This year's Maintenance Weekend was August 14-17, 2025. This year was primarily minor upkeep rather than major projects. Work included: weeding, harvesting vegetables, processing vegetables for storage, sewing, machine maintenence, setting up the Mountain Retreat tent, installing a cemetery steps railing.
Deep gratitude to everyone who joined together as the life and breath of Shao Shan Temple!
Each day the children's program would first gather and share our names and something we had been noticing about the natural world. We reviewed our primary intentions in Zen Summer Camp, which were to pay attention, take care, and have fun! On the first day the children trekked over to the Leafye Garden, where we made sun prints using materials collected from the garden and beyond, harvested vegetables to snack on and share for lunch, and helped the adults with weeding and garden care. Periodically someone would ring a bell in the garden, everyone would pause and pay attention to our experiences of the present moment for a few breaths, and then resume our activities.
On the second day Susan Stitely shared a demonstration of kyudo, the art form of Japanese archery, with both the children and adults. Susan explained some of the history of kyudo, the various types of bows, arrows and equipment involved, and showed us a short-range shooting technique. The children were then able to spend time with Susan Calza, who painted their faces with designs inspired by nature and their personal interests. We explored various forms of nature art, including nature sculptures inspired by several Andy Goldsworthy books, as well as nature mandalas.
For the final day the children hiked up to the tent platform on top of White Jewel Mountain, gathering wild edibles and noticing other interesting aspects of the natural world, including various critters, stone walls, mushrooms, plants and trees. We spent some time in the cemetery, where we walked around the stupa and visited Taihaku's resting place. At the tent platform we ate snacks and made "tree tea" with the hemlock, balsam fir, white pine and yellow birch we had gathered, along with a dash of maple syrup! The adults had the opportunity to practice Zen Calligraphy with instruction from Rev. Daishin.
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Thank you to everyone who supported and participated in Zen Summer Camp this year!
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| Tiny Shao Shan Wild Strawberries |
May 24th, 2025 marked the 4th year since Taihaku Roshi's sudden passing. We had a special ceremony honored Shao Shan Temple's beloved founding abbot on this day directly after the Saturday morning program. We offered incense and chanting in the small room at the Taihaku Altar and then processed up to the cemetery chanting the ancestor lineage with each step. After offering incense at Taihaku Roshi's memorial stone we processed in silence back to the Temple and joined in a time of refreshments. The tender time of rememberance and connection was joined by all of nature with the calls of ravens and the fragrance of flowering trees.
On a perfect weather spring day, Sunday, May 11th, Shao Shan Temple celebrated Buddha’s birthday!
Participants were invited to join in a noble procession carrying parasols, walking sticks decorated with colored streamers, bubble wands and little bells. The procession was accompanied by bells, drums, and conch.
There was the telling of the story of Buddha's birth.
Everyone had the opportunity to ladle pure water over a statue of the baby Buddha accompanied by Shakuhachi flute music.
The ceremony was followed by a delicious potluck, fiddle playing and gifts from Shao Shan for people's home altars!
Thank you to everyone who joined in the opening of the Temple garden on Saturday, April 19th!
We worked tilling the soil and shaping the garden beds - finishing just as the pouring rain started!
We began by introducing ourselves and sharing something we had been noticing about the natural world, such as the weather continuously changing its mind between winter and spring, the return of the robins, and green bulb shoots poking through the ground. We then listened to the story of the Blind Men and the Elephant, in which each blind man touches a portion of an elephant and insists that the elephant is like a pillar (leg), a rope (tail), a wall (body), a tree branch (trunk), and a pipe (tusk), depending on the part they were touching. We discussed how each of us has a unique perspective, which is only partly true, so it is important to respect and listen to the perspectives of others as well.
Next, we looked at a variety of optical illusions, which challenged our brains to see things differently. Another brain-stretching challenge was trying to write or draw with our non-dominant hand. We also played a game called Morph, in which each person copied the movement of another person, who also was copying the movement of another, and practiced moving with change while staying in the moment.
After snack, we proceeded to the Temple zendo, where we shared the Morph game with the adults, and ended with a bell-ringing meditation and group OM.
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| Heart Sutra Copying Practice |
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Ven. Lhundub Chodron Dharma Talk #2
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With deep gratitude to all the visiting teachers and to all who participated in this year's Winter Practice Period - may it be of benefit.
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| Rev. Kenzan - Dharma Talks #1&5 |
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| Temple front doors open during meditation |
