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NEWSLETTER FOR MONTAGUE FARM ZENDO
MAY - JUNE, 2010

All you hungry spirits in the Ten Directions, please gather here. Sharing your distress, I offer you this food, hoping it resolves your thirsts and hungers. Gate of Sweet Nectar

The Montague Farm Zendo, led by Sensei Eve Myonen Marko, offers Zen meditation, liturgy, study, and retreats. There is private study with a teacher, liturgical training, group study, circle processes and social action projects. The Montague Farm Zendo is the zendo of the Mother House of the Zen Peacemakers Sangha, founded by Roshi Bernie Glassman. It's also part of the White Plum Sangha, founded by Taizan Hakuyu Maezumi Roshi.



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May - June Schedule

Morning Sitting Meditation

Monday, Thursday, and Friday: 6:45-8:00 am
      No Zendo Schedule on Monday Morning, May 31, Memorial Day

Saturday: 8:30-11:00 am

Sitting Meditation: 8:30 am
Study: 9:30 am
      5/8, Reflection on Precepts
      5/15, 6/19, Zen Blues, Zen
            Schmooze
:
Gate of Sweet Nectar: 10:30am

Evenings

Tuesdays:

     May 6, June 1: Beginning Instruction for Zen Meditation: 6:30 pm [Please call ahead of time]

Sitting meditation: 7:30-8:30 pm
Study: 8:30-9:30 pm
      June 22: Renewal of Vows
      May 25, June 29: Council, Tea


SOME GREAT ACTIVITIES
BY THE SANGHA

Monthly Dinner at Orange
dinner line

Members of Montague Farm Zendo are helping to serve a monthly dinner to the local community of Orange, one of the projects of the Montague Farm Zen House. Please link here for photos, dates, and how you too can participate.


NEW SCHEDULE FOR INSTRUCTION TO ZEN MEDITATION

Instruction to Zen Meditation, a free offering of the Zendo, now takes place on the first Tuesday of every month beginning at 6:30 pm. At 7:30 participants join the regular meditation and study schedule in the Zendo. Please call ahead of time: 413-330-3309.


Shared Stewardship
stewardsTop row: Dantika, Genyo
Middle row: Inzan, Myonen, Myoki, Chosui
Lower row: Kisui, Bogai, Setsudo

The Montague Farm Zendo is a living mandala for the awakening of all, part of the timeless work towards liberation that began long before we arrived and will continue long after we’re no longer here. In fact, when the Montague Farm was first purchased and founded by Marshall Bloom, his organization was known as Liberation News Service. We are stewarding this place, with its rich legacy of sustainable agriculture, social and political activism, and the consciousness of the oneness of life, out of gratitude and thanks for everything that has come before and for what will come after. ....read more.


Ways to Support Us!







Thank you for supporting the work of the Montague Farm Zendo!


Montague Farm Zendo Newsletter
newsletter

To subscribe to the Montague Farm Zendo Newsletter, please link here.

I understand that I will also receive, Bearing Witness, the free Online Newsletter for Socially Engaged Buddhism.


Membership in Montague Farm Zendo

Do you consider yourself part of the Montague Farm Zendo community? If so, please consider becoming a member and making a monthly financial commitment of $35.00 to the Zendo. These funds will help to support its teacher, Sensei Eve Myonen Marko, and will also pay for basic zendo supplies. You can also do service in lieu of some of the membership fee. As a member, you will receive a bi-monthly newsletter as well as reductions in retreat prices. You will receive a discount on programs given at the Maezumi Institute. Most important, you will be supporting the flowering of the sangha's practice.

For more information, please email or phone: 413-367-5272.

Sensei Myonen
Sensei Eve Marko

May 1, 2010

Dear Friends,

The haiku poet Basho wrote: Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the ancients; seek what they sought.

These last days of April spring call on our creativity and imagination to bloom along with leaves and flowers, to meet today’s needs with new forms of practice, liturgy, community, and service.

After completing its annual Zen intensive at the end of March, members of the Zendo plunged into working with the Montague Farm Zen House to cook for and nourish families in Franklin County. In return, we discovered a new definition for the word Sangha. This give-and-take is who we truly are.

May our life and practice be renewed for the benefit of all beings.

Eve Myonen Marko

CARING FOR OURSELVES AND THE WORLD
A DAY OF REFLECTION, REST AND RENEWAL FOR
PEACEMAKERS AND ACTIVISTS.
Sunday, May 23, 2010, 9am-4pm
Led by Karen Brandow, Sensei Eve Myonen Marko,
and Dharma Holder John Genyo Sprague.

Activists involved in any spiritual path or no spiritual path are welcome. Let’s spend the day supporting ourselves and each other in our work to heal the world, with a chance to share:

         * stories and strategies for sustaining our work over the long haul
         * music, yoga and meditation
         * talk about burnout, and how to work with more rest and less stress
         * some unstructured free time

Cost: $45, including lunch. A donation will be requested on behalf of the teachers.

Please pre-register by Wednesday, May 19. To register online link here. You can also register by phone, 413-367-5272 or by e-mail.

SUMMER SESSHIN
led by Sensei Eve Myonen Marko
TUESDAY, JULY 6, 7:30 pm - SUNDAY, JULY 11, 12:00 pm

Experience the benefits of a formal Zen intensive through sitting and standing meditation, formal meals, yoga, dharma talks and private study. This retreat offers an opportunity for both beginning and experienced meditators to deepen their practice. It will begin at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, July 6, and end lunch time on Sunday, July 11. The daily retreat schedule will begin at 6 am and end at 9 pm. There will be no regular Zendo schedule during these days.

Fee: $250 MFZ members; $300 nonmembers. Optional Dana (donation) will be requested on behalf of the teacher. On-site accommodations available at additional cost. To register online link here. You can also register by phone, 413-367-5272 or by e-mail.

zafu

The retreat will end with a Transmission of Precepts at 11 am on Sunday, July 11. All are invited.

ZEN BLUES, ZEN SCHMOOZE
BY Zen Master Bernie Glassman
A monthly series.
Saturdays, May 15 and June 19
9:30am to 11:00am
Bernie Glassman

The Founder of the Zen Peacemakers will continue his monthly dialogues, so please come equipped with questions about Zen, life, and becoming a Shmoo. Serious inquiries welcome, too. These rare and wonderful opportunities to encounter the Dharma in its original Brooklyn flavor take place on Saturday mornings, May 15 and June 19, at 9:30 am, following meditation at 8:30.

Optional Dana (donation) will be requested on behalf of the teacher.

ONE-DAY RETREAT
SATURDAY, MAY 22, 9-5

Silent retreat includes meditation, dharma talk, private study, lunch and final circle. Led by Sensei Eve Myonen Marko. Fee: Members: $30; Nonmembers: $40. Dana will be requested on behalf of the teacher. No regular Saturday schedule.

To register online link here. You can also register by phone, 413-367-5272 or by e-mail.

SHARING OF ZEN PEACEMAKERS’ RETREAT AT AUSCHWITZ
Tuesday evening, June 15
Birkenau

Several members of the Zendo will participate in the Zen Peacemakers’ Bearing Witness Retreat at Auschwitz-Birkenau, which will take place in June. On Tuesday evening, June 15, we will share those experiences and lessons in the Zendo. All are invited.


NEWS

MONTAGUE FARM CAFÉ

karen

On April 27, Karen Kisui Werner, Director of the Montague Farm Zen House, sent the following email to members of the Zendo:

The Montague Farm Cafe (our name for the ongoing community meal here) is a way of extending our Saturday ritual of feeding the hungry ghosts. It's a way for us to be together outside the conventional zendo context and to create a beautiful and unique cross-class offering to this county. There are ways for everyone to give and receive in this space.

On April 10, Members of the Zendo, along with numerous other volunteers, cooked, served, entertained, cleaned, chauffeured, and basically hung out with each other and other families from Franklin County, including children and dogs. There were Easter Egg hunts, scavenger hunts, hikes, puppet shows, kite making, face painting, and lots of activities. The call has gone out to take part in the May 15 and June 19 Café lunches, and put into practice our innate wisdom and compassion.

BUDDHA’S BIRTHDAY

Sensei Myonen
Sensei Myonen

On April 10 the Sangha celebrated the birthday of Shakyamuni Buddha. After meditation and a reflection on what it is to be awakened, children in body and heart gathered outside in front of our black stone Kannon, the manifestation of compassion, along with her “child,” the Buddha. Both had already been gorgeously arrayed and garlanded by Suzanne Webber. While chanting a service dedicated to those who cultivate Beginner’s Mind and all children everywhere, we poured hot tea over the Buddha and threw flower petals at Kannon. The talented Waters family—Taisui, Sam, Katie, Charlotte and Augie—along with friends performed the story of the birth of Shakyamuni using the Japanese Bunraku puppetry form. After going back indoors to warm up with hot tea and coffee, we started preparations for the Montague Farm Café’s first big lunch.

INSTALLATION OF JUDITH MYOKI BREIER AS SENIOR

Myoki
Head Trainee
Judith Myoki Breier

On Sunday, March 28, Judith Myoki Breier became a Senior of the Zendo after facing down lions and dragons in ferocious dharma combat. This capped the Zendo’s annual two-month intensive, which this year focused on relationship. In her public discourse, Myoki talked about the following koan by Lewis Carroll:

The caterpillar said, "One side will make you grow bigger, and the other side will make you grow smaller."

"One side of what? The other side of what?" thought Alice to herself.

"Of the mushroom," said the caterpillar.

Alice looked at the mushroom, trying to make out which were the two sides of it, as it was perfectly round.