Southern Palm Zen News

October 2011 Volume 5, Number 10

In This Issue Welcome Roshi!  Shodo Harada Roshi  Practice Opportunities  Prison Outreach  Regional Events  2011-12 Calendar  A Note from Doshin  Sangha Bulletin Board

Our Website www.floridazen.com look here for recommended resources and readings for students of zen

Our Schedule

Tuesday & Thursday Morning Zazen 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m.

Wednesday Evening Orientation to Zen & Meditation: 5:30 – 6:00 p.m. Study Group 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. (The FAU lecture will be held in the Sanson Life Sciences Building) Service & Zazen 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Practice Opportunities

In Boca Raton: Saturday Morning Service & Zazen On October 22, Mushin Sensei will lead a half-day zazenkai, 7:15 – 9:10 a.m. from 7:15 a.m. until noon. Zazen, dokusan, dharma talk, and Study Group a vegetarian breakfast are included. Suggested dana is $5.00. 9:15 – 10:00 a.m.. Please contact [email protected] to reserve your seat.

OUR MEETING PLACE SPZG has a Wednesday book study at 6 p.m. We are currently discussing Subtle Sound by Maurine Stuart. Our Saturday study group meets after Unitarian Universalist service and zazen and is working through Realizing Genjokoan Fellowship by Shohaku Okumura. 2601 St. Andrews Blvd. Boca Raton, FL For a more specific schedule of chapters and speakers, please contact [email protected].

MAILING ADDRESS

Southern Palm Zen Group SPZG Prison Outreach Program P.O. Box 880551 Boca Raton, FL 33488-0551

PHONE & EMAIL

Doshin Cantor Sensei [email protected] 561-350-5535

Mushin May Sensei [email protected] As of this writing, SPZG mails a monthly newsletter on Buddhist practice to nearly 300 inmates across Florida. Thirteen prisons have active Buddhist meditation groups, many of them visited regularly by members of our extended sangha. Many more members correspond regularly with inmates Jishin Faysash Osho to offer encouragement and support. Your participation is welcome and [email protected] encouraged. If you would like to be involved in any way, please contact 561-289-3595 [email protected].

In November, our pilot program of mindfulness practices will begin for a 9- Find us on Facebook: week series at South Bay C.F. in Palm Beach County. It will be open to Southern Palm Zen Group inmates regardless of religious affiliation

Regional Events

Coming Soon to South Florida….

Key Figures in American Zen Practice Will Visit Our Region

For more news & insight from the wider White Plum Asanga, follow these links: “Bringing Dōgen Down to Earth” http://www.zenpeacemakers.org (click on Multi-Media Newsletters) A Symposium November 12, 2011 www.zmc.org/talk This event is a joint project of the Daishin www.upaya.org/newsletter Zendo in Miami and Florida International University’s Asian Studies Program, the www.whiteplum.org Program for the Study of Spirituality and the Department of Religious Studies.

Speakers include Steve Heine, Taigen Dan Support the Sangha Leighton, Shohaku Okumura, William Bodiford, and Griffith Foulk, all of whom are Dogen scholars.

The program will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Modesto A. Earn money for our Zendo by Maidique (University Park) Campus' MARC Pavilion. doing your searches on

GoodSearch.com Eihei Dogen was a 13th century Japanese Zen Master who is considered the Simply go to Goodsearch.com and enter us as your charity. founding patriarch of the Soto School of Zen. His major writings include the Type: Southern Palm Zen Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye Treasure). Group Then perform all of your Donations to help finance this project are very much needed and will be search engine searches there gratefully accepted. For information on how you can participate, and earn the please go to the Daishin website www.buddhasotozen.org or contact Zendo about 1 cent per search [email protected]. (you can imagine how that can add up).

Donations can also be made by mail to Bo Lozoff, musician, author, and inspiration to countless people both Southern Palm Zen Group inside and outside prisons, will speak in Boca Raton on Thursday, December P.O. Box 880551 22. More details on location and time will be announced. Boca Raton, FL 33488-0551

2011-12 Calendar of Events October 22, 2011 Half Day Zazenkai With Mushin Sensei 7:15 a.m. until noon

October 24, 2011 Evening talk with Shodo Harada Roshi 7 – 9 p.m. at the Unitarian Fellowship in Boca Raton.

November 19, 2011 All Day Zazenkai With Doshin Sensei and Mushin Sensei

7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

December 7, 2011 Rohatsu Celebration With Doshin Sensei and Mushin Sensei

7:00 p.m. until 7:00 a.m.

December 17, 2011 Half Day Zazenkai (Shuso Ceremony for Zochi)

With Doshin Sensei and Mushin Sensei 7:15 a.m. until noon

January 20-22, 2012 Three day sesshin at Kashi Ashram

Sebastian, Florida Details to follow.

February 11, 2012 All Day Zazenkai

With Doshin Sensei and Mushin Sensei 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

March 10, 2012 All Day Zazenkai

With Robert Kennedy Roshi 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

(for further information on these events, contact [email protected])

Photo by Doshin Five Precepts: Frank Ostaseski

A while back, I developed five precepts as companions on the journey of accompanying the dying. Perhaps they have relevance in other dimensions of life and can offer some inspiration and guidance. I think of these as five bottomless practices that can be continually explored and deepened. They are not linear and have no value as theories or concepts. To be understood and realized, they have to be lived into and communicated through action.

The First Precept: Welcome Everything. Push Away Nothing. In welcoming everything, we don't have to like what's arising. It's actually not our job to approve or disapprove. It's our task to trust, to listen, and to pay careful attention to the changing experience. At the deepest level, we are being asked to cultivate a kind of fearless receptivity. This is a journey of continuous discovery in which we will always be entering new territory. We have no idea how it will turn out, and it takes courage and flexibility. We find a balance. The journey is a mystery we need to live into, opening, risking, and forgiving constantly.

The Second Precept: Bring Your Whole Self to the Experience. In the process of healing others and ourselves we open to both our joy and fear. In the service of this healing we draw on our strength and helplessness, our wounds and passion to discover a meeting place with the other. Professional warmth doesn't heal. It is not our expertise but the exploration of our own suffering that enables us to be of real assistance. That's what allows us to touch another human being's pain with compassion instead of with fear and pity. We have to invite it all in. We can't travel with others in territory that we haven't explored ourselves. It is the exploration of our own inner life that enables us to form an empathetic bridge to the other person.

The Third Precept: Don't Wait. Patience is different than waiting. When we wait, we are full of expectations. When we're waiting, we miss what this moment has to offer. Worrying or strategizing about what the future holds for us, we miss the opportunities that are right in front of us. Waiting for the moment of death, we miss so many moments of living. Don't wait. If there's someone you love, tell him or her that you love them. Allow the precarious nature of this life to show you what's most important then enter fully.

The Fourth Precept: Find a Place of Rest in the Middle of Things. We often think of rest as something that will come when everything else is complete, like when we go on a holiday or when our work is done. We imagine that we can only find rest by changing the conditions of our life. But it is possible to discover rest right in the middle of chaos. It is experienced when we bring our full attention, without distraction, to this moment, to this activity. This place of rest is always available. We need only turn toward it. It's an aspect of us that's never sick, is not born, and does not die.

The Fifth Precept: Cultivate Don't-Know Mind. This describes a mind that's open and receptive. A mind that's not limited by agendas, roles and expectations. The great Zen teacher Suzuki Roshi, was fond of saying, "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few."

From this vantage point we realize that “not knowing is most intimate.” Understanding this we stay very close to the experience allowing the situation itself to inform our actions. We listen carefully to our own inner voice, sensing our urges, trusting our intuition. We learn to look with fresh eyes.

Local Bulletin Board

Help Homeless Families: The UUFBR is part of an interfaith program to provide overnight shelter to homeless families with children. They need volunteers for occasional help preparing meals. If you would Like to participate, please contact [email protected]

Note: Sangha members are cordially invited to submit information about their businesses, services, and community events that might be of interest to the rest of the sangha. Brief notices of local interest only will be posted in this space. Please contact [email protected]