Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

[Dosho]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Hi all,

Here is the (belated) tea party report for Sunday, August 21st:

We had a good number of folks on the call this past week, including one who recently returned after a hiatus to move the family to a new city and told of us of adventures exploring the new surroundings. After our traditional meal chant, robe verses, and short sit (which I missed!), the discussion turned to matters of practice. Specifically, we discussed where to place your gaze while in sitting zazen and foot placement and breaths during kinhin. One of our priests in training also discussed his encounter with a buddhist nun on a train and her order's efforts to build a new practice center in Europe. Other topics discussed were the differences in practice between Japan and the West, visiting local zen centers, Jundo's zendo in Tsukuba, sitting with other sangha members using Google+, vacationing in France, as well as the use of nuclear power at Fukushima and other parts of the world.

Hope to see (or rather "hear") some of you this afternoon!

Gassho,
Dosho

[Dosho]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Hi all,

Here is the (belated...again!) tea party report for Sunday, August 28th:

The call this past week covered a lot of different topics with no real rhyme or reason to them. Perfect! So, after our traditional meal chat, robe verses, and short sit we discussed the following: The benefits of practice, Skype, Ango, hurricanes, Buddhist Geeks, charter schools, zen messages in non-buddhist books, trees in your lungs, british journalism, traveling to Denmark, buddha nature in our pets, being madly in love, buddhist temples in Ohio, and tips for using the forum.

Hope to see (or rather "hear") some of you this afternoon!

Gassho,
Dosho

[Graceleejenkins]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Using an idea suggested in another thread, below is this week's suggested menu for the Tea Party, if eveyone would like to share the same food during the Tea Party.

Tea
Cheese
Crackers

Looking ahead, for the week after, I propose:

Tea
Choice of cold cereral snack (cheerios, wheat chex, etc.)

Gassho, Grace.

[Tb]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Hi.

A reminder of the Treeleaf teaparty ,sunday 21.00 (swedish time ) on skype.
Contains a short ceremony and some friendly talks.
If you want to join, unless you already have, pm Fugen or Shohei your skypename.

Everybody's welcome.
Same time, same place.
Thank you for your practice.

The Treeleaf Teaparty on sunday will be in comemoration of the beings touched by and the events of 9/11.

Gassho & Mtfbwy
Shohei and Fugen

[Shohei]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Oh and an extra reminder
During Ango there will be a slight edit to the format to allow some time for Ango discussion and practice partner exercises.

Welcome
A short welcome and getting everything going

Introduction of new people
If there is a new person to the Treeleaf Tea Party, he/she gets to introduce themself, as well as get an introduction to everybody else that is present.

Meal Chant
As this is a tea party, there's a short meal chant

This food comes from the efforts
of all sentient beings past and present,
and is medicine for nourishment of our Practice.
We offer this meal of many virtues and tastes
to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha,
and to all life in every realm of existence.
May all sentient beings in the universe
be sufficiently nourished.

Robe Verse (Takkesage)
To be chanted by those placing on a Rakusu or Kesa.
Remove from case and place garment folded on top of head, then Gassho and chant 3X before wearing.

Robe of liberation boundless
Field beyond both form and formless
Wearing the Tathagatha's teachings
Vowing to save all sentient beings

Zazen
A short sitting of zazen

Practicetalk
Each person gets to talk about their practice, and issues they want to take up regarding practice

Ango/PPE talk
Each person gets to talk about their current participation in the Ango period and any practice partner exercises.

Main talk
Each person gets to talk about any things they want to take up.

Gassho & Mtfbwy
Shohei & Fugen

[Dosho]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Hi all,

Here is the tea party report for Sunday, September 4th:

As we are now in the midst of our sangha's Ango, a new feature was added to talk about our particular experiences of Ango and the practice partner exercises which just commenced. After our traditional meal chant, robe verses, and short sit of zazen a number of topics were discussed. Along the lines of practice, one participant mentioned some issues with his rakusu and how it was temporarily acquired by a child who left a stain on it and another instance where an attempt to keep it clean meant it getting left behind. Another person mentioned that the greatest benefit to his practice has been the realization that, no matter how difficult a particular experience may be, it is possible recognize in the moment that such a feeling will undoubtedly pass. One person's work as a resource teacher was also discussed and the effort needed to work with children who have autism spectrum disorders or ADHD (but also that working with the other teachers and parents can be equally difficult). Other topics discussed included parenting our kids, learning to say no, speaking up more often, how many of the posts on the forum each of us read, speaking and listening in French, and meeting up with a moose.

Hope to hear some folks on the tea party tomorrow!

Gassho,
Dosho

[Dosho]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Hi all,

Here is the tea party report for Sunday, September 11th:

We had a very strong turnout for this week's call as we get fully in the swing of Ango and Jukai this coming week! After our traditional meal chant and robe verses we had a short sit of zazen in honor of all those affected by war and terrorism in the wake of the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. Following the sit as we turned to matters of practice, one person told the story of how he ordered a part to fix the casing to his iphone only to have it break again within a few minutes! Another participant described his week working with kids who have learning differences and the difficulties that can bring while someone else discussed how he found himself trying to wash dishes quickly so he could get to some zazen, only to see how much irony there was in trying to become mindful by not being mindful! One of our regulars over the years also returned this week just as he prepares to go back to work after being injured a few months ago...and wonders if he'll remember how to do his job (we all assured him he would!). Other topics included Stephen Colbert's ultimate spoiler (spoiler alert: we all die!), getting up to get the kids to school, gaming, sewing, and shiny new toys.

Hope you can join us at the next tea party!

Gassho,
Dosho

[Tb]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Hi.

Here's the Treeleaf Party report

Ango
Food & eating
Kids & Ango
Ango & Facebookchatting
Sleep & Sleepdeprivation
Zazenkai
Mealchant
Karmic repercussions
Cops & the heroes of society
Practicepartners & Excercises
Sewing & crosstitching
Giving things
Shakuhachi
Treeleaf retreat
wearing the rakusu

Mtfbwy
Fugen

[Dosho]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Hi all,

Here is the tea party report for Sunday, September 25th:

Daily frustrations
Keeping your cool
Expressing our emotions
Policing the streets
Friendly kidnapping
Ango committments
Dogen
Shobogenzo
Realizing Genjokoan
Stay at home parenting
Teaching kids
Taking care of our parents
Super-Vegan!

Gassho,
Dosho

[Dosho]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Hi all,

Here is the tea party report for Sunday, October 2nd:

Ango commitments
Trouble with sitting
Typographical errors in the Heart Sutra
"Bad and good" practice: All good!
Sitting groups
Brad Warner
New version of Shobogenzo.
Dogen: Academian?
Racism & Ethnocentricism: Differences?
Can Westerners truly grasp the dharma?
American culture
What does socialism mean? (Warren Buffett is NOT a socialist!)
New "jukai-ers"
Consumerism & marketing
Academic books on zen: really expensive!

Gassho,
Dosho

[Kaishin]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

I am wondering, is there a possibly or even an interest in having multiple Tea Party times? For me, Sunday is a major family day where we try to limit technology/media and outside activities, so I don't join in. Not to mention of course the many different time zones of our sangha.

Just wanted to toss it out there for discussion.

[Tb]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Hi.

Here's this week Treeleaf Teaparty report

After a short sitting of zazen, we talked about practice, Ango/PPE and moved on to main talk.
Due to technical difficulties the headlinerlist we usually provide is lost in space and time.

Thank you for your practice.

Mtfbwy
Fugen

[Ray]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

I wanted to add to matt,s comment. Due to family commitments I couldn,t make the tea party this evening due to the time it is on at. I was also wondering about the possibility of the multiple tea party idea, maybe staggering another one a couple of hours later?

[Jundo]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

I wanted to add to matt,s comment. Due to family commitments I couldn,t make the tea party this evening due to the time it is on at. I was also wondering about the possibility of the multiple tea party idea, maybe staggering another one a couple of hours later?

Hi Ray,

We are talking about it here and seeing if something can be worked out.

Good suggestion guys.

Gassho, J

[Geika]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

I have trouble getting time to myself on the computer on Sunday... So I can only be there in spirit.