Thriving in Winter - Family Program

At this month's Children's Program, we explored the theme of surviving and thriving in the wintertime. We discussed and acted out various strategies that wild animals and human animals use to survive and thrive in the wintertime (including a "hibernation meditation"), and how we might be able to apply similar strategies to working with other challenging (and wonderful) circumstances in our lives. We then made peanut butter pine cone bird feeders in gratitude to the local animals inhabiting Shao Shan's woods. Inside the Zendo the children rang the big bell, and with each ring sent out loving-kindess to all beings

How To Cook Your Life - Teen Program

On Sunday, February 16, a group of teens ages 12-18 came to Shao Shan Temple for a special program on "How to Cook Your Life".  The day included meditation and a variety of activities.  We all worked together to prepare the vegetables for a delicious meal, while becoming familiar with the individual vegetables, our tools and remembering to breathe!  With a variety of activities we looked at how even in a clemetine, we can see our interconnectedness with each other and everything in the universe. 

Unitarian Universalist youth group visit

A group of middle school youth from the Unitarian Universalist Church in Montpelier, VT came and visited Shao Shan Temple on Saturday, Feb. 15.  They came as part of their program studying different religions.  The enthusiastic and curious group had a chance to hear about Soto Zen Buddhism, ask questions, listen to a typical service, participate in chanting, experience walking & sitting meditation and offer incense.

The New Year's Blessing (newsletter Dharma Talk)

Dharma Talk : The New Year’s Blessing

By

Rev. Taihaku Priest

Every year Shao Shan Temple, in the tradition of Buddhist monasteries, creates and sends New Year’s Blessings. Each year, Shao Shan Temple selects a different message for the upcoming year. This year the message is KI-KAI or Insight-Open. This message for 2020 revealed itself as the red pines were falling. This past November, over 150 red pine trees within falling distance of the temple buildings were removed for safety reasons. There was a sense of loss with seeing these magnificent life forms being felled. In the midst of that, space opened up and in that space, possibilities that were not evident before began to arise.

We may think of insight as being a positive, bright lights, wonderful experience, but insight can also appear in the midst of loss and crisis. In the midst of loss and crisis, it can be like a roiling sea with waves of sadness, grief, anger, or confusion. In Buddhism we sometimes use this metaphor with the turmoil of circumstances being like the surface of the ocean and connecting with our center as the calm depths, our feet on the ocean floor. However, it is important to realize: it is all water. There can be the tendency to view the deeper layer as valuable and to want to discard or deny the waves, which include feelings, as superficial. Truly being with and penetrating the tears and the feelings is insight. The surface and the depths are all sacred water. In this past month, we as a sangha have experienced several losses of loved ones and there are other sangha members who are seriously ill. Let us experience fully the grief and the caring, the loss and the love. Let it break our heart open. Like the paintings of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, may we radiate tenderness.

In this New Year’s Blessing, the topmost character that we translated as “insight” is very interesting. The right side, 目 is the character for “eye,” the left side 貴 is a character meaning “precious” or “revered.” So together, it is like the eye that sees the value of everything. The second character is 開, the character for “open,” and is like a picture of a person going through a gate. There is also a Japanese pun here. This message “KiKai” is also the sound of the Japanese word for “opportunity” or “possibility.”

May we in this coming year be open to all the precious possibilities.

(For photos of how each year’s New Year’s Greeting is created see http://shaoshantemple.blogspot.com/2018/12/new-years-greetings-are-coming.html )

If you did not receive a New Year’s Greeting and would like one, please speak with us next time you are at the Temple!

Heart of the Way - ChoGetsu (newsletter article)

HEART OF THE WAY

By

Cho-Getsu

No matter where I shine a light in on my life, I see something fundamental, a spiritual rootedness. For periods I have forgotten this goodness —this Buddha Nature — but something always takes me back. Early spiritual training came being raised Catholic in a big family. It was fortunate for me that family life was infused with the sacred. The early loss of my father oriented my attention outward, greatly affecting how I continued to be in the world, and I did often need something true to come back to. 

When I was (or did) good, I was noticed and felt good, gaining some illusion that I could control outcomes by acting a certain way and trying hard. Once on my own, free from religious and parental guideposts, a new independence allowed me to succeed or to fall, get up, reroute and keep going. Learning on my own didn’t always pan out so well.

Without searching, I found Quakers. “That of God within” fit better and grounded me again. I was married there, nestled in arms of the rocky Downeast coast, family who supported despite reservations, and a spiritual community I never expected to leave. Sunday morning’s quiet contemplation until one is “moved to speak” resonated better than an authoritative God-figure. I quickly fell into “true” and blossomed there, enhanced by the raising of two children and a simple life. Discovering the good inside was a boost I’d need before marital struggles led us to Vermont, where I’d again try navigating on my own. Comfort was found in a small Methodist church community, but it felt more like Linus’s blanket, and I’d eventually give it up for something to carry inside me.

Untying the marital knot led me to meditation with the goal of calming my mind and finding equanimity. It gave me a needed resilience. New gates appeared when I chose to study the Buddha Way.  The gate opened to India where I’d attend the Dalai Lama’s public teaching of The Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. Benefiting all beings became my aspiration. His Holiness’s words “NEVER GIVE UP” are right here when health and emotional challenges come up, and I’m reminded they too are the path. When I returned, instead of settling into the Mahayana lineage at Milarepa, I discovered a little Japanese temple down the road from me, Shao Shan Temple.  A small blanket’s comfort and the expansiveness of travel gave way to the inner solace found when I let myself rest in the arms of Buddha. I discovered I can tap into and hold the universe in my hands with a trusted teacher guiding and sangha inspiring me to live by vow.

There have been many gates along the Way that have taken me through obstacle to opportunity.  I attended Shao Shan’s first study group and never stopped, said yes to the spontaneous invitation to join the first temple trip to Japan, and became one of Taihaku’s first students.  I became a sewing guide under Kenzan’s tutelage and would help sew Taihaku’s Mountain Seat robe (see photo above) and guide new students of the Way to make their own robes. And I was wed to David by Taihaku.

I am grateful that my path has been The Way of the Heart, where everything encountered becomes a teaching and a gift, and where effort can relax, because what I need is right here.  Thank you.

Annual Meeting Summary (newsletter article)

2020 Annual Meeting Summary

February 1, 2020, 10:00 am to 12:00 pm

Little Hall, Shao Shan Temple

On February 1 members of the Shao Shan Temple  sangha gathered in the Little Hall to attend the 2020 Annual Meeting. Present were Development Committee members Taihaku, Kenzan, Noah, Judy, and Max (Stella was ill).  Fourteen other members of the sangha were also present.  

TEMPLE REPORTS
The 2019 Temple Reports were distributed by email prior to the meeting and were also available at the meeting. The Development Committee took questions on the Sangha Report, Program Report, Buildings & Grounds Report, Cemetery Report, and Financial Report. There were approximately 103 first-time visitors to the temple in 2019. Approximately 55 people consider Shao Shan their spiritual home. Participation at temple programs remains steady and has even increased at the Tuesday and Friday evening programs. Participation at Saturday Work Practice has also increased since the last Annual Meeting.  Sangha members were invited to let the priests know if they would like to volunteer at times other than scheduled work practice times. Sangha members suggested ways to expand publicity regarding the Introduction to Shao Shan and Open House programs. 

2019 FINANCIAL & FUNDRAISING ACTIVITIES

It was reported that income from donations in 2019 more than exceeded the total budget for the year.  People were especially generous in this year’s Alms Round. There were slightly more donors this year and several donors gave larger donations. About 43% of donations from the Alms Round came from people who do not regularly attend the temple. There was a very good response to the Holiday Fair at the temple and at the Maple Corner Community Center. Bequests and Charitable Gift Annuities were also presented as additional ways to contribute to the temple endowment.  A number of strategies were discussed to increase the number of members making monthly pledges which now account for 18% of donations and expand the Annual Alms Round. 

SHAO SHAN TEMPLE MASTER PLAN

It was reported that the Development Committee was actively involved in reviewing the bylaws and other temple policies. Now that the organization is more developed there is a need to expand the original bylaws. A subcommittee has been created for this purpose. Part of the bylaws review includes exploring a new organizational structure for the temple which involves a shared management model among the Abbot, Board, and in certain circumstances, a proposed “Council” of Abbots from other small Zen temples in the United States. The Council would help provide support and advice for the temple should the need arise.

The Development Committee is also working on a plan to transfer the land that the temple, buildings, and cemetery currently rest on from Taihaku to the Shao Shan Temple nonprofit organization. The temple and cemetery property will be conveyed to the Shao Shan Temple nonprofit organization in the near future. The land where Connie’s house and the White Jewel Mountain are situated will be transferred to the Shao Shan Temple nonprofit organization upon Taihaku’s death. The land where the rental properties and the garden are located will be conveyed to Taihaku’s children upon her death. The survey of the land has been completed and the necessary wastewater/water permits have been filed with the state and the town to meet regulations for subdividing the land.

2020  IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS

A number of planned improvement projects were discussed including:

·         Red pine stump removal & landscaping,

·         Temple interior/exterior maintenance,

·         Driveway maintenance.

Sangha members were also interested in the possibility of the temple converting to solar energy sometime in the future. 

FEEDBACK AND EVALUATION

Sangha members were very pleased with the programming that the temple is offering.  The new “Formal Student Gathering” program that was introduced this past year was enthusiastically welcomed.

It was the consensus of the group that the Annual Meetings were very helpful and the sangha appreciated the efforts of the Development Committee to organize and present the agenda. The meeting was a good balance between a formal agenda and an organic discussion which grew out of the agenda items.

The meeting adjourned at 12:05 PM.

Annual Meeting 2020

Shao Shan Temple's Annual Meeting took place on Saturday, February 2nd in the Temple's Little Hall.  While most of our programs are focused on matters of spiritual practice; this program is different in that it focuses on the administrative and functional aspects of Shao Shan Temple - the ground of how the Temple functions and moves forward. 

The Annual Meeting participants had the opportunity to review the Sangha Report, Program Report, Cemetery Report and the Financial Report and ask questions or offer feedback.  The Development Committee presented the progress on the "Master Plan" and Fundraising/Donations.  The meeting was engaged and interactive.

A summary of the meeting will be included in the next newsletter.