Treeleaf Coffee House - Updates and Secretary Notes

[Sekishi]

How does one access this again? I can't find anything in this thread. It might be good to include access info in each recap for those wanting to join.

Hi Kirk (and anyone who has this question),

As Shingen's points out, on Friday or Saturday I post a new announcement and link in the sticky thread 'Please Join Our Weekly "Treeleaf Coffee House"' under Topics About All of Life.

I also post an event to the Treeleaf Sangha Google Plus group, and send out an invitation to all members of that group. If you are a member of the Treeleaf Sangha group on Google Plus, you should get a notification, and see it as an upcoming event under the "Events" section. For example (these are past events, but same idea):
Screenshot from 2017-03-20 10:23:43-googleplus-events.jpg

In the future I will also include a link to the Coffee House thread in my weekly secretary notes (good idea!).

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Ryumon]

Thank.

I don't use Google Plus any more, so I wouldn't see the notifications. I do follow the Treeleaf group on Facebook though...

Gassho,

Kirk

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for March 26th, 2017:

- Calendars
- Manitoba
- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- Now entering: "Bonus Years"
- Regrets, I've had a few... ("My Way" by Frank Sinatra):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E2hYDIFDIU

- Jukai and Dharma names
- Van Gogh and bipolar disorder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincen...ogh%27s_health
- "Lust for Life" by Irving Stone
- James Michner (Hawaii, Chesapeake, etc.)
- Dr. Who
- Hey app, can you guess my age?
- "Three Pillars of Zen" by Phillip Kapleau
- Google Plus and Hangouts: whats new this week?
- "Liberty's Kids"
- "Old Path White Clouds" by Thich Nhat Hanh
- Crabapple blossoms and Facebook
- Taking photos in public (and taking photos OF the public)
- Sending a flower for a flower
- What was his name? Mahakashyapa!
- The Dogen / Zen movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s5Uz8XSc-Y

- Dr. Who Dharma: "Like breath on a mirror."
- "We all change, when you think about it, we're all different people; all through our lives, and that's okay, that's good, you've gotta keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be."
- It takes a while...
- Used cameras and factory refurbs
- The Harvard Brain Bank
- Tardive Dyskinesia
- Sweetgrass smudge? I'm trying to work here!
- Intoxicants (in their many forms)
- Soda and energy drinks
- The precepts and bosses
- Kombucha!
- The Coffeehouse - an intoxicant?

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...f-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for April 2nd, 2017:

- Housework
- Around and around the DharmaWheel(.net)
- Sojiji and Eihiji
- Dogen and history
- Ordination
- John Daido Lori on VHS
- Vudu and media
- The Charlie Chan films
- Bela Lugosi
- Books
- The Thin Man
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_Man_(film)
-- Radio drama version: https://archive.org/details/thinmanotr_201412
- The Last of Shelia

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...f-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for April 9nd, 2017:

- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- Preparing kids for university
- Empty nests...
- Practice - like brushing your teeth
- Shakuhachi as practice
- Fuke Zen (sect): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuke-sh%C5%AB
- Being social
- Treeleafers in Virginia
- Ordination and Treeleaf
- History and keeping good records
- When every threat is an existential threat.
- Book - "Zen at War": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_at_War
- Buddhism's fluffy reputation in the west
- Institutions and power structures
- Book - "Prisoners of ShangriLa": https://books.google.com/books?id=mjUHF7kQfVAC
- Mental illness and art
- Perceiving via the sixth sense gate is no more a fabrication than any other
- Apophatic (philosophy via the "negative") vs. Cataphatic (philosophy via the "positive")
- Like a polar-bear in a snowstorm

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...f-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for April 16nd, 2017:

- Commodore 64's, 1541 drives, and creativity
- Quick Brown Fox
- Attention to detail
- Alan Watts
- Creation grows vs. creation was made
- Some mental experiences are amazing, but you cannot use the data...
- The Vallejo Ferry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vallejo_(ferry)
- Dill pickle ice cream?
- Treeleaf friends
- Proximity breeds familiarity
- Easter as a batchelor
- Local sitting groups
- Video hangouts via: zoom.us
- Skillfull media consumption
- Turning the firehose into a squirtgun: feedly.com
- Aches and pains of social isolation
- Google Plus
- Walking
- Human echo-location: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_echolocation
- Dog stories

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...f-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for April 23nd, 2017:

- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- Pets and practice
- Cat logic - a lesson in perspective
- Kwan Um
- Rakusu case how-to
- Le Pen, Trump, and the state of US & European politics
- Jeffersonian history and writing
- Cashing in on that sweet sweet Hatfield-McCoy feud money
- Prolactin, neonatal galactorrhea and pseudomenses: http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama...bstract/512784
- "Catlateral Damage" - The premier first-person destructive cat simulator.: http://www.catlateraldamage.com/
- Summer is (almost) here and the lawn grows by itself
- Hunters, dogs, and interbeing
- Repainting a dungeon
- 3d print your own 22x22 Rubik's Cube: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1267855/
- Physical beings like physical artifacts
- A Buddha in Vegas
- How to pack for a 10 day trip with only carry-on luggage
- Hurry up and sit (or "how not to get a speeding ticket on the way to a sitting")
- Chinchillas and cat stories

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...f-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for April 30nd, 2017:

- The jingle of a dog collar would be good right here
- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- Watching Trek in order
- Syndication == "no end customer in mind"
- Swamp Thing - the series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swamp_Thing:_The_Series
- "Avatar with Blue People" vs. the swamp benders:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xVaXc8fmFE

You think you're any different from me or your friends or this tree? If you listen hard enough, you can hear every living thing breathing together. You can feel everything growing. We're all living together, even if most folks don't act like it. We all have the same roots and we are all branches of the same tree. ...
Time is an illusion and so is death.
~The "Swampbender" Huu

- Breaking the outer glass on the Trieste
- Jenner and self-testing smallpox inoculation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Jenner
- Licking the pellagra saliva sample
- Corn, grits, and Montezuma's REAL revenge
- Sewing as a lifelong practice
- The subcuticular stitch - Namu Kie Butsu...
- My dog, the unwitting terrorist
- "Nature's Miracle" and bio-enzymatic awesomeness
- Sitting and sewing - no talking! :-P
- Dharma names in different traditions
- Rokugo and Katsura Sunshine:

https://youtu.be/cY3Gb-aanyA

- Dave Bull's modern ukiyo-e heroes: http://ukiyoeheroes.com/
- He-gassen paintings (historical fart art): http://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosh...i04_01029.html
- "Supreme Skills" on NHK World: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/supremeskills/
- The Treeleaf Kombucha Cafe
- Kana vs. romaji
- Supportive housing for homeless veterans
- Alpha dogs, omega dogs
- David Loy's Zazenkai and talk
- Brainstorming the Treeleaf Engaged Center
- A Bodhisattva does not refer to herself as such
- Am I doing enough? Pick a problem and work it!
- The value of a smile or a laugh
- The virtue of short legs
- You never know...
- Gojo Bodhisattva
- Monthly engaged practice?
- People are people, not vending machines
- "Little Kindnesses"

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...f-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for May 7th, 2017:

- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- City and country
- GABA analogue
- Chanting and memory
- Right to the heart of the matter...
- The Heart Sutra as expounded by TNH and Red Pine
- Friends and circles within the Sangha
- Sit like a cow...
- The house Norwegian brothers built
- What is retirement all about?
- The pain of fast movement, the pain of slow movement
- "It's neat to be 65!"
- Debt, consolidation, and avoidance
- Big Poetry thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...072-Big-Poetry
- Therapy over the long term
- The gassho -- less intrusive than a handshake and includes all beings!
- The Litter Kwitter: https://litterkwitter.com/
- echo .. Echo .. ECHO!
- Jukai and formalities and joyful noises
- Breaking vows in order to make vows
- Water rockets -- a gateway to larger rockets
- Gliders
- Radio controlled paper airplanes: https://www.poweruptoys.com/products/powerup-v3
- Turning a 1992 Reliant Robin into a space shuttle: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074gf0
- Adam Savage and Tested: http://www.tested.com/
- Adam Savage and Michael Stevens in Brain Candy Live: http://www.braincandylive.com/
- Digital Art
- Mothers and Fathers
- Sailing
- Endings? What endings?
- 360 projections and Google Cardboard: https://vr.google.com/cardboard/
- Sangha in my pocket
- Heart Sutra, memory, and the mokugyo
- "Egg pod" burial? http://www.capsulamundi.it/en/
- Ask a Mortician: https://www.youtube.com/user/OrderoftheGoodDeath
- "My father the Alpo"
- Clandestine cremains
- Small towns

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...f-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for May 14th, 2017:

- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- The world is not flat, for if it was the cats would have shoved everything off by now
- Nothing brings us back to the present moment like a locomotive passing by
- Be with what is, even if that is a dog barking in the Zendo for 15 minutes
- Ikea mutants - those who visit but do not buy, those who have never been
- Curbside shopping? Good deals can be found at the end of the semester
- Cloth and clothing: fabric weight vs. airflow
- Puppies! :-) Carpet. :-(
- Media storage
- Butter - helps the powdered cheese stick better
- The Drive-in Theater - A way to singing along to Beauty and the Beast in the privacy of your car
- Mosquito coils - "PICs for punks"
- Throat singing? Nope.
- Sino-Japanese vocabulary and pronunciation
- The dialects of ASL and other signed languages
- (Re)introductions
- Canada, Ned Flanders, and the Devils Lettuce
- "My Winnipeg": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1093842/
- That theatrical production in the church basement
- People watching
- A flaneur - A "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", or "loafer" (from the French noun flâneur), searching for adventure and excitement
- Yoda says ...
- The 1953 watersnoodramp: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_flood_of_1953
- The grammar of "teutophile"
- The memorization and cross-pollination of the Heart Sutra
- On training for chaplaincy
- When the cat produces a hairball made from dog hair
- OK Google, when do cats ... lose their baby teeth
- Practice like a weeble, wobble but do not fall down
- Summer retreat
- On saying "yes" but maintaining boundaries
- A proposal: UTC-only for all Treeleaf events (no really, it is a good idea!)
- A blind tiger

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...f-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Jakuden]

- The world is not flat, for if it was the cats would have shoved everything off by now

Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday

[Meian]

"- The world is not flat, for if it was the cats would have shoved everything off by now"

I have seen this circulating on social media and it still makes me laugh! I have two cats (or rather, they have me) - and this is very true! My dog has no attention span (except for food and the cats!) and even he respects flat surfaces more than my cats do.

I hope some day to attend this get together - I always seem to have family activities going on at the same time. But i read the notes and find them so amusing and interesting, one day maybe I can stop in and say hello ♡

Gassho
Kim
Sat today

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for May 29th, 2017:

- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- (Ack, no meal verse this week?!)
- Zazen
- "Fine, real fine."
- Sesshin
- Nebraska Zen Center
- Mutt Practice
- Gifts from friends
- 30 years of AA
- Astronomy
- Children and parents
- "When laughing, laugh. When crying, cry. When eating a cookie..." [OM NOM NOM]
- Giving advice, listening to advice
- Sit short, sit long, just sit!
- Waiting for something to happen
- Writing and reading poetry on Google Plus
- Sitting groups using Zoom: http://zoom.us/
- Heart Sutra in the car
- Dokusan?
- On being a poet (and looking for an audience)
- On searching for a "higher power"
- Relationships as living breathing things
- What the poet sees
- Impermanence and Shakespeare
- "The wheels of the Dharma bus go round and round (though reality is boundless!)"
- Juzu beads
- On ordering a Facebook photobook
- "Take this Lollipop": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_This_Lollipop
- On building a computer
- Shel Silverstein and "avoidance by incompetence" (why yes, this topic IS Deja Vu...)

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...f-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat #lah

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for June 4th, 2017:

- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- Poetry big and small
- "Desiree" is a beautiful name
- Verse of atonement (yes, again - we can never have too much atonement)
- The semiotics of the icepack
- How wonderful the bones in the back of the throat
- On getting "unstuck"
- Fugen
- Teachers, teachers EVERYWHERE
- It is all about love
- 1/#'"[carrier lost]
- AA
- "Ocean's 11" (1960 vs. 2001): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean's_11
- Free Wifi in Vegas!
- Ginkgophyta ginkgoopsida ginkgoales...
- The hangesa and wagesa

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...f-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat #lah

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for June 11th, 2017:

- The world is bowing
- How do YOU fold the Rakusu?
- Reviewing Taigu's videos
- On de-linting
- Silk, cotton, and the tree in the courtyard
- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Zazen
- Dharma tracks...
- You go north, I'll go south
- On Kannon and canons
- Trapdoors for old monks with sore legs
- Just sit, then just fall (but try not to please!)
- On waiting for the eldest to rise before standing
- How an echo shuts down the brain
- Wooden mortar or salad bowl as Mokugyu? It is all just words!
- The snipe-bot bodhisattva - showing us our attachments
- Propane tank gong
- On winning millions in the Powerball, but coming to the Coffeehouse anyway
- On having your son returned from the ocean, but without a hat
- Deepening our institutional understanding of the Kesa and sizing
- Measuring this body for the Kesa
- Concrete waits for no woman!
- Tall pants on the bottom shelf, short pands on the top shelf
- Don't panic, but it's The Hitchhiker's Guide...
- On 35 years of marriage
- How to appear twice on the Treeleaf member map
- On visiting the British Museum of Plundered Goods
- Dharma tracks (again)...
- The Ego
- Ownership? Pshaw. Not "my hearing" nor "my thoughts" nor "my body" nor ...
- Partner say "Go read this book about Buddhism" ... Pleeeeeaaase?
- (Good thing) "I did it!" vs. (Mistake) "I did it!"
- Dr. Strange and the "little I"
- Potato practice
- Loren Eiseley on Starfish - "It sure made a difference to that one.": https://www.goodreads.com/author/quo....Loren_Eiseley
- Monty Python and The Universe Song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq4uCWtQE24

-- Or if you prefer - here is a version performed by Stephen Hawking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfcC6FYyL4U

- "One raindrop raises the sea.": https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/254...raises-the-sea

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.annmariegarden.org/annmar...f-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat #lah