Next month Sokaku Kathie and Zoketsu Norman Fischer are leading a 5-day workshop/retreat - May 22nd - May 27th - at Tassajara Zen Mountain Monastery that will be focused on 2500 years of Buddhist women teachers from the Therīgāthā, through China and Japan, to contemporary times. The onsite retreat is full, but Tassajara is offering a unique opportunity for sangha members to attend the daily lectures via livestream.
Please see the following link for additional information on how to attend the teachings with Sokaku Kathie and Zoketsu Norman Fischer, RCZC's founding teacher.
Buddhist Women Teachers: 2500 Years
We apologize for the late notice, but the community has needed to cancel April's Monthly Zen Alive! program. We look forward to practicing with you next month, if not sooner during our regular weekly schedule.
Warm bows,
RCZC
An article from the April 2024 Red Cedar Zen newsletter:
From Nomon Tim
Dear Sangha,
It's been so powerful for me lately to meet Dōgen with fresh eyes. He's our great founder and he deeply inspired Suzuki Roshi and also my teacher, Norman Fischer. It's not that I haven't studied Dōgen but there's always been some hesitation - a quality of holding him at arm's length. And with a bit of a "should" feeling. He can be so hard to understand and there are so many other interesting things to read!
Between Raizelah's wonderfully immersive exploration of how Dōgen speaks to us in Genjo Koan, to a scholarly books I've been reading,* and lately taking a fresh look at Dōgen's guide to meditation called Fukanzazengi (also with some extra support from a scholarly book**) it feels more like he's right here with us, encouraging us to show up, to be full present, to "investigate deeply."
At Edie's memorial service yesterday I could really feel the immediacy and intimacy of Dōgen's way. Birth turns into death, death turns into birth, yes but also death is fully and completely death and birth is completely birth. The mystery of death, the incredible awesomeness of birth. Death is fully death, birth is fully birth.
Early in the ceremony I made this statement:
Birth and death is the great matter, hard to understand, difficult to enact, impossible to avoid. From out of the empty sea of being-non being we emerge whole in this lifetime, for the journey onward. Our goal and task is to understand this life and, understanding, to love, imitating the compassionate bodhisattva, saving all beings. So we are born, so we die, so we help and are helped by others.
And right at the moment Edie's son's wife's grandson - a sweet little baby right in the front row called out cheerfully in that way only babies can. With Edie's ashes on the altar in front of me a baby in her family calls out. Birth and death. Right here. And they are always right here.
And then during the sharing part of the ceremony a sangha member reminded me of another member some years ago who was close to suicide. How Edie and I helped him. And that he's alive today and she's in touch with him. Birth and death all around us. Dōgen's teachings. Precious and deep.
And this week 18 of us are off to Dōgen's temple in Japan. In Eiheiji we'll get to visit with some of the monks and participate in a bit of their practice there and feel 780 years of continuous practice. Meeting Dōgen in another way.
Take care,
Nomon Tim
Books I mentioned above:
* Steven Heine's Dōgen: Japan's Original Teacher
** Carl Bielefeldt, Dōgen's Manuals of Zen Meditation
You can enjoy Nomon's recent talks on Fukanzazengi, review Raizelah's class on Genjo Koan as well as find the link to our weekly Reading Dogen group on the Dogen Studies section of the Dharma Talks library.
Nomon Tim Burnett is Red Cedar Zen Community's Guiding Teacher
Every year or so we renew our Sangha Mentorship program. Interested in working one-on-one with a sangha practice leader discussing and exploring practice? Learn more or sign up here.
Thanks to everyone who attended and supported Edie's memorial on Saturday. It was a beautiful time to connect and remember.
If you haven't already, we thought you might like to see:
For those interested in participating in the June Samish Island Sesshin, but unable to attend the full 7 days and 8 nights, 5 additional spaces have been opened for both the first half and second half of the sesshin. New and prior participants are welcome to join the community for the first half of the sesshin, but second half attendance is only appropriate for those who have sat a Samish sesshin with RCZC in the past.
We hope these additional openings will be of benefit to those of you that missed the opportunity to register earlier.
Samish Island Sesshin 2024
Red Cedar Zen Community's annual Zen precepts study will begin on March 27th, and is open to all with an interest in delving deeper into the precepts that are the foundation of practice. The monthly study group will be led by Kanho Chris Burkhart and IkuShun Desiree Webster with support from Nomon Tim Burnett.
Students should have the intention to attend all 7 evening meetings and the half-day retreat. Students moving towards jukai are expected to attend all sessions plus the Jukai Ceremony on November 10th at the Fall Samish Island Sesshin.
Please view the link below for more information and to sign up to join us.
2024 Zen Precepts Studies - True Freedom Through Ethical Conduct
Dharma talks from the Winter Practice Period's closing sesshin are now available online.
You may find the talks in the community's Dharma Talks Library or access them directly below.
Dharma Talk with Nomon Tim Burnett : Closing Sesshin Reflection
Dharma Talk with Myoki Raizelah Bayen : Closing Sesshin Reflection
Dharma Talk with Hoka Chris Fortin : Closing Sesshin Reflection
All Discovering Your Genjo Koan talks by Red Cedar Zen Community's shuso, Myoki Raizelah Bayen, are now available online. Myoki Raizelah led the community in an 7-week study of Eihei Dogen's classic, Genjo Koan, which included 7 classes and one writing workshop.
You may find Myoki Raizelah's talks in the community's Dharma Talks Library or access them directly below.
Dharma Class with Myoki Raizelah Bayen : Discovering Your Genjo Koan Talk 1
Dharma Class with Myoki Raizelah Bayen : Discovering Your Genjo Koan Workshop
Dharma Class with Myoki Raizelah Bayen : Discovering Your Genjo Koan Talk 2
Dharma Class with Myoki Raizelah Bayen : Discovering Your Genjo Koan Talk 3
Dharma Class with Myoki Raizelah Bayen : Discovering Your Genjo Koan Talk 4
Dharma Class with Myoki Raizelah Bayen : Discovering Your Genjo Koan Talk 5
Dharma Class with Myoki Raizelah Bayen : Discovering Your Genjo Koan Talk 6
Dharma Class with Myoki Raizelah Bayen : Discovering Your Genjo Koan Talk 7
Red Cedar Zen Community would like to warmly invite everyone - family, friends and relations near and far - to the memorial ceremony for our dear friend and sangha member, Shuko Edie Norton.
The memorial will be held on March 30, 2024 at the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship. You may view details regarding the memorial and RSVP here.
Edie died in the early morning of March 5, 2024. She passed peacefully at home with family nearby. At Edie's request, a few members of the sangha sat with her body the day that she died, sometimes meditating in silence, sometimes sharing stories, gratitude and laughter. Edie was dressed in her exquisite hand-sewn priest's robes.
You may view Edie's obituary here.
Red Cedar Zen Community is a 501(c) non-profit organization.
