Ongoing
5:15 Dharma Downstairs: before Monday night meditation, at Shove Chapel.
Every Monday evening, in the Sacred Grounds downstairs room from 5:15 to 6:00, some of us meet for informal Dharma conversation, led this month by sangha members as Sarah is away. She returns home October 5.
Anyone is welcome to join in on any Monday, and no registration, previous study or experience with our community is required. Our discussions bring each topic to meet exactly what is going on for us in our lives, in our world.
Place: Shove Chapel downstairs from the north entrance.
contact: Karen Recktenwald recktenwaldkaren@gmail.com
October
Monday October 7: Sutra Service
Monday October 14: Community Night
We are beginning our Ullambana food and clothes drive this and on future Community Nights. We will have two boxes, one for winter clothes and one for food at meditation. We are hoping to take this through the winter months.
Monday October 21: Dharma Talk Sarah Bender, Roshi
Monday October 28: Dharma Talk, Andrew Palmer, Sensei
Autumn Week-Long Deep Meditation Retreat with Sarah Bender, Roshi
The Abbey at Canyon City
Dear Friends,
Here in Tawa, New Zealand, where I’m getting to know my new granddaughter, almost 2 weeks old! and her mum and dad (even my own daughter in such a new light) it’s fascinating to be immersed in this big new life in a small house, celebrating tiny fingers and toes, ounces of weight gain, ochre poops, nice loud burps, fluttering eyelids and those wide eyes that look into being (in a huge uncertain time), and then walk out the door into Spring in this mid-Pacific land, and feel the energy of new flowers opening each day while also being so keenly aware of Autumn peeking around the horizon in Colorado, the energy of summer spilling into Fall. Happy Equinox!! Some of you marched in the Climate march in the Springs, and I may be able to join one here in Wellington this Friday.. And through all, the voices of our ancestors are present, their ears hearing us and our ears hearing them. It feels as if they reach forward to us as we meet a time never seen before, and we can reach back to invite them to join us.
One of the ways we connect most strongly with those voices is in the silence of meditation retreat, resting in the practices they have handed down to us. As we sit still together, walk together, work together and sleep under one roof, we enact the teachings.
This October, We’ll be taking up together a small collection of powerful koans for this time. From here it looks like a bouquet, and once I’m home it may look more like the song that rides on the Golden Wind. All of the koans are to awaken. Some meet our endarkenment in dark times; some meet our enlightenment in the intimacy of this moment’s unlimited beauty. So this will be a time to bask in some of them, and sometimes not…sometimes just to bask in communal deep awareness.
A deep draught from the wellsprings of our Way. This is a way we find our own vitality, right where we are.
Long meditation retreats are important, in our Koan Way. They provide something that we don’t find elsewhere: a chance to allow everything to settle, to release its hold on us, for long enough to go deep, deep into the presence of heart-mind. The phrase from our Heart Sutra, “Practicing deep prajna paramita,” speaks to this. We can touch heart-mind any time, of course. And there is a reason for the Japanese name for this kind of intensive meditation retreat, sesshin: to touch heart-mind. A time and place to do this. Individual meetings with a teacher also support this, helping you dive deeper into your practice.
I am so looking forward to joining you there!
With deep thanks for your practice,
Sarah
$700 double
room
$800 single,
depending on availability
$100/day part-time
Late
fee $100 add’l
Deposit
of $350 due by October 1st, payable to SMS
For a registration form,
please contact registrar
Diane Mesner
puebloplantscaping@comcast.net
The Great Koan of this Time and Place,
we meet it together
Evening Meetings at Creek
Bend Zendo
Wednesdays, 6:30 to 8:00
PM
“Some of us have found ourselves at a point where our
tradition’s teachings are meeting the climate change crisis – EcoDharma
How can our tradition help to activate what wants to come forth in response to
this global crisis? What part does community play with regard to providing
refuge in order to face the pain of what is and what is yet to come? How does
Open Source Zen practice encourage us to walk the “nothing is certain” path?
And how can koans help us to awaken and find trust in this daunting pilgrimage?
Is there possibility that we can allow ourselves to touch the grief of what is
happening in order to transform how we relate to our world, each other, and
ourselves? What does action within our tradition look like and how can you be a
part of this movement? Please join our EcoDharma group on Wednesday evenings,
630-8pm at Creek Bend Land and Gardens’ Zendo 7532 Jenkins Place 80919. Call or
email Debbie with questions 719-209-2260; gardenmail@msn.com
LOOKING AHEAD
NOVEMBER
10: ALL SANGHA DINNER AND MEETING
4to 7 PM at Creek Bend
Please save the date! This is our time to get together, share a meal,
catch up with each other a bit, celebrate community and share our creative
vision for our sangha.
Here is the link to our 2019 calendar. https://gallery.mailchimp.com/bbc7215f79587650dd5f75ed6/files/ae40372a-4968-49c2-82e3-0d4623ea22da/2019_Calendar_Notes_Nov_9_.doc This is provided for you to plan ahead, particularly for retreats