Sangha News for June

6/16/2025

Commentaries

Dōgen’s Chinese Poems (89)
Zazen Beyond Birth and Death
Commentary by Shohaku Okumura

Wheel of Life, realm of humans.

Making ferocious efforts to combat birth and death,
who would love the four [attachments] or five [desires] of the world?
Even if we yearn for the ancient who made three prostrations at Shaolin,
how could we forget the six long years of upright sitting?

It is interesting that Dōgen never used the expression “to combat birth and death (敵生死)” anywhere else in Eiheikōroku. In Shōbōgenzō, we find this expression only once, in the Samadhi of Self-Verification (自証三昧, Jishō-zanmai), in a quotation. So, they are not Dōgen’s own words. It seems this might be an exceptional poem for Dōgen. When he discusses life-and-death, he almost always speaks from the Mahāyāna point of view, that life-and-death (saṃsāra) and nirvāṇa are one. READ MORE

I Vow With All Beings:
Entering the Training Temple
Commentary by Hoko Karnegis

ENTERING THE TRAINING TEMPLE
I VOW WITH ALL BEINGS
TO EXPOUND VARIOUS PRINCIPLES
OF NON-CONTENTION.

Maybe you’ve seen the Peanuts cartoon panel in which Linus explains that he loves mankind; it’s people he can’t stand. Nowhere do we more immediately and directly come face to face with human foibles, those of ourselves and others, than in a communal living situation. Whether it’s a college dorm, a summer camp, a family home, or residential practice, living closely together with other people requires real effort, whether or not our roommates are people we liked or loved before we moved in together. READ MORE

In this issue:

Commentaries: Zazen beyond birth & death; Entering the training temple
News: Sanshin-Seven Ridges "mini-CSA"
Practice recap: Work practice; June sesshin
Coming up: Open Reality with Shodo Spring; Precepts retreat with Hosshin; Empty Roles with Tonen O'Connor; Intro to Zen with Hoko
Sanshin Network: News from Nova Scotia and Bloomington

New on the web

Sanshin source

Buddhist Essentials / Sotoshu Main Doctrine now includes a link to the denomination's annual calendar of observances.
Our resources related to understanding sesshin have now been gathered on this page.
We've added Sotoshu's short video on the work of the tenzo to our tenzo resource page.
We've linked Sotoshu's page on food practice to our nyoho food page.
Hoko on the intersections between nyoho clothing and nyoho food
Hoko on the practice of cooking

Sunday dharma talks

May 18th: Esho -- All Problems Are Body Problems

May 25th: Hoko -- The Practice of Cooking

108 gates

Congrats, Gene!: Our treasurer, Gene Elias, was recently accepted to the IU Maurer School of Law, to pursue a two-year Master's program in Legal Studies. He serves on more than one board of directors in addition to ours, and hopes to benefit nonprofits with his growing legal knowledge. Thank you and good luck!

News

Sanshin "mini-CSA" partnership with Seven Ridges Farm: Beginning with our recent June sesshin, and extending (if the growing season allows) through this year's Rohatsu sesshin, we've established a partnership with nearby Seven Ridges Farm, an "ecologically minded family farm in the hills of beautiful Brown County Indiana." In the spirit of CSA (community supported agriculture) arrangements, we've paid the farmers (Jon & Andrea) up front for the season, and will receive whatever is in abundance at their farm for four sesshins & retreats this year. Learn more about the farm here, and sign up for your own weekly summer and late summer Seven Ridges CSA share here if you like!

Practice recap

Work practice: We carried out our June work day on Sunday, June 1st. In the zendo, Hosshin and Clark completed work on an electrical re-wiring project. Out on the grounds, several practitioners focused on weeding the moss garden, while others took turns mowing the lawn and weed-whacking. With sesshin beginning two days later, Esho went out for groceries. Our next work day is scheduled for July 13th.

Tuesday evening nyoho-e sewing and every-other-Friday evening garden work periods also continue, with temple okesa panels reaching completion and bean sprouts reaching for corn stalks.

Owen tends a garden path.

June sesshin: Four practitioners participated in-person throughout our 5-day sesshin, June 3 - 8, with significant partial participation from about ten others online and in-person. With a small and experienced core group, practitioners reported the sense of a steady and settled sesshin, with everyone covering multiple sesshin functions (ringing bells, cooking meals, washing dishes, tending the altar), in addition to the zazen schedule, each day. Our formal oryoki meal practice was altered to simplify the serving process, helping us to work out how to carry out sesshin meals with a smaller group. Two of the meals were cooked by local practitioners, who then joined us for those meals and zazen afterwards. Our next sesshin is set for September 4 - 7.

Coming up

Open Reality: An evening with Shodo Spring (online)
This Thursday, June 19th, 6:30 - 8 pm ET

This Thursday evening, Sanshin will host a virtual dharma talk and discussion led by Shodo Spring, a dharma heir of Okumura Roshi, introducing her forthcoming book, Open Reality: Meeting the Polycrisis Together With All Beings. Shodo writes:

When Dharma eye looks at modern existence, things open up. This book is a deep dive into that opening, including questions of human nature, relationship with all sentient beings, and ways to open up our lives to allow the whole world to flourish. This talk and discussion offers an overview and an invitation.

You can pre-order the book here, and check out excerpts recently published at resilience.org.

There is no registration (simply join us through our virtual practice page), but you can sign up at right for a reminder the day before this public virtual event.

This year's precepts retreat will be led by Hosshin Shoaf, who received dharma transmission from Okumura Roshi in 2024.

Precepts retreat with Hosshin -- register by June 24th
July 1 - 6 (concluding with a public jukai-e ceremony on Sunday, July 6th at 10 am)

Our annual precepts retreat focuses on the study of the sixteen bodhisattva precepts that Buddhists receive as guidelines for living a life of practice.

Alongside the three kaitei who will receive precepts at the concluding jukai-e ceremony, additional practitioners are welcome and encouraged to register for all or a selection of retreat days, whether or not you've formally received the precepts previously. LEARN MORE & REGISTER BY JUNE 24TH

The Empty Roles We Play: 3-part virtual discussion series with Tonen O'Connor
Thursdays, 6:30 - 8 pm, July 17th, 24th, & 31st -- register by July 10th

Zen practitioners are invited to join Tonen O'Connor, resident priest emerita of the Milwaukee Zen Center and longtime friend of Sanshin, for a series of three virtual discussions on the roles our self assumes as it faces life's changing nature, using Okumura Roshi's The Structure of the Self as a foundational text. We will examine how society assigns roles to us and how our own choice of roles impacts our lives. We will consider the relationship of shikantaza, zazen without roles, to the roles we assume daily. A sense of humor will be welcome. LEARN MORE & REGISTER

Artwork by Tonen.

Introduction to Zen Buddhism with Hoko
Six Thursdays, 6:30 - 8 pm ET beginning July 17, 2025 -- register by July 12th
Offered at Sanshin in partnership with Ivy Tech Community College Center for Lifelong Learning. In-person participation only -- invite your friends!
Registration and payment is managed by Ivy Tech, HERE.

about this course

"Zen" has become a shorthand term for zoning out in some blissful state, but in fact this rich, centuries-old practice is not at all aimed at getting us to escape from our lives. Instead, it offers the opportunity to release ourselves from suffering by seeing reality more clearly and becoming intimate with our own moment-by-moment experience. We'll explore what Zen Buddhism is really all about, beginning with the central ideas of Buddhism itself and moving on to the teachings and practices particular to its Zen form. Class will include instruction in sitting practice (zazen) as well as plenty of time for questions and discussion. Enthusiastic participants in this class from previous years went on to form a zazen/book discussion group that is still meeting today. All faith traditions welcome.

Sanshin Network

Hossenshiki and shinsanshiki at Thousand Harbours Zen
Saturday, June 21st, 3 - 5 pm ET

Jikei Kido, an ordained student of Okumura Roshi, will serve as shuso for a hossenshiki ceremony to be carried out at Thousand Harbours Zen (Sensouji) in Halifax, Nova Scotia on Saturday, June 21st. That same day, the sangha will carry out a mountain seat ceremony (shinsanshiki) formally recognizing Koun Franz (who founded and leads the temple) as Sensouji's abbot. Koun has led several dharma workshops at Sanshin over the years (including one exploring nyoho last January), and also serves alongside Hoko on the board of directors of Soto Zen North America. Learn more about the significance of the ceremonies (the first of their kind to be held in Canada), and sign up here to tune in via Zoom. If you are local, you're welcome to join us in the zendo at Sanshin to watch the ceremonies unfold via Zoom. Contact Esho if you would like to stay for an order-in dinner afterwards, which will also celebrate Okumura Roshi's and Yuko's birthdays.

Jikei was ordained by Okumura Roshi in December, 2022.

Esho's offerings: Esho Morimoto is offering two kinds of teaching to practitioners and sanghas.

1) Rakusu and okesa sewing at any temple in need of a sewing teacher. Esho became a sewing teacher in 2018 and taught at the Brooklyn Zen Center and Ancestral Heart Zen Monastery in Millerton, NY. She moved to Bloomington, IN in the spring of 2022 to carry out an okesa sewing apprenticeship with Yuko Okumura and to practice with Sanshin. Completing the apprenticeship in the summer of 2023, she taught rakusu and okesa sewing at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, Carmel Valley, CA during its fall 2023 and winter 2024 angos while she was practicing there as a part of her priest training. She now teaches robe sewing in the style of our dharma great-grandfather, Kodo Sawaki, and recently led a rakusu sewing retreat for this year's precepts recipients at Sanshin.

2) Basic conversational Japanese. Esho offers lessons or tutoring online or in person. If there is interest in forming small classes and studying with others, that may be possible. Note that this offering is not about translating Dogen texts, reading classical Japanese, or doing other high-level Buddhist study. However, some knowledge of basic Japanese can be very helpful for practitioners, especially those planning to practice in Japan itself.

If you are interested in either of these offerings, please contact Esho directly for more information or to make arrangements.

Are we reaching you?

Do we have the best and most current contact information for you? If you've changed your e-mail address or moved to a new place of residence, or if we've never had complete information about how to reach you, it's time to update your record. Please take a moment to go here to send us the contact information you'd like us to use. We'll check it against your current record and update as needed. Don't miss any of the upcoming communications from Sanshin -- update your info today!

Many thanks to the nearly fifty of you who have contributed so far to our Spring fund drive -- and to everyone for your continuous practice.

We are over halfway toward our goal of $10,000! Your contribution enables us to maintain temple facilities, including the purchase of a new shed to replace our dilapidating storage space.

Your funds will not only sustain our physical presence, but facilitate our shared work and practice of realizing interconnectedness in community.

If you are able to do so, please consider making a donation of any amount HERE.

You can also mail a check to:

Sanshin Zen Community
P.O. Box 1577
Bloomington, IN 47402

Received so far: $5148
Our goal: $10,000

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