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  • Friday, December 02, 2016 10:30 AM | Talus Latona (Administrator)
  • Thursday, December 01, 2016 10:30 AM | Talus Latona (Administrator)
  • Wednesday, November 16, 2016 8:00 PM | Talus Latona (Administrator)

    Podcast: Play in new window

    Notes prepared for this talk, and the reading at the end was from At Hell's Gate by Claude Anshin Thomas.

    This last evening was a "supermoon" - the moon as close as it's been to the earth since 1948 and an opportunity that will not be repeated until 2038. I read this was coming and several friends pointed it out with excitement. And I could feel the anticipation of seeing something special and maybe getting a great photo with my telephoto lens. A little excitement and a little desire arose in my heart.

    And not too unusually for the Northwest it was rainy and cloudy - at least when I looked (I'm not too hard core about such things). So I didn't get to see the full moon clear and unobscured.

    The first time I looked up at it, I barely looked. All I could really register was the disappointment of not seeing what I'd wanted.

    And of course for so many of us for the last 8 days we've been thinking and feeling in all kinds of ways about the unexpected results of our national elections.

    The full disclosure here is I'm on the liberal side of the equation, but I hope these reflections are useful for my friends on the conservative side. And the minute I write that I'm aware of how limited and narrow is it to think that there are just two kinds of people in our country.  And that people can all kinds of reasons for choosing to vote for one candidate or the other, or choosing not to vote at all.

    This morning I was up early and went out to my backyard mediation hut to practice.

    Another full disclosure: for the last 8 days I've found it really hard to keep up my daily practice. I skipped several days figuring I'd be sitting with others in mindfulness classes or at the Zen center. Which is true enough but it doesn't serve the same essential purpose as sitting quietly at home in the morning does for me.

    I've felt literally a bit ill in the body - queazy, low energy. And I've felt a bit sick at heart. It's been hard to really show up for life. Challenging conversations in classes and at home. Trying to make sense of what's happening and trying to be helpful as others make sense of it. Sometimes trying a little too hard to reassure others. Other times feeling shut down and not wanting to engage. Wanting to hope that everything is okay sometimes. Other times batting down the whisps of despair that everything is very much NOT okay (and again this paralyzing belief in there only being two possibilities). 

    And then this morning I saw the moon hanging just above the horizon to the northwest. On it's way down for the day. I saw it through the trees and in the clouds. I could just make out some of the details of the lunar surface. Mostly a glowing white orb. 

    And I stopped. I really saw the moon - the supermoon! - as it was showing itself at this particular moment. Not what I had wanted in my mind, true. And incredibly beautiful and just as it is, also true.

    I've heard people (mostly those within my liberal-leaning circles) talking like this is the beginning of dark days. We'll have to be strong. We need to mobilze. So much to do. Anger and frustration needs to be channeled and used. I've heard doubts about peacefulness too: we don't want to chill out too much, we need that hard edge to be strong, to be motivated, to show up.

    But of course the America of last Monday was, more or less, the same America that voted the way it did on Tuesday. Either the dark days have been with us for a long time or it's not quite right to say the days are dark.

    The days are dark and light. The moon is clear sometimes, obscured by clouds other times. It's still the moon. This is still our beautiful, diverse, strong country. Part of the ultra-liberal ethos is to be a little suspicious of "loving our country" - that could be code for a certain kind of narrow minded, potentially violent, nationalism.  And I guess it can be.

    But maybe it's time for all of us, not matter what our particular kalideoscope of views is, to learn how to really love our country. What is our country after all but the lands and peoples that live in it. And that live in it now. It's time to learn the effective and clear way to love everyone. That's what I hope our mindfulness and compassion practices will support us in doing. I think we need a much bigger vision than "enduring dark times."

    Will sitting on the cushion and bringing our attention back to our breathing with kindness solve anything really? Not exactly, but it can help us find a stronger ground to stand on to do our work of love. If there's anger, we can find ways to include that reality and know that reality, if there's fear - the same, but spilling our anger and fear out into the world only adds to our troubles.

    My secret hope from the suprise (or even shock) of this national election we will all be moved to find our own particular way to express and contribute to our hopes for the future. Whether that's renewing our attention to the quiet helping we're already doing at work or at home, or whether it expresses as overt activism.  And I hope that somehow the insights of our practice will help us not fall into these binary traps. Us and them. Good or bad. It's a mix. It's an unbelievably rich mix, and none of us can know the whole story.

    So I can understand if you voted for Mr. Trump. I really can. I want to know your reasons and I want to be in dialog and I hope even as you support the changes you hope for in making that choice we'll all join together to resist the anti-love expressions of mysogyny and racism that also emerged in his campaign.

    It's time to be strong and loving. And this isn't new. It's always been true. Maybe this last week we all received a big wake up to that ongoing reality regardless of how we voted or didn't vote (the third choice which about half of us made!).


  • Saturday, October 29, 2016 9:02 AM | Nomon Tim Burnett (Administrator)

    On the selection of Dharma Names for the Jukai of Jaren Hoppe-Leonard, Ken Oates, and Anne Mickkelson on October 29, 2016.

    When I was thinking about names for you three, I was noticing that all three of you, different as you are in many ways, share in common a tremendous degree of sincerity and whole heartedness. I was tryiing to think of how to acknowledge that in your names. I looked at the Japanese character for "sincerity" and somehow that wasn't quite right, but flipping through the little Dharma Names dictionary I have I ran into the perfect character (which was new to me): it's Jun which in modern Japanese means "purity" in modern Japanese but our names book says in the context of Dharma Names it means "pure hearted" - it's radical root is the water character and it includes elements of the child, and a kettle lid. So the water energy of enthusiastic children about to boil over with their joy?

    Anyway I put "jun" in all 3 of your names to mark this. So you're like cousins with the same name now.

    Jaren, your name Junryū Shinchi - Junryū means pure-hearted willow. Like a willow tree. I thought that would be a good tree for you. I tried to put a picture of a Willow on your rakusu, kind of dancing. Willows are rooted and strong and can grow in wet conditions but they're also flexible and know how to dance. And Shinchi means the wisdom or knowledge of the body. Using these Chinese charaters in our names there are lots of ways to interpret them into English and I'm thinking "Pure Hearted Willow, Wisdom in the Body" or maybe "Body of Wisdom" or perhaps that's the trajectory i hope for you - a growing into your body of wisdom because it's already there anyway that wisdom in the body, in the heart.  It's been a journey of discovery already for you these last 4 or 5 years and I've felt really blessed to be included in that. I'm also so moved by your sincerity and your willingness to turn towards whatever it is that happening with curiosity and interest. Plus when you get confused and overwhelmed it's easy to support you because you get so sweet and warm.Now today we reach this point of the process of your wisdom body's unfolding. Wonderful.

    Ken, your name Junka Shirin again begins with the same "Jun" but instead of Junryū, Junka. Ka is a multilayered character meaning to carry things or to care for things, one translation has it meaning specifically to carry things on your shoulders and the top portion of the character is like a bamboo pole that you rest on your shoulders to carry loads. I'm going caregiver here, not just because of your profession as a doctor where I am completely sure you care for people with a lot of heart and kindness but the way you care for everyone in your life with such devotion and willingness. Literally carrying them on your shoulders. In our modern society we have concerns about boundaries and co-dependency and so on, and rightly so, but I know you are completely willing to carry everything that needs carrying but with the wisdom of doing that in a skillful way that benefits the person your helping without the messiness of intrustive helping or overdoing it. And yet we do need to understand the emptiness of our helping. It can't be ME carrying all the loads so your second two characters Shirin mean resting in the forest stopping in the forest. And to encourage you to practice deeply with this I wrote on your rakusu "resting in the forest, caring for the whole world." so we're always helping whether the pole's on the shoulders or not.  Those are strong shoulders and I admire your spirit very much. And actually now that we're paying more and more attention to gender roles and our various biases and blind spots there I also want to honor what a good man you are. We're lucky to have you as a pillar in our sangha and today we all get to celebrate that.

    Anne, your name Tojun Kakuyō also includes the "jun" character. Tojun. The "to" means companion. And that's such a big part of your current and past life and I'm sure your future life. You are such a good companion for everyone. Everyone. Your husband through so many adventures which you wrote about so beautifully in your book. Your kids and grandkids and friends and the people who worked with you in your restaurants and I'm sure a MILLION other projects and adventures and chapters of life that I don't know about yet. So a warm-hearted companion. And yet you are so much more than that so I'm glad in our lineage family we have two more characters so I could say something in your name about your bright spirit. Kakuyō means Crane Dancing. Like those amazing crested cranes who to the dancing as part of their mating ritual. Such joy and leaps and enthusiasm. As you'll see on your rakusu I've tried to do a little dancing crane art to encouage you to stay always in touch with the dancing crane in you. I am so grateful that you are sharing your warm companionship and your dancing crane spirit with us in the sangha here and everyone you come in touch with.

  • Wednesday, October 19, 2016 8:00 PM | Talus Latona (Administrator)


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