Funds raised so far: $18,467*

*As of Dec 6th. For each thousand dollars we raise together in support of our shared practice and the flourishing of the dharma, we'll color in a square of Indra's Net -- a symbol of interconnectedness often referenced by Okumura Roshi. Thank you for your participation and practice.

​"Whether we give or we receive, we connect ourselves with all beings throughout the world."
-- Eihei Dogen Zenji, Bodaisatta Shishobo

Fall 2024 Annual Fund Appeal
Practicing Today, Building Our Future Together

This is the time of year when Sanshin Zen Community gathers together offerings of financial support and looks to what's ahead.
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This year, Sanshin has kept expenses under budget while offering important opportunities for practice, but we are falling short on our projected annual donations. To address our deficit, we are committed to raising $50,000 by December 31st so that we can balance our 2024 budget.
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The annual appeal puts particular attention on this aspect of the life of the practice community during a certain time, but support can be offered at any time in any amount.  Giving and receiving continues to be an important part of our practice culture, just as your ongoing engagement with the dharma continues to contribute to the life of the sangha. 

​-- Sanshin Annual Fund Committee
Mark Fraley, Norma Fogelberg, Tonen O'Connor, Michael Melfi, Laura Miller, Gene Elias, Neil Chase, Jeff Alberts, Karla Passalacqua, and Henry Coffey

Click below to make your gift of financial support today!

Monthly or one-time donations
Complete your transaction via PayPal or credit card.

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Already a monthly donor and want to increase your giving amount?
First of all, thank you!  To change the amount of your monthly gift, sign in to your PayPal account and delete the existing payment profile for Sanshin.  Then create a new one for the new amount of your donations.

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To mail us a check:
Sanshin Zen Community
P. O. Box 1577
Bloomington, IN 47402 

Giving and receiving

In the same way that work practice is not simply volunteer work, offering financial support as a part of the sangha is not simply giving a handout.  Both are the practice of being in a dharma community and investigating the nature of giving and receiving.  Is there really someone giving and receiving something, or is there simply a call and response that arise together, without separation? 

​We engage in work practice because it's nothing other than the sangha's moment-by-moment life in the world.  We engage in offering because mutual support and activity are also nothing other than universal functioning and are happening whether we're aware of them or not.  Rather than arising from the emotional desire to help by giving away our resources, like time or money, to others, real offering is simply folding seamlessly into what's happening.  As Okumura Roshi noted in his commentary on Dogen's Bodaisatta Shishobo, "This practice benefits both giver and receiver, and the gift is also free from the three poisonous minds. Thus, our activities simply become one with the circulation of the myriad dharmas that are always coming and going within the Dharma world. We simply refrain from blocking such a circulation by ceasing to create a wall between ourselves and all others."

Whatever we're offering--labor, attention, money, skills, aspiration, incense, bows--is a gift, but not a handout.  Generosity usually implies donating something without expecting anything in return.  While that is indeed the bodhisattva's attitude, in fact something is received in the very moment of offering.  It's simply the way things are.

-- Hoko Karnegis, Senior Dharma Teacher  ​