May 2023
This is a long newsletter. Turn on photos and be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of the newsletter.
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Services SPRING SCHEDULE
TEMPLE SERVICES Via ZOOM
MONDAY - FRIDAY at 6:30 a.m. via ZOOM
MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY at 5:30 p.m. via ZOOM
SATURDAY 8:30 a.m. - service + meditation via ZOOM & in person
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IN PERSON MEETINGS - (some on ZOOM)
SATURDAY MORNING SERVICE at 8:30am
M-F AM Meditation 6:30am - 7:30am
M-F PM Meditation 5:30pm - 6:30pm
46 Stoller Rd. Trout Lake WA
TUESDAY at 12 NOON -1:00 pm IN PERSON
1412 13th Street, Suite 200. Hood River, OR 97031
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Thích Nhất Hạnh Study Group
Thích Nhất Hạnh study group meets on the 2nd & 4th Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. on ZOOM
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Buu - Hung Buddhist Monastery
17808 NE 18th St, Vancouver, WA 98684. Tel: (360) 718-6158
Meditation Practice & Dharma Talk
The last Sunday of each month 2:00 pm.-3:00 pm
A Saturday Morning Zoom Meeting
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A Saturday Morning Zoom Meeting |
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Dear ones,
From our original teacher, Siddhārtha Gautama (The Buddha): "Believe nothing, O monks, just because you have been told it, or it is commonly believed, or because it is traditional or because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings - that doctrine believe and cling to and take as your guide."
"I look upon the judgment of right and wrong as the serpentine dance of a dragon, and the rise and fall of beliefs as but traces left by the four seasons."
"It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.Little by little a person becomes evil, as a water pot is filled by drops of water... Little by little a person becomes good, as a water pot is filled by drops of water."
A wonderful example of judgements is shown by the recent uproar over His Holiness The Dalai Lama's recent interaction with a child. So may people were upset with HHTDL's comment to that child...
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May we all stop making judgements of good and bad and right and wrong and find peace in the Buddha's teachings of peace and compassion.......Thay Kozen |
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UPCOMING 2023 RETREATS
Metta practice, and Shinrin-Yoku (Forest Bathing)
Suggested donation $40.00 no one will be refused participation due to funds..
We'd rather have you here than your money.
A Shinrin-Yoku forest bathing walk consists of a series of activities & sits, designed to help the participants to bathe in the surroundings, the environment and energy of the forest, allowing them to slow down, breathe, and refocus on their body, while connecting to their various senses.
MAY 26-28 TRINITY GONG FU RETREAT
JUNE 9-11 TRINITY WELLNESS RETREAT
JULY 8 ZEN ARCHERY WITH DAVE MARTIN
JULY 14-16 Yoga Retreat w/ Michele Loew
SEPT 17 - STATUE WELCOMING CELEBRATION
SEPT 21-24 INSIGHT RETREAT WITH AUGUST JENSEN
SEPT 29- OCT 1 YOGA RETREAT WITH LAURIE VAN COTT
Dec 31 108 bell rings
I encourage everyone to do a 1 week retreat and 2 additional 1-2 day retreats every year Recommended retreat centers are Cloud Mountain in Castle Rock WA, Great Vow in Clatskanie OR, Deer Park in Escondido CA............Thay Kozen
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YOGA RETREATS
9-11 June Thrive Wellness Retreat …a retreat to celebrate transitions
Bringing together experts in the field of western and eastern medicine addressing the ways to rejuvenate and renew during perimenopause and menopause. This retreat is designed to empower and support you through the changes of life with grace and knowledge.
16 - 18 June Annual GorgeYoga Wellness Retreats...This year's theme: Finding Joy!
Inspired by The Book of Joy with the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, this year we will explore what brings us joy, meaning and purpose, and how to access healing and growth through yoga, meditation, and self-reflection.
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What We Get Wrong About Death |
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From the Buddha’s Five Remembrances:
I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.
All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.
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This is a very short summary of an article from the HuffPost by Monica Torres , who interviewed end-of-life workers. Please click on the link at the end to read the full article - highly recommended!
BE PRESENT FOR THE DYING “... some dying people try to talk about their experience with loved ones but the families dismiss it because of their own discomfort, using language like “You’re not dying, don’t worry about it.”
“So many times, loved ones have the most regret.... They’re so terrified of losing their loved one that they can’t be fully present to their loved one at the time when they need them the most, really — to hold their hand and to really honor what they’re going through, and have a space to share what they’re experiencing in this epic journey they’re about to embark on.”
ACCEPT WHAT HAPPENS The physical process of dying doesn’t look like it does in the movies….Pop culture may have you thinking that death happens quietly and quickly, with eyes closing and arms crossed, but dying from natural causes often looks different in real life.
“It’s usually more of a process where they go into that unresponsive state, and there’s all kinds of things going on with their body. Their color’s changing, their breathing is changing and then they finally slip away,....”
COMMUNICATE Not enough people plan or talk about how they want to die. “...talk about these issues early on in life, maybe starting when you become an adult. Start to think about your mortality, and visualize how you would want things to go for you when you get into that stage of life, the end stage. Communicate honestly.” Filling out forms for so-called advance care planning goes a long way. But “it’s as important that you, number one, identify a person you trust — or two or three [people] — that can honor your wishes,...and have the conversations ahead of time, before you’re in the state where you can’t communicate your needs and wishes.”
LET GO OF THE NEED TO CONTROL There can … be a misunderstanding about the medical community’s ability to defeat death — even from health care workers themselves. “The biggest misunderstanding that I see [among] patients, families and even health professionals around the issue of death is that we think we can control it,.... “We believe that with all of our machines, technology and medications, we can determine when or even if that happens….”
ACCEPT EMOTIONS THAT ARISE “…it’s OK not to be ready. ...many conversations around death and dying have focused on making sure someone is ready and not as much on cases in which a person loves life until the last minute and is not ready to go. “It’s OK to miss life….”
Death can be devastatingly sad, but it doesn’t only have to be a somber occasion. Dying may be painful due to a terminal illness, but it’s not inherently so, Sethi said. “It can be positive and hard….”
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Replace with new for May 2023 |
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by Thich Minh Thien, (Thay Z) Abbot
Arlington, Texas
ACCEPTANCE
When new brothers and sisters come to the temple, sometimes they come back and sometimes they don’t. I always ask them on their first time, what drew them to visiting our sangha. The responses many times are about challenges in their lives and looking for peace and contentment. I always try to incorporate in my dharma talk that evening that my personal attraction to following the teachings of the Buddha was the simplicity I find in the understanding of the dharma that I found. Of course if you have been following the dharma for any amount of time, you have already discovered that it may never be as simple as all that.
The Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path is where most of us start our dharma journey. The concepts we find there seems to be fairly clear. But then we begin to encounter concepts like No Self, Co-Dependent Arising, Equanimity, Impermanence, but to name a few, where the concepts in these teachings may become more challenging to our understanding and practice. One thing we all can consider in order to avoid becoming entangled and possibly becoming discouraged about our lack of understanding to some of the deeper dharma concepts is to rely on the concept of Acceptance.
Acceptance in Buddhist terms, simply refers to our ability to stay present in the moment. When life presents us with something our ego finds painful, not pleasurable, or maybe even unknowable in the moment, the mind’s tendency is to resist, avoid, change or generally push against what is. We want it to be different. If we are having difficulties in our illness, our depressions, our pain, our aging, the failures of our plans or relationships, etc., we may struggle with accepting that this is what is here at the current moment and we may engage in other strategies to try and change our feelings about what is currently arising in our lives.
Resisting our thoughts or feelings about what is may only be temporary at best however might even seem to make a situation worse. Instead, we are encouraged to say “yes” to “what is” and then lean in and simply let go of any effort and energy invested in resisting the reality of what we are facing. Acceptance then becomes a meditative practice that allows us to be fully present to what is and brings our full attention to the present moment and accepting whatever condition we find.
In Buddhism, Acceptance is a practice that leads to knowing ourselves really well. This self-awareness leads to accepting ourselves and our life conditions unconditionally and seeing ourselves just as we are in any given moment. It is a practice of Loving Kindness in being open to ourselves, just as we are, with a quality of acceptance and even warmth. It doesn’t require a deeper understanding of more complex concepts in the moment. Acceptance is that no one is more deserving of love and compassion than ourselves. That is why we always begin our Metta practices with ourselves. So may we always remember to go to that wonderful well wishing; may I be well, may I be happy, may I know love, may I know peace.
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
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“A true friend is one who stands by you in need.”
It’s from a section in the Sigālovāda Sutta, where the Buddha summarizes, in poetic verse, some teachings he’s just given to a householder called Sigālaka.
"a true friend is one who stands by you in need....
whoever in hardship stands close by, that one truly is a friend."
Buddha tells a group of monks about seven qualities they should look for in a friend,
from the Sigālovāda Sutta
"The seven are:
- They give what is hard to give.
- They do what is hard to do.
- They endure what is hard to endure.
- They reveal their secrets to you.
- They keep your secrets.
- They don’t abandon you in times of trouble.
- They don’t look down on you in times of loss.
“The person in whom these things are found is your friend,” the Buddha
So look around you at the people you call friends - how do they measure up to the Buddha's quotes above? True friends are rare and are great treasures. May we all have a true friend....Thay Kozen
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A Change Is Gonna Come
by Sam Cooke
[Chorus]
[Verse 2]
[Chorus]
[Verse 3]
[Chorus]
It's been a long
A long time comin', but I know
[Verse 4]
The song was inspired by various events in Cooke's life, most prominently when he and his entourage were turned away from a whites-only motel in Louisiana. Cooke felt compelled to write a song that spoke to his struggle and of those around him, and that pertained to the Civil Rights Movement and African Americans....May we all look at our prejudices towards others and remember that we are all the children of the Buddha.....Thay Kozen
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THE HEART OF THE BUDDHA'S TEACHING: Mental Formations |
Want to understand what mental formations are or deepen your understanding? This article lets you do either.
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Metta Practice - in English and Spanish
Say it to yourself, to a loved one, to a stranger, to one difficult to love, to all beings,
then once again to yourself. These few words can change your life.
May I be well
May you be well
Puedo Estar Bien
Tu Puedes estar bien
Que esté bien
Que estés bien
May I be happy
May you be happy
Puedo estar feliz
Tu Puedes estar feliz
Que esté feliz
Que estés feliz
May I know love
May you know love
Puedo saber o conocer el amor
Tu Puedes conocer el amor
Que sepa amor.
Que sepas amor.
May I know peace
May you know peace
Puedo saber o conocer la paz
Tu Puedes tener paz
Que sepa tranquilidad.
Que sepas tranquilidad.
Que estés bien.
Que estés feliz.
Que sepas amor.
Que sepas tranquilidad.
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Dr. Oded Rechavi: Genes & the Inheritance of Memories Across Generations
Science suggests that memories of our ancestors may be embedded in our RNA or DNA. According to Dr. Rechavi our DNA "memories" can be changed and revised. This may be the start of scientific research into answers of our ancestor's Karma being present in our life.
The word Karma come from the Sanskrit word karman (to "act").....Thay Kozen
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Sokushinbutsu
A Dangerous Extreme Practice
In Japan the term refers to the practice of Shingon Buddhist monks observing asceticism to the point of death and entering mummification while alive. Mummified monks are seen in a number of Buddhist countries. Only in Japan are they believed to have induced their own death by starvation. Especially in South-Asian countries the monks die through natural causes after which their bodies are mummified.
Finding the middle path of the BUDDHA is freedom from extremes.
How many ways have all of us limited our life through our own mental constructs?....Thay Kozen
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Our Connected World
Thay Kozen recently attended the joyful dedication Huyen Trang Temple, New Caney Texas
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Winter's beauty in snow and sky |
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May you be well and healthy...Thich Minh Tinh (Rev. Kozen Sampson)
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Neurologists Share The Foods They Never (Or Rarely) Eat
While occasionally indulging in certain foods that aren’t great for your brain is fine, there are popular (and admittedly delicious) foods and beverages that people who specialize in brain health do their very best to avoid.
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Check your brand of decaf coffee for chemicals. A surprising number of coffee brands use chemical decaffeination processes including Methylene Chloride, the main ingredient in paint stripper, even though chemical free alternatives exist.
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While we may be grateful that warm season is back, please remember that It's tick season too! They carry many dangerous diseases. |
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Recovery Dharma- Transforming Addictions
and Other Harmful Habits
Recovery Dharma uses Buddhist practices and principles to overcome addictions through meditation, personal inquiry, and community engagement.
Recovery Dharma is a peer led movement and a community that is unified by the potential in each of us to recover and find freedom from the suffering of addiction. This book uses the Buddhist practices of meditation, self inquiry, wisdom, compassion, and community as tools for recovery and healing. We welcome anyone who is looking to find freedom from suffering, whether it’s caused by substance use or process addictions like codependency, sex, gambling, eating disorders, shopping, work, technology, or any obsessive or habitual pattern. We approach recovery from a place of individual and collective empowerment and we support each other as we walk this path of recovery together.
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This group recently had a board meeting retreat at our temple. What a wonderful and joyful group of people. They provide great growth for our hearts and minds.....Thay Kozen
"Since the early 1980s, my audacious Animas colleagues and I have been learning how to navigate and guide the now rare but perennial journey of soul initiation. We’ve been fashioning a contemporary, Western, nature-based methodology for metamorphosis. We’ve crafted new and modified maps, models, principles, practices, and ceremonies by which to guide the descent to the underworld of soul for the purpose of uncovering the mystery at the heart of each human life. Often it feels like we’re simply remembering what all people have known from the beginning of the human story, mythic patterns and motifs lost and forgotten ages ago, yet with traces that can be unearthed like hidden treasure in the dusty shadowed corners of our own psyches or in the form of memories stored in the land itself or conjured out of the dance we have found ourselves performing, without forethought, while in communion with wild places and wild humans. At other times, it seems like Mystery is taking us for a ride on an indeterminate evolutionary trajectory never before traveled, more like passengers than steersmen".
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Beings are numberless
Do you vow to free them?
Delusions are inexhaustible;
Do you vow to end them?
Dharma gates are boundless;
Do you vow to enter them?
The Buddha way is unsurpassable;
Do you vow to become it?
What can we do to make our own lives and the lives of all beings safer and more peaceful?
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FOREST BATHING
The bestselling guide to forest bathing with a new section of hands-on forest bathing practices and space for journal entries and reflections.
Simply being present in the natural world, with all of our senses fully alive, can have a remarkably healing effect. It can also awaken in us our latent but profound connection with all living things. This is “forest bathing,” a practice inspired by the Japanese tradition of shinrin-yoku. It is a gentle, meditative approach to being with nature and an antidote to our nature-starved lives that can heal our relationship with the more-than-human world.
I like this book...Thay Kozen
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We have several one-day Forest Bathing Retreats scheduled for 2023! See above for dates or |
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May Day is celebrated around the world as the International Day of the Worker. In European countries, it traditionally marked the return of spring.
Cinco de Mayo is an annual Mexican heritage celebration held on May 5, which commemorates the anniversary of Mexico's victory over the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.
May’s full Moon, called the Flower Moon, appears on Friday, May 5.
Mother's Day is celebrated in many countries of the world on the 2nd Sunday in May (May 14th this year). It honors mothers and maternal figures.
Memorial Day, the last Monday in May, honors the memory of lives lost in the U.S. Military.
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May the Infinite Light of Wisdom and Compassion so shine within us
that the errors and vanities of self may be dispelled;
so shall we understand the changing nature of existence and awaken into spiritual peace.
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Mt Adams Zen Buddhist Temple 46 Stoller Rd., Trout Lake WA 98650 509.395.2030 www.Mtadamszen.org
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