Japanese Festival Planning Meetings, August 12 and 18 On Sunday, August 12 following samu, we will hold a special meeting to plan for the Japanese Festival. All members and friends of the Zen Center are invited to attend. A Japanese Festival planning meeting and slushie-making demonstration will be held on Saturday morning, August 18, following the 8 - 8:40 a.m. sitting. Everyone is invited to this meeting to learn how to make the fruit slushies that are so popular at the Japanese Festival. Come watch expert slushie-makers demonstrate their techniques and learn the secrets to a successful slushie! Volunteer For Japanese Festival The Zen Center needs volunteers to work at its food booth at the Missouri Botanical GardenÕs Japanese Festival. This fund-raiser, one of three major fund-raisers put on by the Zen Center each year, enables us to meet Zen Center expenses while keeping dues at an affordable level. The Japanese Festival is held on Labor Day weekend, which is Saturday, September 1 through Monday, September 3. During the festival, we will be selling fruit slushies, vegetable rice, and sesame noodles to people attending the festival. We need as many members and friends as possible to work one or two four-hour shifts anytime that weekend. It takes many volunteers for our food booth to be successful. People are needed to prepare ingredients; cook the food; make slushies; handle money; keep equipment and the booth clean; and answer questions about our practice. We need people to set up the booth on Saturday morning and to break down the booth on Monday evening. We have found that it requires at least 8 to 10 people per shift to keep our booth running safely and efficiently. The booth offers us a wonderful opportunity to spread the Dharma while we prepare delicious food for festival-goers. Many people hear about us for the first time when they purchase food at our booth. Later they learn about the Awakened Way through taking our classes and sitting with us. On Saturday, shifts are from 7-11 a.m.; 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; and 3-7 p.m. Shifts on Sunday and Monday are from 8 a.m.-noon; 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; and 3-7 p.m. The final shift on Monday includes time for breaking down the booth. An added treat for final shift workers on Monday is a group dinner out following the conclusion of cleanup. Everyone who works any of the shifts will receive free admission to the Botanical Garden on the day they work. This will save you several dollars over the normal admission fee during the Japanese Festival and allow you to enjoy the many festival activities during the time you are not working at our booth. If you are able to participate in this fund-raiser, we welcome your help with gratitude! A sign-up sheet for each shift has been posted at the Zen Center. You may sign up any time you are at the Zen Center. You may also sign up by e-mail: send your name, phone number, and the shift(s) you wish to work to info@missourizencenter.org We look forward to working with you at our food booth at the Japanese Festival. Eliminating Credit Card Junk Mail Many people at the Zen Center have asked how they can eliminate all the unwanted solicitations for credit cards that they receive through the mail. There is one phone number that you can call to permanently remove your name from all mailing lists that the credit agencies supply to direct marketers. The phone number is 1-888-567-8688. You will be asked to give your name and address. It is best to spell out this information. You should specify that you want your name removed permanently; otherwise it may be added back after a few years. Board Meetings, Aug. 19 and Sept. 9 The MZC Board will meet on Sunday, August 19 and Sunday, September 9 following samu. All members and friends are invited to our Board meetings. Anyone who has an agenda item for consideration, or who wants a copy of the tentative agenda (available about a week prior to the meeting), may contact Claire Schosser. We welcome and value input from everyone on how the Board can benefit the sangha and all beings. Sitting 101 and 202: Classes for Beginners The Sitting 101 class for beginners will take place on Saturday evening, September 8 from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. This class is designed to assist beginners who want to experience Zen meditation with other beginners in a supportive atmosphere. The class provides an introduction to Zen practice that will enable newcomers to learn how to meditate and set a foundation for continued practice. Beginners should arrive promptly at 6:30 p.m. to receive instruction on how to sit zazen and on proper etiquette within the zendo. Sitting will begin at 7 p.m. and last for 20 minutes. Following sitting there will be a discussion about why we meditate and time for questions. Cost will be $15 per person, which includes a copy of the Zen Manual and a coupon for $5 off the price of a zafu purchased at the Zen Center. Attendees should wear loose-fitting, modest clothing that will not distract others. We encourage beginners to enroll in Sitting 202 after completion of Sitting 101. Sitting 202 consists of two sessions. The first session is on Saturday, September 22 from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. The topic for this session is the life and teachings of Buddha. The second session discusses how our practice applies to our everyday life. It will take place on Saturday, September 29 from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Each session includes a 20 minute period of zazen and time to ask questions. Students are asked to arrive on time for both classes. The cost of each session of Sitting 202 is $15 per person. Sitting 202 is offered to people who have previously taken Sitting 101 or who have been attending the Monday evening sittings for beginners. The regular Monday evening sittings are designed especially for beginners. The Monday evening sitting is from 7-7:20 p.m., followed by discussion. These shorter sittings can help people to ease into the practice at their own pace, in a way they can sustain over time. Sesshin, Sept. 14-16 A day and a half sesshin has been scheduled for Saturday, September 15 through Sunday, September 16, with an option to begin on Friday evening, September 14. The sesshin will begin at 6:20 a.m. on September 15 and will include an oryoki lunch. Sitting will end at 9:30 p.m. on the 15th and resume at 6:20 a.m. on the 16th following the normal Sunday schedule. Cost for the sesshin is $30 and preregistration is requested. Contact the Zen Center to register and indicate if you will be attending the oryoki lunch when you register. Sesshin attendees may begin on Friday evening, September 14. The normal Friday schedule will be observed for the first two sittings, followed by kinhin and a third sitting. There are two special events occurring during or just after the sesshin. From 4-6 p.m. on September 15, the Missouri Interfaith Conference will take place at a local Hindu center. Zen Center members are invited to attend. The Saturday sesshin schedule may be altered to accommodate the conference and lay ordination rehearsal. Details will be provided later. Lay ordination will take place on September 16, after the sesshin concludes. Sleeping space is available at the Center on both Friday and Saturday nights. You will need to bring your own sleeping bag and towel. Because lay ordination rehearsal will take place on Saturday, people who stay on Friday night will need to fold up the futons and place their personal items out of the way during the day. We remind attendees that an important part of the sesshin experience is silence. During work periods, please talk no more than is necessary to accomplish a task, and in whispers when necessary. Oryoki is held in silence. DonÕt worry about doing oryoki perfectly. Follow what others are doing, relax and enjoy the silence and the shared meal. Lay Ordination and Potluck, Sept. 16 On Sunday, September 16 starting at 11:00 a.m., our teacher Dr. Rosan Yoshida will conduct the lay ordination ceremony. Three members of the Zen Center will be taking vows: Will Holcomb, Claire Schosser, and Jane Seelig. A potluck lunch will follow the ceremony. All Zen Center members and friends are invited to the lay ordination and potluck. Please join us as we support each other in our practice and grow together in the Awakened Way. Please Use Public Parking Lots Zen Center members and friends live in many different parts of the St. Louis region. Because of the regionÕs sprawled-out nature, it is difficult or impossible for many if not most of us to use public transportation to get to the Zen Center. Those of us who drive must find some place to park our cars while we are at the Center. We are accustomed to parking in our own garages, driveways, or on the street in front of our residence. That works well for a few cars. But the number of people sitting at the Zen Center has grown, and with it, the number of cars that must find parking. Our driveway space is limited, so most people park on the street. This is not a problem on weekday mornings since very few of the CenterÕs neighbors are out at that time. But on weekday evenings, and especially on Saturday and Sunday mornings, our cars cause problems for our neighbors. They take up space that visitors to our neighbors need for their cars. They make it more difficult for our neighbors to keep their yards and gardens maintained when our cars prevent easy access to parts of their yard. And because the street is narrow, they make it harder for our neighborsÕ cars to travel on the street. The easiest solution is for Zen Center members and friends to use the nearby public parking lots on weekday evenings and Saturday and Sunday mornings. There are two public parking lots that are less than two blocks from the Zen Center. The first one is behind the storefronts on the north side of Big Bend, west of the Zen Center. Access is from Old Orchard, the next north turn from Big Bend to the west of Oakwood. The second and newest public parking lot is in back of the Natural Fact restaurant, which is west of the intersection of Dale and Big Bend. Enter from Big Bend (the driveway on the west side of the McCord Design Group building where it says ÒPark in RearÓ) and exit on Dale. We ask that everyone attending evening sittings and Saturday and Sunday morning sittings park in one of these public parking lots and walk to the Zen Center. We realize that some of you are hesitant to walk alone when it is dark. If you are in this situation, check with some of the people whom you regularly see at your sitting times and form a ÒwalkpoolÓ with them to get from and to the parking lot. It would be most helpful for the evening and weekend doans to offer to help people form walkpools and to be part of them if they drive. The restructuring of Bi-State will affect public transportation options to and from the Zen Center. When the new schedules are put into effect, we will announce nearby bus routes and schedules through the newsletter, website, and posting at the Center. Perhaps some of you may find you are able to use and enjoy using the bus. Mindfulness Day, October 7 Mindfulness Day, a project of the Buddhist Council of Greater St. Louis, will be held on Sunday, October 7. Details will be available at a later date on our website, through the listserv, and by posting at the Zen Center. We encourage Zen Center members and friends to take part in Mindfulness Day. E-mail Discussion List To subscribe to the Missouri Zen CenterÕs e-mail discussion list, send an e-mail message to , leave the subject field blank and in the message body type Òsubscribe mzcÓ. You will then receive a confirmation message (including instructions on how to unsubscribe). On Daily Practice by Mark Maku Frank We often hear Dr. Yoshida extol the benefits of daily practice. He speaks of us Òcooling downÓ between periods of zazen if they are infrequent. When we have ÒcooledÓ we have once again fallen into thought patterns that cause suffering. When we have ÒcooledÓ it takes us longer to settle into our zazen when next we sit. Upon first beginning a practice it is a struggle to sit daily. Perhaps it is a struggle to sit weekly! We are unsure of our bodies and unsure of our minds, and we may be reluctant to do something every day if we are uncertain we are Òdoing it right.Ó It could be that we wrestle with the appropriateness of sitting every day. Our society is very prone to compulsive behavior. We overeat, overwork, overexercise and overmedicate. Perhaps it seems that just as we are trying to escape all that over-everything we are being asked to overmeditate as well. In seeking an escape from our stressful existence we may become further stressed by the seeming arduousness of the path. However, practice is not about replacing the anxiety of worldly pursuits with the anxiety of rigidly following some path. The practice of meditation allows us to come home to the place where balance exists, where our life and the world are in harmony, where nothing is overdone. It can take years of practice before sitting on a daily basis seems appropriate. Don't force it. But that is not to say you shouldn't try for yourself from the moment you first encounter zazen. Before beginning a daily practice we look forward to our next period of meditation. We have a rough week and we anticipate the peace we will feel in the zendo. Perhaps we have a really rough day and conclude that we have simply GOT to go to the Zen Center to meditate after work. That is good. It means that we have come to realize the rightness of the path, the benefits of the practice. But it is not good if we begin to look at zazen as a pleasant pill to take to help us deal with our harried lives. When we think in that way we are separate from our zazen. We enforce a false duality between ourselves and practice. Shunryu Suzuki speaks of this in his talk titled ÒNothing Special.Ó When we begin practicing daily, our zazen becomes nothing special. We may rebel against that thought. We WANT it to be special. We do it because it IS special. But when our zazen has become nothing special we have arrived home. We don't think of our home as being special. It is the place we are most comfortable, where we feel most at ease, where we are free to be ourselves. Dinner out is special. A party at a friend's house is special. Home is not special. Even after we decide to apply our energy to daily practice it is not easy. We have work and school schedules of spouses and children to consider. We have social engagements, exercise regimens and household chores that require our commitment. Is it selfish or irresponsible to do something only for ourselves when so many others need us and depend on us? The reality is that zazen is not only for ourselves. When we sit zazen and take the mind of zazen out into our daily lives we are taking an increased sense of compassion with us. We are taking an increased ability to focus and remain present. Our calm demeanor allows us to harmonize better with others and be attentive to where our energy is needed. This demeanor does not go unnoticed. It has a calming and harmonizing effect on all that we encounter. Isn't it better to spend twenty minutes alone in zazen which then allows us to radiate peace to our families rather than being Òon-callÓ all day long but being rough-edged and unsettled? Perhaps you've become committed to daily practice but the Zen Center is just not that convenient for you to come every day. Do what allows you to sit with regularity. However, Dr. Yoshida often speaks of each of us being embers. By ourselves we may fizzle but together we can start a fire. When we sit, be it alone or with others, it is always for the entire world. This is the Awakened Way. But when we sit together, our effort is magnified. Perhaps we are sitting and our mind seems in disarray, we've got so much to do, doubts may be haunting us and we may be wondering whether our effort is really worthwhile. Before we get up and leave we need to realize what a gift our presence has been to our fellow practitioners. Before getting caught up and departing with selfish thoughts we need to realize what a gift their presence has been to us. Please come sit with us. Ask questions of fellow practitioners who may have already wrestled with the issues you face. Become confident of your body and mind. They are really not two. Your confidence will allow your mind to become one with your practice. They are not really two, either. You will begin to feel at home, daily. Dharma Talk by Rosan transcribed by Tenmo After a shower, trees are loaded with heavy green leaves. Grasses and flowers are very lively and we sit in this calm, clear state. In our ordinary daily lives we live in turmoil out of confusion and stresses. When we sit, we notice that all these are dependently originated; all these are bubbles. Our attachments, aversions and delusions are all bubbles, dependently originated. Our attachment to the body and mind is also a bubble. Our life and death is a bubble called samsara, transmigration. When you practice the calming and the clearing of your body and mind, you notice it. Then you have the base before bubble, the great ocean. When you settle in your sitting, you see far enough, all over the great ocean, high mountains, deep sea. The Buddha said there is one dharma which is so uncultivated and unfit for cultivationÑthat is the mind. There is one dharma which is so cultivated and fit for cultivationÑthat is the mind. One dharma leads all dharmas. When we cultivate we see clearly, see bubbles, calm down. As the bubble shrinks, the great ocean appears. Your life becomes based on this great ocean; you become this great ocean. Originally that was our reality, but somehow in our worldly life we got used to this bubble state and created all the problems and sufferings. But when you sit constantly you come back to the original state. The ego becomes zero. The great ocean, the dharma world, becomes infinite. You live with all in unconditioned peace and unsurpassed awakening. Provide skillful means throughout your life and throughout all lives. This is the awakened way. You attain peace and share it with all. REGULAR ZENDO SCHEDULE SUNDAY 6:20 a.m. Zazen 7:00 a.m. Service (sutras) 7:20 a.m. Zazen 8:00 a.m. Kinhin 8:10 a.m. Zazen 8:30 a.m. Lecture/discussion, work period, tea You are welcome to come throughout the morning, but please do not enter the zendo during zazen. Enter quietly at other times. MONDAY 6:00-6:40 a.m. Zazen 7:00-7:20 p.m. Zazen 7:40-8:00 p.m. Reading 8:00-? p.m. Discussion TUESDAY 6:00-6:40 a.m. Zazen 7:00-7:40 p.m. Zazen (during BeginnerÕs Mind classes, open zazen is in the library) Following evening zazen except during BeginnerÕs Mind weeks Tea and Discussion WEDNESDAY 6:00-6:40 a.m. Zazen 7:00-7:40 p.m. Zazen (during BeginnerÕs Mind classes, open zazen is in the library) Following evening zazen on third Wednesdays of the month WomenÕs Night Following evening zazen Zen Writing Practice THURSDAY 6:00-6:40 a.m. Zazen 7:00-7:40 p.m. Zazen FRIDAY 6:00-6:40 a.m. Zazen 6:00-6:40 p.m. Zazen 6:40-7:00 p.m. Kinhin 7:00-7:40 p.m. Zazen