March 19, 2007

UPAYA CENTER Santa Fe, New Mexico 505-986-8518 [email protected] www.upaya.org

Spitting blood clears up reality and dream alike. --- Sunao, d. 1926

During last week's Talk, Roshi Joan touched on the vast and always- juicy topic of human sexuality gone awry through the lens of the Third Precept, both within the micro-context of a small community like Upaya's and also in the national and global macro-context. The tragic and devastating social consequences of sexual pathology are indisputable: pedophilia, human trafficking, the AIDS epidemic in Third World countries, etc. Rather than fabricating and fixating on some rigid, Old-Testament style prohibitions in a simplistic effort to repress this powerful human instinct, we may be better served by closely examining one's own personal baggage around sexuality such as compulsive/addictive personality patterns and social alienation, as well as more subtle factors such as lack of basic contentment and gratitude in our everyday lives. As befits a truly grounded teacher dealing with a highly complex subject, Roshi concluded her talk with a smiling admonition to take everything she said "with a grain of salt!"

UPAYA AT 18,500 FEET! The Kora, or circumambulation of holy Mt. Kailas in Tibet, is considered to be the apex pilgrimmage experience for thousands of Buddhist and Hindus. Many Western practitioners also make the arduous journey over the blustery, snowy Drolma-La pass. In 1999, Lisl Dennis joined Roshi Joan Halifax on a trek to Mt. Kailas, bringing home the profound story in its maelstrom of brutal weather, grueling physical challenges and hard-earned spiritual rewards. A DVD should be forthcoming shortly, but in the meantime you can view their 29-minute video here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3918504456021048669&pr=goog- sl&hl=en

LOCAL NEWS Fleet Maull will be giving this Wednesday's , the subject of which will be "Strong Back, Soft Front: Cultivating Equanimity and Open-Heartedness." Fleet is a longtime student of the late Chogyam Trungpa and an ordained priest in the Zen Peacemaker Order. He founded both the Prison Dharma Network and the National Prison Hospice Association while serving 14 years in federal prison. Fleet is currently the Director of University's Institute for Transformative Justice as well as an adjunct faculty member at Naropa, where he teaches engaged spirituality as well as an online course, " and Social Action." His book "Dharma In Hell: Prison Writings of Fleet Maull" was published in 2005 and will be available in the Upaya bookstore.

Because of our ongoing Integral End of Life Care retreat, there will be no 12:20pm sittings until this Saturday, March 24th. The morning and evening sits are still open to the public, though they will be in a very different format than usual. You may want to leave your hair curlers at home if you come---there's a good chance you'll find yourself captured on camera by the lovely Sara Nesson, who made the "Medical Mission in Tibet" video (now available on DVD in our bookstore) and is here shooting a documentary on Roshi's life and work!

RESIDENT PROFILE Rinshin, a.k.a. Tony Sager, is a man of many talents: the co-director of Upaya's Prison Project, maha-carpenter for our ongoing Prajna Mountain development project, and crack-of-dawn calisthenics blackbelt, with the rug in the Querencia library as his dojo. Just at the half-century mark but looking at least ten years younger than his age (due to the hundreds of pushups he cranks out every morning, no doubt), Tony is always ready with a smile that would put most Buddha statues to shame. He has been a Zen priest for over 20 years, alighting straight out of college at the Providence Zen Center where he eventually became director, before moving on to the Lotus Buddhist Monastery in Hawaii, from 1988 to 2006. An amazing stroke of serendipity: just a few months ago, Roshi discovered that Tony's father was the same "Dr. Sager in NYC" with whom she did her first psychoanalysis some thirty odd years ago!

HEAVILY DISCOUNTED BOOKS & AUDIO/VISUAL MATERIALS Coming soon, the Upaya Bookstore will be having its First Annual Spring- Cleaning Clearance, with 40-70% discounts on selected titles. Please email us for a list, which will be available by the end of this week. Examples: Being With Dying 6-Audiocassette collection, originally $60 now $25. Being With Dying VHS tape, originally $30, now $8. While supplies last!

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MEDITATION INSTRUCTION Sunday, April 1st at 11 a.m. Introduction to meditation postures, concentration practices, and zendo etiquette. You are welcome to join us afterward for our community meditation at 12:20 p.m. and lunch (suggested donation, $15) at 1 p.m. If you are interested in coming, please call the Upaya office at 505-986-8518 or email us at [email protected]. For a full list of meditation instruction sessions planned for the year, please visit our website: http://www.upaya.org/

UPCOMING PROGRAM DETAILS April 15-20: Living with Illness. With Jean Wilkins, Susan Benjamin, and Daniel Bruce. Facing a chronic or catastrophic illness can bring us to a moment when we need to slow down and look deeply into our lives, a time to find acceptance of a diagnosis, to review healing and coping strategies, and make peace with one's mortality. This retreat provides an exploration of the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and creative resources that lead to spaciousness and peace within which illness/healing can be engaged. The retreat includes meditations, teachings, art therapy, drawing, bodywork, group sessions, and councils. Retreatants must be able to manage the tasks of everyday living.

May 7-13: MOUNTAINS AND MONASTERY SESSHIN It’s been an unusually cold and snowy winter in these parts, during which our Prajna Mountain Forest has seen over ten feet of snow! We doubt that it will have melted in time for our May Refuge Sesshin, so we are shifting the sesshin form to our wonderful Mountain And Monastery sesshin, giving us deep meditation time in our zendo and wild walking time in the beautiful Sangre de Cristo Mountains nearby. This form offers a truly unique opportunity to bring together practice in the wild and practice in the temple. Wonderful news is that Roshi Enkyo O'Hara (Abbot of the Village Zendo in NYC) and Roshi Joan will be teaching on of the Natural World, using classical koans as a key to exploring the natural mind and the wilderness. Please do join us for this unique opportunity to be with these two rare teachers and our gorgeous mountains.

July 5-8: LIBERATION THROUGH YOGA AND BUDDHISM. With Richard Freeman & Roshi Joan Halifax. This powerful and rare retreat brings together Yoga and Buddhism with two master teachers in a radical approach to healing and liberating body and mind. Richard Freeman, a renowned teacher of Ashtanga yoga in the tradition of K. Pattabhi Jois, integrates yoga practice with Dharma. Roshi Joan explores the shared principles of yoga and Buddhism through talks and dharma exchanges with Richard in the evenings. The spirit of yoga and Buddhism is realized in a retreat setting that includes five hours of guided yoga practice, evening dharma talks, two hours of sitting meditation, and silence.

July 11-15: IN THE SHELTER OF EACH OTHER WOMEN'S RETREAT: ENGAGED PRACTICE IN THE HEART OF THE WORLD With Roshi Joan Halifax and 7 other special faculty: This is the powerful annual ecumenical gathering for women exploring contemplative practice, social action, and the arts. A rich blending of body, mind and spirit, this retreat focuses on women’s spiritual lives and service to others. It includes a unique faculty, with teachings, meditation practice, dharma talks, council, painting, , story telling, dance, yoga, healthy diet, breath work, and physical practice to strengthen our lives. Mayumi Oda, social activist and artist; Zuleikha, composer, dancer and story-teller; Tessa, former Carmelite nun, author, and co-founder of The Desert Foundation; Cynthia West, poet, painter and social activist; Diane Haug, practitioner of Holotropic Breathwork; Rabbi Malka Drucker, author, founder of HaMakom; Barbara Tedlock, author, anthropologist.

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ENGAGED BUDDHISM Metta Council - Living with Illness Tuesdays from 10:30 a.m. to 12.00 noon--a weekly group for people who are ill, their partners, caregivers, hospice volunteers, nurses, and anyone interested in exploring issues around living, sickness aging and death. Beginning around 12:05 p.m. until 1:00 p.m. the group engages in contemplative writing. This is not a writing group per se but rather an alternative way of exploring what is alive for people in the moment. No previous writing experience is needed, just a willingness to be fully present. Please call Jean at 505-986-8518 or email [email protected] for more information.

Letters and Books for Inmates A year ago, the Upaya Prison Outreach Project started a “Pen-Pal Program”, inviting people with a personal meditation practice to enter into regular correspondence with inmates incarcerated in prisons around the country. Convicted felons in prison often write to Upaya requesting information about Zen or Buddhist practice, at times expressing an interest in exchanging letters with someone who has meditation experience. Corresponding regularly with a practicing inmate is a great way to support and reach out to our dharma brothers and sisters in prison and offer them the support they would otherwise not receive. If this program interests you, please email Ray Olson at [email protected] or call him at 505/986-5835 to receive more information about the program. In addition, the program solicits used dharma books which can be mailed to inmates who request reading material. If you have such books and think you will no longer use them, please bring them to Upaya and leave them in the reception foyer, marked Prison Outreach Project.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY Upaya is always grateful for a helping hand. We have volunteer opportunities in the office, kitchen, and housekeeping. There is the possibility of earning retreat credit for hours volunteered. If you are interested, please call Eddie at 505-986- 8518 or email [email protected].

ROSHI JOAN HALIFAX ON THE WEB Roshi Joan has started a fascinating blog. Some of her students on Zaadz invited her to join this social network and over the Thanksgiving weekend, she did. So with her Flickr photo site, http://flickr.com/photos/upaya/ moving along, now with some great archival photos of her life and the recent amazing Tibet series, she invites you to visit her new blog site which already has quite a few of her entries. Many people are now sourcing the site, where she discusses dharma, offers koanic poetry, considers the works of Ken Wilber, William Irwin Thompson, and Francisco Varela, and brings us into her lifestream through her constant attention to detail. Here is the blog address: http://jhalifax.zaadz.com/blog