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MONTAGUE FARM ZENDO NEWSLETTER
November - December 2008

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, as well as group study and circle processes. As the sangha comes together, we also hope to become involved in social action. 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.


Sensei
Myonen
Sensei Eve Marko


November 1, 2008

Dear Friend,

Our harvest time of vegetables and fruit has passed. Now we are harvesting red and yellow leaves, the long shadows of a more distant sun, and the ash left by burnt firewood.

Come sit a round at the Montague Farm Zendo. The Main Hall is warm even in the early morning as we watch the sun rise and the world awaken.

As the year edges to a close and we experience more instability and uncertainty, let's focus once again on the things that matter--the value of practice, the generosity of teachings, the strength of our backs and the openness of our hearts.

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

Eve Myonen Marko


November - December Schedule

Graphic depiction of the House of One People
The Montague Farm Zendo is Located in the Maezumi Institute's House of One People in Montague, Ma.

Mornings:

Monday, Thursday, Friday:

Sitting meditation: 6:45-8:00 am

Saturday
8:30-11:00
Sitting meditation: 8:30
Study: 9:30

11/15, Reflection on Precepts

Gate of Sweet Nectar: 10:30

Evenings:

Tuesday:
Beginning Instruction for Zen Meditation: 7:00 pm
(Please call ahead of time)
Sitting Meditation: 7:30-8:30 pm
Study: 8:30-9:30 pm
11/4: Special Election Day schedule:
Meditation and study: 7:30-9:00 pm: Voting and Practice: Living With the Results. A Zen perspective on elections and participation in political life.
11/18, 12/23: Meditation, Five Buddha Family Study
11/25: Sitting meditation, Council and Tea
12/16: Meditation, Renewal of Vows

****SPECIAL EVENTS****

Introduction to Zen Practice--Sunday, Nov. 2, 1-4 pm
Led by Eve Myonen Marko
Introduction to meditation, basic zendo etiquette, and circle/Q&A on Zen practice and everyday life.
Please pre-register.
No fee; donation appreciated.

See below: Introduction to Zen Practice

Enlightenment Sesshin, 12/4-7
The retreat begins at 7:30 pm on Thursday, December 4, and ends at noon on Sunday, December 7, and includes meditation, dharma talks, study with Eve Myonen Marko, body practice, and all oryoki meals from Friday through Sunday breakfast.
Dana will be requested on behalf of Sensei. No regular Saturday schedule.
Please pre-register. Fee: $225

See below: Enlightenment Sesshin


There Will Be No Zendo Schedule on November 8, 27-30, and December 24-January 1.


UPCOMING EVENTS OF THE MONTAGUE FARM ZENDO

INTRODUCTION TO ZEN PRACTICE
November 2

An Introduction to Zen Practice, led by Eve Myonen Marko, will take place on Sunday, November 2, 1-4 pm. The session will include instruction to Zen meditation (focusing on body, mind and breath), two brief meditation sessions, and basic zendo etiquette. We will also have questions and answers, as well as a circle discussion of meditation practice and its benefits for everyday life. No fee, but a donation is appreciated.

Please let us know ahead of time that you're coming by contacting Seiki: seiki@zenpeacemakers.org, 413-367-2080 x 3#.

ENLIGHTENMENT SESSHIN
December 4

The retreat begins at 7:30 pm on Thursday, December 4, and ends at noon on Sunday, December 7. It will comprise meditation, dharma talks, study with Sensei Eve Myonen Marko, body practice, and all meals (oryoki) from Friday through Sunday breakfast. Dana will be requested on behalf of Sensei. Limited on-site accommodation for an additional fee. Fee: $225.

For registration information, please email:
seiki@zenpeacemakers.org, or 413-367-2080 x 3#.


FALL STUDY

Delusions of Practice

We continue with our study of delusions and confusion we have around terms and topics relating to the dharma. Using koans and stories from Zen literature, but depending mostly on our own experiences with practice, we have gone deeply into topics such as silence, service, delusion and enlightenment, and letting go. In the next two months we will study emptiness, self and no-self, and transmission of dharma, as well as issues relating to koan study and teacher-student relationships.

Five Buddha Families

Our study of the Five Buddha Families continues with a monthly practice of one energy family, led and organized by sangha members embodying that energy. Buddha Family study will take place on Tuesday, November 18, and Padma Family study on Tuesday, December 23, which will also include a year-end celebration. All are welcome!

Precepts Study

Precepts study is taking place on consecutive Sunday afternoons this fall and is led by Jim Ryudo Bastien and John Genyo Sprague, and assisted by Steve Kanji Ruehl. This study can lead to a Ceremony for Receiving Precepts on January 25, 2009.


Membership in Montague Farm Zendo

Please consider making a monthly financial commitment of $35.00 to the Montague Farm 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 contact Seiki: seiki@zenpeacemakers.org, 413-367-2080x3#.


Letting Go
(From a talk given by Eve Myonen Marko on September 27 as part of the Zendo study series entitled Delusions of Practice.)

I would like to evoke the fifth of the Ox-Herding Pictures to discuss the nature of letting go. The Ox-Herding Pictures is a set of pictures describing the process of waking up. In the third picture, entitled Finding the Ox, the herdswoman actually sees the ox, or rather its hind quarters, implying that she has a glimpse of life as it is and experiences some shift. In Picture 4, Catching the Ox, she cultivates sufficient depth and concentration to have a bigger realization of her True Nature, and especially to see that thoughts and concepts have nothing to do with it. But her mind and awareness can still go elsewhere, so her practice must continue meticulously.

Finally, we're at the 5th picture, Gentling the Ox. The picture shows the ox following the herdsman, a rope between them. The poem below the picture reads:

If but one thought arises, then another and another follows in an endless round. Through awakening, everything becomes truth; through delusion, it becomes error. Things do not come into being depending on circumstances but arise from the herdsman's own heart. Hold the rein tight and do not allow any wavering.

Things arise from the herdsman's own heart. We think that our feelings come up for a reason, triggered or caused by an event or person. Is that true? That might only be our thought and story about it. We carry a lot of pain that is unaccounted for by our regular life. I believe that since the world is one, the pain of all living beings, past, present and future, leaves its mark on our life. Everything affects us.

Hold the rein tight and do not allow any wavering. Is this any way to gentle anything? The only way to gentle this mind, this consciousness that is eternally looking out for distraction and explanation, is to let go of the attachment to those mental constructs and definitions. How do we do that, especially as the poem has already informed us: If but one thought arises, then another and another follows in an endless round. What do we do with thoughts and feelings that come up endlessly? Some say we must cut through them. That may be easy with a small thought, such as what are we having for dinner. But can we do it with a strong thought or emotion? And even if we can, for what reason? Is the goal here to be thoughtless or emotionless, to experience peace simply as absence?

Through awakening, everything becomes truth. What is Buddha? What is the essence? Tozan said it was three pounds of flax. What would a young mother say? A doctor? A vagrant on the corner? What do you say? If your answer is that all is Buddha, then you are still in the realm of delusion. How do you respond so that everything becomes truth? Let go of the concept--and answer. What is Buddha this moment? Whatever it is, it's already something else the next moment, and something else the moment after that. Buddha is always Now. Within that eternal Now, the content changes. As we bear witness to the content changing, we can enjoy it without identifying with it.

Annie Dillard wrote: The present is a freely given canvas. That it is constantly being ripped apart and washed downstream goes without saying; it is a canvas, nevertheless. What's to deny or chop off? Why aspire towards some empty canvas, with no thought or color, no hue or emotion, unless we're afraid of the shattering, of being shattered. Yet it is out of that shattering that the realization of oneness arises. When we can lean into it, like leaning into the skid on the ski slopes, then we're nothing but our frozen cheeks, the snow falling, the wind howling at our back.


I invite you to read more about the Zen Peacemakers

and/or to explore their three main areas of activities by linking to them below:

For more information please contact:

Zen Peacemakers Office
email: Program Information
call: 413 367-2080 ext. 3#

or

Montague Farm Zendo
email Seiki: seiki@zenpeacemakers.org, 413-367-2080x3#.

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