This is a joyful and exciting time at Red Cedar as we move closer and closer to inhabiting our own temple.  What a gift and what a blessing to have a dedicated space in which to meet together, practice together, explore the dharma together, and grow together. This couldn’t have happened, of course, without the tremendous generosity of our members and friends. 

I am writing to you on behalf of the Membership Committee for 2 important reasons:

(1) to inform you that we have simplified the levels of membership at Red Cedar, and

(2) to ask you to reflect on your current level of membership.  Is there room to consider a change in membership to meet the growing needs of our sangha, as we build and move into our own temple? 

There is no need to change, if your current level of membership feels right to you. You will be “grandfathered” in at that level, even if that particular level no longer appears on our website as an option to new members. If, however, it is within your means and it feels right, please consider increasing your monthly or annual membership contribution to meet the growing needs of our sangha. 

Here are the new membership levels, as they appear on the website:

Monthly Membership Dues	Annual Membership Dues
Just Sitting	$120
$10	$200
$25	$300
$50	$400
$75	$500
$100	$600
$150	$1000
$250	$1200
	$1500

If you want to stay at your current level of membership, you do not need to do anything.

If, however, you choose to move to a new level of membership, clear instructions for changing your level of membership are here.

Please feel free to reach out to me, or any other Membership Committee Member, if you have questions about membership, or need technical support in changing your membership level.

In gratitude, The Membership Committee

Raizelah Bayen 

Kris Blake

Catherine Jones

Last week I stepped out of my position as the Executive Director of Mindfulness Northwest. This has been a rewarding and incredible chapter of my life, and also my primary source of livelihood since 2014, so I'm starting to feel into what this new chapter of my work life will be like.

I created Mindfulness Northwest (MNW) in 2011 because I saw an opportunity to serve others as interest in mindfulness seemed to be growing strongly. I wondered if it might be a way to bring what I'd been so nurtured and transformed by in Zen to a wider group of people who were never going to be comfortable with all of the stuff we do here. Plus my wandering career was feeling less and less meaningful and satisfying. (A few stops along the road: field botanist, handyman, cabinet maker, elementary school teacher, computer programmer!). Might it be possible to make a living through....meditation? That this might be possible amazed me.

(And yes I know I'm a lucky privileged person to even have the option of  prioritizing meaning in my work. Plenty of folks don't have the luxury. I'm deeply grateful for that.)

To my great surprise and delight it worked! The organization was successful. With a lot of hard work of course, but it worked. I was even able to hire a small staff and MNW supported them as well! In alignment with my values, I created it as a non-profit organization. We've actually served something around 10,000 people in our programs since it was founded in 2011. It'd good to take a breath now and recognize how amazing all of that is. Wow.

And after a few years MNW actually was doing well enough to pay me a modest professional salary which has been my primary income even since. Supplements by the stipend the sangha generously shares with me and the dana folks generously offer (thank  you!) it's been enough.

And now I am dropping a lot of my income. And that's a bit unsettling. I can feel the parts of me that want security tugging at my mind. And I do have some faith that it'll all be okay. Objectively: I did manage to set aside a chunk when I worked in technology.

I had to step back to be in integrity. I was getting tired. The organization has struggled since the pandemic. Where I once had great creative and dynamic energy from 2011 through 2019 - I was creating new programs and excited to go to work! - by 2023 or 24 it was feeling like a slog. I was just keeping it going as an obligation. Right when the org needed me to be sparking and excited to reinvent it it's leader was anything but excited. I still loved the teaching (still do!) but it started to feel like if I had to go to one more weekly admin meeting or make one more decision on polices my brain was going to implode. Do you know that feeling? I was done.

Plus I started allowing myself to feel how hard I'd been working. For years. How constantly I'd been responding to all kinds of needs in two organizations. Somehow for these last 14 years I've managed to be leadership in two dynamic organizations full of interesting and passionate people.....with all of the emails and personalities and great ideas and the occasional conflicts and issues that involves. And I always seem to want a family feeling where everyone's included (not that I do that perfectly as a leader but it's my default). Which is wonderful and creates a lot of richness and community but also just a LOT to keep up with.

So I'm a bit nervous about this change but also relieved at the same time. There will be a big release from a whole lot of tracking and remembering and tending and organizing with people.

And more room for me - not someone I usually prioritize! - and more room for our sangha and our practice as we move towards opening Sansui-ji. A lot of my sangha work has felt squeezed in to not enough mental space for...years.

So I let go of something big. Wonderful and pretty unsettling at the same time. What big things have you let go of?

It all has me thinking about the idea of renunciation.

In our life-practice journeys it may be that what real growth and change requires - what deep practice requires - is letting go of things. Allowing more change. Releasing from the assumptions of continuity we make as our conditioned selves yearn for more stability in the face of impermanence. Embracing change more. Living in deeper accord with the empty, impermanent, rich, wondrous, unpredictable nature of all things.

So last week I renounced being the Executive Director of an amazing non-profit. And I'm sure it's not the last thing I'll renounce. While we need to be practical in our lives, we also need to take risks! As I risk a drop in income I also look forward to discovering what opens up in my life.

What have you renounced? What might you renounce? What are you holding onto out of habit or unconscious obligation?

Big things and little things both are worth considering. Our way of practice is the way of letting go. Of releasing. Even as we stand strongly in our hearts in service of all beings - especially as we do that.

To paraphrase the Diamond Sutra: we save all beings understanding that there are no beings to save and no one here to save them, that's how we save all beings. We are called upon to be passionately engaged and completely letting go at the same time!

May we go forward together in grace and understanding as we lot go of going anywhere at all,

Nomon Tim

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

We will hear when there is no car to hear with.

A battery dies; the song stops, and in a long moment, the car turns into something else

A song bird sings.

Who is it that sings?

From beginningless time we come

And into endless time we go.

~Bert Webster

BIPOC / LBGTQ / Low Income Event Scholarships We have been gifted a $1500 scholarship for one day sits and classes, earmarked for those who identify as BIPOC, LBGTQ, or low income. If you are interested in utilizing this scholarship for an event, simple select the option during event registration.  It is available this year or as long as the monies are available!  Sangha Cares! The Membership Committee is starting a project called Sangha Cares. Can you help us support members who are sick or in need of assistance (such as a ride to a medical appointment, or help getting groceries)? If you would like to be part of Sangha Cares and be contacted when a sangha member needs assistance, please contact membership@redcedarzen.org, to be added to the the email list.

 

Supporting the Sangha: New Integrated Donations Page The Technology and Finance Committees have worked together to create an integrated donations web page. You can now make donations for the sangha or dana donations for all of our teachers into a single easy-to-use page. Note there is also an option for recurring donations if you want to support a teacher or the sangha in an ongoing way through donations. Memberships are also welcome if you'd like to support the sangha in an ongoing way.  Already a member? If you haven't thought about your membership level in a while, this time of transition into our new temple may be a helpful time to do just that. Cedarwood Building Update Huge progress continues! In April (19th, 26th & 27th) we'll be back in full gear with our sangha work: painting, laying floors, trim, and cabinetry. Please join us!  Ready to get inspired - check out Nomon Tim's latest video tour of our progress.

I've had a front-seat view of the impacts of the administration's destruction of the USAID foreign aid agency that has run development and health programs all over the world since the Kennedy era. In particular, the disruption of the anti-AIDS "PEPFAR" program has been devasting and is already leading to loss of life in Africa. America has quickly gone from "good guy" to "bad guy" in many parts of the world where affordable and effective USAID funded programs were in place to fill the gaps in public safety nets. The journalist Nicholas Kristoff has been on the ground in East Africa and reports powerfully on the impacts. It's heart breaking stuff. As you may know, this is near to my heart as for many years I sponsored a young woman in Kenya who has become like a daughter to me. After completing her Master's in Human Resources, Mercy Akumu has devoted her career to helping others on the ground at remote villages where people have so little.

Mercy and her son Berwin flying over to visit Tim and Raizelah last May.

Sadly, Mercy was recently laid off from her position at the nonprofit NGO Save the Children as most of their funding comes from USAID. While I can't help all of the many, many people affected by this I am trying to help Mercy so she can continue to do her good work. If you've heard some of my stories of Mercy, or perhaps met her when she was in town for Raizelah's and my wedding, I invite you to consider a contribution in the GoFundMe campaign I put together to replace 3 months of her salary at Save the Children - this should buy her the ease to re-establish livelihood. While she won't be able to work in the public service sector for now, I know she'll return to it as soon as that's possible. Like most people in the developing world (and so many here in the U.S.), Mercy has little by way of reserves. People work hard to keep afloat and getting beyond paycheck to paycheck is extremely difficult there. Remember that our U.S. dollars go far in places like Africa. With love and a deep bow, Nomon Tim p.s. I'm glad to report that we have been able to find a 90-day supply of antiretrovirals for Mercy's sister, who is HIV positive. Without this medication - formerly provided by PEPFAR - she is likely to die. Many others aren't so fortunate.

Community giving opportunity through the Interfaith Coalition 

Wayne Weinschenk and Raizelah Bayen are currently working together to expand volunteer /giving opportunities for the RCZC sangha. 

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

Help Feed the Homeless Population: 

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. 

RCZC will be creating a team working on the 3rd Wednesday of every month to deliver and serve meals. Delivery is roughly between 4:00 and 5:00 pm; serving is about 5:00 to 7:00 or 7:30 pm. 

If you would like to join our team, please contact Raizelah (contact information below).

If Wednesday afternoons/evenings don't work for you, there are other opportunities to volunteer. They need sandwich makers on some days (this happens in the mid-afternoon) and people willing to substitute at other times.

Everyone first needs to get their Food Handlers Permit. This is a simple process involving a short, online course and quiz (cost: $10) which can be done totally online.

Help Support our Immigrant Neighbors:
I've also been contacted by the Whatcom Faith Community Immigrant Support Group. They are interested in our help and we need a contact person from them on our side. If interested, contact me and I will send you a description of what they do and who to contact.

Again, if you would like to be on the RCZC CAST team, volunteer within the CAST program on another day, or would like to serve as our contact to the Immigrant Support Group, please contact:

             Raizelah at raizelahb@gmail.com or 707-364-0431

On the afternoon of May 10th at Hidden Mountain Zendo (the wonderful Zen yurt at Bob Penny's place) I'll be conferring lay entrustment for Reizan Bob Penny. Bob is a co-founder of our sangha and the creative energetic force behind our Wilderness Dharma Program for these past 25 years. 

The ceremony will be held at the end of a sweet little overnight retreat on the farm (overnight option is tent camping, or go home and return next morning).

The lay entrustment ceremony recognizes Reizan Bob as an empowered lay Zen teacher within the wonderful realm of outdoor practice that he's pioneered. He'll continue as the Wilderness Program Coordinator but now as an empowered Zen teacher.

Under Bob's committed leadership we've woven Zen practice into hikes, walks, and overnight backpacks. Walking, sitting, and being in natural spaces with the depth of our zendo practices has been a huge joy and a great support for those who've been able to participate.

A neat thing about the Wilderness Dharma program is that it's very inviting to people new to practice: it provides an entry gate into the intimidating-sounding work of Zen. And for those of us already deep in it, it's so wonderful to have the encouragement every year to practice deeply in nature with sangha. What a gift this program as been!

I hope you'll join me at the farm on on May 10th to celebrate this transition.

Below, enjoy a photo taken a few years ago on the annual Mountains and Rivers backpacking retreat with Komo Kulshan (Mt. Baker) behind us

Nomon Tim & Reizan Bob practicing in the mountains.

Hike: Mt. Erie Circumambulation; Saturday, April 12th; 10 am - 3:00 pm; hike around the base of Mount Erie close to the town of Anacortes on Fidalgo Island...about 3 miles of rolling terrain; see description in linked event for further details. April Construction Work Party; Saturday, April 19th; 9 am - 4 pm; bring your paint rollers and brushes: painting the interior walls together! April Sansui-ji Work Weekend; April 26th and 27th; 9 am - 4 pm; painting party 2! Once we finish the painting, we'll move on to installing the floor! Please consider attending both days and see details on what to bring. May Construction Work Party; Sunday, May 4th; 9 am- 4 pm; mix of tasks depending on the progress of the renovation. Hidden Mountain Spring Retreat; Friday, May 9th, at 4 pm and running through Saturday, May 10th at 4 pm...with Nomon Tim Burnett and hosted by Reizan Bob Penny. Join us at Bob's Hawk Meadow Farm for camping and sitting in the Zendo inside the yurt!--see details. Lay Entrustment for Reizan Bob Penny; Saturday, May 10th; 3 pm; this year's Hidden Mountain retreat will include a Lay Entrustment ceremony for our Wilderness Dharma Program coordinator and leader, Reizan Bob Penny, conducted by Nomon Tim Burnett; please see details for this event--all are welcome but please register so that we can get an idea of number attending. Hike: Lake Whatcom Watershed Hike; Saturday, May 17th, 10 am - 4 pm; A hike to perform rituals honoring the gathering of water in the Lake Whatcom Watershed...two options for different abilities--see details. Samish Island Sesshin 2025; Friday, June 13th, 5 pm through Saturday, June 21st, noon. Join us for our annual summer sesshin with Zoketsu Norman Fischer on the beautiful church camp on the water; many options for lodging still available.

“Where would I find enough leather

To cover the entire surface of the earth?

But with leather soles beneath my feet,

It’s as if the whole world has been covered.”

― Shantideva

We are facing perilous times in our country.

Zen Centers and teachers are understandably cautious about bringing up politics. Why? To protect the space for a deeper kind of engagement with our lives, our hearts, and our world than through the divisive lens of what we usually call politics. To protect the possibility of a harmonious and inclusive community that welcomes everyone: regardless of how you voted or what you believe about this or that policy or approach.

And it's part of my vow as a priest to practice restraint and humility as best I can: do I really know that my ideas and preferred policies are really the best? The world is complex. Unintended consequences are the norm. Arrogance and elitism are subtle and so divisive.

I truly try to be welcoming to all, and I want to be helpful to everyone as best I can. Plus I want to understand other points of view. I do sincerely hope that those who voted for the current president can practice with us.

But what's happening now in our nation's capital is beyond the usual range of ideas and actions we've called "politics."

Our new leaders are breaking the the very laws and constitutional agreements our country is founded on. Again and again and again. And creating great suffering as they do so. (In the Sangha to Sangha section below I share one of the ways this has affected people I love.) The alarm bells that our nation's democracy is in peril are ringing out. As well they should.

How do we practice in these times? We don't want to drown in the troubles, but we also can't ignore what's going on if we're to show up as citizens. Plus the troubles which at first seemed 3,000 miles away are showing up here and now with recent arrests by ICE agents acting very much like secret police in Ferndale last week.

A friend sent me a chapter from His Holiness the Dalai Lama's newly published memoir. The book's title says a lot: "Voice for the Voiceless: Seven Decades of Struggle with China for My Land and My People." Here is a monk and teacher who's truly been there in unimaginably difficult "political" circumstances.

Among his wise recommendations are:

(1) deeply recognize that any meaningful human endeavor must overcome difficulties arising from the deep suffering rooted in greed, hatred, and delusion,

(2) understand that difficulty and hatred can be met with love and compassion, and to remember that our adversaries are powerful teachers for us,

(3) actively appreciate whatever we can find to appreciate in the "other" side,

(4) hold what's happening in a bigger perspective: though it's hard to believe at the time, good can emerge from even very difficult disasters,

and (5) to practice optimism. If we give in the pessimism, we've lost our hope - we've "chosen to give up, even before trying."

Powerful reminders.

Perhaps the whole disaster is a giant wake-up call from complacency. I've always taken a more or less functional democracy for granted. That was sorted out over 200 years ago, so I can just live my life. I was taught about the checks and balances between the three branches of government in grade school. Even as we've watched the slide into paralysis, the enormous increases in inequality, the ever more powerful link between wealth and power, and the increasingly nasty rhetoric there is a deep part of me that figured, "it'll all work out, not my problem." But it seems that it is my problem. It's all of our problem.

And we are deeply fortunate to be able to practice. And to practice together. To take up that practice as our foundation. To turn difficulty into light as best we can. To return to ground together. To return to community. To look at the seeds of greed, hatred and delusion within us. To learn how to be engaged, but also to be humble. To watch out as we yearn for justice that our minds aren't actually yearning to get rid of the others we find incomprehensible and repugnant.

May every one of us find our strength and our voice, but with our open hearts and our love.

May we at Red Cedar continue to build and deepen a space for practice in service of this. And may each of us in our own way find ways to engage and help - no matter how "small" it might seem to us.

May those on the "other side" too find peace, find understanding, understand suffering and love. And may we understand that there is no "other side."

And don't forget to sit down and practice. To study and take inspiration. And be together with sangha friends (not just to hang out, although that's encouraging, but to practice together).

We need each other now more than ever. And we are human, suffering beings ourselves, no matter how well put together we might appear to be. When there's trouble between us - it happens - may we see that trouble as our practice in deepening and opening our hearts. May we learn and grow together.

His Holiness closes his chapter with one of the verses from Shantideva he recites daily. (Daily, for 70 years--this is a practice!):

As long as space endures

As long as sentient beings remain,

Until then, may I too remain

to dispel the miseries of the world.

In our weekday morning practice we encourage wise engagement too with this verse adapted from our precepts:

May I today in all actions of body, speech and mind:

affirm life; give generously; keep the mind clear;

treasure the body; be courageous and kind in speech;

open to and heal through strong emotions;

and return to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha on every breath.

I hope to see you in practice soon. It's more vital than ever to sit down together in practice. And then to rise up together as we face this world.

In two consecutive weekends in April we'll have the opporunity to make enormous progress towards finishing our temple remodel project! 

Saturday 19th: April Sansui-i Painting Work Party - painting the first coat or two on the raw sheetrock. Fast and easy roller painting. 

Saturday and Sunday April 26-27: April Sansui-ji Work Weekend - finish painting, lay snap-together floors, install cabinets, and more.

There will be room for many sangha members for both work events. Work is part of our wholehearted engagement in Zen practice, and we have two opportunities coming up to move closer towards the realization of our new home.

Gassho!