TRAVEL DIARY: DHARMA TRACKS Across AMERICA (7/16-8/26) & WASHINGTON RETREAT (8/9-14)

Deep bows to you Dosho ... when I read your words I truly felt them in my heart! Thank you for sharing this experience with us and thank you for being such a beautiful part of this sangha, this family! =)

Gassho
Shingen

[Rich]

Thanks Dosho. Your words really captured the experience.

Kind regards. /\

[Myosha]

Hey Dosho,

Here, there and everywhere. . . .

Thank you.


Gassho,
Myosha

[Seimyo]

Deep-bows Dosho.

Seimyo

[Kyonin]

Dosho,

It's not raining now and there's a little drop of salty water on my cheek. I'm sure it was a great experience.

Thank you for your message and for taking care of our Teacher.

Deep bows.

Kyonin

[Daiyo]

Wonderful words, Dosho.


Gassho,
Walter

[Dosho]

To all:

I just posted this to Facebook:

"The last 96 hours have witnessed some of the most profound moments of my entire life and there is no way I could do any justice to a description of those events right now. I am so mentally spent that in every moment I am either falling asleep or on the verge of tears (happy ones!). To everyone who was a part of that, whether in the flesh or in my thoughts, a sincere and humble thanks to you all. From Jundo and Leon, to my Canadian friends, to my family, to my sangha, and even to the toll takers and wait staff: Thank you all SO MUCH for being a part of it. If you have even the slightest idea of what I am writing about, trust me, you were a part of that experience. Truly, from the bottom of my heart, I love you all."

I dropped Jundo and Leon off at the train station this morning in a light rain before dawn. I don't know whether Jundo was just in a hurry or he found it as hard as I did to say goodbye, but if it had been any longer I would have started crying like a baby.

I truly do love you all and want you to know, with no exaggeration, you have saved my life.

In the coming days I will try to put more words to this experience, but for now that's all I can muster.

Deep bows.

Gassho,
Dosho

[Meishin]

So looking forward to this.

gassho
john

[Daiyo]

Awesome news.

I hope it will be netcasted so we can see it.

Gassho, Walter.

[Daijo]

From Zen Garland,

Zen Garland welcomes a Guest Teacher
this coming Sunday, August 3rd at the Sanctuary.

Zen Teacher Jundo James Cohen is living and teaching in Japan. Currently he is visiting his American Zen students. He will be our guest this Saturday night and he and his son will participate in our Sunday morning service and zazen.

Genki has invited Jundo to give a Dharma talk at 9:45am.
Please join us for this special opportunity.

Jundo James Cohen, the founder of the Treeleaf Zendo, was ordained by and received Dharma Transmission from Master Gudo Wafu Nishijima. Jundo is a translator of Japanese and writer, and is a member of the American Zen Teachers Association and the Soto Zen Buddhist Association. He leads sitting groups in both Japan and the United States. Jundo began Zen practice in 1980, has lived in Japan for most years since that time, and was for many years a lay student of Azuma Ikuo Roshi at Soji-ji Dai-Honzan. He is also a retired attorney, married to a lovely Japanese woman who is an Ai-ki-do practitioner, and is the father of (soon to be) two small children, and this believes that the hard borders between ordained priest and householder have long been vanishing in Soto Zen. "Our practice, after all, is for living in the world," he writes.

Schedule on Sunday:
8:00-8:30am Buddhist Liturgy
8:30-9:40am Zazen with dokusan
9:45-10:00am Dharma talk by Jundo Sensei

Thank you for the update Jundo ... look forward to it. =)

Gassho
Shingen

[Ishin]

I knew I felt a disturbance in the force. Thanks for the talk Dosho!

Gassho
C

[Daijo]

I can't speak for Genki Roshi, but I believe he'll be more than open to the idea. He seems very open to the "dropping of here and now", as many of his students work with him only on skype. From my conversations with him, I think he's pretty fascinated by the treeleaf model.

Of course, I could be completely wrong. He might think we're all nuts.

[Jundo]

Just an update ...

Looks like I will be seeing Gina, who sat for so long in Tsukuba with me (and now is doing some UN work) and Oheso/Richard ( from Brooklyn, said with the appropriate accent ) Friday evening for a meal and a bit of Zazen in Central Park, NYC. (I need to leave early, as Leon and I have tickets to the Mostly Mozart at the Met). I think it unlikely that I will be able to netcast that sitting if we sit, but I will post some photos ... and you are all there in heart.

After that, on the morning of Sunday August 3rd, New York time (I will try to announce the exact hour soon), our Daijo has arranged for me to spend the night and offer a small sitting and talk at the Sangha of White Plum Teacher Paul Genki Kahn in New Jersey, a Dharma Heir of Bernie Glassman and one of the folks at the forefront of Engaged Buddhism ...

I believe that our start time for the Sitting and Talk with me will be about 9:30am, Sunday morning NYT for about an hour or so, however I am asking Genki if we can also netcast his groups Morning Chanting and Sitting which begins from 8am. I will report back when I hear.

Roshi Paul Genki Kahn is founder and Spiritual Director of ZEN GARLAND: A Community Order for Zen Practice, Education & Service, in Wyckoff, New Jersey, USA.
Genki began dedicated yoga and meditation practice in the 1960s. In 1970 he entered residential Zen training with Aitken Roshi in Hawaii. He transferred to the Zen Center of Los Angeles in 1972 to become amonk and priest under Taizan Maezumi Roshi, served as his personal attendant, and was the Director of Training there. In 1980 he came to New York with Roshi Bernie to establish what has become the Greyston Mandala. He received Final Vows as a Priest from Roshi Dennis Genpo Merzel. He is a Dharma Successor of Roshi Tetsugen Bernie Glassman and received Inka from him. He is a member of the White Plum Asanga.

Roshi Genki founded HMCLZC in 2004 with Sensei Ann Ankai Wagner and Sensei Bill Jikai Greenberg to bring a full range of contemporary Zen training to the greater metropolitan area. He is focusing his efforts on developing Socially Engaged Buddhism in the West, and providing thorough training paths for Zen practice both in lay and ordination paths.
Genki has served as President and Vice-Spiritual Director of the Zen Peacemakers in Montague, MA. He was also Executive Director of the Zen Peacemakers Sangha.

Over the past 25 years, Genki has designed and administered public and private mental health programs for disadvantaged people in New York and New Jersey. He pioneered quality treatment for persons with co-occurring conditions of mental illness and drug and alcohol addictions. During the crack wars in the South Bronx in the early ’90s, he created the MICA Program at Fordham Tremont Community Mental Health Center, that today still treats over 100 people daily.

http://zengarland.org/about

Gassho, J

[KellyRok]

Love the laser tag! Wonderful talk Dosho - it is so true of this practice in our lives. Great job! I'm happy to see you've all made it safely.

take care and humblest bows,
Kelly/Jinmei