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eMirror Vol. 11, No. 52 Friday, December 28th, 2007 Edited by Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho
Quotes from teisho are run sequentially in the eMirror
Dogen zenji says,
Ha ha. So basically, ten out of ten Buddhas throughout the ten directions agree with Sakyamuni Buddha that, "Throughout the Fields of Awakening of the ten directions there is only this single Path of Reality."
Upcoming Events
Fusatsu and the Vow of Samantabhadra Chanting of the Precepts will take place on December 26th, January 9th and January 23rd. The Vow of Samantabhadra will be chanted on January 2nd, 16th and 30th.
Joya (New Year's Celebration) On Monday, December 31st at 10 p.m. until Tuesday, January 1st at 12:00 a.m. we will celebrate Joya or New Year's. Join Zen Master Anzan Hoshin, Ven. Shikai osho and Ven. Jinmyo osho and the monastics of the Northern Mountain Order in ringing in the New Year with 108 recitations of the Mahaprajnaparamita Hridaya sutra mantra. Following the sitting there will be an array of shojin-ryori (Zen vegetarian cuisine) dishes for an informal feast. There is no better way to begin the year. Dana is $25. Please register by sending an email to or telephone the Zen Centre office (613) 562-1568. We have received queries and so note that attendance is restricted to students of the Lineage of Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi. The Tuesday 6:00 a.m. formal sitting is cancelled.
Hermitage The Roshi will begin a period of hermitage on Wednesday, January 2nd, which will end at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, January 6th, when he leads monastics in Acalanatha Sadhana.
Introduction to Zen Workshop Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho will present the next Introduction to Zen Workshop at Dainen-ji on Saturday, January 5th. For more information please see: http://www.wwzc.org/programs/Introduction_To_Zen_Workshop_Ottawa.htm. For information concerning our Long-distance Training Program, please visit this Web Page: http://www.wwzc.org/programs/longDistance.htm.
January Two-day Sesshin The January two-day sesshin will begin at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, January 11th and will end at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 13th. On Saturday, January 12th, associate and general students may attend a sitting held in the Zendo. Arrival time is 9:15 a.m. (in time for First Bell). The sitting ends at 11:30 a.m. Students attending are reminded to remain on the first floor.
Oryoki for General Students On Saturday, January 19th, general students who attend the 6:00 a.m. formal sitting may participate in oryoki practice led by Jinmyo osho. Associate or visiting public students who are in retreat at the monastery on that day may also participate in oryoki. Dana is $10.00. You do not need previous experience of oryoki to attend. For more information or to register please send an email to schedule at wwzc dot org.
Daiji-ki January 22nd is Daiji-ki, the anniversary of Daiji Tenku daiosho's death. Daiji Tenku daiosho was the Teacher of Joshu Dainen roshi, who was Anzan Hoshin roshi's Teacher. Anzan roshi also had the opportunity to study with Daiji Tenku daiosho.
Dharma Assembly On Saturday, January 26th, Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho will lead a Dharma Assembly which will begin at 9:30 a.m. (please arrive by 9:15, in time for first Bell) and will end at 9:10 p.m. Dana is $40.00, which includes two meals: lunch and supper. Participants are asked to bring clothing and shoes appropriate for samu practice. To register, please send an email to schedule at wwzc dot org or leave a message on the office answering machine at 562-1568. Dharma Assemblies are open to all students. The general sitting that would ordinarily take place from 9:30 to 11:40 on Saturday morning will be canceled due to the Dharma Assembly.
Hermitage The Roshi will begin a period of hermitage on January 30th, which will end on February 3rd at 10:00 a.m. when he leads monastics in Acalanatha Sadhana.
Practice Calendar January-June 2008
The January - June 2008 Practice Calendar has been posted on the Home Page of the White Wind Zen Community Website (http://www.wwzc.org/) in PDF format. The direct link to download the Calendar is: http://www.wwzc.org/documents/2008-1.pdf
Recorded Teisho Schedule Saturday, December 29nd general sitting - Turning the Wheel of the Way: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's "Gyoji: Continuous Practice": "The Old Buddhas" (teisho 13 of 44).
Sunday, December 30th formal sitting – SAkN: Presencing the Open Body: "Where Is Your Face?" (teisho 2 of 5).
Saturday, January 5th general sitting - Turning the Wheel of the Way: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's "Gyoji: Continuous Practice": "The Old Nest" (teisho 14 of 44).
Dharma Talk On Thursday, December 27th, Ven. Shikai Zuiko osho presented a Dharma Talk entitled "In the Rooms of Palaces". This is the sixth Dharma Talk in the series "Every Breath you Take: Comments on The Practice of Purity: Book Eleven of the Avatamsaka Sutra, translated by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi and Ven. Shikai osho.
Congratulations Congratulations and deep gassho to Elizabeth Eve on being accepted as an associate student by the Roshi. Elizabeth is a resident of Ottawa.
Training Session Gillian Higenbottam began a two-week Training Session on Monday, December 24th, which will end on Monday, January 7th. Retreats Gillian Higenbottam began a retreat on Thursday, December 20th, which ended on Sunday the 23rd at noon. David kelleher sat a half-day retreat on Saturday. Alexis Fiset sat a two-day retreat on Sunday and Monday. Nathan Comeau began a retreat on Tuesday evening which ended on Wednesday morning following the formal sitting.
To Schedule a Retreat Please email schedule at wwzc dot org to schedule a retreat, even if you have made verbal arrangements with a practice advisor or a Dharma Teacher. Emails sent to that address are routed to all members of the Practice Council who will need this information for the purposes of meal planning, preparing tapes for your retreat and planning samu assignments. Retreats are defined in the following way:
Half-day Retreat (you would need to arrive 15 minutes before the actual starting time) Begin at 6:00 a.m., end at noon. Or begin at 9:30 a.m., end at 6:00. Or begin at 3:00 p.m., end at 9:10. Partial Retreat (You would need to arrive 15 minutes before the actual starting time) Begin at 6:00 a.m., end at 6:00 p.m. Or begin at 9:30 a.m., end at 9:10 p.m. Full retreat (you would need to arrive by 5:45) Begin at 6:00 a.m., end at 9:10 p.m. Please remember to bring a change of clothes suitable for samu (caretaking practice). If staying overnight, please remember to bring a sleeping bag, a towel and other such necessities. If you have been diagnosed by a medical doctor as having allergies to specific foods, please contact the tenzo, Jinmyo osho at rengezo at vianet dot ca, a week in advance of your retreat to inform her of dietary restrictions as this affects food purchases and meal planning. The suggested dana for retreats is $40 a day, which covers the basic cost of food and other materials. Donations above this figure are very welcome and all donations are tax deductible. There is also a retreat schedule for public students posted on our Website at: http://www.wwzc.org/Resources/Public.student.retreat.schedule.htm Public Students’ Retreats For retreats to be mentioned in the eMirror, public students are asked to send an email to schedule at wwzc dot org after they sit a retreat mentioning the date of their retreat and whether it is a partial, half-day or full retreat. Please also include the name of the city in which you live.
Office of the Tenzo Dogen zenji taught that the work of preparing and serving meals was "a matter for realized monks who have the mind of the Way or by senior disciples who have roused the Way-seeking mind." In alignment with this, part of Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's samu for the Community involves personally overseeing the activities of the ancient office of tenzo. Jinmyo Renge osho serves as tenzo and Mishin tando and Saigyo chiden offer assistance as tenzo-anja. The following meals were prepared on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings, prior to the sittings.
Monday Yakuseki: Casareece (twisted tubes) pasta with a sauce of grape tomatoes, cremini mushrooms, red bell pepper, cubanelle and poblano and banana peppers, butter, extra virgin olive oil, white wine and basil; leek and radicchio soup with chickpeas, thyme, cumin and white wine; frittata with caramelized Spanish onions topped with sliced plum tomatoes with basil and a crust of Fruilano and Havarti cheeses and panko. Tuesday Lunch: Salad of mache, radicchio, frisee, cherry tomatoes, wosun (Chinese lettuce stem) with a Caesar salad dressing (Meyer lemon juice, egg yolk, extra virgin olive oil, grated Fruilano cheese); boiled skin-on Russet potatoes; slow roasted bone-in hams; sauce for both made with ayran, Dijon mustard, green peppercorns, sauteed minced garlic; Korean cabbage and Swiss chard braised in white wine and a stock made from smoked turkey thigh bones; chopped fennel and pancetta roasted with olive oil; roasted eryingi mushrooms sliced on the bias with dried chiles and smoked paprika with a panko crust; thin ciabatta rolls by Shikai osho; an array of cheeses (Blue Stilton, Dubliner (hard, Irish), Langres Le Chamenois (Soft, from unpasteurized milk), Sage Derby (hard, English), Saint Aubrey (soft, ripened), Cantonnair du Village (semi-soft, ripened) selected by Saigyo chiden; an array of beers and ciders for sampling selected by Mishin tando and saigyo chiden.
Tuesday Evening Light Meal An array of local artisanal dried bison sausages supplied by Senbo shuso; steak, kidney, and mushroom empanadas and steak tartare with minced red onion, capers, and paprika and various crostini by Shikai osho; frozen vodka and other refreshments.
Thursday Yakuseki: Leftovers!: pasticchio made with Monday's pasta with a Fruilano and panko crust; reprise of Monday's soup; roasted whole cremini mushrooms; roasted cotton tofu triangles with red bell peppers and cubanelle with Dongshan roasted chile sauce ("It is like a great ball of flame." -Hokyo Zanmai); salad of blanched long beans and wo sun matchsticks and black olives dressed with lime and extra virgin olive oil.
Students attending sittings on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings may make arrangements to join residents for meals prepared by the Office of the Tenzo. Please email schedule at wwzc dot org at least one day in advance; Contribution is $10.
Thank You If you would like to thank someone for a contribution they have made, please feel free to send an email to Jinmyo osho at rengezo at vianet dot ca, but be sure to type "eMirror" in the subject line.
From Jinmyo osho: Thank you to David Clawson for transcribing teisho and on the fly coding a script that makes it possible to quickly compare terms that need to be reviewed for accuracy of transcription with the embedded sound file of that passage. (In simpler terms, he puts a notation in the transcript; click on it and a sound file plays). From Chunen ino: Thank you to the Roshi, Shikai osho and Jimyo osho for the wonderful festival meals; to Shikai osho for her Dharma Talk on Thursday evening; to Mishin tando for extensive administration; to Saigyo chiden for arranging for the installation of a new washing machine. From Mishin tando: Thank you to the Roshi, Shikai osho, and Jinmyo osho for the beautifully prepared and delicious mid-day feast and light evening meal on Tuesday for residents; to Saigyo chiden for arranging purchase of the new washing machine; to Jane Brown for assistance with weekly dana processing. From Saigyo chiden: Thank you to the Roshi, Jinmyo osho and Shikai osho for creating the delightful meals enjoyed by residents on December 25th. Thank you to Mishin tando for the numerous tasks done and overseen as Administrator.
Ongoing
Training Sessions and Short Residential Training Periods for Associate and General Students There are a number of options available to associate and general students who wish to practice more intensively, such as sitting a full or partial retreat for one or several days, or extending their practice at home to include two or three rounds. In addition, associate or general students may register for a "training session". This requires making a commitment to a one-week, month-long, or three month period during which they would attend all of the formal sittings at the monastery, morning and evening with the exception of Tuesday evening and Sunday morning (which are reserved for formal students and monastics) while continuing to live at home. The training sessions are intended to allow students to experience what it is like to participate in the monastery’s full schedule. Formal sittings are led by Roshi and include chanting practice and more extensive use of the forms. Students engaging in a training session would also have more opportunities to meet with Dharma Teachers or practice advisors to discuss their practice. At the end of a training session, students would return to their normal schedule. There would be no extra dana involved in practising a training session. With the Undo serving as a dormitory space students can register for periods of residential training at Dainen-ji for anywhere from overnight to several weeks. This involves attending the practice schedule, evening meals, participation in regular soji (cleaning the practice halls) and samu (care-taking). During the days one would go to one’s job or could do extra sitting and study outside of a retreat schedule. The dana for this is $40 a day; work scholarships can also be arranged. To register for a training session or residential training, please send an email to schedule at wwzc dot org or telephone the Zen Centre office at (613) 562-1568 and leave a message. When scheduling a training session, please remember not to include dates that fall within a sesshin or an O-sesshin.
Samu Request for Assistance, Office of the Treasurer As part of clarifying and streamlining the financial processes of White Wind Zen Community, we would like to have pairs of students rotate to help process dana contributions on a weekly basis. To date, most of this work has been done by Mishin tando with the assistance of one or two other students, but it is time to restructure the system so that the work of the Office of the Treasurer becomes more manageable and more students are helping with this responsibility. If you would be available on Saturdays prior to the General Sitting for about a hour (from 8:15-9:15 a.m.), your help will be appreciated. Please email Mishin at trytel dot com. Training will be provided. No special financial skills are needed other than an eye for detail and accuracy.
Archiving Samu Since 2002 the teisho presented by the Roshi and the Dharma Talks given by the Dharma Teachers have been recorded directly onto CD and copies made available to students. Prior to this time all of the recordings were made on cassette tape. Over the last years the monastics, with the help of several students, have worked to transfer the taped material onto CD, not only because cassette tape technology is fast becoming outdated but because the early tape recordings are deteriorating quickly and may soon become unplayable. To lose these teaching would be disastrous. We are presently making direct CD copies of all of the early tapes so that there is a back-up copy available should anything happen to the master tape which makes it unplayable but there is much work to be done. There are still over 100 tapes from the 1980’s and 1990’s that need to be re-mastered, relabeled and copied and this constitutes many hundreds of hours of work. If you are able to commit to a regular weekly schedule of two or three hours samu to continue this vital work, please let us know by writing to tapes at wwzc dot org. Full training will be given.
Daily Samu Samu each day to prepare the monastery for the arrival of the students is a very important practice for the monastics. Any help to assist the monks with brightening and clarifying the practice environment is very much appreciated. If you are able to come early before a sitting to do samu, please consult the samu notice board situated between the side entrance doors to find a task which has not been done recently. If you have any questions about the task please ask any monastic.
Improvements to the Second Floor Washroom A project that has been on the high priory list for a number of years is the renovation of the second floor washroom. Even though this is the most frequently used washroom in the building it has never had any substantial improvements apart from being painted last year. Work on this washroom, which was scheduled to be taking place late this year or early next year, will again need to be delayed due to the necessity of a urgent roof repair to the west side of the roof. This repair will cost in the region of $13,000 and as this is considerably higher than our available budget we have had to cut back on other important work. Because of this, we have decided to fundraise in order to gather sufficient money to make the improvements to the washroom. The work to be done will include a new sink and cabinet and a new ceiling light, fan and exhaust. This will cost in the region of $1000 to complete. Students are encouraged to donate towards this project so that it can be scheduled some time in the winter and the improved facilities will be available by 2007. Improvements to this room will benefit every student that comes to the monastery for sittings. Thank you for your generosity to help with this project. Gassho, Saigyo chiden, shissui.
CDs Available to the Public A selection of CDs of teisho and Dharma Talks is available on our web-site. The page is found at http://wwzc.org/CDWebSales/CDWebSales.htm or follow the link for Dharma Texts and CDs on the home page. Over time more teisho and Dharma Talks from the over 2500 presentations made by the Roshi, Shikai osho and Jinmyo osho will be made available for purchase.
Ongoing Project: "All is Change" Dainen-ji, being a 135-year-old building, is continuously in need of maintenance and the costs associated with this can be astronomical when such things as roof repairs or painting are needed. This is something that we cannot afford to do, yet must do and so the "All is Change" project has been created. The "All is Change" project is very simple. Most of us have a bowl or a jar or some other kind of container that we keep somewhere at home and fill up with loose change because it's too heavy to carry around. Many hundreds of dollars has been collected so far both in loose change and Canadian tire money which has been put towards the building maintenance fund. If anyone would like to contribute to this fund, each penny will be appreciated.
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