2026 July Newsletter

July Offerings

Monday, July 6; 6 PM, on Zoom & in person at Shove Chapel, Meditation, Sutra Service and Conversation

 
Hello Bodhisattvas,
This Monday I'll lead the sutra service myself– l like to do so once a year or so, which lets me feel it in a slightly different way in the Dharma Hall, and also gives me occasion to say a few words about the ritual life of the sangha, and the place held by the sutra service. After the service there will be time for conversation. It's always fascinating to hear what has come through the service to our ears and hearts.  In case you are joining on line, you can find the sutra service here:  https://joansutherlanddharmaworks.org/cgi-bin/dharma/jump.cgi?ID=140;view=PDF2 
There's so much that's beautiful in there, and useful to turn to when some words from the ancestors will help, that we encourage you to print yourself a copy.  And if you happen to read through it before the service, please jot down questions or responses and we can address them during the evening. Looking forward to seeing some of you tomorrow evening,

Sarah Bender



Tuesday, July 7; 6:30 PM, on Zoom, Steering Committee Meeting – all are welcome

Thursday, July 9; 6:30 PM, on Zoom, Summer Book Group – Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (see below)

Thursday, July 12; 6:30 PM, on Zoom, Cloud Gate Town Hall Meeting – zoom link will be sent out at a later date; keep an eye out for future announcements!

Please do come to this if you can!  We'll review the progress that the hard-working Strategic Planning Group has been making towards giving Open Source (Now Cloud Gate!) some structure so that our connection with each other can be smooth, and can give us a more accessible public face, places to make talks and writings easy to find, easier ways to coordinate and make retreats together, and more.  Your ideas are needed, and making happy connections among us is so important—our communities are doing this together, even while we strengthen our individual groups and respond creatively to what's happening!

Monday, July 13; 6 PM, on Zoom & in person at Shove Chapel, Meditation and Dharma Talk by Sarah Bender, Roshi

Monday, July 20; 6 PM, on Zoom & in person at Shove Chapel, Meditation, Dharma Talk by Sarah Bender and Conversation

Tuesday, July 21; 6:30-7 PM, on Zoom
Welcome to New Comers Evening with Brandy Lancaster

Thursday, July 23; 6:30 PM, on Zoom, Summer Book Group – Pilgrim at Tinker Creek 

Monday, July 27; 6 PM, on Zoom & in person at Shove Chapel, Meditation, Precepts and conversation 


Candlelight Meditation

Every Sunday from 6 to 6:30 PM, you are invited to join candlelight meditation online. Simple and lovely. 


More information on the offerings listed above:




Springs Mountain Sangha
Online Summer Book Group!
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek 
 

Annie Dillard's meditation on the interweaving of life and death, experienced with deep presence, through four seasons in nature,

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1975.

Thursdays 6:30-7:30 pm MT

July 9 and 23,

August 6 and 20,

September 3 and 17

The group is a place for us to explore together the ways in which the themes of the book reflect, illuminate, extend, or contradict our own ongoing relationship to aliveness, suffering, and death.

This is a peer-led group.  Susan Wiser  coordinates, and we take turns leading.

Suggested donation:  $10 per group to SMS at the following link: 

https://www.smszen.org/supportsms/ and click the yellow donate button on the left side of the page

For more info or to register, please contact Susan Wiser at cayugadogrescue@gmail.com

Cloud Gate Town Hall

Please mark your calendars for our next mahasangha meeting on Sunday July 12 at 6:30 MT/5:30 PT. The zoom link will be sent out as it gets closer.

This meeting will include updates from the Strategic Planning Group and plenty of time for questions and conversation. We hope as many of you as possible can join in. Your impressions, questions and suggestions are critical to this process of growing our shared community.  More to come!


Welcome to New Comers Evening
with Brandy Lancaster

Tuesday, July 21st, from 6:30-7PM MT
on SMS Zoom

New to the practice or Sangha? Have questions to ask? Pop on the Zoom at 6:30 on the 3rd Tuesday of the month to meet with a Sangha member and learn more about our practices. 
We look forward to connecting with you!
 

2026 Upcoming Retreats
 

Mark your calendar and save the date for these retreats coming up in 2026 – more information will be available as the dates get closer


August 30 Ullambana retreat

October 17-23 Open Source retreat in Tucson



Save the date: October 17-23 Open Source/Cloud Gate retreat in Tucson

In early Autumn, our Cloud Gate community offers a retreat at the Redemptorist Renewal Center in Tucson (a.k.a. Picture Rocks). Saturday evening to Friday afternoon—one day longer than our recent retreats. Sarah Bender, Tenney Nathanson and Megan Rundel will teach.  Accommodations at the center are comfortable and the setting, in the Sonoran Desert, is magical. Come and let the retreat, the community, the place and the teachers hold you while you take a good stretch of time to release your heart-mind into a sustained experience of meditation and koan practice. 

So, SAVE THE DATE!  We'll let you know when registration opens.

December 6, 2026 Bodhi Day retreat

If you are interested in helping to coordinate a retreat, please let Kelly McFarland know via email at s.kelly.HLS@gmail.com Coordinating a retreat is a great way to support the sangha. All who have an interest are welcome regardless of how long you have been practicing with SMS. One of the challenges that comes with offering this many retreats is that we can't hold a retreat without a coordinator so we really appreciate people offering to step up and help coordinate.