November 2013 Volume 2, Issue 4

SOJI CENTER NEWSLETTER

Roshi Bernie Tetsugen Glassman Visits Soji Zen Center

On a cool October Saturday on the site of the Ausch- the Zen Peacemakers Order:

in Lansdowne, PA, Roshi witz-Birkenau concentration • Not-knowing, thereby Bernie Tetsugen Glassman, camps in O świ ęcim, Po- giving up fixed ideas

co-founder of the Zen Peace- land. Inside This Issue about ourselves and the makers Order, shared his universe Roshi Bernie long-term commitment to On Sunday October 20, • Bearing witness to the Tetsugen Glassman 1 socially engaged Bernie Roshi talked about joy and suffering of the Visits Soji Zen Cen- with 64 individuals in an all his Zen practice with 49 ter world day program sponsored by individuals at Soji Zen Cen- Everyday Mind Is The the Soji Zen Center. As the ter, including his formal • Loving actions towards Way 1 teacher of Roshi Enkyo O’Ha- training as a clown and the ourselves and others

Can You Bring Your ra, Bernie Roshi is the dhar- founding of Greyston Bak- Soji Zen Center practitioners Everyday Mind? 2 ma grandfather of Jules ery , a social enterprise, in Shuzen Harris, founding Yonkers, New York whose were honored to have Bernie Ordinary Mind is The teacher of Soji Zen Center. motto is “we don’t hire peo- Roshi come to the Center. Way ple to bake brownies, we For more information about Commuting Is Every- Weaving in questions from bake brownies to hire peo- the Zen Peacemakers Order day Mind 3 participants, Bernie Roshi ple.” go to: shared the power of street Overview and Up- Throughout the weekend, www.zenpeacemakers.com coming Schedule 4 retreats, in particular the an- Bernie Roshi brought alive nual Bearing Witness retreat the following three tenets of

Everyday Mind Is The Way A Note from

Shuzen By Jill Kyokugo Ripkin

Each morning when I awak- fast and the list of things she Each day we approach our en I hear the familiar com- should accomplish before go- “Many are called, few daily lives as if we have the option to wake up into an- mentary of "Kyoku-go" ing off to work. Then, there are choose ...” other view of ourselves, speaking to me of her dis- her predictions about the others and the overall flow satisfaction of the past awaiting traffic issues….a neg- of life in general. But do night’s sleep…what she ative remark about work she we? should wear, eat for break- left (continued on Page 2) Page 2

Everyday Mind Can You Bring Ordinary Mind Is Is The Way Your Everyday The Way (continued from page 1) Mind? By KBG unfinished ...and a review of her ideas It is… of the day that is unfolding and com- The tingling shower’s heat ments on how it will go, what work will be like or if it’s the weekend ...thoughts The beat of a heart of how the day or events will unfold. The tick tock

Of a distant clock The voice that greets me everyday is confident in its predictions, viewpoint It is not… and of the challenges and stresses that Who won There’s a reason why Buddhist monas- are certain to come my way. Does any This game or that, or teries have traditionally been built on of this sound familiar to you? Oodles high mountaintops or deep in the forest. Meditation has allowed me to observe The concept of physically removing one- Of besieging addictions, nor that voice as my "everyday mind" which self from ordinary distractions has been Whose religion is right has the ability to hook me into believing a staple in meditative practices for centu- And whose is wrong. all of its preconceived notions of who I ries. Getting into nature and breaking am and what I can and cannot do. I from the usual storylines of our lives The ordinary mind wake up each morning to be reminded helps us to tap into our own deeper con- Is the way; of this solid locked-in viewpoint of my- sciousness -- where we can develop—or self and life's course as if placing me deepen—our capacity to find stillness of A garden’s sprout into a prison and reading from a script mind and greater awareness. Cultivating A thirsting drink written from days past as to my desig- this ability is exactly what the retreat A priestly nated and acceptable path. experience is about. Our aim is to send participants home with roughly the same thing: a foundation of spiritual practice Gong… Without everyday mind there would that they can maintain long after they've no basis for comparison. Therefore Gong… returned to the hubbub of the outside everyday mind is my way, your way... Gong… world. The real goal is to get to the point our way for more aliveness. A chance where actual physical escape is second- for us to step out of stuckness, fear ary and the meditation itself is the re- and the old comfort zone and take a treat. chance to be fresh, fearless and give Join Sensei Jules Shuzen Harrris and and receive love that will make a true Soji Zen Center on December 26st — difference in this life we are all 31st for our Year-End Retreat at Malvern blessed to be given. The possibilities KBG attends weekly meditation ses- Retreat House, Malvern, PA . within us are no longer bound up and sions lead by Daitoku Palumbaro at a limited but truly boundless... how For more information go to: local Philadelphia prison. extraordinary and exciting! www.sojizencenter.com PagePage 3 3

Commuting is Everyday Mind by Abby Jingo Lang

I now declared off limits. Joshu asked Nansen, “What is the listen to the radio, and even bravely

Way? Nansen replied, "Everyday switched between country music and But then one day about five months mind is the Way!" a Top 40 station. Around the same later I decided to give the route anoth- time, I consulted Google maps to see er chance – and there it was patiently A little over a year ago I was fortu- if there might be a way to avoid waiting for me again. Each day I am nate enough at age 57 to secure a Route 1 and the intense (to me) high- grateful for the slower pace, the com- new job after being laid off from a speed bridge over the Schuylkill Riv- forting trees, and the old fashioned position I held for almost 13 years. I er. When I was ready to look, of bridge that safely carries me over the had a mate to thank for mak- course there were many options. I river where scullers skim along the ing the connection. But in place of mapped out a serpentine route surface. Just in the past two weeks, an easy 3-mile commute, I would through old, sycamore-lined neighbor- my commute once again has been soon begin each day navigating con- hoods. The first day I made a few disrupted, this time by an emergency gested city streets across three times wrong turns in West Fairmount Park road closure that has sent hundreds if the distance. but soon I got my bearings and was not thousands of us searching daily traversing the romantically restored During my first two weeks on the job, 100+ year old Strawberry Mansion for a viable alternative. But strangely I traveled on a busy stretch of U.S. bridge with virtually no traffic. I was enough, I’m not minding it so much. I Route 1. I drove in silence because home; this route had been waiting for try different side streets, I almost get my nerves could not tolerate even the me! lost, I come to understand where one neighborhood turns into another, I sit sound of the radio in the car. I need- ed every ounce of concentration to I was ridiculously proud of my “secret in traffic, I admire old churches, I en- navigate the route, deal with traffic, passageway” to work and by October, joy the radio. When the roadwork is and try to contain my anxiety over an when the leaves began to change, I done, I’ll make my way back. And unfamiliar and overwhelming work- was feeling pretty smug …until the who knows, maybe someday I’ll even place. deer started showing up. The first make peace with the deer.

one seemed harmless enough and About three weeks into the position, I did not enter the road. But less than found that I could relax just enough a week later I saw the aftermath of during my commute to listen to classi- two deer-car crashes. I feverishly cal music CDs, ones that I selected researched deer “rutting” behavior on each morning. Songs with words or the web. The final straw came early disc jockeys were still outside my one morning when a large doe comfort zone. I did, however, begin crossed right in front of my car, caus- to think of my commute as an every- ing me to swerve. That was it, I told day metaphor for change in my life, family and friends, I can’t stand worry- possibly with something to teach me. ing about deer every day. The path I had become so happily attached to --- Six weeks in, I finally felt “ready” to Soji Zen Center Newsletter Page 4

Soji Zen Center is a contemporary Buddhist center providing instruction in Zen meditation, philosophy and contemplation techniques for training the mind. We are guided by our founding teacher, Sensei Jules Shuzen Harris.

Soji Zen Center is part of the White Plum which brings together elements of Japanese Soto and Rinzai traditions of Zen Bud- dhism to teach intensive awareness sitting practice () and study to beginners who want to learn about meditation, as well as to experienced practitioners of Zen Buddhism to strengthen their technique.

Weekly Schedule

Sunday Meditation & Talk 9:30 AM

Monday Meditation 7:30 PM Tuesday Yoga 7:00 PM

Wednesday Study Group 7:00 PM

Thursday Meditation & Dokusan 7:00 PM Saturday Iaido 8:30 AM

COMMIT TO PARTICIPATE!!!

November 16, 2013 One-Day Retreat at Soji Zen Center December 26 — 31, 2013 Year-End Retreat, Malvern Retreat House, Malvern, PA

Contact Information

Soji Zen Center 2325 W. Marshall Road Lansdowne, PA 19050

www.sojizencenter.com

Teacher: Sensei Shuzen Harris Editor: Abby Jingo Lang Assistant Editor: Hector Bokudo Gil de Rubio Contributing Editor: Michael Daitoku Palumbaro Layout & Publisher: Brenda Jinshin Waters