Sangha News for May

5/15/2025

Commentaries

Dōgen’s Chinese Poems (88)
Prepare the Tea and Hit the Cart
Commentary by Shohaku Okumura

The flower in my hand opens toward the sun,
but at times we prepare Zhaozhou’s tea.
A patch-robed monk’s [calligraphed] circle is the moon in mid-autumn,
but still we ask, “What are the three pounds of sesame?”

In the poem, the flower blooming toward the sun in the summer, and the circle of the moon in the autumn are verification. Preparing Zhaozhou’s tea and inquiring about the three pounds of sesame are examples of continuous study and practice at each and every moment of our lives. READ MORE

I Vow With All Beings:
Giving Up Home Life
Commentary by Hoko Karnegis

GIVING UP HOME LIFE,
I VOW WITH ALL BEINGS,
TO HAVE NO HINDRANCE IN LEAVING HOME
AND LIBERATING THE MIND.

In this issue:

Commentaries: Prepare the tea; Giving up home life
From our directors: Spring fund appeal underway; Farewell to departing board members
Practice recap: Virtual dharma study intensive; Garden opening ceremony & May work day
Coming up: June sesshin; Nyoho practice opportunities; Open Reality with Shodo; The Empty Roles We Play with Tonen
Sanshin Network: News from Atlanta, Arkansas & Soto Zen North America

New on the web

Sanshin source

Zen and spiritual health
Sangha and Society section has new links to Sotoshu's work with UN Sustainable Development Goals, including writings by Sanshin Network members
New talk from Doju on practicing in the senmon sodo
Daily dressing as a dharma practice
New articles at the Sawaki Nyoho-e Treasury:
What does it mean to wear a rakusu?
The meaning of the robe verse
The manner of receiving: jukai-e
Koun Franz talk on nyoho-e: Each stitch is like the earth exploding
Tonen's teachings: a collection of resources by Tonen O'Connor, including her blog, Thinking about dharma

108 Gates

Sunday dharma talks

April 6: Okumura Roshi on Buddha's birthday - Is Buddha born or not?
April 13: Doju on his time at a training temple

April 20: Hoko - Nyoho-e, nyoho food

Literally giving up home life isn’t necessarily what we do when we take on dharma leadership today—and yet, there are teachings in this gatha that all practitioners can fruitfully consider. To give up home life is to shift one’s focus and to put a priority on approaching the world through the lens of practice. READ MORE

From our directors

Our spring fund appeal is underway.

Your practice and contributions have made it possible to create and maintain a nurturing environment together, where the dharma continues to flourish.

Today, we humbly ask for your financial support in maintaining our facilities (replacing our old toolshed, for starters) and upholding the dharma work and practice of Okumura Roshi, Hoko, and our broad sangha of sincere practitioners -- including you.

A gift of any size is welcome and appreciated, as is your moment-by-moment practice. Thank you!

In gassho,
The Sanshin Development Committee
Mark Fraley, Norma Fogelberg, Tonen O'Connor, and Gene Elias

Our goal: $10,000 ---- Received so far: $2049.18

Thanks and farewell to departing directors: Due to other important obligations for their time and attention, Laura Miller and Zenki Batson recently stepped down from our board of directors. Laura served as vice chair for nearly two years, offering in-depth organizational knowledge and experience that will continue to positively impact our sangha and temple operations. Zenki, Vice-Abbess at Chapel Hill Zen Center, held our outside-lineage clergy seat for about a year and a half, offering an important perspective from the wider North American Zen community. We thank them both and wish them well in their ongoing endeavors!

Practice recap

Virtual dharma study intensive: About 55 practitioners from various parts of the U.S. and throughout the world participated in a virtual dharma study intensive from May 1 - 10. Okumura Roshi offered ten lectures on his translation of Ejo Zenji's Komyozo-Zanmai (The Treasury of the Samadhi of Radiant Light), and participants engaged with him in lively Q&A sessions. The next dharma study intensive will likely be held in early November.

Garden opening ceremony & May work day: After regular zazen on Sunday May 11th, the sangha walked together from Sanshinji to our community garden plot ten minutes up the road and carried out a garden opening ceremony. We chanted the Heart Sutra and the Sho Sai Myo Kichijo Dharani as part of formally recognizing the 10 X 20 ft plot as a place of communal practice and asking the land, beings, and elements for their support and protection of our practice as temporary stewards of this ground. Most of the vegetables will end up in our oryoki bowls during sesshin and retreats.

A small Avalokiteshvara figure is now enshrined at the plot.

Nyoho-e see the light of day.

After the ceremony, a few practitioners remained at the garden for weeding, watering, and sowing seeds. The rest walked back to Sanshinji and worked on electrical wiring in the zendo, edging around the parking lot, weeding the flower gardens, mowing the lawn, and setting new posts for our "dead hedge" brush fence. Our next work day is scheduled for Sunday, June 1st.

Coming up

June sesshin (register by Tuesday, May 27th): Space remains for participation in our upcoming 5-day sesshin. Sesshin at Sanshin is an opportunity to practice zazen without distraction. 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 BY MAY 27TH

Regular nyoho practice opportunities: Food & clothing
As part of our focus on nyoho food practice from May - August, a few new regular practice opportunities are now available for local participation. On the last Sunday of each month (beginning May 25th), we'll begin practice at 7 am with zazen and a formal oryoki breakfast, leading into regular Sunday practice. Practitioners are also invited to gather at our community vegetable garden plot every other Friday evening from 6 to 8 pm (at latest) to tend our sesshin-bound crops, under the direction of a practice leader. Stay tuned in the coming days for more information on how to participate.

On a weekly basis, there is also an opportunity to engage in dharma sewing, between 6:30 and 8:30 pm on most Tuesday evenings at Sanshin. Practitioners gather to quietly sew nyoho-e as a practice of zazen mind, working on their own rakusu or okesa, assisting others, or participating in the long-term project of sewing a temple okesa for Sanshin. No prior experience is necessary, but before showing up for the first time, please contact Esho Morimoto.

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

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.

No registration is required, but you can sign up at right for a reminder in the lead-up to this public virtual event.

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

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

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. 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

Visit our Schedules & Calendars page for a complete listing of our regular and extended practice opportunities.

Sanshin Network

Doju to speak at Three Mountains Zen: In the midst of his own travels in Georgia, Doju Layton will be giving a dharma talk for Three Mountains Zen in Atlanta, Georgia on Sunday, June 1st. Organized primarily by Apriel Fusatsu Jessup-Searcy, a regular virtual practice participant at Sanshin, Three Mountains Zen is "a lay Zen Buddhist community that collaborates, studies, and practices in spiritual friendship with Sanshin Zen Community." LEARN MORE

News from Shoryu & Soto Zen NA: Shoryu Bradley of Gyobutsuji in Arkansas has been asked to help choose the first guiding kyoshi for Soto Zen North America. He's been appointed to the nominating committee along with several other teachers from around the country. That group is now at work on a slate of candidates to be proposed to Soto Zen NA's Denominational Council for consideration. The guiding kyoshi is the overall leader and the internal and external face of the denomination, working closely with the Council to support and guide the organization in accordance with its mission and goals. Shoryu says that the committee's slate should be ready for consideration within the next few months.

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 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!

We're grateful for the financial support of our many friends and community members worldwide. 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!

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