Sunday Sit with Washin - December 10th, 2023

[Bion]

Dear sangha,

with Rohatsu behind us, we return to our weekly Sunday sit hosted by Washin, in Ukraine, at the usual time. We continue to sit, dedicating our sincere Zazen for peace, children, and the injured in Ukraine and around the world, for an end to violence, war, suffering, hunger, poverty, oppression, and more.

Our practice of the Way is needed more than ever to spread peace and compassion, in a world where war, violence, hunger, poverty, and more devastation is also spreading.

Please 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

A livestream of the meeting can be found here:

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.

Gassho
sat and lah

[Jundo]

News continues from Odesa and all of Ukraine. The first story is not about Washin, but reminds me that the kind of work that Washin is doing ... to provide some inner quiet, healing and peace to some people in Ukraine ... is especially needed now ...

Odesa Education Center Helps Children Deal With War Trauma

Among the many grassroots aid foundations cropping up throughout Ukraine, one center in Odesa is focusing on helping children and their parents re-establish some semblance of normality in their lives.

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/25054

Ukraine Says Russian Drone Attack Hits Odesa Port

A Russian drone attack killed one person and damaged port infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa region, the regional governor said Thursday.

Oleh Kiper said Odesa was under attack for two hours, and that while air defenses shot down most of the Russian drones involved, some of them made it through.

https://www.voanews.com/a/ukraine-sa...-/7387888.html

Japanese Conductor Opens Opera Season in Odesa, Provides Encouragement to Ukrainian Audience

Japanese conductor Hirofumi Yoshida, who is based in Italy, was in the pit for the opera season opener of the Odesa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa on Sunday. Yoshida, 54, conducted Puccini’s opera “La Boheme” as the opera house’s principal guest conductor.

Yoshida entered Ukraine by road from Moldova on Sept. 5 and rehearsed the opera with the theater’s orchestra several times. The nearly full audience of 1,500 people received the Puccini masterpiece with loud cheering and gave the performance a standing ovation. Quite a few of audience members were clad in military uniforms and some said, “Thank you,” with tears in their eyes. “I think the performance was food for the soul,” Yoshida said proudly after the performance. But he added that the occasion made him keenly aware that Ukraine is at war.

https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/cult...230912-136107/

Ukraine reports nearly 100 air attacks in a day as first lady warns country faces ‘mortal danger’

https://us.cnn.com/2023/12/09/europe...ntl/index.html

Gassho, J

stlah