Spring Equinox Zazenkai

 

As part of the Winter Practice Period, on Sunday, March 20, the temple held a well-attended half-day meditation retreat (Zazenkai).

The Zazenkai was online because this year's “mud season” is the most intense in decades and many dirt roads are nearly impassable. We joined together online supporting one another in a morning of intensive practice.

The morning’s program included opening and closing ceremonies, zazen (sitting meditation), kinhin (walking meditation), and a Dharma Talk by Rev. Kenzan.  In the Dharma Talk Kenzan wove together passages from the "Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi" and the theme of Spring Equinox - speaking of the balance & interpenetration of light and dark, the dark as a metaphor for oneness and unity and allowing our roots to sink into the unknowable mystery. 

Close up of a road mud puddle

Winter Practice Period 2022

From March 2 - 22, Shao Shan Temple immersed itself in a Winter Practice Period. 

The Practice Period was designed to provide an opportunity for sangha members to make a special commitment to practice during these three weeks. Rev. Kenzan added additional opportunities for extended sitting,  experiencing new chants, discussions, and learning new roles or forms during Practice Period services.  During Zoom programs, sangha members were encouraged to experiment with joining sittings and services with video on. Having the video on can increase both the sense of community support and responsibility. 

The theme for the Practice Period was the “Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi,” a 9th century Chinese poem which is a core Soto Zen text and is chanted every other day in Monasteries in Japan. The study group discussions focused on this text and it was chanted on Wednesday mornings and at the end of the late afternoon sittings.  Readers can find the text of the poem here: Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi (and in Japanese). 

Sangha members were very appreciative of Rev. Kenzan’s efforts to make this revitalizing program available. 

Spring coming - children's program

For March's Children's Program we celebrated the coming of... Spring? 

Amidst a blustery late winter/early spring snowstorm, we each shared something that we've been noticing about nature, including how the weather keeps changing its mind a lot from warm and muddy to cold and snowy and back again, as well as the changing songs of the chickadees, the return of the robins, and the lengthening of the daylight. We then re-read and acted out the book 

When Spring Comes by Kevin Henkes and illustrated by Laura Dronzek, in which the grass turns from brown to green, empty gardens become luscious beds of flowers and leaves, children muck around in the mud, and, of course, the weather changes its mind a lot! 

We then planted some seeds of one of Taihaku's favorite flowers, zinnias, for the Temple garden, which we will eventually get to plant into the garden together. 

We used our bodies to explore the changing energy of the seasons, from quiet winter to antsy spring to raucous summer to frenzied fall and back to tranquil winter once again. 

We ended by listening to the sound of the Temple bell and then made a bell of our own voices sounding OM.