Sunday Sit (Zazen for Peace) - Sunday, July 23, 2023

[Meian]

Please Join Us as we continue to sit, offering our sincere efforts to peace, children, and the injured in Ukraine and around the world.

We will gather for the Sunday Sit on Sunday, July 23, 2023, beginning at 6 am Los Angeles time, 9 am New York time, 2 pm in London, 3 pm in Paris, 4 pm Kyiv time, and 4 pm Moscow time.

You can check the Treeleaf Calendar for your local time here: https://www.treeleaf.org/now/#calendar

We meet in the Treeleaf Now Scheduled Sitting Room here: https://www.treeleaf.org/now/go.php?l=ssr

Livestream and "any-time" recording can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FsZ...IEp1bHkgMjM%3D


The format of the sitting will be:

- Heart Sutra
- Zazen 40 minutes
- Verse of Atonement and the Four Vows

ALL are welcome! Please, join us! No prior experience is required -- just come sit with us.

Washin and "Zazen for Peace" team

[Jundo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpmhN9vpptY

https://youtu.be/nRZeC8zEgMA

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[Jundo]

Ukraine has been struggling to repel a wave of Russian strikes against the southern city of Odesa, its air defenses unable to cope with the types of missiles that Moscow has used to pummel the region this week.

Ukraine’s Air Force said it destroyed just five of 19 Russian cruise missiles fired at the country overnight into Thursday. That’s a significantly lower success rate compared to previous waves targeting Kyiv and Ukrainian officials said it was due to the lack of more advances defense systems in the southern part of the country.

By Friday, people in Odesa have now endured four nights of bombardment. A CNN team began hearing explosions at around 2 a.m. on Thursday. The near continuous strikes lasted at least 90 minutes, the buzzing sound of drones reverberating through the port city. Then air raid sirens begun howling again at around 3 a.m. on Friday, as Russian troops fired more missiles from the Black Sea.

As Thursday’s bombardment got underway, officials warned residents to take cover. “Go to your shelters and don’t leave until the siren ends. Take care of yourself and your loved ones,” the head of the Odesa region’s military administration, Oleh Kiper, said in a post on Telegram.

Russia has launched a wide variety of projectiles, including Oniks cruise missiles and Kh-22 anti-ship missiles, Kalibr sea-based cruise missiles, Iskander ballistic missiles, and 19 Iranian-made Shahed drones.

Speaking on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia used almost 70 missiles of various types and almost 90 Shahed drones in just four days in attacks on southern Ukraine. Those numbers do not include the latest barrage that Russia fired on Friday.

Ukrainian officials said the air defense systems in the region are not capable of shooting down Russia’s Oniks and Kh-22 missiles because of how fast they fly. “What could be shot down is being shot down,” Yurii Ihnat, spokesperson for the Air Force Command of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said. “Of course, we would like to shoot down more.”

Ihnat said the Oniks missiles fly at a speed of more than 3,000 kilometers per hour (1,850 miles per hour) at a high altitude and then quickly change altitude to 10 to 15 meters above the surface when striking a target, making them difficult to detect and destroy.
https://us.cnn.com/2023/07/20/europe...ntl/index.html

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[Jundo]

A Russian strike on Ukraine's Odesa has killed one and badly damaged a cathedral

Sunday July 23, 20235:29 AM ET

Russia struck the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odesa again on Sunday, local officials said, keeping up a barrage of attacks that has damaged critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine in the past week. At least one person was killed and 22 others wounded in the attack in the early hours.

Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said that four children were among those wounded in the blasts, which severely damaged the historic Transfiguration Cathedral, a landmark Orthodox cathedral in the city.

Russia has been launching persistent attacks on Odesa, a key hub for exporting grain, since Moscow canceled a landmark grain deal on Monday amid Kyiv's grinding efforts to retake its occupied territories.

Kiper noted that six residential buildings, including apartment buildings, were destroyed by the strikes.

In one such case in downtown Odesa, some people became trapped in their apartments as a result of the damage caused by the attack, which left rubble strewn in the street and partly blocking the road, and damage to power lines.

Svitlana Molcharova, 85, was rescued by emergency service workers. But after she received first medical aid, she refused to leave her destroyed apartment.

"I will stay here," she said to the emergency service worker who advised her to leave.

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The Transfiguration Cathedral, one of the most important and largest Orthodox Cathedrals in Odesa, was severely damaged.

"The destruction is enormous, half of the cathedral is now roofless," said Archdeacon Andrii Palchuk, as cathedral workers brought documents and valuable items out of the severely building, the floor of which was inundated with water used by firefighters to extinguish the fire.

Palchuk said the damage was caused by a direct hit from a Russian missile that penetrated the building down to the basement and caused significant damage. Two people who were inside at the time of the strike were wounded.

"But with God's help, we will restore it," he said, bursting into tears.

Odesa's historic center was designated an endangered World Heritage Site by the United Nations' cultural agency, UNESCO, earlier this year, despite Russian opposition.

https://www.npr.org/2023/07/23/11896...ed-a-cathedral

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