Mt. Adams Buddhist Temple Tuyết Sơn Thiền Tự, 雪山禅寺

October 2021

Temple Services  Temple Services on ZOOM Join at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5093952030 Saturday 8:30am full service + meditation Morning Meditation Monday - Friday 6:30am - 7:30am Evening Meditation Tuesday - Friday 5:30pm - 6:30pm Noon Meditation Monday 12noon - 1pm Thich Nhat Hanh study group on the 2nd & 4th Wednesdays at 6:30 pm, for info, contact Bonnie at bon2626wit@att.net

Dear ones, Someone sent me this quote from a book. "I've never felt completely fulfilled in my life. I have friends and some family that care about me, and me them. I have a fairly mediocre job, but one that I enjoy. I'm not unattractive, or at least I'm told I'm not, but something has always felt missing. I could never really place my finger exactly on what that was, but I could never shake the feeling. Maybe one day I'll find that missing piece, but as for now it just hasn't shown itself." I am not sure where this quote came from and I have had several people tell me something similar. It is an example of the first Noble Truth. The 4 Noble Truths 1.The truth of suffering or dissatisfaction (dukkha) 2.The truth of the cause of suffering (samudaya) 3.The truth of the end of suffering (nirhodha) 4.The truth of the path that frees us from suffering (magga) So how can we find the great presence of living now with peace in our lives? The Buddha told us that we could think of him as a physician; showing us how we can end the illness of suffering (feeling dissatisfied) in our lives, "walk upon the eightfold path to liberation" A lifetime can be both too short or too long for some of us. The great teacher Dogan warns us not to squander our lives.  Some articles in our newsletter are reprinted from previous newsletters. Usually they are part of the core teaching of our practice and meant to help inform new comers and reinforce our regular readers. I am sending out the newsletter a bit early as I am traveling for the next week. May we all be well and happy, may we all know love and peace...... in metta, Thay Kozen

We have had a donor offer a $100,000 challenge. The donor will match all funds donated up to $100,000 This is an opportunity to double the value of your donation and help build our new temple We just successfully completed a matching fund challenge of $5,000. Thank you so much for your kind donations. It looks like we're doing this again with an even larger goal. In the photo below you can see the foundation for the first phase of our new temple construction. The orange tubing is for in floor heating that will allow us to sit in meditation in even the coldest weather.

Quotes from the Buddha The Buddha said, “Within your own mind, you already have what you need to succeed—the ability to put others ahead of yourself. This is called virtue, the wish-fulfilling jewel.” SADDHARMA-PUNDARÎKA OR THE LOTUS OF THE TRUE LAW. https://sacred-texts.com/bud/lotus/lot01.htm

Thich Minh Thien, (Thay Z) Abbot of Budding Dharma Arlington, Texas          thayzzen@gmail.com Living in Harmony In the Dhammapada, it is written that the Buddha said the following: “ Dharma is not upheld by talking about it. Dharma is upheld by living in harmony with it.” In my experience, we do a lot of talking in our pursuit of Buddhist wisdom. We discuss and chant the Sutras, we listen to dharma talks, we have Sangha where we support these discussions, and then we go back out into the world taking all of that lovely Dharma in our hearts and minds. But again, the Dharma is not upheld by just talking about it, but rather by living in harmony with it. So what does it mean to live in harmony with the Dharma? Harmony (avirodha or sahita) can be defined as the smooth, pleasant and non-contentious functioning of two or more things. So first we must look at ourselves to determine if there is anything disharmonious in our own thoughts and actions. We have the perfect vehicle to do that in our meditation practice. Of course, sometimes our own efforts don’t always get us there and we can seek outside help should we find ourselves going round and round with the same issue with no change in the outcome. The underlying cause of disharmony isn’t necessarily an enemy or adverse conditions; rather it is more likely a thorn lodged within our own heart and mind. What is preventing us from living in harmony right now? The short answer is greed, hatred and delusion, and all the many flavors of unhealthy emotion and behavior that flow from these toxic inner states. Any time we find ourselves in conflict with another, there is something, either subtly or overtly that we don’t like and want to be other than what it is. Or there is something we really want to happen that is not happening. We are used to thinking the only solution to this condition is changing the external circumstances, such as getting another person to agree with us. Throughout the Dharma we find a whole range of inner skills for changing our own attitudes and ways of responding to things. Outer changes can and should still be made, but with an attitude of inner harmony rather than of inner conflict.  Buddhism tends to look inward rather than outward, so it organizes the different kinds of conflict not in terms of their outer manifestations but by means of their inner sources. We all have conflicts rooted in anger and others in resentment, hatred, attachment to views, and so forth. The antidotes all have to do with neutralizing or transforming these inner causes of conflict and replacing them with more positive or healthy mind states. Each specific harmful state has a corresponding helpful state that can be cultivated, but the most general solution involves replacing delusion in its many forms with wisdom or understanding. Throughout the teachings of the Buddha and other Masters, we learn that things like loving kindness, generosity, having common values, appreciation of others, being sensitive to their needs and not always demanding one’s own way are ways to living in harmony. And by pursuit of this harmony through our mindful living and acting, we uphold the Dharma. Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa

Moments in Enlightenment Japanese Zen Master Sokei-an Sasaki's account of awakening is a most wonderful quote. "One day I wiped out all notions from my mind. I gave up all desire. I discarded all the words with which I thought and stayed in quietude. I felt a little queer - as if I were being carried into something, or as if i was touching some power unknown to me...and Zttt! I entered. I lost the boundry of my physical body. I had my skin, of course but I felt I was standing in the center of the cosmos. I spoke but my words had lost their meaning. I saw people coming toward me, but they were all the same man.All were myself! I had never known this world. I believed that I was created, but now I must change my opinion: I was never created, I was the cosmos; no individual Mr. Sasaki existed" Master Sasaki's bio can be read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokei-an Master Sasaki was married to Ruth Fuller Sasaki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Fuller_Sasaki), who co-authored Zen Dust https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Dust-History-Study-Rinzai/dp/1922169129/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2UT84221OZLP3&dchild=1&keywords=zen+dust&qid=1630664742&s=books&sprefix=zen+dust%2Caps%2C292&sr=1-1).

THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH

The Buddha began and ended his teaching career with a discussion of the eightfold path, guidelines for living ethically, training the mind, and cultivating wisdom that brings an end to the causes of suffering. He spoke of the path in his first sermon immediately after his awakening and in the last teaching he gave on his deathbed 45 years later. The eightfold path is the fourth noble truth, the way to awakening. The Buddha is often described as a great physician or healer, and the eightfold path (also called the noble eightfold path, “noble” because following it can make us better people, like the Buddha) can be viewed as his prescription for relief. Suffering is the disease, and the eight steps are a course of treatment that can lead us to health and well-being; we avoid the extremes of self-indulgence on the one hand and total self-denial on the other. For this reason the Buddha called the path “the middle way.” You can read the article from Tricycle at https://tricycle.org/beginners/buddhism/eightfold-path/

Metta Practice The practice at our temple is a very simple one. We say it for our-self, an easy to love person, an anonymous person, a difficult to love person, all beings, then to our-self again. You can view the video of an actual practice on our website at https://www.mtadamsbuddhisttemple.com/mount-adams-buddhist-temple-videos/. Our practice is based upon the Metta Sutra. 

Naga The Nāga are divine, semi-divine deities, or a semi-divine race of half-human half-serpent beings that reside in the netherworld (Patala) and can occasionally take human form. Rituals devoted to these supernatural beings have been taking place throughout south Asia for at least two thousand years. They are principally depicted in three forms: wholly human with snakes on the heads and necks, common serpents, or as half-human half-snake beings in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. A female naga is a "Nagi", "Nagin", or "Nagini". Nagaraja is seen as the king of nāgas and nāginis.They are common and hold cultural significance in the mythological traditions of many South Asian and Southeast Asian cultures. They are the children of the Rishi Kashyapa and Kadru. Left photo is of a statue at our temple. Legend has it that when the Buddha became enlightened that a great cobra, a Nāga, reared up behind him and spread its hood to protect the Buddha from sun and rain. Buddhist Nāga generally have sometimes portrayed as a human being with a snake or dragon extending over his head. One Nāga, in human form, attempted to become a monk; and when telling it that such ordination was impossible, the Buddha told it how to ensure that it would be reborn a human, and so able to become a monk. The Nāgas are believed to both live on Nagaloka, among the other minor deities, and in various parts of the human-inhabited earth. Some of them are water-dwellers, living in streams or the ocean; others are earth-dwellers, living in caverns. The Nāgas are the followers of Virūpākṣa (Pāli: Virūpakkha), one of the Four Heavenly Kings who guards the western direction. They act as a guard upon Mount Sumeru, protecting the dēvas of Trāyastriṃśa from attack by the asuras. Among the notable Nāgas of Buddhist tradition is Mucalinda, Nāgarāja and protector of the Buddha. In the Vinaya Sutra, shortly after his enlightenment, the Buddha is meditating in a forest when a great storm arises, but graciously, King Mucalinda gives shelter to the Buddha from the storm by covering the Buddha's head with his seven snake heads. Then the king takes the form of a young Brahmin and renders the Buddha homage. In the Vajrayāna and Mahāsiddha traditions, Nāgas in their half-human form are depicted holding a nāgas-jewel, kumbhas of amrita, or a terma that had been elementally encoded by adepts. The two chief disciples of the Buddha, Sariputta and Moggallāna are both referred to as Mahānāga or "Great Nāga". Some of the most important figures in Buddhist history symbolize Nāgas in their names such as Dignāga, Nāgāsēna, and, although other etymons are assigned to his name, Nāgārjuna. Read the whole article here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C4%81ga

Change by Rev. Ted Fontaine When I was introduced to Buddhism there were so many new and different concepts to experience. Few spoke to me more than the Buddha's teachings of Impermanence. I would say to myself, “yea, yea, everything changes but change itself. What's the big deal?” As the years have rolled by I have come to change my mind, not surprisingly. I have learned that we all want happy moments to last, people to stay with us in our lives, our bodies to always remain healthy, the car to always start when it's time to leave for work, but in reality nothing is permanent in life. We interpret change as something having gone wrong in the world. When we don’t recognize something’s transient, we think it’s going to be around forever. Could it not be because of our clinging to the way things are, that our suffering arises? In the Dhammapada the Buddha is quoted as saying, “All conditioned things are impermanent'...when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering.” When we learn to turn away from our attachment to things staying the same we can embrace change for what it is, just this, just now. Thich Nhat Hanh tells us, “People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.” Return to, and relax in, the present moment. Relaxing with hopelessness, relaxing with death, relaxing with change, not resisting the fact that things end, that things pass, that things have no lasting substance. But the reality is that nothing is permanent in life that anything can change overnight. May we all live in the present moment, releasing our attachments and suffering and embrace change.

Recovery Dharma  The Trout Lake Abbey is spiritual 'home' to the monthly Recovery Dharma Inquiry meeting while we are meeting in cyberspace. These monthly meetings (on the second Saturday of each month at 11:00 a.m.) are in addition to the weekly meetings (Sunday and Wednesday Evenings) of the Gorge Recovery Dharma program. We are grateful for the support of the Mt. Adams Buddhist Temple and look forward to a time when we can once again meet in person on the Abbey grounds.   Recovery Dharma (RD) is a worldwide program of peer support for persons recovering from substance use disorders and also 'process addictions' such as gambling, overeating, tech addiction, and other harmful or dysfunctional behaviors. RD uses Buddhist principles and practices and draws lessons from other peer support recovery programs including 12-Step fellowships such as AA and Al-Anon.   The meeting can be accessed on Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/754615114. Participants will be admitted from the waiting room, The meeting will begin at 11 a.m. PST. Meetings last approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. The 12 months of the year are used to explore how the Four Noble Truths and each element of the Wise Eightfold Path may help to transform the suffering of addiction and contribute to a path of awakening and service to one another.   The book Recovery Dharma can be accessed and downloaded for free at recoverydharma.org.    For more information, contact Richard Withers at richard.withers@att.net. Meetings are also listed at the Facebook group "Gorge Recovery Dharma" and at the web site for Columbia Gorge Mindfulness Meetup.

Recent Visitors To Our Temple

Venerable Dharma Brother

Dharma family saying a blessing for the new temple

Venerable Dharma Brother

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.

Mt Adams Buddhist Temple   46 Stoller Rd., Trout Lake WA 98650 509.395.2030    https://www.mtadamsbuddhisttemple.com/