NEWSLETTER FOR MONTAGUE FARM ZENDO
MARCH - APRIL, 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.
Monday, Thursday, and Friday:6:45-8:00 am
No Zendo schedule on Monday Morning, March 29, after end of 3-Day Sesshin.
Saturday: 8:30-11:00 am
Sitting Meditation: 8:30 am
Study: 9:30 am
Mar 13, Reflection on Precepts
Apr 3, Zen Blues, Zen Schmooze:
Zen Master Bernie Glassman
Apr 10, Celebration of Buddha's
Birthday
Liturgy: Gate of Sweet Nectar: 10:30am
Evenings
Tuesdays:
Mar 2, Apr 6: 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
Apr 13: Renewal of Vows
Mar 30, Apr 27: Council, Tea
SOME GREAT ACTIVITIES BY THE SANGHA
Monthly Dinner at Orange
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.
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.
PRECEPTS CLASS . . .
A new precepts class will begin this spring. The class will study the Zen Peacemakers Precepts and those who wish to participate in a ceremony of Transmission of Precepts will be able to do so in July. Precepts study groups offer a rich opportunity to deeply explore how we are living our lives. For dates, fees, and more information, please contact John Genyo Sprague: 413-259-1304, sunyata@valinet.com.
. . . AND A FAMILY PRECEPTS CLASS
Due to interest expressed by some of our younger meditators, we would like to form a precepts class for families, including young and older members, with an emphasis on studying the Zen Peacemakers Precepts in the context of the family. We strive to awaken in all spheres of life, as individuals, as family members, as community, and as one world. The emphasis here will be on how the Precepts can help the entire family awaken as one. We hope that this new program will help make Zen practice more accessible to families, young people, and children. If you and your family are interested in this study, please contact John Genyo Sprague: 413-259-1304, sunyata@valinet.com.
Montague Farm Zendo 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.
Sensei Eve Marko
March 1, 2010
Dear Friends,
A few days ago I looked outside and saw that our beautiful black stone Kannon, the manifestation of compassion, was standing guard behind the Main Hall with a white snow bonnet on her head, a snow shawl around her neck, and a sleeve of snow around her arm. I was glad she was taking care of herself. A short distance away, snow-topped pails were filling up with maple syrup while a dozen American robins alighted on a berry tree of mysterious origin, chattering happily, enjoying the seasonal confusion.
Please join our practice at the Montague Farm Zendo, including Spring Sesshin, a precepts class for families with children, and a Buddha’s Birthday celebration where we will offer flowers and tea to the Buddha—and food to our neighbors..
May our life and practice be renewed for the benefit of all beings.
SPRING SESSHIN
led by Sensei Eve Myonen Marko THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 7:30 pm - SUNDAY, MARCH 28, 12:00 pm
The silent retreat begins at 7:30 pm on Thursday, March 25, and ends at noon on Sunday, March 28.
It will comprise meditation, dharma talks and private study with Sensei Eve Myonen Marko, body practice, and all ritual meals (oryoki) from Friday through Sunday breakfasts. Limited on-site accommodation for an additional fee. Partial attendance is also possible.
Fee: Members: $200; Non-members: $225. No regular Saturday schedule.
Please pre-register. To register online link here. You can also register by phone or email : e-mail, or phone: 413-367-5272.
Optional Dana (donation) will be requested on behalf of the teacher.
Dharma Combat and Installation of Head Trainee as Zendo Senior at 11 am, Sunday, March 28.
WINTER INTENSIVE AND INSTALLATION OF HEAD TRAINEE AS
SENIOR OF THE COMMUNITY
Head Trainee Judith Myoki Breier
The 2-month winter intensive, led by Head Trainee Judith Myoki Breier, continues till the concluding sesshin on March 25-28. The central study of the Intensive focuses on Relationship, and the basic text is the Identity of Relative and Absolute:
The Mind of the Great Sage of India
Is intimately conveyed west and east.....read more
The Winter Intensive will end at the end of the March Sesshin with a ceremony of dharma combat at 11 am on March 28. Myoki will give a brief talk on the topic she’s been studying and then will invite all Dragons and Elephants—everyone in the Zendo—to test her mettle and clarity. Everyone is invited to take part in the festivities regardless of whether you attend the preceding sesshin or not.
ZEN BLUES, ZEN SCHMOOZE
BY Zen Master Bernie Glassman
A monthly series.
beginning Saturday April 3
9:30am to 11:00am
Bernie Glassman, Founder of the Zen Peacemakers, will give a monthly talk, relying mostly on Q&A and dialogue. This will be a back and forth between participants and him about Zen, life, and becoming a Shmoo. Serious inquiries welcome, as well as basic questions that have nagged you all your life: Is coffee compatible with serious practice? Is there a difference between being on the Way and being in the Way? Can Mensch be gender-neutral? What ever happened to the Dharma According to Groucho? I’ve realized twoness instead of oneness--am I close?
Zen Blues, Zen Schmooze, a rare and wonderful opportunity to encounter the Dharma in its original Brooklyn flavor, begins on Saturday morning, April 3, 9:30 am.
Optional Dana (donation) will be requested on behalf of the teacher.
ONE-DAY ZEN MEDITATION RETREAT SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 9am - 5pm
Silent retreat includes meditation, dharma talk, private study, lunch and final circle.
Led by Sensei Eve Myonen Marko.
Fee: Members: $20; Nonmembers: $25.
No regular Saturday schedule.
Please pre-register. To register online link here. You can also register by phone or email : e-mail, or phone: 413-367-5272.
Optional Dana (donation) will be requested on behalf of the teacher.
BEGINNERS MIND ONE-DAY WORKSHOP Sunday, April 18, 9:30am to 4:30pm
Another welcome opportunity to study the dharma, this time especially—but not exclusively—for Zen practitioners who are more new to the practice. Senior John Genyo Sprague will lead the all day workshop, which will include detailed instruction to meditation, several meditation sessions, questions and answers, and a discussion of meditation practice, its benefits for everyday life and its role in helping us—and everyone—awaken.
Fee: $35 nonmembers, $25 members. Bag lunch; tea and coffee provided. Please pre-register.
To register online for the BEGINNERS MIND ONE-DAY WORKSHOP link here. You can also register by phone or email : e-mail, or phone: 413-367-5272.
SAVE THIS DATE
BUDDHA'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
SATURDAY, APRIL 11 (and don't forget his mother!)
[From a talk given by Eve Myonen Marko in a one-day retreat on January 23, 2010.]
We are in the midst of our study of the Paramitas. The 6th Paramita is Prajna. Prajna translates into wisdom, one of the two columns that support this practice, the other being compassion. Prajna is not just any wisdom, but the wisdom that directly points to the nature of reality. It’s a wisdom that is clear and precise, that knows what to do. Why? Because it’s empty.
We say that things are empty of their own individual identity, that they manifest in a particular way due to causes and conditions. Right now this bamboo floor manifests as something warm, solid and shiny. If the earth was to shake as it did in Haiti, it would manifest as cement blocks collapsed one on top of the other. Everything co-arises with everything else, including me. I also don’t have my own individual identity that is separate from other things.
It’s highly natural to feel separate. We look out at the world as if out of a square box. I am inside the box and the rest of the world is outside, like an inside-out television set. Once I come out of the box, once I realize that everything is empty, I also stop using myself as a reference for everything, seeing myself as a subject that likes, dislikes, or couldn’t care less about everything else. I realize what a narrow perspective that is. So what is the perspective? What is the reference point? Emptiness. Or the other side of that, which is fullness. Once you’re empty of your personal identity, you are full of everything else. You are infinite potential. When we experience ourselves and others like that, we uncover a tremendous field of freedom and creativity out of which we can act.
On our recent trip to Israel Bernie and I went into Bethlehem to visit with Sami Awad, the head of the Holy Land Trust. And since we were with some friends we did a tour of Bethlehem, including the Separation Wall. Five years ago only a checkpoint separated Bethlehem from Jerusalem, with a single booth manned by a soldier who looked at your papers and waved you through. Since that time a big cement wall has been built to separate between Israel and the West Bank, and at the road to Bethlehem the wall slices across the road, hiding everything from view. You now have to go underground and under the Wall for the various checks before you can emerge on the other side.....read more
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.