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You are welcome to volunteer for any length and type of task you like -- all help is welcome!!
Current needs:
Note that volunteers receive the door code and are welcome to come in and do your bit at anytime that suits you. (Just check the Monthly Calendar to make sure a group isn't currently practicing).
Our Volunteer Coordinator Ariel Paulenich is the person to reach out to if you have a volunteering offer or a volunteering need at Red Cedar.
Reach out to Ariel at volunteering@redcedarzen.org
...For you Dogen fans out there...a Dogen pillow!
Festivities take place on Saturday, August 29th, from 4-9 PM for an afternoon/evening of merriment and community as we celebrate Sansui-ji's first birthday!
We will begin with some games and relaxation followed by a potluck to share and a short .
Then we will take our places in our beautiful zendo for some zazen, chanting and other activities--including a slideshow!
Partners and kids invited. Looking forward to seeing all!
As summer starts to take its first turnings towards Fall with a little bit of cool and damp weather, I'm thinking of our annual 8-week Practice Period. Every year we gather for a period of more focused and deliberate practice as a community. It's been so helpful and supportive.
(And no worries I'm sure we have plenty of warm summery days to come in August, too.)
This year we're starting a little earlier in the Fall. We'll have the opening ceremonies on September 2nd and the opening 3-day retreat over Labor Day weekend. This so we can close with the 3-day retreat on Samish Island in November.
I am always so amazed by how transformational and powerful the experience of Practice Period can be. Join us!
It's flexible too. Make your best assessment of what you can commit to - stretch a little maybe, it's just two months, but be realistic. And then sign yourself up with the Practice Period Application which this year also allows you to register for most of the events in one go.
With love and a deep bow, Nomon Tim
From Nomon Tim: Ancient teachings for modern times
Dear Friends,
Lately I've been deeply impressed anew by the 8th-century Indian Buddhist writings of the monk Shantideva. Kanho Chris is also a big fan. His main work is a 100+ verse poem/guide/teaching on living the life of a bodhisattva. My favorite translation currently is Kate Crosby and Andrew Skilton's Bodhicaryāvatāra, and there are many commentaries — a great one to start with is Pema Chödrön's No Time to Lose.
His writing is so direct, even coming from over 1,000 years ago in another language and culture. Strong, clear advice on living a life of service, generosity, and restraint. And he's full of clever arguments and interesting metaphors and images as well.
Then I was reading a New York Times op-ed by the psychologist Clay Routledge entitled "Stop Pathologizing Ordinary Life" (you may need a subscription to read it at nytimes.com).
Dr. Routledge is saying that it's a good thing that in recent years there has been more openness and discussion of mental illness. And yet, disturbingly, there also seems to be overall worse mental health — especially when you ask people to report on how they're doing.
While mental illness is absolutely a real and sometimes very scary thing, are there ways of looking at the day-to-day craziness of the mind that might amplify bad moods and dips into diagnoses? Could there be a thread of losing ourselves in our own craziness as we become more open to it?
I remember our Founding Teacher, Norman Fischer, saying once: "It's good to get interested in your thoughts and feelings, but not too interested."
Below find a few verses from Shantideva that seem apropos. See how they land for you. I intend to offer an in-depth seminar on his work in the new year.
Verses from Shantideva's Bodhicharyatara:
When one wishes to move or to speak,
first one should examine one's own mind, and then act appropriately and with self-possession. When one notices one's own mind is attracted or repelled, one should neither act nor speak, but remain like a block of wood. When the mind is inflated or derisive, full of arrogance and vanity, overly jocular, evasive, or deceiving, When, seeming to one advance oneself, it is only deprecating others, contemptuous and scornful, one should remain like a block of wood. [Instead, be] determined, full of serene confidence, steady, full of application and respect, with humility and timidity, calm and eager to help others. [And] at every moment, be continuously mindful, it has taken so long to gain [this stability], I shall keep my mind as unshakable at Mount Sumeru.
All those who suffer in the world do so because of their desire for their own happiness. All those happy in the world are so because of their desire for the happiness of others.
Why say more? [Simply] observe the distinction between the fool who longs for his own advantage and the sage who acts for the advantage of others.
(Bodhicharyatara verses 5.47-52 + 8.128-129)
Fun stuff, eh? First Shantideva suggests that we learn to stop indulging our own craziness by taking refuge in being very simple when we're activated. His wonderful metaphor there is to be like a block of wood. In other words: just stop. Cut it out. Just be.
And then he encourages us to realize that it's in our self-focus that we can so easily go astray. Releasing self-preoccupation and serving all beings is a deep thought across his whole work on the life of a bodhisattva. Not because we're supposed to, but because that's what makes sense and brings a real life of joy and satisfaction.
Sometimes, of course, what Shantideva and other traditional Buddhist teachers say can sound a bit extreme. This is a very enthusiastic Buddhist text, for instance!
And yet, I can imagine Shantideva responding by pointing out that our current way of life and the society that we are helping to co-create is pretty extreme too! This seriously topsy turvy upside world we live in could, perhaps, use some strong medicine.
This won't be the last you hear about Shantideva. I hope this was an interesting taste. But first let's enjoy Fall Practice Period with our Shuso Juriki's exploration with us of the addictive qualities of mind and how to work with them. I look forward to practicing with you soon.
Haiku by Kevin Costa
Final Sunset Paints Herself
Train songs — crows calling —
Red Cedar entwines with steel.
Maggie walks through time.
Not Quite Right
Transmission that night—
no mirror, no dust alights.
Huineng hears no form.
Nothing Extra (無事)
no robe, nor bowl—
ordinary mind
functioning
Kevin (KC) Costa reports that all three poems arrived through practice with the Red Cedar Community. Kevin is a retired speech-language pathologist and longtime Zen practitioner living in Bellingham, Washington. His work has appeared in Frogpond 49.2, the Haiku Society of America’s 2026 Members’ Anthology, and PJCA Islamabad’s 1st International Haiku Anthology 2026, produced in collaboration with the Embassy of Japan in Pakistan
Many thanks to Myoshin Mari for her diligent, dedicated service to the sangha as Ino (Zendo Coordinator) for the past 2 years.
Seishin Tyndall will be entering into a fuller role in the Zendo as our primary Ino, and will be joined by Junka Ken Oates as co-Ino; please give Junka Ken a warm welcome!
A note from our Board of Directors and our Practice Leaders.
Dear Sangha,
We are happy to share some joyful news with the Red Cedar Zen Community.
Our founding teacher, Norman Fischer, has recommended that our guiding teacher, Nomon Tim Burnett, be installed as the abbot of Red Cedar Zen Community through a formal mountain seat ceremony. Not every Zen community has an abbot. Traditionally, a sangha takes this step when it has become a stable practice home and wishes to express its confidence in the continuity of its practice and its commitment to the Dharma for future generations.
The Board and practice leaders received Norman's recommendation with deep appreciation. After many conversations together, we found ourselves in wholehearted agreement. With Nomon's acceptance, we are delighted to announce that Norman will officiate Nomon's mountain seat ceremony in 2027.
Over the coming months, we will begin preparing for this important event. Together we will sew a new okesa for Nomon and build the traditional mountain seat used in the ceremony. Everyone in the sangha is warmly invited to take part in these preparations.
This ceremony recognizes Nomon's many years of practice, teaching, and service. It is also a celebration of our sangha and the life we have built together. We look forward to sharing this milestone with all of you.
-- Kanho Chris Burkhart, Seishin John Wiley, Seiu Hannah Sullivan, and Myoshin Mari Ritalahti for the Board and Practice Leaders.
From Nomon Tim: Mindfulness is Remembering
I was at the dentist yesterday for a cleaning and exam.
Laying there for an hour as my hygienist and dentist did their thing, I found myself thinking about gratitude. Rather than being annoyed or impatient, or wasting time spacing out, I brought to mind how fortunate I am at age 60 to have good teeth to eat with. I marveled at the specialized dental tools in the hands of a skilled caregiver removing plaque so effectively. I reminded myself of my good fortune there's a good dentist in my town at all; that I had the resources to go regularly. It was a powerful shift, and I was grateful for that in itself: that I'd remembered a deep truth about this life. There is so much to be grateful for.
Generally when I teach mindfulness I focus on the core truth that there's great value in learning to be more present — to "time travel" less. By which I mean less ruminating about the past and worrying about the future. While it's good to learn from what happened and plan for what's next, we so easily overdo this powerful mental ability and end up anxious and worried. Learning to be more present is genuinely valuable all by itself.
But in the Buddhist tradition the mental factor called sati in Pali — smṛti in Sanskrit — carries a strong connotation of remembering. It's not so specifically about being present.
In my practice lately I'm seeing how the Dharma wisdom I've studied, learned from teachers, and thought about over the last 40 years doesn't always come to the fore of my mind. If I'm honest, it might be fair to say it rarely does!
It's so easy to fall into our usual conditioning. Something bad happens, you don't like it, you complain, you try to get rid of it. Mindfulness — in this deeper sense — is bringing to mind the Dharma truths that apply to everything. To remember to examine the layers of assumption in these reactions: that the "bad" in something bad happening isn't as simple or true as the reactive mind makes it out to be; that our reactions often mask an attempt to reject realities like impermanence; or to avoid taking responsibility for our part in the situation; and that complaining not only brings no relief, it actually makes things worse.
So easily we forget.
There are times when the important things are easy to remember!
We don't need to beat ourselves up for this forgetfulness and self-centeredness — we come by it honestly as conditioned beings.
And the good news is that we can learn deeper truths. Truths that actually serve us well. Truths that relieve suffering through a deep and subtle understanding of the nature of suffering.
We can learn them — that's wonderful. But all by itself that doesn't do a lot. We also have to remember to apply them. Especially when we're feeling the friction, or the pain, of living our lives in the topsy-turvy everyday realm the Buddhists named samsara.
On the way to the dentist I had driven by the blood bank.
And so in the dentist's chair, remembering gratitude, I also remembered generosity. I remembered the text messages I'd gotten recently saying, "blood supplies were low, please come donate" — and how each time I'd felt a moment of sympathy and quickly forgotten as I swiped on to the next thing.
I remembered how there's always some resistance to generous acts: I don't "want to" have one more obligation, one more appointment; I don't "want to" give away things like my hard-earned money or my blood.
So as I remembered generosity in the context of gratitude, I remembered how deeply good it actually feels to tell that "I" to take a little break while the Buddha within gives to this world in need — with joy, and, yes, sometimes with tears.
So once I got home I made a blood donation appointment. I'm sure I'll be met by kind people at the blood bank who understand these truths, too. Their whole field is built on people remembering their generous hearts and giving away their own blood for strangers they'll never meet! An everyday miracle happening in communities all around the world.
So, dear friends, let's practice mindfulness in this deeper way too — as remembering the truths that bring real wellbeing and peace to a world that so easily strays into narrowness and suffering. Gratitude and generosity are high on my list right now, how about for you?
This is our true nature. And, thank goodness, it's possible to remember. Again.
Greetings from the Board!!
For those I haven’t yet met, my name is Myōshin Mari Ritalahti, and I currently serve as Board President. I’m joined by Ariel Paulenich, our Secretary, and Kristina Blake, our Treasurer. We work in collaboration with our Guiding Teacher Nomon Tim Burnett.
Although the Board has been quiet publicly, we’ve been working diligently behind the scenes, and we want to share several important updates with the community.
We recently consulted with an attorney and updated our bylaws to ensure that Red Cedar Zen Community is in full legal compliance as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. This work strengthens our foundation and supports the long‑term health of the sangha.
We have created a new section on our website outlining our ethics guidelines and our complaint and concern procedures. Our intention is simple: everyone who comes to Red Cedar should feel safe practicing here. And if concerns arise, we now have clear, accessible pathways for addressing them.
We'll be consulting with Thomas Bruner, the consultant we worked with when we raised the funds for our temple, to help us understand and address our current financial deficit and to create a sustainable financial plan for the future. Our goal is to move Red Cedar out of the red and back into the black with clarity and care.
We are in the process of developing a proposal for a revised organizational structure for Red Cedar. This work is important because our sangha has grown and evolved, and our current structure no longer fully supports the needs of our community. A clearer, more stable structure will help ensure healthy boundaries, shared leadership, and long‑term sustainability. And make it easier to plug in and volunteer.
Our draft proposal is now heading towards the Practice Leaders and others for additional input and refinement.
This process has included extensive research into how other sanghas operate and will continue to involve conversations with our Committees.
Our proposal will be shared with the wider sangha for input at our Annual Meeting on November 22 at 1:00 pm.
We are shaping this year’s Annual Meeting scheduled for Sunday November 22nd at 1pm to be a place of celebration, connection, and inclusivity. We will also share a list of volunteer opportunities, ranging from pulling weeds or doing a load of laundry to serving on committees or helping lead Workgroups. There is truly a place for everyone to contribute, in whatever way feels right.
Thank you for being a part of our sangha!
Even though the Board has been quiet, we have been working to reorganize ourselves so that we can best support our sangha. We are committed to transparency and open communication. Please feel free to reach out to me anytime at mtritalahti@gmail.com.
With deep bows and gratitude, Myōshin Mari Ritalahti Board President, Red Cedar Zen Community
Red Cedar Zen Community is a 501(c) non-profit organization.
