July 2024

BULLETIN

July 2024



Without going out the door, know the world
Without peering out the window, see the Heavenly Tao
The further one goes
The less one knows.
                                                      —Tao Te Ching

Dear Sangha,

The coming of July 4 has got me thinking about the “pursuit of Happiness,” which apparently is our God-given right as Americans. And let’s not forget Life and Liberty, either, except those the Declaration of Independence guarantees us without qualification—happiness, not so much. We tend to forget this, or misinterpret the meaning of the phrase, thinking somehow that happiness, too, is an inalienable right, when actually all we’re really entitled to is its pursuit—which could be the same thing but so often isn’t. 

It’s such an American energy—this kind of a pursuit—we love chasing things (especially ethereal things like happiness that resist being found). Actually, maybe it’s not so much an American energy as it is a human energy—or perhaps, even broader, a life energy. Pursuit belongs to all forms of existence, after all. Food, water, warmth, love. All life must chase these things to persist. One might even say that the energy of the chase is life. To be after something is to be alive.

In Zen, our relationship to this seeking energy is a rocky one. On one level, it’s probably what brought us to this practice—we were seekers, looking for something more. And yet when we practice, we learn that this yearning for more, for something else—even (especially?) if that something is enlightenment—can get in the way. After all, the nature of any search is that it separates us from the thing we seek—there must be a distance to cross to attain it—and so if it’s happiness you’re after, it’s like you’re necessarily classifying yourself as unhappy. Put something like your happiness on the other shore, you risk removing it from yourself indefinitely, chasing it forever off into the distance. Or, to say it another way: As soon as you search for something, you miss it. Yes, in defining yourself as a seeker, you define yourself as incomplete. And oh, to say this about yourself, to classify yourself as someone who’s not perfect and whole and happy just as you are, it’s such an act of great self-harm.

Still, there are useful aspects to this energy, no doubt. It can feed our determination, our focus, our sense of adventure. This thing in us, this urge for more in the pit of our stomachs, it drives us out into the world, into strange forests and up pointless mountains. It drives us deep into ourselves, too, ultimately, and though one might argue this is a better direction to search for something of true meaning, it’s still a direction, a movement—still there is something in there that you feel need to find, something that you have convinced yourself you are missing. 

The whole thing’s so ridiculous. All of us Buddhas wandering around seeking Buddha. Which is why one of Zen’s answers to the whole search thing is somehow not to do it at all. It is, instead, to do zazen: to just sit still for a while, and allow all these tunnels of longing to collapse. It is to allow the search itself to collapse—as all searches inevitably must, reducing themselves to rubble—till you arrive exactly where you are, which is where you’ve always been, only now, for a moment or two at least, it’s enough.

Inevitably, of course, we’ll be back to seeking again. But if you can find a way to relish the search itself, there’s no real problem with this. After all, the pursuit of Happiness is a fine adventure, so long as you allow the pursuit itself to make you happy. Or, to put it another way, it’s OK to go after things—that’s who we are—just remember to enjoy yourself along the Way.

Still searching, after all these years,

Taylor Plimpton
Editor
 

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JULY CALENDAR


Thursday, July 4:     Zendo Closed 

Sunday, July 7:         Online: Practice and Inquiry with Joshin Roshi

                                  In-Person: Body, Breath and Mind, Intro to Zen

                                  Music Jam, 4 pm

Thursday, July 11:    Zazen and Dharma Talk by Jiryu

                                  Newcomers’ Meeting, 6:40 pm

Sunday, July 14:        Zazen and Talk by Enkyo Roshi

                                    with Special Guest, Mitsue Nagase

Thursday, July 18:     Zazen and Dharma Talk by Mukei


Saturday, July 20 to Sunday, August 4: Summer Retreat, Wisdom House

Friday, July 19 to Saturday, August 17: In-Person Zendo Closed

Online practice will continue through Saturday, August 4

Both the Online and In-Person Zendos are closed from August 5 to August 10

The Zendo re-opens Sunday, August 11

__________________________________________

Ongoing Groups: 
 

The Bolivian Sitting Group meets online Saturdays: 8 am.

                 Bolivia Zoom Meeting ID: 297 525 8394; Password: 1234

The People of Color Sitting Group meets online Saturdays: 10:30 am

How to Meditate meets Monday evenings online: 6:30 pm

Sorting Out Your Stuff meets online Tuesdays: 10 am

Liturgy Training: In-Person,

               1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month: 6 pm

Grace and Grit meets online, first Thursday of each month at 2 pm


See: https://villagezendo.org/calendar/ 
 

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Sunday, July 14
  Publishers Note: Renowned artist Kaz Tanahashi reveals the deep, inner spiritual connections that Zen gardens can foster, with over 75 stunning full-color photos of the masterpiece gardens of Kyōto, Japan.

Imagine yourself in Kyōto, Japan, gazing at an ancient temple garden. How would you contextualize what you are seeing? What is the history of the contemplative art form of Zen gardening, which has flourished for centuries? What aesthetic principles inform it?

Richly illustrated with full-color photographs, Gardens of Awakening guides you through a series of Zen temple gardens created from the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries. Some are teeming with plants and flowing water, while others have only rocks and sand. All share in the Zen aesthetics of awakening.

Through essays and commentary on Mitsue Nagase’s striking photographs, beloved Zen artist and translator Kaz Tanahashi presents the gardens in terms of seven qualities that arise from Zen practice: direct, ordinary, vigorous, gleaming, pivotal, nondual, and inexhaustible. Relating these qualities to the development of Zen culture and its influence on Japanese art, Gardens of Awakening invites you deep into the heart of Zen.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase.
   
MITSUE NAGASE is a photographer who divides her time between her native Japan, Germany, and the U.S. Her photography is influenced by her studies in Miksang, a contemplative approach to photography as a spiritual practice, which she also teaches. For further information about her work and activities, visit: www.mitsuenagase.com.

KAZUAKI TANAHASHI, a Japanese-trained calligrapher, is the pioneer of the genre of “one-stroke painting” as well as the creator of multicolor enso (Zen circles). His brushwork has been shown in exhibitions in galleries, museums, and universities all over the world. Tanahashi is the author of over forty books, including Painting Peace, Heart of the Brush, and The Heart Sutra.
 

Schedule:

9:30 – 9:35 Service
9:35 – 10:05 Zazen
10:05 – 10:15 Kinhin
10:15 – 10:45 Zazen
10:45 – 10:55 Kinhin
10:55 – 11:25 Dharma Talk with presentation
 

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Explore the heart of wisdom and compassion at two back-to back summer sesshins—July 20 through August 4th at Wisdom House in Litchfield, Connecticut.

You may join us for part of a week, a whole week, or both weeks.

In-person and online practice at our location in Tribeca will continue throughout this period. For those not able to attend the retreat, please remember that ango can be a time of intensifying our practice in the midst of our ordinary daily lives of coming and going to work, our families and relations. This is a time when we personally commit to more zazen, study, and other practices, such as clear awareness of our interaction with others and attentiveness to the precepts.

Set Up: July 19

Returning to Silence Sesshin: July 20 – 26

A refreshingly quiet week of sitting and walking meditation, without Dharma Talks, but including daily work practice, body practice, liturgy and private interview with Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara and the Village Zendo teachers.

The week will conclude with a Precepts Ceremony (Jukai), in which several VZ students will receive the Buddhist Precepts from Enkyo Roshi. The ceremony provides an opportunity for all of us to renew our vow to manifest the mind of wisdom and compassion by embodying the Buddhist ethical teachings.

Voice of Wisdom Sesshin: July 27 – August 4

A “classic sesshin” including Dharma Talks around the theme of our ango study text. We will be returning to family style Oryoki. The week will conclude with a Shuso Hossen ceremony in which our Shuso (ango practice leader) will give voice to his wisdom by giving his first Dharma Talk and the sangha will respond with wisdom of its own by challenging him in “Dharma Dialogue”.

Please note that if you would like a service position for either sesshin you must sign up by July 8th and plan to stay for the entire week you sign up for. Also should you come for only a few days of either sesshin we cannot guarantee that you will receive private interview with a teacher.

Questions? Please contact registrar@villagezendo.org.

For more information and to register, click    HERE   

 

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REFLECTIONS

 

A Poem by Lu Yu 

 

                                                                     Image by Ryūshō

The clouds above us join and separate,

The breeze in the courtyard leaves and returns.

Life is like that, so why not relax?

Who can stop us from celebrating?