, I was surprised that it was still dark out. It's so interesting to me the way the mind is always catching up to reality in little fits and starts like that. Last I noticed the real length of the day it was mid-June and quite light at 5, seemingly suddenly today it's dark at 5. A little shock. Of course it's been changing gradually every day and there was nothing really to be surprised about, but still I was surprised.
And I notice that's how the mind seems to process most of the many many changes that are continuously going on around us. We are constantly surprised and shocked by change.
The mind has such a need for continuity. And there's a little kind of suffering that constantly rains down upon us as the mind readjusts and recalibrates that imagined continuity to cope with the actual reality of changing conditions. As we interact with each other and the world you could say that our whole experience is a kind of stumbling stutter of readjustment. Our mind wants permanence, stability, and self, but as the Buddha reminds us time and time again reality is quite the opposite. Everything is changing, unstable, and not solid and definable.
This makes me think of a talk of Norman's about a case involving the strict Tang Dynasty Zen master Yunmen. It's a koan that involves Yunmen interupting a student. Norman points out that this same deep desire for continuity is why we find interuption such a hard thing to endure. We want things to be so orderly, we want to finish what we've started and have the day progress in just the way we want it to. I will take the liberty of quoting a few paragraphs of Norman's talk but you can read the whole thing at
http://www.everydayzen.org/teachings/talk_mumonkan39.asp
Excerpt from
Yunmen's "Sidetracked!"
Commentary on Mumonkan, case 39
by Zoketsu Norman Fischer
The second issue in our story is interruption. The strictness of Yunmen's response is not so much what he says but the way in which he says it, interposing his words even before the student gets to finish what he has to say. No one likes to be interrupted. I know I don't. But it happens to me a lot, especially when I am with my wife. I might be sitting at the table reading a book, or checking my email on the computer, and she will say, "look at that bird!" and then in another minute she might something about her day or some plan that we might want to make together for another day, or there might be something she would like me to do other than what I am doing at the moment. Yesterday while I was checking my phone messages, of which there were a great many, she was reading to me from a book by the cartoonist Gary Larsen called "There's a Hair in my Dirt." My wife teaches seventh grade biology, and is now on the unit on worms. The Larsen book is about a family of earthworms. I tried to be polite but really I was annoyed at being interrupted.
This however is my problem. It is actually quite good to be interrupted. I keep telling myself this even though so far I am still not good at tolerating interruption. Think about it: reality being what it is, interruption is normal. In fact, interruption may be the most essential characteristic of reality. Every moment there's discontinuity- everything is lost and we have to start all over again. The illusion that there's continuity is only that, an illusion. Actually everything's new each moment. We always have to be ready to be interrupted and to start fresh. If we're holding onto the last moment, we're not ready for this moment. And, to be less metaphysical about it, the fact is that interruption is also a normal factor in our ordinary lives. The phone is constantly ringing when you are in the middle of something. Disasters small and large are constantly happening that require your attention, making it impossible for you to go on with what you were in the middle of. You spill or break or misplace something. You lose your job. You get divorced, sick, pregnant. Your organized plans are constantly being derailed. Your wife points out a bird in the tree outside or wants you to hear the words of a very funny book. How enlightened is it to be so preoccupied that you don't notice the bird or appreciate the joke? I am sure that Yunmen heard in the monk's voice, as he began quoting the lovely and profound poem of Zhang Zhuo, a sweet attachment to his own voice and to the cherished brilliance of the words he was mouthing. Interruption was probably just what he needed.
Zen Projects
I seem to be in the middle of many projects just now for sangha locally and…globally actually. Let me give you a few updates.
Bellingham Dharma Hall: changes and challenges
Ever since the Bellingham Dharma Hall, the cooperative center which has been our sangha's homebase since 1993, reorganized its membership system to reflect the central role of the four sanghas practicing there things have been changing and reforming at quite a rapid pace after many years of very quiet and simple growth.
Dharma Hall #1: The Earth Room
The first big thing that happened is late in the the spring a major donor came forward with a project she proposed the Dharma Hall do with her. The donor, who wishes to remain annonymous, has a vision of a room for meditation devoted to our connection with the Earth - the Earth Room she calls it. She wants the Earth Room to be an open space for drop in meditation during the day and it can have occasional Earth-based season ceremonies performed there too.
This donor realized that she is not in a position to create the Earth Room on her own so she made an offer to the Dharma Hall: rent a new building with room for the Earth Room and I will provide funding to help with the rent to the tune of $100,000. After carefully considering her proposal, our Leadership Council decided to send me to the Bellingham Dharma Hall with a strong "yes" vote that the Hall accept this proposal and go forward to a new center, including the Earth Room. At the July 17th meeting of the Bellingham Dharma Hall Board of Directors the Hall did decide to accept that proposal.
Bottom line here is we will be moving this Fall to a new building which we expect to be:
But not of course losing the fundamentals of what we need for practice. The core practice of zazen will continue at our new space wherever that shall be.
I am on the Dharma Hall Board now as the Treasurer and also on the search committee for the new building. We hope to choose that building by early September but at this point the prime contender is actually the same building that came up on top in Februrary when we were looking for a new place: 1021 Forest St. just two blocks from our current location. At that point we decided that although that building is certainly better than our current location it was too expensive to justify the move. Now we have funding and the move should be able to go ahead with our members keeping their pledges about the same.
We hope that the new facility will facilitate sangha growth and a larger base of members so that even after the Earth Room donor's generous donation runs out in 4 or 5 years we will be able to continue to afford the rent. In the meantime the rent at our current space in the Mason's building has increased as well such that the Forest St. rent will be twice what we would pay staying put (it looked like about 3 times as much last Spring before our current rent went up).
I've been working closely with this donor myself and I find her quite reasonable and easy to work with. It's a surprising turn of events to receive a large donation which also has several conditions on it. On first reaction it makes one a little nervous. I have spoken with Norman about this and he is very positive, that if we are called upon to celebrate our connection to the Earth as part of our how we will grow and develop that is actually quite an excellent turn of events - something to embrace.
What I have come to understand as this has gone forward is that this is not really a donation. It's a partnership. The Dharma Hall and the Earth Room donor are entering into mutually beneficial partnership. The donor gets the Earth Room - a vision realized - and we get a the larger, more public center which should facilitate our growth. For us it solves a huge "chicken and the egg" problem.
It's been clear to me for a little while now that it's time for us to reach out more to the community and offer more, but the current space is not a great place to do that. But before we could get a larger space we needed to grow the sangha a bit more, but before we could grow the sangha much more it felt like we needed a larger space. And around and around it was going last Spring.
Now with this Earth Room partnership we can have the larger, more public, space now while we are the size we are, and from that platfrom we can see what happens. Will we grow and develop into an organization that serves the community more? Will we stay the size we are and just keep quietly sitting? With this support any outcome is okay. The worst case is after 4 or 5 years we fall back to cheaper digs somewhere. Myself I don't think the worst case is going to happen, I think it more likely that the best and unexpected case is what's going to happen. These last six months suggest the unknowableness of the future and also remind us that what we are doing is rare, of value, and really needed by the world.
Dharma Hall #2: Shambhala Center stays put
Dharma Hall change number two was already in the works last Spring when the Dharma Hall flirted with moving and pulled back. Shambhala Center, one of the four founding groups of the Hall, realized that they are growing and want to do more programs. That they simply need more time in the main meditation hall than they can get now while sharing with three other active groups. They also realized that their practice is not fully realized in a shared practice space because of the environmental and decorative needs of their lineage. To really practice fully they need a large and colorful shrine (altar) in the main hall and many other decorative elements which great as they are would make the place not feel like a Zen hall or a Mindfulness hall or a Vipassana practice place. So they've felt held back by the current arrangements.
They realized that to move with the Hall to a new space would basically require two large meditation halls, not one, so that one could have their full Tibetan kit in it, and that just doesn't seem possible even with the most optimistic of budgets and real estate scenarios. So in the Spring they were already considering staying behind at the Masonic Hall on State Street.
Now with the Dharma Hall accepting the Earth Room project, Shambhala has made that official. They have signed a five year lease on the current space at the Masons and will be staying there when the Dharma Hall moves. I really appreciate Shambhala's clarity on what they need and also their courage in signing the lease. After the other groups leave their financial obligation will increase greatly. To help them meet this obligation the Dharma Hall did give them a gift from our savings accumulated over the years for a rainy day. We gave them a gift of $3800 to support them in taking this next step. And in doing so we also clarified that other founding sangha can expect some parting help if they set out on their own from these funds we've built up together.
Dharma Hall #3: Insight (Vipassana) heads out…later
The Vipassana group - now called Bellingham Insight Meditation Society (BIMS) has decided that its time in cooperative space is coming to an end. They are actively seeking to purchase their own building and move out on their own. However, the perfect Insight Center building is hard to find so there is some possibility that they might join us for a year or two in the next (Earth Room) Dharma Hall, but they would do so as a tenant and not be involved in outfitting the place decision making. This is just a possibility, what is clear is that their long term goal is to purchase their own building. Other sanghas would be invited to rent from them but would not share in the decision making. I am excited for Insight and wish them well. The next years of Buddhism in Bellingham will be very, very interesting to watch and be a part of.
Everyday Zen Website
Another Zen project I'm involved in, and have been for some time is Norman's website.
The website for Norman Fischer and the Everday Zen Foundation (www.everydayzen.org) is being overhauled. It's taken most of 2007 to get this done but I'm happy that we're into the home stretch. The new site will be much easier to update, and that means it will have more and be more frequently updated. The hope is that dharma talks and new writings by Norman will be added almost immediately.
The new site will also have much better cross-referencing, include automatic email updates of new talks, recordings, and events, and even have a Dharma podcast (wow). Ruth Ozeki has taken on the big job of editing the new site and is working now on transferring over all of the material from the old site and working through my (embarrassingly large) backlog of talks and poetry to upload. If you are interested in helping out please contact Ruth at ruth@ruthozeki.com - she is actively gathering volunteers now. The technology of the new site should also make it easy for more of us to volunteer and help out. It should be easy to jump online and do some really helpful work in an hour without too much coordination. At least we hope so. I'll let you know when it's online, we think it will be a very useful resource.
Dharma Talk Recordings
Another embarrassing backlog in my inventory are the digital recordings of talks I've given and talks Norman's given while at our retreats. It just seems to be more than I can get to to get those on CD in the Dharma Hall library or online where you can download and listen to them. I do know that people want to listen to these so I am so happy that Chris Burkhart has volunteered to come over to my place a couple of hours a week and start getting these recorded talks out the door. She's just started but expect to see more CD's in the Dharma Hall library and soon, once the new site is done, many more on www.everydayzen.org.
Zen and Yoga: One Success, One Cancellation
Local yoga teacher Amy Robinson and I completed our first one day retreat together at Woodstock Farm a few weeks ago. The day went very smoothly and the 10 people who came seemed to really appreciate it. It really felt to me like Zen and Yoga as practices and ways to understand and awaken to the actual nature of reality are kind of like two different variations on the same theme. Different certainly but quite complimentary. And my body certainly appreciated the opportunity to do some yoga!
The day opened with meditation and a full two hour yoga class. This followed by zazen, silent lunch, a silent work period outside on the stunningly beautiful grounds of Woodstock. Then outdoor walking meditation, a shorter and more quiet yoga class, zazen again and we closed with some chanting. There wasn't time for me to give a talk which I will try to work in next time, mostly the Zen part that I supplied was the feeling of the Zen monastic day, of a day flowing through the schedule, lived together in silence. I hope to do hold a retreat like this with Amy again this winter and will keep you posted. And thank you to Marti Bartlett who was there assisting me do the Zen part of the retreat, and to Latona Maillard who took care of registration.
Unfortunately Kate Potter and I had to cancel our 3 day Zen and Yoga retreat at Samish Island Campground coming up over Labor Day weekend. Kate is a full time working yoga teacher and the numbers were just too low for her to make the trip down. I am quite convinced that Kate and I will work well together and that Zen and Yoga is an important offering and a great way to practice. Kate and I are on the schedule at Samish for Labor Day weekend in 2008 and will try to do a few one day events together in the meantime to see if we can drum up interest. Taking three days away to go on retreat is, I know, a challenge to do so I'm not too surprised that a 3-day retreat with a new combination of practices and teachers had light enrollment the first time around. If you did register for this event thank you for doing so and please accept our appologies that we had to cancel it. Full refunds of your registration deposits should be coming soon. Contact our registrar (registrar@bellinghamzen.org / 360-510-3167) with any questions about refunds or registration.
Upcoming Events
Annual Mountains & Rivers Hiking Retreat with Bob Penny, M.S., naturalist & experiential educator
Thursday September 06, 7:00pm - Sunday September 09, 5:00pm
Bellingham and the Mount Baker area
Inspired by Dogen's Mountain and Rivers Sutra, this retreat includes silent backpacking through a beautiful old growth hemlock forest to a seldom-visited base camp at Mazama Park, just south of Mount Baker at the foot of Park Butte. Camp activities include traditional zen practice, a short solo exercise, and opportunities for day hiking. Hiking is gentle to moderate, four and a half miles one way. A sturdy three-sided shelter is available for meditation if the weather is bad.
Cost (includes breakfasts, dinners and trail parking passes) is $60. Participants provide their own lunches and trail snacks. Limited to 12 participants. Registration deadline is Sunday, Sept. 3rd.
To register, or for any questions, please call Bob Penny at (360) 398-8834 or email him at bobp@nas.com.
Note that online registration is not available for this event.
Practicing Compassion, Sympathetic Joy and Equanimity with Kakushi Kate McCandless
Saturday September 08, 9:00am - 4:00pm
Bellingham Dharma Hall
Practicing the Brahma Viharas (Noble Abodes): Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity.
Returning to Bellingham after her successful retreat on first noble abode of metta (loving-kindness), Kate will continue with teachings and practices on the remaining three Brahma Viharas.
Zen practice, in its emphasis on wisdom and emptiness, can sometimes lose touch with the heart of compassion we need to live in this world of human imperfection. The Theravada tradition offers us wonderful practices for cultivating the brahma viharas (noble abodes) of loving-kindness (metta), compassion (karuna), equanimity (upekkha) and sympathetic joy (mudita).
In this one-day retreat there will be a dharma talk and lightly guided meditations--the brahma vihara practices with a Zen flavor. We will close with a tea and discussion circle.
Kakushi Kate McCandless has been practicing Zen since 1984 and was ordained by Zoketsu Norman Fischer in 2003. She works as a hospice counselor and facilitates bereavement groups for children, teens and adults. She has found the practices of metta and tonglen to be invaluable complements to her Zen practice.
For additional information please contact the Registrar at 360-510-3167or registrar@bellinghamzen.org. To register online for this event please complete our online registration form.
"On Forgiveness" with Zoketsu Norman Fischer and Nomon Tim Burnett
Friday October 5, 10:00am - 4:00pm
Woodstock Farm
Join Norman and myself for another "Zen Community Workshop" - this time on the topic of forgiveness. Gentle yoga, meditation, and intimate discussion of the topic with short talks by Norman and myself. And most importantly a chance to spend a quiet day in community in a beautiful place. A chance to take stock and renew our spirits together while considering this important issue. Can we forgive others and ourselves?
Sangha Annual Meeting with Zoketsu Norman Fischer
Friday October 5, 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Bellingham Dharma Hall
Join Norman and the sangha Leadership Council for our annual meeting. All sangha members and supporters of our sangha are welcome. This has been a year of many changes with more on the horizon. Come listen and give input and spend an evening with sangha. Potluck dinner starts at 6pm, meeting starts at about 7pm.
Weekend Study Retreat with Zoketsu Norman Fischer
Saturday October 6 , 8:00am - 5:00pm, and Sunday October 7, 8:00am - 4:00pm
Bellingham Dharma Hall
Norman's annual weekend study retreat. Topic to be announced. Zazen, two lectures with time for discussion each day. A great chance to study the dharma together. These retreats are also a great way to get to know Norman if you have not had the chance to study with him yet.
Public talk by Zoketsu Norman Fischer
Saturday, October 6 , 7:30pm
Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship
A public by Norman, topic to be announced, which kicks off our Fall lecture series: Buddhism in Bellingham 2008.
Buddhism in Bellingham 2008
Saturdays October 13 - November 3, 10am
Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship
Our second annual Saturday lecture series. Dharma talks by local Buddhist teachers including short meditation practice, question and answer, and a program for children to make it possible for parents to attend. Schedule of speakers and topics to be announced.
The Heart Sutra, a class with Nomon Tim Burnett
Mondays 7:30 - 9:00pm, October 15 - November 5
Location TBA (new Dharma Hall?)
A four session interactive class on this core text of Mahayana Buddhism which is chanted in Zen centers daily throughout the world. What do the Heart Sutra's teachings on emptiness and healing tell us? Join us for an inquiry into this densly packed text.
Early Teachings of the Buddha, session 2, with Nomon Tim Burnett
Fridays 1pm - 2:30pm, October 12 - November 2
Bellingham Dharma Hall
Continuing our exploration of the Pali Canon, the earliest complete record of the Buddha's teachings. Attendence in the first session last Spring is not required. We will continue but also start fresh in looking at these practical teachings of the Buddha. Text is "In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon" by Bhikku Bodhi. Class follows immediately after Friday noon zazen. Come to one or come to both.
Buddhist Movie Night
Saturday October 20th
Details TBA
Join us for a fun evening of watching a Buddhist-related film and eating popcorn. Maybe at the new Dharma Hall space if we're lucky. Details TBA.
Loon Lake Sesshin with Zoketsu Norman Fischer
Friday afternoon November 11th - Saturday mid-day November 17th
Loon Lake Retreat Centre, near Mission, B.C.
Our friends north of the border, the Mountain Rain Zen Community, sponsor this annual Zen sesshin (formal meditation retreat) at this beautiful mountain retreat center. Very quiet place and a silent retreat. Up early to sit zazen most of the day. Daily talks by Norman and also this year by the MRZC shuso (head student) Burai Rick Spencer. Dokusan (private meeting) with Norman and practice discussion with me and other local teachers. And this is the one local retreat (so far!) where we get to practice the formal Zen eating style of oryoki (oryoki sets and instruction provided).
Rohatsu (Buddha's Enlightenment) Retreat with Nomon Tim Burnett
Saturday December 8 , 6:00am - noon
Bellingham Dharma Hall
Our annual celebration of the Buddha's enlightenment.
Winter Practice Period 2008
January 24 - March 2
Bellingham, Vancouver, and Samish Island
Opening with a shuso (head student) entering ceremony for John Bailes, long term priest who is visiting us from Massachutses to be shuso, on January 24th, including a weekend retreat with Zoketsu in Vancouver January 26-27, a weekend of sangha practice and work at Samish Island February 9-10, and a closing sesshin at the Dharma Hall Feb 28 - March 2nd. Mark your calendar especially for the Shuso's Dharma Inquiry Ceremony (hossenshiki) which closes the practice period on Sunday March 2nd in the afternoon. This is an important sangha event and a great ceremony for expressing the Dharma together. There will also be additional zazen meetings, a class by John, probably a class by me, and other events. We'll get details on the website as soon as we can.
Sangha News
Juliet Thompson and Mark Huber were married, with me officiating, on August 11st at Little Squalicum Beach here in Bellingham. Juliet and Mark have been together a long time and it was wonderful to be with them as they took this step together. And being excellent musicians the reception at their house was a lot of fun and filled with music. Juliet has practiced with our sangha on and off for many years. A highlight of the weekend for me personally was having old sangha comrade Dillon Schneider and his family as house guests. Dillon was an early and devoted member of our sangha who moved away 10 years ago or so. It was a treat to see him.
Kelly and Dan Miller had a healthy baby girl this last week. Madeline Olivia Miller was 8 lbs. and 21 inches long at birth. Congratulations Kelly and Dan!
yours,
Tim
Nomon Tim Burnett
Resident Priest
Resident Priest Nomon Tim Burnett has been a student of Zoketsu Norman Fischer since 1987 when he was a resident at San Francisco Zen Center's Green Gulch Farm. After sitting practice periods at Green Gulch and Tassajara Zen Monastery, Tim helped found the Bellingham Zen Practice Group in 1991. Tim was ordained as a Zen Priest by Norman in June, 2000. Like his teacher, Tim is interested in the possibility of deep and complete practice by lay people.
A person of wide-ranging professional interests, Tim has been a botanist, elementary schoolteacher, writer, and computer programmer. In addition to his work at the Resident Priest of Red Cedar Zen Community, Tim works as a software developer.