Treeleaf One Day Spring Retreat, 5 April 2025

[Kotei]

Thank you Kotei, Bion, and Kokuu for a wonderful Spring Retreat.

Kotei - I got a lot from your talk on Master Soji Keizan, and have a follow-up question. The post-talk discussion centred around how Keizan embraced the local customs and cultures of the Japan of his day - as the Mother to Dogen zenji's Father figure of Soto. It seems a dumb question (and possibly heretical), given our heavily Japanese oriented lineage and the "Eastern" home of our tradition, but in the spirit of Keizan, I've long wondered why Treeleaf is not fully embracing of local customs and cultures outside of the "East". For instance, half of the liturgy is still chanted in Japanese. Or is Japanese viewed as the lingua franca equivalent of Latin for the Roman Catholic church?

Thank you, Hosui.

Nothing dumb or heretical in your question in my eyes, quite contrary.
I believe seeing and living our practice as something we do in midst of our lives, our culture and local ways is something Jundo and this Sangha in general stands for.

We have already reduced the Japanese chanting, at least in comparison to the German Sanghas, I visited over here.
The weekly Friday/Saturday Zazenkai with Jundo are with English chants and only the monthly one with just the Heart Sutra in Japanese.
In the Sunday Zazenkai we chant English and Japanese Heart Sutras alternating.
Yes, with special occasions like the Rohatsu retreat and the Spring retreat, it is a Japanese Heart Sutra, and long ancestor lists, too.

I think we are trying to honor our roots in this way and keep some of the Japanese rituals and chants.
Also staying part of the larger (western) Soto community?
It is nice to chant in a common language when visiting different places, but I don't think that is a big factor.

Over here in my hometown it feels sometimes like trying to be more Japanese than the Japanese in Zen circles.
Treeleaf seems very basic and stripped down in comparison.

I am not sure where I stand in that balancing act. I kind of like the Japanese chants and the ceremonies we took from there.
And I am definitely an advocate for the reduced form as we practice it in Treeleaf, too.
Hmm...

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Jundo]

Congratulations to all who organized and attended this wonderful Spring Retreat!

Gassho, Jundo
stlah

[Koriki]

Thank you all for putting this together. Very well done. There is something different about siting zazen multiple times in a row vs at different times during the day. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I might change my own sitting schedule accordingly. Again, thank you for your efforts and practice.
Gassho,
Koriki
s@lah

[Chikyou]

I really enjoyed this retreat! I hope that we keep doing these!

Gassho,
SatLah,
Chikyō

[Washin]

Thank you all and everyone. It was a wonderful retreat.
Always an honor, and a great pleasure to practice together and
serve the community.

Gassho
Washin
StLah

[Shui_Di]

Hi everyone,

I did the retreat myself using Indonesian time. For Dharma talk, I just watched Jundo Roshi video about Zazen Yojinki.

It was a beautiful experience. But I shouldn't get caught by experience. But anyway, in this retreat, I can see that sometimes we have "good" Zazen, and in some moment have "bad" Zazen. Very nice, how we can see things like "experiences" to come and go. Appear and disappear. And nothing wrong with that. I just learn to just sit with that. And I think so do with life. Sometimes life can get hard, sometimes is easy. But hard and easy will always come and go. Just don't get caught by them. On cushion, Simply Just Sit, and when off cushion, Just Live kindly. Even I didn't sit in the same time with you guys, but my heart is sitting with you.


Gassho, Mujo

[Bion]

Hi everyone,

I did the retreat myself using Indonesian time. For Dharma talk, I just watched Jundo Roshi video about Zazen Yojinki.

It was a beautiful experience. But I shouldn't get caught by experience. But anyway, in this retreat, I can see that sometimes we have "good" Zazen, and in some moment have "bad" Zazen. Very nice, how we can see things like "experiences" to come and go. Appear and disappear. And nothing wrong with that. I just learn to just sit with that. And I think so do with life. Sometimes life can get hard, sometimes is easy. But hard and easy will always come and go. Just don't get caught by them. On cushion, Simply Just Sit, and when off cushion, Just Live kindly. Even I didn't sit in the same time with you guys, but my heart is sitting with you.


Gassho, Mujo

I need to figure out the time difference between me here and you! Friend, as I mentioned, we did record some of it. If you haven't seen it, here's the retreat highlights we posted today: RETREAT HIGHLIGHTS The Ceremonies and Dharma Talks are there, recorded. Thank you for making the effort on your own!!!

Gassho
sat lah

[Shui_Di]

I need to figure out the time difference between me here and you! Friend, as I mentioned, we did record some of it. If you haven't seen it, here's the retreat highlights we posted today: RETREAT HIGHLIGHTS The Ceremonies and Dharma Talks are there, recorded. Thank you for making the effort on your own!!!

Gassho
sat lah

Hi Bion,

Thank you for your effort too to provide the recorded version. I am gonna watch it, especially the Dharma talk.

I am living in Indonesia. So my time here is the same with Bangkok time. So it is GMT+7.

Gassho, Mujo

[Bion]

Hi Bion,

Thank you for your effort too to provide the recorded version. I am gonna watch it, especially the Dharma talk.

I am living in Indonesia. So my time here is the same with Bangkok time. So it is GMT+7.

Gassho, Mujo

I see! So, for you.. the retreat started at 2 pm!

Gassho
sat lah

[Shoshin]

Thanks everyone that made the retreat possible. It was a very nice experience.
I enjoyed the talks very much. So interesting and nicely explained as usual.
Regarding the format of the talks it would be really cool if we could have from time to time talks with a more interactive part either at the end (like in Kotei's talk) or during it (like in Kokuu's talk). I didn't say anything because I had nothing to contribute with but I liked the format very much.

Gassho
Satlah

[Bion]

Hello, all, I realized we haven't posted the recordings on the forum as well.
So, the highlights of the retreat are available on the website HERE>> (link) and the Special Events playlist on our Youtube channel has been updated with the recordings of the retreat as well, not including the sitting periods. You can find that HERE>> (link)
Feel free to revisit the talks, or the ceremonies! It was lovely doing this retreat together.

Gassho
sat lah

[Hokai]

Hello, all, I realized we haven't posted the recordings on the forum as well.
So, the highlights of the retreat are available on the website HERE>> (link) and the Special Events playlist on our Youtube channel has been updated with the recordings of the retreat as well, not including the sitting periods. You can find that HERE>> (link)
Feel free to revisit the talks, or the ceremonies! It was lovely doing this retreat together.

Gassho
sat lah

That is really useful Bion, I should be able to use the highlights to make a short retreat of my own as I was away for the event itself.
Many thanks,
Gassho
Hōkai
Satlah

[Bion]

That is really useful Bion, I should be able to use the highlights to make a short retreat of my own as I was away for the event itself.
Many thanks,
Gassho
Hōkai
Satlah

Oh, wonderful! Please do

Gassho
sat lah