Great Plains Zen Center Sangha Newsletter August through October, 2012 Fundraising Drive Underway – Please Help Taking the Precepts (Jukai) Ceremony - Oct. 21 Enclosed, you will find details about a very important fund Please join us on Sunday, October 21 at 7:00 pm, when raising drive that is underway to fund the remodeling of our Nataly Kercher, Anneliese Vandre, Lorrie Kountz and Tom zendo at Myoshinji. A donor has pledged to match all Janiec will receive the Buddhist Precepts at our usual Sunday donations that are received by September 1. For example, your evening meeting at Countryside Church, 1025 N. Smith Rd., donation of $100 will bring us $200 closer to our goal of Palatine, IL. This is an important practice step, affirming their $3,600 for the project. Please see the enclosed letter for more intention to actualize the Buddha Way in all aspects of their details. lives in a way that is visible to others. This practice includes Sila (Precepts) – awareness of maintaining harmony within and without, Jo (Concentration) – Zazenkai at Myoshinji – August 17 - 19 a regular sitting practice and careful attention throughout all Our next retreat will be held August 17-19 at Myoshinji. The daily activities and work practice, and E (Wisdom) – nurturing retreat begins on Friday evening, and runs through Sunday the vow to awaken in self and others through study with a morning. The cost of this retreat is $75 and includes overnight teacher and diligent practice. The four jukai recipients have lodging Friday and Saturday, as well as all meals. made rakusu in the nyoho-e style and will receive a Dharma name and lineage chart during the ceremony. Friends and Beginner’s Mind Sesshin – September 14 - 16 family are welcome to attend the ceremony. Refreshments Those who are in the early stages of their practice are will follow. encouraged to join us for our Beginner’s Mind Sesshin in September. Sesshin (intensive practice retreats) are an important part of Zen practice. This retreat will introduce students to the formal practices that are integral to sesshin, including: sitting and walking meditation; liturgy; taking meals in the traditional, formal oryoki style; and work practice. Roshi will help students understand the many components and aspects of retreat practice, offering opportunities to ask questions about Zen practice and to explore the important student-teacher relationship. The cost of this retreat is $75 and includes overnight lodging Friday & Saturday, as well as all meals 3-Day Sesshin at Myoshinji – October 5 - 8 Our October retreat will be begin on Friday evening, Oct. 5, and run through Monday morning, the 8th (Columbus Day). The cost for each 3-day sesshin is $150 for current Practicing Members; $180 for others. Fees include meals and overnight lodging. Participants may attend any sesshin on a part-time basis ($50 per day for current Practicing Members; $60 per Expanded Schedule at Myoshinji day for others). We are pleased to offer an expanded schedule at Myoshinji. We now have early morning sitting at 5:30 on Thursdays and Registration for GPZC Events Fridays with a morning service following. Evening zazen To register, for GPZC events, please register/pay online at takes place Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 7 PM. www.greatplainszen.org. Please register for any sesshin, The Saturday schedule will remain the same (Zazen at 9 AM zazenkai or workshop at least 1 week prior to the start. This followed by talk or discussion) except that there will be an allows us to assign positions and arrange other logistics for the optional morning service at 8:30 AM for those who wish to event. If you are unable to meet this deadline, please contact us learn traditional Soto Zen Buddhist liturgy. This will be an to make arrangements and check on availability of space. Late opportunity to learn the service positions we do during sesshin cancellations are subject to a $35 non-refundable fee. and practice them on a regular basis. Sangha Newsletter August through October, 2012 - 2 Work Practice at Myoshinji Myoshinji now has open office/work hours every Thursday and Friday all day and most Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. You are welcome to come and participate in a variety of outdoor and indoor projects including gardening, carpentry, environmental restoration, cleaning, sewing, office work and more, for whatever amount of time you would like. Your help would be much appreciated. You are also welcome to come by during those times to talk informally with Myoyu Roshi, receive help on rakusu sewing, instruction on service positions, etc. Feel free to stop by! To make sure that we are not out on an errand, it is helpful (but not necessary) to call first (608-325-6248). Residential Training at Great Plains Zen Center Short-term residential training is now available for students who wish to deepen their practice and experience daily monastic life. This program is offered at our retreat center, Myoshinji, in Monroe, Wisconsin. To learn more about residential training at Myoshinji, please visit our website, greatplainszen.org. Implementing the Way of Council After Seisen Roshi’s wonderful introduction to the practice of Council during June sesshin, there has been interest in training facilitators to lead this practice at Great Plains Zen Center on an ongoing basis. The Ojai Foundation defines Council as Congratulations to Gendo Sensei follows: “Council is a practice of speaking and listening from On the evening of June 14, 2012, Gendo Sensei received the heart. Through compassionate, heartfelt expression and Dharma transmission from Myoyu Roshi, authorizing him as a empathic listening, council inspires a non-hierarchical form of Zen Teacher and allowing him to perform jukai (giving the deep communication that reveals a group's vision and precepts), tokudo (ordination of a monk or nun), weddings, purpose.” Councils could be very helpful in connecting us funerals and other functions of a full priest. In the Zen more deeply, teaching us how to really listen to each other, tradition, a practitioner must be given direct face-to-face and form a very direct opportunity to support each other in the transmission before he or she is allowed to become a teacher. practice of Right Speech. Please let us know if you are This precious and powerful ceremony affirms and protects the interested in becoming a facilitator. We hope to make Seisen depth, clarity and authenticity of our practice and assures that Roshi’s introductory comments from June sesshin available the title of Zen Teacher is not conferred casually or worse yet, through a link on the website. We would also encourage those self-appointed. The event of a new Dharma successor is a interested to obtain The Way of Council, 2nd Edition by very significant milestone for Great Plains Zen Center. Seisen Zimmerman and Coyle. Please talk to Myoyu Roshi at 608- Roshi from Sweetwater Zen Center, located in National City, 325-6248 or e-mail her at [email protected] California witnessed the ceremony and was the Guest Precept Instructor. Gendo Sensei will now be eligible to become a member of the White Plum Asanga, an affinity group of Maezumi Roshi’s Dharma descendants. Gendo Sensei has been studying Buddhism since 1977. He received jukai from Dennis Genpo Merzel, Roshi, in August of 1992 and has been studying with Myoyu Roshi since 2001. He leads the Great Wave Zen Sangha in Ludington, Michigan. Gendo teaches writing and literature courses at West Shore Community College. He has published numerous poems in a variety of magazines and in the anthology Beneath a Single Moon: The Legacy of Buddhism in American Poetry. He is the author of the forthcoming book, The Driftwood Shrine: Zen Essays on American Poetry, a collection of Dharma talks based on the works of several American poets. Gendo is married to Tandy Hoen Sturgeon, and the father of Ben, Jordan and Jessamyn. Sangha Newsletter August through October, 2012 - 3 Upcoming Teisho: Chinese Zen Masters Upcoming Dates: Upcoming talks by Myoyu Roshi will focus on the activities • August 17-19 Three-Day Sesshin and challenges of great Chinese Zen masters as it relates to our • September 14-16 Beginner’s Mind Sesshin practice today. We will look at the development of Zen • October 5-8 Three-Day Sesshin practice from the time of Bodhidharma through various • November 9-12 Zazenkai important Chinese Zen masters, such as Huineng (Sixth • December 6-9 Rohatsu Three-Day Sesshin Ancestor), Mazu (Baso), Yunmen (Ummon) and Zhaozhou (Joshu). We can learn much from the inspiring practice of these great teachers. Many historical situations and innovations made during this important era of Zen can help us understand and respond to the challenges we face in practice today. We are not practicing alone in time or space. In fact we are part of a remarkable flow of practice through several thousands of years and many cultures and contexts, all of Weekly Schedule in Palatine at CCUU which converge and inform our practice today. Zazen (Zen meditation) is held every Sunday at 7:00 PM at Countryside Church - Unitarian Universalist, 1025 N. Smith We will use Making Zen Your Own: Giving Life to Twelve Road, in Palatine, Illinois. We welcome new friends to join us Key Golden Age Ancestors by Janet Jiryu Abels, as a any Sunday. A standard schedule includes a 30-minute period reference text. This book was published by Wisdom of zazen, 10 minutes of kinhin (walking meditation) and a Publications this year. Jiryu is a dharma cousin and co- second 30-minute period of zazen. founder of the Still Mind Zendo in New York City. This series will begin with the Teisho on August 5.