Dear All,
Rev. Myoshin Kate McCandless is the author of a timely essay we are now visiting in our Treeleaf 'No Words' Book Club, Beings are Numberless: When Bodhisattvas get Discouraged. In a world of ecological destruction, war and other human suffering, how do we act, balancing somehow concern, compassion and equanimity? This is an essay for anyone feeling helpless and sometimes burned out, but wanting still to work for change. Please have a look: (LINK) She is coming here Saturday to talk about it. Please try to join us. I would really like to get LOTS of members of our 'Digital Sangha' to attend this event via ZOOM ... And even if you have not been joining in our readings! Come anyway! (And the chapter is available at the above link too.)
Myoshin McCandless is a Guiding Teacher at the MOUNTAIN RAIN ZEN COMMUNITY in Vancouver BC. Her visit with us will be this Saturday, November 11th at 9:00AM, Pacific Time, to offer a Netcast Talk and Chat about her essay, published in the book we are currently reading, "Zen Teachings in Challenging Times."
More about Rev. Myoshin:
Myoshin Kate McCandless began Zen practice in 1983 as a university student in Japan, with a Rinzai priest at an ancient temple on Mount Tsukuba (TREELEAF TSUKUBA'S NEARBY MOUNTAIN! 
), later moving to Kyoto and practicing Soto Zen with Shohaku Okumura. Since returning to Vancouver in 1987 she has practiced with Zoketsu Norman Fischer. She received priest ordination from him in in 2003 and dharma transmission in 2011. She, and her partner Shinmon Michael Newton, were installed as guiding teachers of Mountain Rain Zen Community in May, 2017. Kate has worked as an organic farmer, ESL teacher, translator and as a clinical counselor in women’s health and hospice/bereavement care.
), later moving to Kyoto and practicing Soto Zen with Shohaku Okumura. Since returning to Vancouver in 1987 she has practiced with Zoketsu Norman Fischer. She received priest ordination from him in in 2003 and dharma transmission in 2011. She, and her partner Shinmon Michael Newton, were installed as guiding teachers of Mountain Rain Zen Community in May, 2017. Kate has worked as an organic farmer, ESL teacher, translator and as a clinical counselor in women’s health and hospice/bereavement care.
In Buddhist practice, we balance compassion with equanimity, so an excess of worry would suggest an imbalance, or an attachment to outcome, wanting things to be other than they are. But it's hard not to worry about the great harm we humans are doing to each other, this planet and the other beings that cohabit it. The bodhisattva vows we chant daily commit us to saving numberless beings, ending inexhaustible delusions, entering boundless dharma gates, and embodying the unsurpassable Buddha way. How could we not be utterly humbled and daunted by such aspirations? Even bodhisattvas become discouraged sometimes.
It can also be viewed "one way" at the time, or later, at the following screen:
Even if you do not have the book, you can read a PDF version here from PAGE 204 (please consider to purchase the book if the remainder looks interesting to you):
Zen Teachings For Challenging Times - Second Half (PDF DOWNLOAD LINK)
There will be a Q&A after her talk, at which you can either ask a LIVE question, or email me a question which I will read (email your question to Jundotreeleaf[a]gmail.com)
I would really appreciate a BIG TREELEAF TURNOUT for this event, and I assure you that it will be worth your time to attend.
DONATION:
The event is free, but we ask those who can afford to make a voluntary donation, whatever you might afford and feel's right, to her Sangha which they work hard to maintain, via this link at their web page (please indicate that Treeleaf sent ya, and it is for this event
):Thank you.
Myoshin's essay is part of an AMAZING book which I cannot recommend highly enough to all, a very unique collection of short essays by a group of women Soto Teachers, focused on Zen Wisdom and Compassion applied to real life problems. The book deserves to be better known, and is not to be missed. We are currently reading and reflecting on it in our "No Words" book club (LINK)
Gassho, Jundo
stlah
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for positive poetry 優婆塞 台 婆
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