Dear Sangha, How wonderful, once again, our summer ango time is approaching! This year, from July 23 to August 24, the Village Zendo community (and anyone who wishes to join us) will engage in an intensification of practice and attention to our lives. This is in accord with the traditional Zen long retreats called ‘ango’ or peaceful dwelling. Our Village Zendo Summer Ango is conducted both as a residential retreat at The Grail and also in the city, in the midst of our ordinary daily lives of coming and going to work, family and Zendo. For thirty-one days we personally commit to more zazen, study, and other practices such as clear awareness of our interaction with others and attentiveness to the precepts. This year we are studying “The Bodhisattva’s Four Methods of Guidance.” by Dogen Zenji. Kazuaki Tanahashi’s translation can be downloaded from the Village Zendo ango web page at http://bitly.com/ango2014 and found in his of Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen's Shobo Genzo, Shambhala. One person is asked to serve as ‘Shuso’, or practice leader, someone to show up as our model of sincere practice. This year’s shuso is Tim Bokushu 朴修 Tucker who has written a letter and a commitment form to help us articulate our aims for this period of time. It is very helpful to fill our your commitment form and share it with one of the teachers. Please join Bokushu and the whole community in exploring this active way to energize our practice! All of these documents, the shuso letter, the commitment form, and the study text, can be downloaded from our website. Thank you for your practice, Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara Abbot, Village Zendo 588 Broadway, suite 1108, New York, New York 10012 www.villagezendo.org [email protected] .