Donations
Wayne Weinschenk and Raizelah Bayen are currently working together to expand volunteer /giving opportunities for the RCZC sangha.
We are working through the Interfaith Coalition where Red Cedar is a member congregation.
Help Feed the Homeless Population:
CAST is the Coffee & Sandwiches Together program, coordinated by the Interfaith Coalition. Through this program, every weekday afternoon meals are prepared, delivered and served in downtown Bellingham to the homeless population.
RCZC will be creating a team working on the 3rd Wednesday of every month to deliver and serve meals. Delivery is roughly between 4:00 and 5:00 pm; serving is about 5:00 to 7:00 (or 7:30 pm).
If you would like to join our team, please contact Raizelah (contact information below).
If Wednesday afternoons/evenings don't work for you, there are other opportunities to volunteer. They need sandwich makers on some days (this happens in the mid-afternoon), and people willing to substitute at other times.
Everyone first needs to get their Food Handlers Permit. This is a simple process involving a short, online course and quiz (cost: $10) which can be done totally online.
Again, if you would like to be on the RCZC CAST team, or volunteer within the CAST program on another day, please contact: Raizelah at raizelahb@gmail.com or 707-364-0431.
Volunteering Corner
Our volunteer coordinator, Ariel Paulenich, would like to let everyone know that this is currently under development. She will reach out with updates as well as contact info once this structure is more established; Thanks, Ariel!
Our new Volunteer Coordinator Ariel Paulenich is the person to reach out to if you have a volunteering offer or a volunteering need at Red Cedar.
See also the Committees & Volunteering page on the website.
Please be aware that registrations will be closing for all retreats and sesshin, including one-day sit, 2 days before the event is scheduled.
Why? Because the retreat managers, the Inos, the Tenzos (cooks) and others have to plan for food needs (head counts, special diets, etc) and for role assignments, seating/space needs, etc. and have this completed and printed the day before the event. If someone waits until the last minute to register, it creates additional need for switching plans, roles, etc. at the last minute--sometimes at the event itself!
Of course, there are always unplanned changes that just can't be avoided--but registering in a timely fashion really helps keep the process running smoothly. Thanks in advance for your planning ahead. If registration has closed on the website you may reach out to registrar@redcedarzen.org and we will see what we can do.
After twenty-five continuous years of mindful walking, we begin the next quarter-century of the Wilderness Dharma Program with our Receiving Water Ritual and Hills and Streams Hike on March 22nd. In conjunction with the Spring Equinox we will receive a vial of Salish Sea water to carry on our seasonal travels throughout the Nooksack and lower Skagit watersheds.
On these walks and hikes we move as a community, in peaceful and respectful appreciation of this place of practice in Pacific Cascadia, where we have chosen to live and express the dharma. We offer experiences for many levels of participants, from gentle walks in local parks to extended backpacking in the North Cascades.
This link to the WDP page shows all upcoming events. We hope you can participate and enjoy giving back gratitude to the place we call home, our Bodhimandala, our place of enlightenment.
Exploring the Lankavatara Sutra; Wednesdays, starting March 5th, 6 sessions. Join Kanho Chris in investigating short passages and exploring themes including Yogacara. The Lankavatara is a mosaic collection of small parts within the framework of the sutra.
Zen Sewing Retreat; Saturday, March 8th and Sunday, March 9th. For Jukai students and all of those who would like to join in learning Zen sewing.
Ceremony and Hike: Receiving the Waters, Hills and Streams; Saturday, March 22nd, 10 am-3 pm. Join us for our annual ritual to start the Wilderness Dharma Program season at Larrabee Beach gathering our water--followed by our Hills and Streams hike--a 4.5 mile hike in the Chuckanut Mountains.
March Construction Work Party Sunday, March 23rd, 9am.
Hike: Mt. Erie Circumambulation Saturday, April 12th, 10am-3pm. Hike around Mount Erie just above Anacortes led by Joden Bob Rose who was involved in helping save these forest lands.
April Construction Work Party Sunday, April 19th, 9am.
May Construction Work Party Sunday, May 4th, 9am.
Hidden Mountain Spring Retreat Friday afternoon, May 9th into Saturday, May 10th. Absorb the abundance of Hawk Meadow as we settle deeply into the practice at Hidden Mountain Zendo just outside of Bellingham with Nomon Tim Burnett & Reizan Bob Penny.
Lay Entrustment for Reizan Bob Penny On Saturday, May 10th at 3pm, Nomon Tim will entrust the Dharma with Reizan Bob Penny to honor and support his deep teaching role as coordinator of the Wilderness Dharma Program. Sangha is invited to come in support and celebration.
Samish Island Sesshin 2025; Begins Friday June 13th, ends Saturday, June 21. Join us for our annual highlight--7 day retreat with founding teacher Zoketsu Norman Fischer, Nomon Tim Burnett and Kanho Chris Burkhart. Zoom option also available as well as ability to attend the public daily talks.
I thought I'd share a bit more about some of the program ideas that are percolating for our new sangha life at Sansui-ji and invite your suggestions and input. Note that the titles and details and ideas I describe below are subject to change as we learn by doing what works well at the temple.
Weekly Programming:
As you may know, there will be two main weekly in-person (and hybrid/Zoom) on Wednesdays 6:30pm-8:30pm and Sundays 9:30am-Noon (plus an early zazen option).
Wednesday evenings will be Dharma Seminar where we dig more deeply into traditional Buddhist texts. There will be zazen with dokusan available but not a full chanting service. The talks may be a bit more in depth and there will be discussion. While being at every talk in a series won't be required, you'll probably do best choosing to come to several in a row. We'll announce the topics, texts and expected time frames.
I'll be the main teacher for Wednesday Dharma Seminar with stints by Kanho Chris and our other teachers.
Sunday mornings will, I think, just be called Sunday Program. This will be a little bit of everything Zen presented in an accessible and open way for both our sangha and the broader community. Zazen, kinhin, zazen, and morning service, followed by a temple cleaning work party (soji) and a Dharma talk with discussion and tea.
The teachers for Sunday Program will rotate between all of our wonderful Practice Leaders. The talks, while rooted in traditional Dharma, will be oriented towards everyday life practice with plenty of real life examples shared by the teachers.
Sometimes, I hope, we'll have pairs of Wayseeking Mind talks on Sunday where all kinds of sangha members share something of the story of how they came to the practice.
A couple of neat things about Sunday will be opportunities to gather before and after the main 9:30-Noon program. We'll try having an early practice option at 7am with a zazen, kinhin, zazen, and a brief service with a simple breakfast. And at noon it seems likely we'll have the option of lunch together (sack lunch or someone makes a soup plus potluck items).
And then we'll even have periodic workshops, meetings, and discussions at 1pm. Think about opening up some of your Sundays for this rich Dharma feast!
Lastly, we'll continue our popular Weekday Morning Sits on Zoom (and it will be possible to gather at the zendo and join from there...). These are now Monday-Friday 7am-7:40am with the same format each morning with a rotating set of leaders. You don't have to be a post-Shuso Practice Leader to help lead morning sit: read all about that here.
I'm also curious if earlier morning people are interested in organizing an additional weekday 6am sit. See me if you have some spark around that. It's so wonderful to sit with sangha at the start of your weekday and I know 7am is too late for some who are on their way to work.
Sansui-ji becoming a reality!
More Dokusan time:
I'm planning to be available for in-person and Zoom-based dokusan on Wednesday afternoons before Dharma Seminar. As there is now, there will be an option to book ahead at redcedarzen.org/nomon. On-request dokusan with our little cards will still be offered during all zazen periods when I'm present.
New & Returning Programming:
We shrunk our pre-pandemic programming down a lot to fit the reality of being totally online at first and then sharing a church basement. And that's been a while!
Now with our new building we'll have even more availability and options than we had back at Forest Street after we're settled in. Look for programs like:
Gasshō, Nomon Tim
Dear Red Cedar Zen Community,
You can now view dharma talks on our YouTube page.
They are categorized into playlists: you can find talks sorted by sesshin, teacher, and other categories such as Zen ancestors and the summer 2024 Dōgen series. We also have recent videos such as Nomon Tim's tour of Sanjui-ji.
Check back as our YouTube site is updated regularly.
If you would like to see any specific dharma talks or other videos uploaded, please contact admin@redcedarzen.org.
Gassho.
Starting in March we'll now have a more consistent morning sit practice at 7am on Monday - Friday mornings.
7am - 7:30am zazen, 7:30 - 7:35am service, 7:35 - 7:40am Dharma share.
And we're broadening our leadership pool.
Interested in helping to lead morning sit? You need to have received jukai and been doan (bell ringer) and kokyo (chant leader) at the zendo at least once.
Interested in leading? Reach out to Nomon Tim. Delighted to add more morning practice leaders.
The Board has lately been engaged in taking a fresh look at our governance and committee structures. A 4 hour facilitated creative meeting is planned in Feburary. This is an important part of preparing for our return to a home of our own especially given the "up the ante" exciting reality of owning our own home. There will be much to do to keep Sansui-ji humming. The Board's piece is the financial and organizational structures that will allow this to all move smoothly.
Curious about the Board's work?
You can read last month's Board of Directors Meeting Minutes here. Members of Red Cedar can request access to Ananda, our online file sharing system, if you're interested in additional notes of the Board's doings.
A new feature for our newsletter: have news you'd like to share with the broader sangha in the newsletter? Just send your submission to newsletter@redcedarzen.org
Red Cedar Social Media by Seishin Mitsuzan
Follow the Sangha on Instagram and FaceBook @redcedarzencommunity for short dharma videos and community updates. There will be a variety of video offerings that will include brief introductions to different aspects of practice, concise mini Dharma Talks, and an open invitation to the community to participate in filming reels. This could look like introduction clips where you can talk about yourself and your practice; or a short talk about your current practice or studies. If you would like to be involved in this please reach out to Seishin at queerbuddhistnurse@gmail.com
Join the Whatsapp Group through this link: https://chat.whatsapp.com/B9ahc0oevBnLX6vWv086Nf
WhatsApp will not replace the email list. Instead it is a more horizontal communication platform where anyone can post and start discussion. This is intended to promote connection and foster community, as well as to enable informal Sangha gatherings. If you would like to invite people to an informal meditation in your living room, set up a time to get together with peers at a cafe, or ask for support like a carpool to Temple, feel free to connect on WhatsApp.
Supporting an Immigrant Family by Ken & Julie Oates
Julie has been supporting an Afghan family, the Momands. The Momands are a family of six: a mother, three sons and two daughters. The eldest son, Aziz, worked for the US forces as an interpreter until their withdrawal. Because of Taliban reprisals, they can no longer live in Afghanistan, and Julie has been financing their life as undocumented immigrants in Pakistan, which has been deporting all Afghans back to Afghanistan. She has also been coordinating getting US visas for them, which has involved enlisting the help of Senator Cantwell to push through red tape. Yesterday (the day the new administration stopped all refugee arrivals in the US) Julie and Ken picked up five of the six family members at SeaTac after Julie managed to get visas for 5 of the 6 and arrange flights in the nick of time. Unfortunately, due to a mix up about her date of birth, the younger daughter was forced to stay behind. The family had to make the decision of staying together and all of them being forced back to Afghanistan to watch the oldest brother go to prison and perhaps face execution or to split up and save five of the six.
This photo shows the sons, LaZada, Aziz and Wahid. Their mother Malalai and sister Shakela asked not to be in a shared photograph according to their Muslim beliefs.
Ken is asking the sangha to consider donating to Julie’s efforts. She has spent more than $40,000 of her own money on this project. Attached is a link to a crowd fund Julie has set up.
Great Vow Monastery is a residential community of lay and ordained people engaged in around-the-clock Zen Buddhist practice. The practice heritage of Great Vow is the White Plum Soto/Rinzai lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, and the guiding teachers there are Jan Chozen Bays and Hogen Bays Roshi, co-abbots.
Desiree interviewed Seishin Mitsuzan and Aidan Fay for this story, both of whom have immersed themselves in the monastic training at Great Vow.
Desiree: To begin our interview, please give me a time frame for when you were each at Great Vow--Seishin? Aidan?
Seishin: My first time at Great Vow was way back in 2017--and I was just entering a practice of Zen at that time. I initially did 3 weeks at Great Vow, then 3 weeks at Tahoma One Drop Monastery on Whidbey Island, then went back to Great Vow another 2 months! I returned for another 2-month period in 2019; returning after for some 2 weeks to a month. I'll be back there for 2 weeks in March also.
Aidan: I was recently there from November 5th-December 15th--the second half of Ango (intense period of monastic training). I want to return for a long weekend soon...what I noticed right away as I merged this monastic practice is that I couldn't decide if it was "easy?" or "hard?!"...Usually I can discriminate easily; for instant at a 9-5 job, "oh, this is easy or oh, this is hard..." But! At Great Vow, I was working really hard and for long hours, and realistically I was really doing hard training, but it didn't seem like that--it just seemed very natural and spontaneous...
Seishin: Those earlier times were very chaotic times in my life and one thing I've noticed is--especially for young people, it is a great container to get started--more consistency in practice--great to really buckle down and do a lot of practice in a short amount of time...(harder to do in lay life...)
Aidan: I wouldn't ever say that people need to practice with people their own age, but there is, in a young person, a certain neurotic energy that is interesting to experience...When you're practicing with a lot of elders/ experienced practitioners, it's different. I think there is this "neurotic drive" that is based on suffering, as a young person, the searching of a young person which is good to see reflected.
Seishin: There's also a cultural difference in generations--and sometimes more difficult as a newer person to the sangha to feel that connection grounding in practice with very different ages, culturally...
Desiree: I know you were relating to me some offerings there that you really enjoyed--one was informal talks coming from everyone--
Aidan: They did this thing called Zen X where they had people give these 15 minute talks--not on Dharma--but just on any topic--it was so cool because everyone was working on their attention and awareness, there was such an engagement--one priest talked about their trip to Greece--with a slideshow...normally, that could have been so boring!-- but, with the heightened attention to detail and willingness to listen--it was totally amazing!
Seishin: Just an aside, but I'm thinking it would be great for Red Cedar to do something like this--sometimes, instead of a Dharma talk, we could do like, 3 mini-talks from different people and give more of a chance for getting-to-know each other more intimately...
Aidan: One thing that was very impactful, was that Chozan Roshi did a circle dance with everyone--kind of an "old time hippy dance feel" and even one with feathers--but it didn't feel "hippy"--very sincere and authentic...priceless experience of bonding--
Desiree: [remembered doing The Elm Dance that Joanna Macy brought back--beautiful and emotional--]
Desiree: Thinking about questions now around letting go of ego--anything that stands out?
Seishin: I remember going from "normal" life, to giving up so many of these "normal things"--like talking, touching, and remembering struggling with giving up these--thinking about how we are compelled to conform there and having to give up the doing things "our way."
Aidan: A big thing that really affected me was that we started doing "gratitude journals" and it was during the time of the election results coming in as Trump was re-elected. I remember feeling very anxious about it all morning, same anxiety from 4 years before, that, at that time, was prolonged. But I did the gratitude journal at lunchtime--and the feeling disappeared--forever--it never returned for the entire time I was there. It was a very powerful experience because it showed me very clearly how important that practice of gratitude is. Also, at breakfast one morning, they talked about how Maezumi Roshi said that incense is an offering for the ancestors--food for the ancestors--since they no longer can eat physical food. Having this thought attached to lighting incense gives it a sense of purpose--that isn't just about us--same with the Oriyoki meals--really started hitting me more--showing appreciation and gratitude.
Question from Seishin: [for Aidan] How was sleep deprivation for you?
Aidan: I had so much energy actually--Hogan Roshi reminded us not to have preconceived notions--don't think "oh I'm going to be sooo tired..." Although I was so tired on the last day!
Seishin: How was the body thing?
Aidan: Oh! Man!--terrible! I was obsessively stretching and I think it was telling my mind that I was in more pain than I really was!
Seishin: Take away for me: there is no escape from the body pain at longer retreats--no matter what you do--but when sesshin ends--it just instantly goes away...?? Huh?--where did it go?! In terms of sleep deprivation I think it was a struggle early on--I would especially get sleepy in the morning, but I've learned that despite that, I'm not really tired...I can tap into that energy and the more I do, the more it serves me in life in general. I did some all-night stints just to really sleep deprive myself and experiment with this, not really sure why I did it now--not sure if it was really healthy to do...
Seishin: I will be going to Tassajara for practice period in October, and back to Great Vow and more retreats in the future. Part of why I chose to become a nurse, is that it is SO flexible--I can do these 3 month stints either by quitting a job (easy to find another) or by taking a leave of absence...People think sometimes there is a way to "ease into these retreats" (which by the way are really essential to practice) but I think it's best to just dive in. There is a habit of thinking, "oh, I want to sit more, oh, I want to go on longer retreats, etc." but when we really just do it, we're forced to figure out how to move through all of it...
Desiree: Anything else?
Seishin: I think it is so helpful for everyone to experience studying under different teachers and experience different forms, different lineages...
Aidan: It is so cool to be part of different ways of doing things--like shouting at gut level, the ShoSaiMyo KiChiJo Dharani!!
Seishin: Would be so interesting to invite some of these different lineages to lead short retreats at Sansui-ji.
Aidan: Also, great to have so many opportunities online!
Desiree: Well! Thank you both for offering these great observations about your experiences and your practice!! Deep bows!
Seishin Mitsuzan is on the path of priesthood and will be entering Tassajara Monastery's fall practice period for 3 months, in October of this year
Aidan Fay will be attending our annual Precepts Study class, sewing a Rakusu and taking Jukai (Bodhisattva vows) this year.
Seishin Mitsuzan
Aiden Fay
Red Cedar Zen Community is a 501(c) non-profit organization.
