As this is just the New Year, it is a good time to stir the pot at Treeleaf's ENGAGED & CHARITABLE PROJECTS CENTER ...
We want to activate the place, and believe that it should be front and center in our Practice right with Zazen ... in fact, charity and volunteer activities --are-- Zazen "off the cushion."
Every couple of weeks or so, we will be presenting projects that anybody can ... should ... dig into, and we would like to make this a Community Team Effort! There will be many options available, something for anybody, even folks who have mobility or other health issues. There are always ways to reach out wherever you find yourself, always someone who you can help a bit no matter how much you are struggling in your own life (maybe just pick up a phone or computer and reach out to someone else who is also housebound, for example).
Busy working parents can make this a chance for time with the kids and spouse, not to mention a time to get some good lessons and examples into the children (today my wife and I grabbed a couple of garbage bags and sturdy gloves, and picked up trash someone had dumped on a road near out house. Got my son away from the video game for an hour, and made him think about keeping the world clean.)
I will be offering a short series of talks on this in the coming days. Really, engaged activity pulls us out of our self-concern, leaves the world a little bit better, and is one way to fulfill our Bodhisattva Vows to help our fellow Sentient Beings.
Right now, I would like to point you to some recent threads on this:
Our small efforts are dedicated to Bernie Glassman Roshi, one of the pioneers of engaged Buddhism in the West, who is in hospital himself this week.
for positive poetry 優婆塞 台 婆
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