2025 New Year's Greeting Cards

 

 Shao Shan Temple's

2025 New Year's Greetings

have been sent!  

Below is the message on the back of each.

-------------------------------------

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2025

This prayer tablet is an expression of Shao Shan Temple’s deep wishes and dedication to the welfare of the community.  It is a bridge between the temple and your everyday practice

This has been placed on the temple’s altar - it has been charged with the great energy of faith and courage. 

This prayer tablet is designed to be displayed in your home to bring peace and protection for the upcoming year.

This year’s message is

RETURN 
to the

ROOT

( KI – KON)

May peace and blessings extend from your home to the wider world in the upcoming year.

Each card is hand done in a multiple step process.  

Above photo shows the cards with the ink drying after being stamped with the red star and before the gold circle. 

To see additional detailed photos of the card construction process, see previous years' blog entries (2022 & 2021)

Winter Solstice 2024

 

 At this time of the longest night, we gathered together to acknowledge the time of Winter Solstice.  With chanting, darkness and candlelight, we joined together in blessing in this time of transition - the longest night of the year and the returning of the light.

Shao Shan Temple offered two Winter Solstice Ceremonies - both an earlier in-person ceremony and later an online one - sharing the light and resting in a nourishing dark.

Generosity & Gratitude - December Children's Program

 For December's Family Program we met virtually and celebrated generosity and gratitude. We first shared observations of the natural world, including animal tracks in the snow, the varying warm and cold temperatures, and the shorter daylight hours.

 We then read and acted out a chapter titled "The Letter" from Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel. In the story Toad is feeling sad because it is the time of day when the mail arrives, but Toad never receives any mail. Frog gets inspired to go home and send Toad a letter, in which he thanks Frog for being his best friend. Frog then gives the letter to Snail, who takes a very long time to bring the letter to Toad's mailbox. In the meantime Toad can't wait to tell Frog that the letter is coming, and so the two friends sit together on the porch waiting for the letter and feeling grateful for their friendship. 

After the story we discussed various ways to practice generosity and gratitude, including just breathing, in which we generously share carbon dioxide with the trees, who then generously share oxygen with us in a beautiful, ongoing cycle. After a brief generosity and gratitude meditation we listened to the ringing of the temple bell and shared a group "OM."

Rohatsu Sesshin 2024

 The Rohatsu Sesshin is a meditation retreat the first week in December.  This is a time of concentrated practice to commemorate Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment upon seeing the morning star.  Temples around the world join in this practice.

The sesshin consisted primarily of sitting and walking meditation and also included oryoki breakfasts, lunch with food offering walks, an opening ceremony (Ryakufusatsu), brief dharma talks, and a celebratory closing ceremony.  

This year was the snowiest Rohatsu in memory with an estimated 15" snow total by the end of Sesshin!

The Dharma Talks focused on the 5 Faculties of Awakening: Conviction, Perserverence, Mindfulness, Concentration and Discernment.

Courage & Kindness - November Children's Program

For November's online Family Program, we explored the themes of courage and kindness. 

We began by sharing our names and something we had been noticing about the natural world, such as the colder temperatures, windy days, bare trees of "stick season," and many shades of brown. 

We then discussed courage and bravery - when we feel scared or anxious, but choose to do the thing we feel afraid of anyway because it is important to us. We read and acted out the book Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall, in which a young boy, Jabari, feels nervous about going off the diving board, but through the support of his father, some back and forth, taking a deep breath, and reframing something scary as a surprise, Jabari finds the courage to take the plunge. Our group shared stories of times we have acted with courage and bravery in the face of fear.

And we practiced loving-kindness meditation, which, as the story goes, the Buddha offered as a practice to some monks who were feeling afraid of sleeping in the forest. We ended with the ringing of the bell and a group "OM."

October Meditation Retreat

October 18-20, 2024 was Shao Shan Temple's Autumn Sesshin(meditation retreat). The weekend sitting was accompanied by full moon nights and brilliant sunny days.

Garden Closing - Work, Ceremony & Potluck

 

 On a October 12th, we gathered to for a garden work day, season-closing ceremony and a harvest potluck.  We filled buckets with the harvest of carrots, beets and rutabagas.  Work time was followed by a Garden-Closing Ceremony - expressing gratitude for all that had made the garden possible and apologies to all beings harmed in the gardening process. This was followed by a delicious Harvest Potluck around the fire (with s'mores!).

Annual Remembrance Ceremony 2024

This year the Annual Remembrance Ceremony took place Saturday evening, October 5th.  The beautiful evening ceremony was surrounded by candles and firelight took place both in front of the Temple and in the cemetery. 

The Annual Remembrance Ceremony is a time to honor deceased loved ones, our spiritual lineage and those who are interred in the Shao Shan Temple Cemetery.

This ceremony also includes elements of the Japanese Obon Ceremony - a time to honor the ancestors and to invite them to be with us for a celebration.

Beginning Zen Class 2024

 For the first time, Shao Shan Temple offered a three week "Beginning Zen" class as a follow-up to the usual Temple Introduction program.  Classes  discussed basic Buddhist teachings and practiced fundamental Zen forms.  In the 3rd class Rev. Seiso Cooper joined as guest teacher and taught on Shikantaza - "just sitting".

24th Anniversary Celebration/Ceremony!

On Sunday, September 15th, we commemorated Shao Shan Temple's 24th Anniversary - 24 years since the Opening Ceremony in the year 2000.  

Prior to the Ceremony itself, there was the option of a time of meditation.An important aspect of Anniversary Ceremonies now is honoring Shao Shan Temple's founding abbot - Taihaku Nishiren Diaosho - who created, envisioned and manifested this beautiful place of practice.  There was the option of offering incense in her memory during the Heart Sutra chanting

The Shao Shan Anniversary has for many years included tying ribbons with our intentions onto the gold pole in front of the Temple while chanting "Namu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo" and that tradition was continued this year.  

The bright sunny day celebration was followed with refreshments and fiddle music!

Maintanence and Work August 2024

Painting the Temple stucco

This year, August was a "Summer Schedule" with special events on the weekends and without the usual weekday programs.  This allowed for several major maintanence projects to support and care for the Temple as it also supports and cares for us.

  

staining the siding

painting the altar

polyurathaning the altar

processing garlic

The first major project was a complete refinishing of the Temple altar - fresh polyurathane and paint - with the red & gold paint carefully matched to the original colors.  

The second major project was caring for the Temple building exterior - the stucco cracks were filled and all stucco painted, the wood siding stained and cracks around doors and windows were chalked.

Other work projects included processing garden harvest, touching up the Temple Sign, new shelves for meditation cushions, staining all the building decks, planting grass, and so on.

cleaning under the altar

A big thank you to all the Temple community members who helped with these and other projects over the past month.  

touching up the Temple sign

Temple cleaning after construction

THANK YOU!

Nature Spirit Pilgrimage 2024

On a perfect-weather late-summer day, we gathered at Shao Shan Temple to acknowledge and pay respect to the greater nature that supports our practice.  This included a modified version of a ceremony done in Japan for blessings in gratitude to the protecting Spirits of the Land.

We offered flowers, incense and chanting at multiple sites on the Temple land acknowledging the myriad ways - known and unknown that they support our practice.

Little woodland frogs, toads and newts greeted our path and bird songs accompanied our meditations.

The program included several short blocks of outside meditation and was followed by lunch including vegetables fresh from the Temple's The Leafye Garden.

Zen Summer Camp 2024

 

Rev. Jisho Dharma Talk

This year was our third Family-friendly Summer Practice Days (aka: "Zen Summer Camp") and it was again a fun and inspirational time of practice for participants of all ages.  Shao Shan was again honored to have the family of Rev. Jisho Siebert, Rev. Dashin McCabe and their two children be an integral part of the program.  

The program was preceded by a Dharma Talk by Rev. Jisho on Thursday on "Buddha's Instructions for Working with Anger."

Children making bread knives

Most of our programs are either oriented towards families or towards adults.  This several day period, August 9-11, of Temple Practice allowed all of the community to come together.  We began and ended each day with a Dharma song.  The program included a combination of activities for adults and children separately, and activities for the whole Temple Community together. 

Adults had time for meditation, discussions and an activity (Japanese calligraphy, sewing practice stretching exercises for meditation).

The children's activities were varied including a brief time each day inside the Temple, making a wooden breadknife, mindfulness games in nature and harvesting in the garden.

Children bringing back buckets of harvest from the garden

Daily lunchtime was followed by a food offering walk and closing circle.

Adults making small altar cloths

lunch!

Summer Sesshin (Meditation Retreat)

This year, we had a Summer Sesshin (Meditation Retreat) at Shao Shan Temple on July 19th - 22nd.  This is the first time in many years that we have held a meditation retreat in mid-summer and it was well-attended and accompanied by perfect weather.

For the Opening Ceremony, we did the RyakuFusatsu (Full Moon Bodhisattva Ceremony) - coincidently on a a full moon weekend.

Days of sitting and walking meditation were accompanied by birdsongs and cawing ravens.

Sunday morning included a Shosan Ceremony - Formal Question & Response, where every participant formally asked Rev. Kenzan a question.

Sunday's Formal Question & Response Ceremony

Shao Shan just before the early morning sitting

Meals in the screen house

 

Food Offering

Fresh garden veggies gathered for meals

Kitchen cooking & cleanup (thank you, Tenzo Shikan!)

Full moon over Little Sacred Mountain