Winter Solstice 2023

 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 across the distance and sinking into a nourishing dark that knows no distance.

Cookies and generosity - Children's program

 For December's online Family Program we were fortunate to have friends join us from Iowa, Florida and Virginia, as well as several Vermonters, and explored the themes of generosity and self-restraint. We began by introducing ourselves and sharing something we've been noticing in nature, such as the longer nights, sunny days, icicles forming, colder weather, and oranges harvested from orange trees (guess where!). 

We then acted out the story "Cookies" from Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel. In the story Toad makes some delicious cookies, which he generously shares with Frog. The cookies are so delicious that Frog and Toad have a hard time stopping themselves from eating them all. Frog realizes that they need to practice will power. They try putting the cookies in a box, tying the box with string, and putting the tied box high on a shelf, but each time they realize they still have access to the cookies. Finally, Frog generously decides to throw the rest of the cookies to the birds, feeling good about practicing will power. Toad, on the other hand, invites Frog to keep the will power, as he is going to go bake a cake. We discussed how sometimes it can be an act of generosity to practice will power, or self-restraint, such as when we restrain ourselves from saying or doing something that might cause harm to ourselves or others. 

We practiced a brief meditation exploring how with each in-breath we can experience gratitude for the oxygen shared with us by plants and trees, and with each out-breath we can experience generosity as we share carbon dioxide with the plants and trees. 

We then demonstrated making peanut butter pine cone bird feeders and ended by listening to the Temple bell and sounding a group OM.

Rohatsu Sesshin 2023

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.

Ringing the 7am bell

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.  

A snowstorm with 8"+ of heavy wet snow resulted in no electric power for part of the time, adding to the depth of quiet.

Zazen during the electric outage

The theme of this year's Rohatsu Sesshin was Keizan Zenji's koan of Shakyamuni Buddha's enlightenment from the "Transmission of Light".

Shakyamuni Buddha saw the morning star, 

awakened to the way 

and said

 "I together with the great earth and all sentient beings simultaneously attain the way."

November 1/2 day Zazenkai

On a cool November morning with little snowpellets followed by alternating sun and clouds, practioners gathered on Sunday, November 19th at Shao Shan Temple for a full morning of intensive practice.

The Zazenkai program included opening and closing ceremonies, zazen (sitting meditation), kinhin (walking meditation), and dokusan(individual meetings) and a Dharma reading/talk. 

The Dharma reading was from Zen Master Hongzhi. An excerpt of which is below.

"Here you can rest and become clean, pure and lucid. Bright and penetrating, you can immediately return, accord and respond to deal with events. Everything is unhindered, clouds gracefully floating up to the peaks, the moonlight glitteringly flowing down mountain streams. The entire place is spiritually transformed, totally unobstructed and clearly manifesting, responsive interaction like box and lid fitting or arrowpoints meeting."  

- Zen Master Hogzhi (Cultivating the Empty Field, Taigen Dan Leighton trans.)

Gratitude & trees - family program

For the children's portion of November's in-person Family Program, we enjoyed exploring the themes of gratitude and interconnectedness. 

We first shared our names and things we've been noticing in nature, including the colder temperatures, shorter days and longer nights, ice floating on top of grass, emptier gardens, fewer leaves on trees, and the recent snowfall. 

We then read the book the tree in me by Corinna Luyken, which explores how eating a single apple with mindfulness and gratitude can help us experience our connection with all things. We practiced being trees ourselves and then made a gratitude tree with decorated hanging leaves illustrating things we feel grateful for. 

We also made gratitude journals and used an apple peeler-corer-slicer to prepare our snack of apples and cinnamon, using apples from the trees Taihaku Roshi planted perhaps forty or fifty years ago! 

We concluded by gathering with the adults outdoors and offered bows and bells to the earth, sky and everything in between.