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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
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
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
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
Please note
that the Saturday schedule for the Zendo will begin at 8:30 am rather
than 9:30, starting on Saturday, May 10.
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.
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Boston Street Retreat
Saturday-Sunday, June 28-29 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.
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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.
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