Sangha News for July

7/16/2025

Commentaries

Dōgen’s Chinese Poems (90)
Just Sitting in the Ancient Mirror
Commentary by Shōhaku Okumura

528. Dharma Hall Discourse for Opening the Fireplace [1252]

Today patch-robed monks quarrel about opening the fireplace.
A great person did not dig in the cold ashes.
Let go of discussing the mystery and expounding the wonder;
return here and shut your mouth.

In Dōgen’s Extensive Record, eight Dharma hall discourses on the occasion of opening the fireplace are included: numbers 14, 109, 199, 288, 353, 396, 462, and 528. This poem is part of the final opening the fireplace discourse, given on this occasion in 1252. Dōgen Zenji gave only four more Dharma hall discourses after this one in his lifetime. The final Dharma hall discourse might have been the one given on December eighth of the same year, Buddha’s Enlightenment Day. READ MORE

In this issue:

Commentaries: Just sitting in the ancient mirror; Going to teachers
Practice recap: Precepts retreat & Jukai-e; Garden work continues
Coming up: Annual board retreat; Wednesday schedule shift and new text; Quiet August simplified practice schedule; 3-day September sesshin
World Religious Landscape: Number of Buddhists is falling worldwide
Sanshin Network: News from Europe

New on the web

Sanshin source

What's new at Sanshin Source?

Here are pages from Hoko on the practice of cooking, the practice of serving, and the practice of eating.
There's a new entry on Tonen's blog, Thinking About Dharma.
There's a link to a video of the entire formal meal process in a Japanese sodo on our nyoho food page.
We've added a video of Sojiji's morning service to our Ritual page.

dharma talks

June 8: Okumura Roshi -- Endeavoring to Practice (OHT #257)
June 15: Myogen on sangha and the triple treasure
June 19: Shodo introduces her forthcoming book, Open Reality

June 22: Sawyer -- The ingredients of sesshin and your life
June 29: Hoko on the practice of serving

108 Gates

I Vow With All Beings:
Going to teachers
Commentary by Hoko Karnegis

Going to tutors and teachers,
I vow with all beings
to skillfully serve my teachers
and practice virtuous ways.

We’ve entered a section of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra where the gāthās describe the process of making a commitment to practice. In the context of the sutra that commitment is ordination, but in North America, the path of lay practice has many of the same elements. We encounter the dharma, find a community and a teacher, do some discernment, decide that Buddhism is the right path for us, establish our practice, and make a commitment to live in Buddha’s way.

We realize there’s only so much we can do on our own by reading books and watching videos. At some point, it’s time to do sustained body-and-mind practice in person with a sangha and a human teacher who has been engaged with this thing for some time, one who has received the training and credentials necessary to carry the tradition in a mature way and pass it on to others. READ MORE

Practice recap

During a work period, Hosshin, this year's preceptor, prepares his part of a kechimyaku (lineage paper), to be received during the jukai-e by precepts recipients.

Precepts retreat: Seven practitioners were present and participating throughout most of this year's 5-day precepts retreat (July 1 - 6), focusing on the study and practice of the sixteen bodhisattva precepts. The daily schedule included zazen, meals, precept lectures/discussions, and work periods. Three of these practitioners formally received the precepts during the concluding jukai-e ceremony (see below), and several other practitioners participated in parts of the retreat, virtually or in-person, helping to prepare meals, dropping in for work and discussion periods, serving as jikidos, and providing tech support during lectures and discussions.

Jukai-e: On the final morning of the precepts retreat, Callum Shōzan Henwood, Rachel Jakusai Kavathe, and Reghan Myōki Stonier formally received the precepts as part of a jukai-e ceremony, in the presence of the sangha, family members, and friends. This year's preceptor, Hosshin Shoaf (a dharma heir of Okumura Roshi), officiated the ceremony and several other sangha members carried out service positions.

Garden work practice: Every-other-Friday-evening garden work periods have continued during a hot and relatively wet early summer season. Abundant harvests of leafy greens (chard, kale, lettuce, and collards) were used for meals during the precepts retreat, and greens will likely continue to be harvested every other week to be offered to the sangha and/or local food pantries. Corn and beans appear to be on track for harvest by September sesshin. Please enjoy the brief garden tour offered at right, filmed by Rachel.

Coming up

Annual board of directors meeting & retreat
Friday, July 25th - Sunday, July 27th

Most of Sanshin's board of directors will be present in-person at Sanshin for activities related to its annual meeting between Friday, July 25th and Sunday, July 27th. Stay tuned for updates on our Schedules & Calendars page, which will soon include information on how to participate in additional practice opportunities that will be offered during the weekend, and which will include board member participation as practitioners themselves.

Wednesday evening practice schedule on pause until September 3rd
New text beginning in September: The Roots of Goodness

Please note that our usual drop-in Wednesday evening practice activities (6:30 pm zazen & 7 - 8 pm book discussion) are on hiatus until September 3rd, to accommodate our Empty Roles discussion series with Tonen O'Connor (registration closed) in July, and our Quiet August simplified practice schedule (see below).

Beginning September 3rd, our regular Wednesday evening practice activities will resume, and we'll take up a new text: The Roots of Goodness, a commentary on Dogen Zenji's Hachidainingaku (Eight Qualities of a Great Person) by Uchiyama Roshi, translated by Daitsu Tom Wright. All are welcome to participate, virtually or in-person.

Quiet August simplified practice schedule: During February and August at Sanshin, the regular practice schedule becomes quieter, less busy, and more focused on zazen. We let go of chanting services and Shobogenzo Zuimonki readings on weekday mornings, most Sunday dharma talks (which are replaced by one more period of zazen), and all evening practice activities (except for our Getting Started in Zen Practice sessions). Stay tuned to our Schedule & Calendars page for more details.

3-day September sesshin
Sep 4 - 7, 2025

Registration is now open for our 3-day September sesshin. Sesshin at Sanshin is an opportunity to practice zazen without distraction. It's one of the core activities for us in this dharma family, and we pay a lot of attention to it. We set aside the usual activities -- or entertainments -- of temple life, like work periods, meetings with teachers and dharma talks, and focus completely on zazen. LEARN MORE & REGISTER

World religious landscape

Number of Buddhists is falling worldwide: In a study just released by the Pew Research Center, Buddhists were the only major religious group that had fewer people in 2020 than a decade earlier.

The number of Buddhists worldwide dropped by 19 million, declining to 324 million. As a share of the global population, Buddhists slipped by 0.8 points, to 4.1%.

Buddhists have the lowest retention rates among the religious categories studied. Fewer than eight-in-ten adults who were brought up as Buddhists (78%) have retained their religion.

Buddhists and Christians are the religious groups with the highest shares of people becoming religiously unaffiliated. For example, 19% of adults who were raised Buddhist no longer identify with any religion. Another 3% now identify with a different religion.

Buddhists had the highest rate of people leaving the religion (22.1 per 100 people raised Buddhist) among the groups studied, but their rate of people joining is also relatively high (12.3). Taken together, Buddhists had the second-largest net loss from religious switching: 9.8 people for every 100 raised Buddhist.

Sanshin Network

News from Europe: Several of Okumura Roshi's dharma heirs and one of Hoko's ordained students (Jinryu Wachowitz) gathered with others for a week of shared practice at La Demeure Sans Limites in France. Gyoetsu and Doryu of Centro Zen Anshin report:

From July 5 to 12, Gyoetsu and Doryu participated, at the invitation of Abbess Jokei Lambert, as guest teachers at the mini summer Ango at the Temple of Demeure Sans Limites, in the Ardeche region of France, together with another disciple of Okumura Roshi: Mokusho Depreay. A week of intensive and intense practice in a lush and inspiring natural environment and together with a devoted and hardworking Sangha.

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Thank you!

Together, we raised over $9000 during our Spring fund appeal, with donations from more than 65 individuals. In addition to directly supporting our regular practice and functioning, these funds will help us to purchase a new tool shed to replace our dilapidating storage space.

Coming together as a sangha to take care of our temple and practice in this way is simply an instance of the universe carrying out its functioning. Thank you for your participation, and to everyone for your ongoing practice!