Red Cedar Zen - August 2023 News
Greeting from Nomon Tim
Dear Sangha,
I'm grateful that our regular newsletter has been reborn!
And I'm also grateful that we choose to let it go during the transition between Program Administrators.
One thing I've tried to learn over the years is that while it's so important to be deeply committed in the practice of Zen and the ways we support that practice, it's also important to to be flexible, including when to let go for a while!
One of my deepest hopes for us as a community is sustainability and that requires both of these qualities: deep commitment, steadiness, continuous practice on the one hand; and great flexibility and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances on the other.
So in a way the disappearance and later reappearance of our regular newsletter is in itself a wonderful model of this.
I want to thank several behind the scenes folks from then and now in making this newsletter possible: Bob Penny, Ryan Wentzel, Michael Kelberer, Desiree Webster, Amanda McLaurin, and I'm sure several others I'm not thinking of right now. There are so many willing hands and hearts behind everything that manifests at Red Cedar!
And just a note from my corner: I write this during my early morning "Tim time" during my annual July Sabbatical. This year's July is unique and wondrous as you've probably heard as Raizelah and I are getting married (tomorrow!!). By the time you read this perhaps we'll have had the pleasure of celebrating together at the sangha reception we're holding next week. I'm feeling deeply held and loved on so many levels. Letting that in is a wonderful practice for someone who's so accustomed to taking care of others first.
Of the two qualities I mentioned earlier: the steadiness and commitment and sometimes ceaseless effort in service is my usual go to. It's a great thing to practice relaxing and letting others serve and help Raizelah and I as family and friends gather to celebrate and support our marriage and to feel the incredible support of sangha. Amazing!
With love and a deep bow,
Nomon Tim
Throughout this newsletter you’ll find this lovely watercolor paintings from Desiree Webster depicting scenes from her recent stay at Tassajara.
Thank you Desiree for sharing these with us!
Announcements
A New Study Group
with Desiree Webster and Chris Burkhart
We will be studying the Śūrangama Sūtra. If you’re interested in studying together, please join us on Zoom on the 2nd and 4th Fridays from 7-8 pm.
The text we’ll be using is The Sūrangama Sūtra/ with excerpts from the Commentary by the Venerable Master Hsüan Hua. (From the Buddhist Text Translation Society c 2017, 2009)
Also!--for the Dogen study group--A new fascicle begins! Chapter 24--"Awesome Presence of Active Buddhas" Every Tuesday, 7-8 PM.
New Board Members
Please welcome our new board members: Barbara Noda, Mari Ritalahti, and Desiree Webster. Their photos and bios will be on our website shortly! Also, thank you to Valerie Davenport for her dedication and service as she ends her stint with the board. Sending good wishes. Gassho!
Sangha Japan Trip 2024
It's happening! Our April, 2024, trip to Japan is on the website. Registration opens on September 1st.
Joan is a member of the Red Cedar Zen Community and previously practiced with the Olympia Zen Center. She received Jukai from Eido Francis Carney Roshi.
Joan is also the author of two other books: A Pilgrimage in Japan: the 33 Temples of Kannon, and Heaven and Earth are Flowers: Reflections on Ikebana and Buddhism.
She currently resides in Mt. Vernon, WA
Zen and Ikebana
By Joan D. Stamm
In 2020, I planned to spend the month of April researching a flower temple pilgrimage in Kyoto and Nara, Japan where the Buddhist abbots refer to flowers as “little Buddhas.” Instead of my Japan adventure, I spent the year exploring my own garden as the encroaching COVID-19 pandemic kept everyone homebound.
Sequestered like a hermit on a mountain on Orcas Island, I focused on my Buddhist studies, creating ikebana and writing a book that would eventually be called The Language of Flowers in the Time of COVID: Finding Solace in Zen, Nature and Ikebana. My Zen practice, coupled with my “flower practice,” led me deeper into Kado: The Way of Flowers, a path that encompasses impermanence, interdependence and the internalization of nature’s peacefulness as one surrenders to seasonal changes, the humble beauty of flowers and their eventual demise.
Again and again, my Zen practice and my flower practice restored my sanity as the many other challenges of 2020 unfolded: riots and demonstrations over racial injustice, unprecedented wildfires and hurricanes, days and days of suffocating smoke-filled air, and an attempted coup d’état at our nation’s capital. Through it all, the seasons continued to produce beauty and abundance as buds formed, blossomed, withered and died, only to be reborn again. Like the magical enso of our lives, nature presents birth and death in a myriad of dazzling forms.
The Language of Flowers in the Time of COVID, published and released in June of this year, tells something of the 2020 story that unfolded for me while researching flower lore, tending my garden, and practicing ikebana and Zen. The book includes thirteen black and white ikebana photos. Included here are two of those photos in color. You can see more on my website:
https://joandstamm.com/
Red Cedar Zen Updates
Cedarwood Building update: We are eagerly looking forward to the design of the new building renovation starting next month. Our original architect made good headway with getting surveys done and building an electronic model of the building. Because of the regulatory intricacies of converting a commercial space into an “assembly” space, an architect more specialized in renovation codes, commercial properties, and navigating the Bellingham Planning Department was needed to avoid impossibly high renovation costs. Commercial architects typically have a 1 year backlog now, so we were grateful to be jumped up to a 6 month wait which is ending soon.
Great appreciation also goes to the volunteers who have been working on the building to keep our tenant happy and to set the stage for work to begin as soon as we have a city-approved permit on a design. Neal Engledow performs repairs regularly, Dave Lynch keeps the lawn mowed, and Bob Penny arranged upgrades needed immediately when we purchased the building. If you’re able to contribute a few hours, see the website for Saturday work parties being hosted this month by Tina Cummings and Mari Ritalahti.
Talus Latona/Design and Build Committee Chair
Sangha News
Tim and Raizelah were married on July 22nd and we had a wonderful picnic the next week to celebrate their marriage! A beautiful day on Lake Padden with food galore and a chance to have leisurely chats with many sangha folks!
*We welcome your submissions--news, announcements, photos, poetry and art! Please send these to newsletter@redcedarzen.org by the 15th of the month prior--thanks!
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Full recordings of the class Nomon Tim Burnett has been sharing with the sangha are being posted to the Mahayana Teachings Dharma Talks page. Many have shared how much they've appreciated these classes
An event in our system has now been created for the April 2024 trip to sacred sites in Japan. Note that the dates have shifted a few days since the last announcement to April 4-18 and we are now able to announce an estimated cost for this trip of $2200 - $2400 (plus airfare to Japan).
Keep an eye on Japan Trip 2024 for updates!
Our beloved Samish Island Campground is holding it's annual call for volunteer help: the Work Week.
Friday, April 28 - Friday, May 5
Room and board are offered in exchange for help with projects of all kinds from cleaning and yardwork to technical carpentry. You can come for the day, overnight, or several days.
Please contact Camp Manager Christine Campbell at samishbird@gmail.com if you'd like to help
We've created a new & revised page on the website for coordinating the many volunteering needs of the sangha. From one-time wishes to ongoing commitments in our committees. See the Committees & Volunteering page here (available under About and also under Practice).
Thank you for your support!
Hi All,
As we roll into Spring we've decided to reduce the Sunday 10am Zen Alive! program to once a month. The meeting will generally be on the first Sunday of the month but please check the website for dates. If you register for Zen Alive! the system will send you a reminder email during the week before each meeting also.
Erin Suda, a friend of Bob Penny's sent us this request for help:
I wanted to reach out because my mom went missing from the Kendall area on March 10th and we have been looking for her ever since.
My family is putting together a Prayer Circle to Bring Julie Home this Sunday the 26th at 3pm at Maritime Heritage Park, and we would like to invite the Buddhist community to join.
My mother would love to know that an inter-denominational group was brought together in prayer on her behalf.
Let me know if you have any questions or if anyone from your group is inspired to share a prayer. Thanks and blessings
A group of folks will be working on clearing brush piles and downed limbs at our Cedarwood property at 10am this Friday March 24th. Bring gloves, pruners, or garden trimming tools if you have them.
Contact Mary Durbrow with questions. mdurbrow1@gmail.com
We are blessed with two upcoming Red Cedar Zen Dharma Classes.
Our annual Precepts Class is this year led by Practice Leaders Seiu Hannah Sullivand and Joden Bob Rose starts on Weds March 29th. It's an 8 month process with monthly class meetings giving plenty of time to reflect and study how the Zen Precepts can inform the way you live you life. This course is also pre-requestite for receiving the precepts formally in the jukai ceremony.
And a new arrival is Nomon Tim will be offering a Monday evening Dharma Class on the Lotus Sutra starting on Mon April 3rd. A neat opportunity to take a deep dive into a revered (and pretty far out!) traditional text.
Red Cedar Zen Community's Wilderness Dharma Program begins another year of mindful and ritual journeys throughout our local watersheds, and we warmly invite you to come out for a walk, a hike, or a full backpack.
We offer a wide variety of experiences, suitable for a wide range of interests and abilities. Our walks and hikes are arranged into two broad groups - our "Following the Way of Water" series of journeys up into the high country of our local world, and our "Opening to Nature" series of explorations into the diversity of lowland environs which surrounds us right here at home.
We begin the season with our Receiving Water/HIlls and Streams Hike on Saturday, March 25th, timed to coincide closely with the Spring Equinox. Each year we receive a vial of Salish Sea water, and carry it with us throughout our hikes, exchanging it with fresh mountain water at the highest points we can reach of the three branches of the Nooksack River, and returning that mountain water to the Salish Sea at season's end.
This poignant ceremony on the beach can be attended separately, or together with, the hike led by Hegaku Talus Latona, which immediately follows. On that "HIlls and Streams" hike we will recite the entirety of the Genjo Koan by Eihei Dogen. Please consider joining this shoreside ritual, and the hike if you choose, and put your energy and well-wishes into the vial of water we will be walking with throughout the season.
We will follow this with our next hike, the popular Circumambulation of Mt. Eire on April 9th, which coincides closely with Buddha's birthday. Led by Jodan Bob Rose, the hike ritually circles the small seaside mountain, protected years ago partly through the efforts of Jodan Bob himself. Our first ceremony on the hike visits the "Poet's Tree", and each participant is asked to bring a short piece of writing to welcome the spring.
You can see the full list of this season's programs here. Be sure to take note of a new program, the Cedarwood Pilgrimage on August 17th, which weaves our new building into the ritual matrix of walks we annually perform, and gives an opportunity for community members to send off our team of hikers to the high country for our Mountains and Rivers Backpack.
Yours in nature, Reizan Bob Penny and the Wilderness Dharma Program team
Red Cedar Zen Community is a 501(c) non-profit organization.
