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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

May 1, 2008

Dear Friend,

Life is a stage of time and death is a stage of time, like, for example, winter and spring.
We do not suppose that winter becomes spring, or say that spring becomes summer.

Dogen Zenji, Shobogenzo Genjokoan

(The Eastern Buddhist, translation by Norman Waddell and Abe Masao)

We may think that one leads to the other, that there is continuity in our life and in the world around us. But when the first disruption happens--sudden illness, loss of job, the ending of relationship, global warming, war--we see our real life follows no human-made storyline and we start grappling with what Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche referred to as Fundamental Insecurity. What a wonderful practice!

This spring there are many ways to practice at the Montague Farm Zendo: short and long meditation retreats, a street retreat in Boston, an Intensive Practice Period during which we will study the Third Tenet of the Zen Peacemakers, Loving Action, and our first Introduction to Zen Practice geared towards people who are new to Zen.

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

Sensei Eve Myonen Marko


May-June 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
Sitting meditation: 8:30 am
Study: 9:30
----------5/10 Reflections on Precepts
Gate of Sweet Nectar: 10:30

Afternoons (during Intensive Practice Period May 19-July 20)
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday: 5:30-6:30 pm

Evenings:

Tuesday:
Beginning Instruction for Zen Meditation: 7:00 pm
Sitting Meditation: 7:30-8:30 pm
Study: 8:30-9:30 pm
----------5/27, 6/24: Sitting meditation, Council and Tea: 7:30-9:30 pm
----------6/3: Meditation, Renewal of Vows: 7:30-9:30

CHANGE IN SATURDAY SCHEDULE

Please note that the Saturday schedule for the Zendo will begin at 8:30 am rather than 9:30, starting on Saturday, May 10.

One-Day Zen Retreat:

Saturday, 5/24
9-5:30.
Silent retreat includes meditation, a dharma talk, private study with Sensei Eve Myonen Marko, and lunch.
Roshi Bernie Glassman gives his dharma talk at 4:30 pm.
Dana will be requested on behalf of teachers.
Fee: Members: $15; Nonmembers: $25.
To register, contact Judith Myoki Breier: myoki@zenpeacemakers.org, 413-367-9117.


THERE WILL BE NO ZENDO SCHEDULE ON
SATURDAY, MAY 3, AND ON MEMORIAL DAY, MONDAY, MAY 26.


INTENSIVE PRACTICE PERIOD

The Zendo's first Intensive Practice Period begins with an Entering Ceremony on Saturday, May 17, and will continue through the summer sesshin on July 20. Anyone can participate by meeting the following criteria:

  • Committing to a stronger meditation practice, at home and/or in the Zendo. In order to support this commitment, the Zendo will add three hour-long periods of meditation on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 5:30-6:30 pm, to its regular schedule.

  • Committing to at least one practice benefiting one's personal life and one practice benefiting the Zendo. See the attached COMMITMENT FORM FOR INTENSIVE PRACTICE PERIOD for details. This form is based on the Five Wisdom Families and honors the five basic energies of our life: Study, Service, Meditation, Resources and Relationships.

If you wish to participate, please fill out the Commitment Form, sign it and bring it to the Zendo by May 17. These forms will be placed on the altar of the Zendo for the entire two months of the Intensive Practice Period. There will also be more discussion about this on Tuesday evening, May 13.

The Head Trainee for this Intensive Practice Period is Jim Ryudo Bastien. Ryudo has chosen the Third Tenet of the Zen Peacemakers, Loving Action, as his main study during this time.

Please click below to download the two forms:
Commitment Form
Five Wisdom Families

___________________________________________________


Message from Head Trainee

Jim Ryudo Bastien

Kobodaishi, Founder of the Shingon Sect of Japanese Buddhism, said that the depth of one's realization of the Way is directly reflected by the degree to which one works on behalf of those who are suffering the most in this world.

Loving Action, the third of the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers, is the direct expression of the realization and actualization of the Way through service to others. During this upcoming Intensive Practice Period we will look at traditional and real-life koans that arise in our day-to-day affairs and raise important issues for our practice of Loving Action. We will go on a Bearing Witness Street Retreat and make commitments to ourselves and our Sangha to deepen our practice for the benefit of all.

So lets walk together on this path, hand in hand, heart to heart, and let us abide with Shantideva's commitment to all beings until it has become our own:


For all those ailing in this world,
Until every sickness has been healed,
May I myself become for them
The doctor, the nurse, the medicine itself.

Jim Ryudo Bastien-----------------


UPCOMING EVENTS OF THE MONTAGUE FARM ZENDO AND MAEZUMI INSTITUTE

Introduction to Zen Practice

Sunday, June 8
9 am to 12:30 pm
Led by Eve Myonen Marko

The session will include instruction in Zen meditation (focusing on body, mind and breath), two brief meditation periods, and basic zendo etiquette. We will also have questions and answers, as well as a circle discussion of meditation practice, its benefits for everyday life and its role in helping us--and everyone--awaken.

This is a perfect way to wake up--literally--on a Sunday morning, and to learn about Zen.

No fee, but a donation is appreciated.
Please let us know ahead of time that you're coming by contacting Lance Smith: thishazymoon@yahoo.com.

Boston Street Retreat

Saturday-Sunday, June 28-29

Graphic depiction of the House of One People
Participants in a Springfield Street Retreat last summer

Street retreats have been a core practice of the Zen Peacemakers since 1991, when Roshi Bernie Glassman led the first one in the streets of the Bowery in New York City. They continue to be held annually in many cities around the world. Participants go on the streets with no money and just the clothes on our backs. We eat in soup kitchens and beg for money or food. We don't claim to be homeless; we're simply living on the streets for 30 hours, relying on the generosity of the streets to take care of us. We're mostly in small groups but come together a few times a day to do council practice and chant the Gate of Sweet Nectar liturgy to feed the hungry ghosts. We also spend the night together.

The retreat will be co-led by Sensei Eve Myonen Marko and Jim Ryudo Bastien, but the streets are the main teacher. It will begin on Saturday morning and will end by Sunday noon. There have been many accounts of street retreats (to read some, please link here). They are described in detail in Bernie Glassman's book, Bearing Witness: A Zen Master's Lessons on Living a Life That Matters.

To register, please send a check payable to the Montague Farm Zendo in the amount of $50. You will then have to abide by the rules of street retreats, specifically the assembly of a mala: begging family, friends, and associates for a minimum of $100 to do the street retreat. You can not use your own funds for this purpose, you must ask for money from others. In other words, please raise a minimum of $150 through a practice of begging. The money will go for the social action programs of the Zen Peacemakers.

For information and registration, please contact Jim Bastien at jim@zenpeacemakers.org, 413-367-2080x5#.

Begging Practice

2,500 years ago Shakyamuni Buddha led his Buddhist monks each morning in the practice of begging for their daily food. Each day's offering was received with thanks regardless of its nature or size, and consumed that day rather than hoarded from day to day. In this way the Buddha encouraged simplicity, the generosity of both giving and receiving, and undiscriminating appreciation.

We continue this begging practice by assembling a mala, or beads that are strung together and worn like a bracelet or necklace. Each bead represents a person who sponsors that participant's street retreat, and the entire mala represents the Member's community of support. We will wear our malas on the street retreat.

For more information on malas, please link here.

Five-day Zen Retreat

July 15-July 20

This summer sesshin will begin at 7:30 pm on Tuesday evening, July 15, with Zen meditation, guidelines for the retreat, and instruction for oryoki meals. The schedule on other days will be 6 am to 9 pm, except on Sunday, July 20, when the retreat will end at noon.

The retreat will comprise sitting and walking meditation, oryoki meals, service, private study with Sensei Eve Myonen Marko, and talks. The talks will focus on the Zen Peacemakers Precepts as well as on the Third Tenet of the Zen Peacemakers, Loving Action. It will end with a ceremony transmitting the Precepts and with the installation of Jim Ryudo Bastien as a Senior of the Montague Farm Zendo.

Cost: $250 members, $300 nonmembers.
Accommodations at the Farmhouse are available for an additional fee.
You must pre-register for this retreat.
Call or contact Judith Myoki Breier: myoki@zenpeacemakers.org, 413-367-9117.
For more information, please link here.


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 be able to do private study with Sensei Eve. 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 Daniel Herman at mi_info@zenpeacemakers.org, 413-367-2080 ext. 3#.


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: Judith Myoki Breier:
Call: 413-367-9117.