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ONE DAY SIT: NO GAINING IDEA
Saturday, June 01, 2024 7:00 AM • Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship, 1207 Ellsworth St, Bellingham and Online on Zoom
Friday, June 14, 2024 5:00 PM (PDT) • Samish Island Campground, 11565 Scott Rd Bow WA 98232 and Online on Zoom
Thursday, November 7, 2024 4:00 PM (PDT) • Samish Island Campground, 11565 Scott Rd Bow WA 98232 and Online on Zoom
Registration has opened for members for the Samish Island Sesshin 2024, our annual week of silent retreat with Zoketsu Norman Fischer.
Members will need to log into their RCZC account to register between now and February 14th.
Registration opens to all beginning February 15th.
Upcoming Events
2024 Practice Period Events - This includes the Shuso's class, Shuso's Way Seeking Mind Talk, Intro to Zen Buddhism, Tea with the Shuso, Closing Sesshin and the Shuso's Dharma Inquiry.
Introduction to Zen Buddhism - Starting Feb 7th, this 4-week online class is taught by Heigaku Talus and Kanho Chris. Only offered once a year.
Reading Dogen - Our weekly reading group with Kanho Chris, where we are currently reading from Dogen's Shobogenzo, "Treasury of the True Dharma Eye."
Monthly Zen Alive! on February 4th, with Nomon Tim Burnett giving our Dharma Talk; drop-in program from 10:00am to noon. If you've never been, these talks are always so lively and engaged with time for Q&A afterwards! Online in the Zoom zendo.
Cedarwood Work Party on Februay 10th. Our monthly work projects on the Cedarwood Zendo!
Zen Sewing Workshop - For those preparing for jukai or wanting to support someone who is sewing, this is your opportunity to learn from sewing teacher Kanho Chris.
Monthly Zen Alive! on March 3rd. Please join us to welcome guest teacher Ryushin Andrea Thach from the Berkeley Zen Center. Ryushin is Dharma Heir of Sojun Mel Weitsman; drop-in program from 10am to noon.
2024 Zen Precepts Studies, "True Freedom through Ethical Conduct" - Starting in March and ending in October, this is our annual series of exploration of the precepts.
Wilderness Dharma Program - Registration will begin opening soon for the 12 walks, hikes and annual Mountains and Rivers backpacking retreat that have been planned by our Wilderness Coordinator, Bob Penny.
One Day Sit: Opening to Joy on April 6th.
Cedarwood Work Party on April 21st.
The Surangama Sutra class; starting on April 22nd for 6 consecutive Wednesday evenings.
Samish Sesshin 2024, our annual week of silent practice with Zoketsu Norman Fischer, Nomon Tim Burnett and so many Dharma friends is now open for registration for members. Everyone else is welcome to sign up starting on February 15th.
Please join us for the rescheduled Shuso's Way Seeking Mind Talk on Thursday, February 8th. This talk will be part of our weekly 7pm - 9pm evening program at BUF and on Zoom. Do not miss this important part of our Winter Practice Period.
Due to Raizelah's illness the Shuso's Class: Discovering Your Genjo Koan will both start (and end) a week later than originally planned and will now be held only via Zoom. No in-person option will be offered for the class.
An email will be sent shortly to all registered participants regarding this required change to ensure our shuso, and our small community, remain healthy.
Due to Raizelah's illness the Shuso's Class: Discovering Your Genjo Koan will start (and end) a week later than originally planned.
Nomon Tim has been sharing this wonderful poem from Katagiri Roshi at the weekday morning sits:
Katagiri Roshi - This Peaceful Life
Being told that it is impossible One believes, in despair, "Is that so?" Being told that it is possible, One believes, in excitement, "That's right."
But, whichever is chosen, It does not fit one's heart neatly. Being asked, "What is unfitting?" I don't know what it is.
But my heart knows somehow. I feel irresistible desire to know. What a mystery a "human" is!
As to this mystery: Clarifying, Knowing how to live, Knowing how to walk with people, Demonstrating and teaching, This is the Buddha.
From my human eyes, I feel it's really impossible to become Buddha. But this "I", regarding what the Buddha does, Vows to practice, To aspire, To be resolute, And tells myself, "Yes, I will." Just practice right here now, And achieve continuity, Endlessly, Forever.
This is living in vow. Herein is one's peaceful life found.
SOURCE: MZMC News, Spring 1991, Vol 16 no.1, pp.3 NOTES: A poem by Dainin KATAGIRI Roshi published posthumously, on the first anniversary of his death, by the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center News.
Red Cedar Zen Member Michael Kelberer passed away peacefully at home on December 28th in the presence of his wife, Dawn Moon.
Michael discovered the benefits of the practice after moving to Bellingham about 10 years ago. First studying mindfulness with Nomon Tim at Mindfulness Northwest, where he went on the MNW staff and Board. Later he discovered the power of Buddhadharma and joined the sangha where he also served as our first Program Administrator with great gusto and energy.
He received the precepts in a jukai ceremony November with Nomon Tim and Kanhō Chris. There he also received the name Shūhō Hōken meaning "Studying the Dharma, Phoenix Revealed."
A perennial student, Michael approached living with cancer with great curiosity, peppering his doctors with questions. His studies in the sangha with mentor Joden Bob Rose, and teachers Kanhō Chris and Nomon Tim were done with much the same enthusiasm and delight.
Michael will be missed.
Memorial services for Michael will be announced once they are scheduled.
Weekly Schedule Change
Our weekly Saturday Morning zazen is now a sangha-led event on Zoom at 7am with a single 30-minute period of zazen. Deep gratitude to Dave, Neal, Caitlin, Rei and others for keeping this practice time alive.
Sangha-led practice times are just that: times to sit hosted by sangha members. Teachers and priests might not be present. They are simpler ritually and do not include private interview times.
Gratitude to the many, many practitioners who participated so fully in the original Saturday morning practice over the last ten years with our two periods of zazen, the full morning service, and often a wonderful sangha breakfast together. We look forward to new programming in the Cedarwood building and bringing these elements back to our weekly schedule in future!
From Nomon Tim
Dear Sangha,
A wonderful, and sometimes challenging, aspect of our practice is how open ended it is. There's a formless spirit to it even though there are some forms it takes.
We aren't trying to "do" something special or accomplish something in our practice. Rather, our effort is to deeply engage with our life. To sit and study and be in sangha not as a means to some ends, not to improve ourselves or solve our problems, but as an expression of our engagement and love for this gift of being.
In a way there's literally nothing to it. And yet it's unfathomably deep and meaningful to live a life in, with, and through, the practice. I'm sure you've tasted the feeling of this. It's hard to put words to isn't it? I don't know anything else quite like it.
This open-ended quality serves as a wonderful antidote to our tendencies to try to fix ourselves (and everyone around us) and the underlying negativity and fear that emerges from. We practice just to practice, not because we are lacking or broken in some way, but to discover (and rediscover!) the wonder of being wholly and exactly who and what we are. Our way of practice is an expression of wholeness.
The challenge here is how easy it is to lose the thread of a formless practice!
Practice can fade away, we lose focus - even if we continue doing the activities of practice like regular zazen in community with the sangha.
And so our practice benefits from regular renewal and periods of a focus and intentionality.
Here is where our annual Winter Practice Period is such a treasure and opportunity.
Coming together as a community we reinvigorate our engagement. We turn towards our lives as they are with the power and curiosity with the support of Dharma teachings, studies and looking at our lives together as Sangha. Buddha is right at hand.
Practice Period is a translation of the term ango (安居) meaning "abiding in peace." The active verb abiding meets the wide open field of peacefulness when we practice together in this way. Discoveries are many and can be both quiet and remarkable.
I hope you'll sign up for Practice Period this week whether you're in Bellingham or further afield. The logistics are:
For myself I want to especially focus during Practice Period this year on noticing the inner tug of fear and anxiety in it's many forms. I hope to breathe with those feelings; honor and explore them; speak up about my needs as appropriate; gently challenge some of my habits and assumptions; and move forward into the engaged choices and connections that nurture me and this world.
I look forward to hearing a little about your intentions and the honor of practicing with you in this year's Winter Practice Period.
warmly, Nomon Tim
Red Cedar Zen Community is a 501(c) non-profit organization.
