Our Creative Sangha Please enjoy two selections this month from writer Charlie Kyle.

Hy'shqe Koma Kulshan

~by Charlie Kyle

For this being-time uji (有時)

For this life to snowshoe White Salmon Road

For this snow the last few days

For this Tuesday in early March

For this brilliant sunshine and bluebird sky

For this wildness of the hoot hoot hoot hoot

For this small green fir bough lying on top of the snow 

For this quiet noise of snow falling off the branches

For this noise of a faraway jet reminding me of home 

For this view of Mt. Shuksan at the turn around

For this thermos of lentil soup

And most of all for you my partner Jeanne

Meditation and Rilke

~a short essay, also by Charlie Kyle

“Be more mindful,” by wife Jeanne said to me after I caused a ‘minor’ $1800 car accident recently. Wise words I ignored until I sat down at a mid-day meditation on Zoom a few days later and started to follow my breath. I started to realize how many days had gone by since I last meditated. 20 days? 30 days? Maybe more. I couldn’t remember the last time I meditated. But it was longer than any period over the past five years since I started meditating at the beginning of the pandemic.

Tim, the leader of the meditation, read this passage from Rilke’s “Letters to a Young Poet.”

I want to beg you, as much as I can, dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

Tim continued through the first part of the meditation by talking about focusing on the questions without trying for the answers. Let the answers come to you, he said. During the next part of the meditation, we stood and did a slow walking meditation responding to Tim’s suggestion to appreciate your body.

I felt the aches and pains and the old injuries as I walked distributing my weight on three points at the bottom of each foot like I practiced during my physical therapy appointments. I was walking slowly back and forth in front of my desk and computer about six steps in each direction mindful of a relaxed but upright posture. I closed my eyes and remembered a feeling from 50 years ago — walking blind-folded guided by an acquaintance, learning to experience the world more by touch than sight. The result back then was not only noticing usually unnoticed details but also experiencing a renewed appreciation for the beauty of the visible world once the blindfold was off.

The second reading from this midday meditation was also by Rilke. I didn’t make a note of the source, but I remember it was about angels. With a little research, I found the Duino Elegies in the Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke translated by Susan Ranson and Marielle Sutherland. The Duino Elegies consist of ten intensely spiritual poems.

Here’s the first stanza from The First Elegy, which is my best guess at the poem Tim read that day. The asterisks indicate the words have explanatory notes.

Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the orders

of Angels?* and even if one should suddenly

hold me to his heart I would fade back, touching

his intenser existence. For beauty* is nothing

but the beginning edge of the dread* we may barely endure,

object of our awe because it serenely disdains

to annihilate us. Every Angel is dread.

*Angels: A famous letter from Rilke to his Polish translator, Witold von Hulewicz, contains as clear a statement of what he understood by the figure of the Angel as he ever made: “The ‘Angel’ of the Elegies has nothing to do with the angels in the Christian heaven (indeed has more in common with the angelic figures of Islam). [. . . It] is the creature in which the transformation of the visible into the invisible that we are undertaking already appears completed. For the Angel of the Elegies all the towers and palaces of the past are still existent because they have long since ceased to be visible, and the towers and palaces that still exist today in our world are for him already invisible, even though they still endure physically (for us). The Angel of the Elegies is that being which guarantees the recognition of a higher degree of reality in the realm of the invisible.—It is therefore “terrible” to us because we, who love and transform it, still cling to the visible. (13 November 1925)

*beauty . . . *dread: beauty may be seen as the visible world that has been (trans)formed and shaped (by the poet or by other artists), whilst dread is the invisible that has yet to be transformed. Cf. ‘Early Apollo’, II. 4-5 (p. 57)

From the explanatory notes it appears that Rilke believed metaphorically that angels could see what no longer exists, which is terrible for us because we cling to the visible. We can see beauty in the visible world especially when it has been formed by artists. But we dread the invisible task we all have of coming to terms with questions of our own individual existence either with or without a god and a heavenly host of angels.

I’ve always sort of believed in angels in the same way I believe in ghosts, spirits and an afterlife. I wouldn’t rule it out, but I’m not counting on it. As a kid I believed I had a guardian angel even as I doubted the existence of God. When I climbed up a tree farther than I knew I should, I believed my guardian angel protected me. And when I went to bed at night my guardian angel protected me from the monsters in my closet and the other strange goings of my mind in the dark. One time when I had a fever I thought the little plastic figures I saved from Cracker Jack boxes were alive, dancing around on my window ledge to the feverish sound in my head.

I was scared but not to point of hiding my head under the covers and not watching the show.

~

~Charlie Kyle writes and lives in the traditional territory of the Lummi and Nooksack Peoples near Bellingham Bay. He shares in the responsibilities for their homeland where we all live today.

Whatcom Faith Community Immigrant Support Contributed by Carrie McCarthy  Red Cedar is one of 32 faith communities coming together to help immigrants in Whatcom County. The Whatcom Faith Community Immigrant Support (WFCIS) is a network drawn together to support immigrant rights and to provide support for immigrant families. Requests may include donating food and supplies or participating in an event. If you'd like to help out, please contact Carrie McCarthy: carolyn@carolynmcc.com Board News At our annual meeting on Saturday, May 31st, the board presented updates on finances, introduced the board members and officers and had a lively conversation with the gathered sangha members. The Board would like to announce another newly nominated board member, Ariel Paulenich.  Our by-laws call for a 30-day comment period on board nominations. Please offer any comments by June 30 to board@redcedarzen.org or you may submit an anonymous suggestion at our new Sangha Suggestion Box. Volunteering Corner   Stay tuned for some new opportunities announced by Ariel--coming up very soon-- Our Volunteer Coordinator Ariel Paulenich is the person to reach out to if you have a volunteering offer or a volunteering need at Red Cedar.  See also the Committees & Volunteering page on the website.

A gathering of 25 sangha members joined Reizan Bob Penny and Nomon Tim at Hidden Mountain Zendo on May 10th to celebrate Reizan Bob's entrustment as a lay teacher of Zen at the conclusion of an overnight retreat at Hawk Meadow Farm in central Whatcom County.

Nomon shared that this fully empowers Bob to deepen his leadership and teaching with the Wilderness Dharma Program. 

You can enjoy Bob's wonderful Dharma talk reflecting on his life in practice given that morning on the website.

Great congratulations, Reizan Bob!

Celebrating Reizan Bob's Lay Entrustment at Hidden Mountain Zendo (in a yurt!)

Opening to Nature Walk: 100 Acre Wood; Saturday June 7th; please join us for a mindful walk through the woods; 2.5 miles of easy terrain in this wonderful extension of Fairhaven Park.

June Sansui-ji Work Party; Sunday, June 8th; 9 am; 2509 Cedarwood; painting, cleaning, and a variety of tasks.

Samish Island Sesshin 2025; join us for our annual sesshin with Zoketsu Norman Fischer on Friday, June 13th through Saturday June 21. This is a beautiful, silent retreat on the grounds of the Samish Island Campground; see details for full info. 

Opening to Nature Walk: Stimpson Family Nature Reserve; Saturday, June 28th; 7-10:30 am; a mindful early morning walk through old-growth forest; 4.9 miles; 300 ft total elevation gain.

Weekly Practice Moves to Sansui-ji: Wednesday July 2nd; new time and place for our weekly weekday evening practice time. Wednesdays 6:30pm - 8:30pm.

Hike: Opening the Mountains; Saturday, July 12th; 8:30-5:30; full day mountain hike; above tree-line near Mount Baker; uphill the whole way, 7 miles round trip.

Opening to Nature Walk: Old Growth Meditation; Saturday, August 2nd; 9:30-3:30; 1/4 mile and level (stepping over a few big logs) Meditation in the old-growth forest, stopping at Nooksack falls for sack lunch.

One Day Sit; Sunday August 10th; 7-3; one day retreat with breakfast and lunch provided, at Sansui-ji--followed immediately by a priest ordination ceremony for Seishin Tyndall.

Ordination Ceremony for Seishin Tyndall: Sunday August 10th; at end of one day sit; this special ceremony for Seishin to receive their formal priests robes and bowls and begin a life-long journy serving sangha and the world as a Soto Zen priest.

Temple Opening Ceremony - Saturday August 30th. Save the date. Details to follow.

Samish Island Fall Sesshin 2025: Thursday through Sunday, November 6-9. Our Fall Residential sesshin at the Samish Island Retreat Center. Registration is now open!

Dear Friends, 

Our last sangha home was a leased space on Forest Street on the edge of downtown Bellingham. We moved there from a rented room at the Masonic Lodge a block or so away in 2007. We had a wonderful procession in September of that year to move our altar, a Buddha and a few bells to have our first service in the relatively finished downstairs area of our new Red Cedar Dharma Hall. The upstairs was a blank canvas - a burned out shell of what had once been a church social hall. The next 6 months would find us remodeling that space completely: adding floors, lights, heat, walls. We created a beautiful space for practice. It was a miracle.

 

Procession to Red Cedar Dharma Hall on Forest Street, November 2007 

The Zendo at Red Cedar Dharma Hall on Forest Street, 2009

We all remember what was happening in early 2020. As everything was starting to shut down for Covid and the future looked very uncertain our landlord at Forest Street was insisting on a significant rent increase. We loved our place. It was our home. Thousands of hours of meditation had happened there in 13 years. Many retreats and cermonies. Jukai and ordinations. I was installed at Guiding Teacher of the sangha there in 2017.

Sangha Procession leaving Forest Street, September 2020

Like so many groups we continued all online through the magic of Zoom. This even freed me up to follow my heart to California for 6 months at the start of 2021 and remain fully engaged in sangha life. And sometime in early 2021 an idea was born: rather than finding another leased home in Bellingham might it be possible to raise enough money to purchase our own place? A fundraising campaign was born. We called it "Our Journey Home." A lot of hard work by so many in the sangha and so many generous donors later and we had another miracle on our hands: what we hoped was enough money to make a down payment on a building we could make our new home. The "Zoom Boom" real estate market in town at that time created even more challenge. I remember thinking to myself: "it's amazing we raised this much money, and it's amazing that it might not be enough!" Luckily it was. We purchased our building at 2509 Cedarwood Ave in August 2022. It wasn't until well into the purchase process that we realized how oddly perfect at new home for Red Cedar Zen Community on Cedarwood Avenue was!

Our Journey Home has led us to a home but our 1980 office building needed a remodel to become a Zen Temple. The scope of that work gradually dawned on us. At first we wondered if we could simply pull out of all of the little offices and paint. But the geography of the building just wasn't quite right. And so the major remodel we've all been watching and helping with was launched in earnest in November 2024.

Our first work party in the zendo-to-be, January 2025

Sansui-ji Exterior, May 30th, 2025

But now, at last, the real miracle of Our Journey Home is coming to its conclusion. There's a good bit of work to finish up the remodel, but we expect to be ready to come home to Sansui-ji, Mountains and Waters Temple, with our first weekly zazen meeting there on Wednesday July 2nd.

Words can't quite express how much I'm looking forward to practicing together at Sansui-ji, Nomon Tim p.s. at first our current weekly practice will simply move from Thursdays 7pm-9pm to Wednesdays 6:30pm-8:30pm. In the Fall look for our weekly Sunday program and many other new opportunities to practice to follow. We'll keep the website updated with the latest news!

We are getting so close! The professionals are starting to wrap up their work and the final stages of finishing the building are...up to us. It's happening. We hope to do a "soft opening" at the end of May with our Annual Meeting. Our April 27/28 work parties were a huge success. We've laid our zendo floor. This weekend we're ramping up to lay our Cloud Hall and dokusan room floors! Join us if you can. Saturday May 3rd Work Party  9am to 3pm Sunday Morning May 4th Work Party 9am to 1pm Come join us for floor laying, landscape work, and yes the opportunity for more painting!

 

Our Volunteer Coordinator Ariel Paulenich is the person to reach out to if you have a volunteering offer or a volunteering need at Red Cedar.  Email Ariel at volunteering@redcedarzen.org See also the Committees & Volunteering page on the website.

We apologize for mis-copying the poem last month from Bert Webster-- misread a whole line--sorry, Bert!  The correct version is below: Aria Who shall sing when the songbirds are all gone? A lonely car sits on its back with a wheel slowly turning. Broken glass. From the car a beautiful Aria is heard A sound seemingly not from this world Who will hear when there is no ear to hear with? A battery dies, the song stops, and in a long moment the car turns into something else A songbird sings.  Who is the who that sings? From beginningless time we come And to endless time we go.

News and information from the Red Cedar Board and Committees

From the Board of Directors

A Request...

The Board of Directors of Red Cedar Zen Community will offer the following slate of officers and board members going forward for the community’s review at the Annual Sangha Meeting at 1:00 PM on Sunday, May 31:

• President: Mari Ritalahti (formerly our Treasurer)

• Vice President: David Ketter (and interim Secretary)

• Treasurer: Kris Blake (new board member)

• Barbara Noda (continuing member)

• Scott Allen (continuing member)

• Bob Rose (extending service until 12/31/2025)

Our by-laws call for a 30-day comment period on board nominations. Please offer any comments by May 30 to board@redcedarzen.org or you may submit an anonymous suggestion at our new Sangha Suggestion Box.

...and an Invitation

We also have available openings available for sangha members to serve our community’s needs. The Board is responsible for prudently managing the sangha’s financial resources, maintaining our new temple and community gathering space, and providing dependable support for our Teachers and students to offer a range of dharma opportunities to the public.

Board service is another form of practice - taking zazen off the cushion and rolling up our sleeves to offer a stable practice space for our community. We welcome your interest as an expression of your commitment to our growing sangha.

A new feature for our newsletter: have news you'd like to share with the broader sangha in the newsletter? Just send your submission to newsletter@redcedarzen.org

Whatcom Faith Community Immigrant Support

Contributed by Carolyn McCarthy 

Red Cedar is one of 32 faith communities coming together to help immigrants in Whatcom County. The Whatcom Faith Community Immigrant Support (WFCIS) is a network drawn together to support immigrant rights and to provide support for immigrant families. Requests may include donating food and supplies or participating in an event. If you'd like to help out, please contact Carrie McCarthy: carolyn@carolynmcc.com

Community giving opportunity through the Interfaith Coalition 

Raizelah Bayen is currently working to expand volunteer/giving opportunities for the RCZC sangha. 

Help Feed those that are Hungry: 

We are working through the Interfaith Coalition where Red Cedar is a member congregation.

CAST is the Coffee & Sandwiches Together program, coordinated by the Interfaith Coalition. Through this program, every weekday afternoon meals are prepared, delivered and served in downtown Bellingham to the homeless population. 

If you would like to volunteer in the CAST program or help at the Food Bank who are looking for volunteer delivery drivers, please contact Raizelah: raizelahb@gmail.com or 707-364-0431