Weekly Temple Services
Monday - Friday 6:30 am and 6:30 pm
Meditation Saturday 9am full service + meditation
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Dear ones,
We seem to be a nation torn apart by politics and likes and dislikes. A friend recently told me that they hated members of a political party. Politics and religion may cause some of us to rise up in great passion; Let us remember that we can all still be kind, respectful, and loving even if we disagree.
May we all know love and peace. in metta,......Thay Kozen
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Upcoming Retreats and Practices
Dec 7 and Dec 31 Midnight Meditation (11:30pm - 12:30 am)
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A humanely slaughtered lamb at Treebird Farm. Compassionate animal farming. Far kinder than plastic wrapped meat at the supermarket.
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A neighbor farmer, Michael, raises chickens, pigs, and lambs for meat. He slaughters them on his property and sells them to others in the area. I went to visit his farm on a day when he was slaughtering a lamb, he sat on the lamb and cut it's neck. letting the blood run out on the ground. As a vegetarian and a monk it was not a scene I am used to and it was disturbing.
As I talked to Michael about his work, he spoke of wanting to cause a minimum of suffering to the animal he was slaughtering. He had visited slaughter houses and thought that they were often unkind and caused needless suffering. So while he took animal life, he was as compassionate as possible in the practice.
In thinking about it, animals raised on his farm live a good life. They are slaughtered with as little suffering as possible, and he agonizes over reducing the suffering as much as he is able to.
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Oct 6th, 9-4 pm
J
oin us THIS SUNDAY for a day of dharma in the company of other women, as we explore together our experience as female practitioners in this tradition.
We are blessed to have Erin Mychele Selover as our visiting teacher in October, and our day is entitled “Taking our Seat: Embodying the Soft Power of the feminine."
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Who is Scott?
In the practice of Thien (Zen), sometimes a Koan arises from our own mind; sometimes a teacher assigns the "question". In pursuing the "answer" one can look into one's own nature.
Here are the thoughts of one student looking at his Koan, "Who is Scott".
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I am that which emerges when I get out of my way.
I am not anything I point to and think, “This is me.”
I am just me, here and now.
I am not different from you.
I am where the ink of the brush meets the paper.
I am not solely responsible for creating anything of myself.
I am the sun.
I am not any more special then the pebble I keep in my pocket as a remembrance of who I am.
I just am.
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Per Eric E
inhorn
I came across a couple maxims recently that I thought you would appreciate:
1)
If you don’t change direction, you’ll probably end up where you’re heading.
2)
You can’t change your first thought, but you can change your second thought.
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Thich Minh Thien, Abbot of Budding Dharma
Arlington, Texas
OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES
Dear Dharma Sisters and Brothers…this month as the seasons begin to change, we are experiencing weather patterns that again, are most unusual. Horrific hurricanes, melting glaciers, excessive heat, drought and fires remind us of the catastrophes awaiting future generations as a result of mankind’s lack of attention to climate change and ignoring the man-made contributions to this assault on our planet.
Instead of my thoughts this month, I thought I would share with you the accusations and plea of one 16 year old young lady, Greta Thunberg, as she addressed many world leaders at the U.N. this month. I hope it moves you as it did me.
"My message is that we'll be watching you.
This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!
For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you're doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight. You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe.
The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees [Celsius], and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control. Fifty percent may be acceptable to you. But those numbers do not include tipping points, most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution or the aspects of equity and climate justice. They also rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the air with technologies that barely exist. So a 50% risk is simply not acceptable to us — we who have to live with the consequences.
To have a 67% chance of staying below a 1.5 degrees global temperature rise – the best odds given by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – the world had 420 gigatons of CO2 left to emit back on Jan. 1st, 2018. Today that figure is already down to less than 350 gigatons.
How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just 'business as usual' and some technical solutions? With today's emissions levels, that remaining CO2 budget will be entirely gone within less than 8 1/2 years. There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today, because these numbers are too uncomfortable. And you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is.
You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.
We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
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Tibet A Gift
(a wonderful Tibetan gift shop)
3848 SE Division St
Portland OR 97202-1641
Please call the shop owner, Jampa, if you have questions at (503) 810-7355
We built our prayer flag pavilion from the flags we got at this store.
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Poetry from Venerable Fa Sing
(Thich Tâm Minh)
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s
till and quiet,
with a mind of clear water
and the gaze of a raven,
I sit and reflect
on my morning tea
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I sought in vain
a way out of pain,
gazing ever higher and higher;
Until at last,
with my eyes downcast,
I found it right here in the mire.
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Kaye Jones
This summer I’ve had the opportunity to travel in Switzerland to my family's ancestral place on my mother’s side. In 1921, my grandfather came over on a boat to the United States with his mother and older brother when he was two years old. The (much loved) story goes that my grandfather, upset about leaving home, took to biting the other passengers during the voyage across the Atlantic. In America, as a child of the Great Depression, he carefully conserved his resources, working his way out of poverty, tending his new home. He was a builder of trails, lover of the mountains, and especially of birds. He passed his love of life on to my mother, his only child, and to my brother and me. He died recently at age 96, and one of my unexpected blessings was to be with him, holding his still strong hands, as he drew one last breath and let it go.
These weeks in Switzerland I feel a joy in my body down to my bones, the mountains seemed to fill my heart. Each day we take the tram up to the higher elevations to hike. People of every nationality and ability pass by, exchanging greetings. Different languages float by on the breeze. We rejoice to be out of America and part of the wider world beyond.
A few days ago we were sitting on a rocky shelf by a high lake, mountains stretched out and folded in every direction, my nine year old son Rye asked me, “Is this God?” "Yes," I said. "These mountains, this earth, these living creatures are holy, they have God in them.” Not a transcendent God somewhere out far away, but immanent presence, right here on this earth. I want him to see that everything that arises can be an expression of wisdom and a gate to awakening, and to love. I think he already knows.
One hundred or so years later after my Great grandparents left their homeland, we’ve made our lives in another grassy valley with cows under the mountains. Our three generations are learning again to live in place. The land is patient with us, teaching us how to pay attention. Some of my grandfather’s ashes have fertilized my mother’s garden at the north end of the valley and the rest sit on my altar.
When my mother was a small girl, her grandmother would adamantly tell her in native “Switzerdeutsch” to ‘deep breathly’ whenever they were in a beautiful place. If you would like to join us in "deeply breathing,"
August Jensen and I welcome you to our weekly meditation group in Hood River, Thursdays, 5-6pm, at the Hood River Foundation for Vibrant Living.
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Can you help with this creative project?
This team approached our temple looking for individuals to share their journey discovering the diversity and richness of Buddhism for a multimedia project, Beyond the Cushion.
The project is lead by Jack Huynh, a Buddhist practitioner and photographer of 20 years.
The focus of the project is to document the many ways practitioners are manifesting their path in their daily lives — beyond the cushion.
The proceeds will be donated to
Tsoknyi Nepal Nuns
,
an international organization that supports a growing number of Tibetan Buddhist nuns in Nepal and Nangchen in Tibet.
Jack will be traveling through Washington in early October
and will be available to interview and photograph participants, so please do reach out to him ASAP if you are interested in being interviewed.
517-204-3149 with any questions or to schedule an interview.
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May the Infinite Light of Wisdom and Compassion so shine within us
that the errors and vanities of self may be dispelled;
so shall we understand the changing nature of existence and awaken into spiritual peace.
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Mt Adams Zen Buddhist Temple 46 Stoller Rd., Trout Lake WA 98650 509.395.2030
www.Mtadamszen.org
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