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Child-care is now available at the Dharma House during Sunday morning zazen and service from 8:30am to 10am, on Dharma School Sundays only. This is so parents can come and participate in services at the zendo before Dharma School starts. Children not enrolled in Dharma School can also attend child-care, but parents need to pick up their kids immediately after service, as the child-care attendants miraculously transform into Dharma School teachers or high school students.
The Fall Term opened Sun., Sept. 26, after a day-long retreat the day before for more than 30 term students. Sangha members, as well as all term students present, took turns stating their vows for the Fall term. By speaking one's vow before the community, practitioners are encouraged to maintain their vow, while the Sangha collectively holds the space and supports one another during the practice period.
DRZC now has the capability to accept payment for many goods and services on-line through our web site. You can sign up and pay for retreats, subscribe to Still Point, and purchase Zen Center publications. To purchase publications, point your browser to: http://www.dharma-rain.org/StillPoint/pp/pub.html.
On Sept. 26, in lieu of a Dharma talk, we opened the fall term with a well-attended Sangha forum - a general meeting of the membership, led by the board. We discussed our financial health, building maintenance, membership issues, ethical review, and changes in the by-laws. Complete board meeting minutes are posted on the bulletin board in the zendo basement, near the kitchen door, and in Still Point.
The building permit work continues: Things have been reorganized and are looking tidy in the basement, although this may be the calm before the storm of redoing the basement stairwell and exterior door.
In other news, we have finished the sidewalks at all three buildings, for a total cost of $1,650, significantly under the city's estimate of $7,890. The garage continues to decay, but has a new tarp on it to keep things dry through one more winter. Various smaller projects are always in the works.
If you are interested in helping out (whether you have skills to offer or want to learn one), please contact us by calling the temple. Work-practice volunteers during the past few months include Brendan Casticano, Anthony Stevens, Robert Flory, Ted McKey, Todd Fifield and Michael Sapiro. Special thanks to Michael Jacob, who scraped, primed and painted the wrap around porch at the Sangha House as part of his Eagle Scout Project.
The residency program continues to be an important part of the Zen Center training matrix. Current Dharma House residents are Kyogen, Gyokuko, Domyo, Anne Suiho Jensen, Brendan Castricano and Mike Sapiro. Mike will be leaving residency at the end of November in order to prepare for his departure for the Peace Corps in January, so there will be an opening for a full-time male resident soon. There have been inquiries into the 2 openings for female residents. Jill Bukkai Washburn and Richard Fumyo Mishaga are doing part-time residency this term. Sangha House residents are Kakumyo, Kenryu, Bess Yuishin and Ellen Clark.
Dharma Rain Zen Center residents commit to becoming an intimate part of the residential community as well as deepening their relationship to the larger DRZC Sangha. They commit to spending more time and energy doing formal practice, within the context of Sangha, than is usually possible outside of residency. During their term of residency they seek out and accept guidance from the Center teachers, Soto Zen teachings, and the dharma inherent in the Center's training matrix and traditions. Practitioners associated with other teachers and Buddhist groups may be considered for residency, but only if they and the residential review committee determine that a full commitment to DRZC residency is compatible with any obligations and involvements they already have.
As work outside the temple and personal commitments allow, residents attend daily zazen, communal meals, Wednesday evening and Sunday morning programs, work practice days, monthly Fusatsu and in-town retreats. They have sanzen with the Center teachers at least once a month, and participate in the Term Student program. They also hold regular temple jobs and make themselves available for temple work projects.
DRZC continues to grow as more guests and regular attendees become supporting members. Thank you to all who have made a commitment to practice, share and grow with Dharma Rain. If you have any questions regarding membership, please contact Kakumyo Lowe via email (staff@dharma-rain.org) or phone (503-239-4846).
The following is a list of those who have become new members over the last six months; please join us in welcoming them: Matthew Stewart, Mercy Strongheart, Jeffrey Wooliver, Isaiah Zeke Swango, Blair Vail, LaShelle Charde, Joseph Mann & Susan Shugerman, Julie Kettler, Masumi Hayashi-Smith, Moira & David Bell, Andrea McFarland, Sarah Mason, and Jodi DuBose.
The newsletter is assembled and edited during the first week of every other month. Submissions are very welcome: short or long articles, which can focus on any point of practice, including travel, research or personal experience; descriptions of events we've had; the occasional poem or drawing. We do not print anonymous articles. Please submit typed submissions if at all possible, and by e-mail if you can, to: newsletter@Dharma-Rain.org. (This saves the newsletter staff from having to re-type the work.) If you have questions, contact Choten at 503/234.3813.
Deadlines and possible topics:
January-February (New Year's eve, precepts study, Hossen): December 1
March-April (Jukai, spring term): February 1
May-June (Denkoe, end of term, summer): April 1
July-August (summer practice): June 1
September-October (fall term, term student program, Segaki): August 1
November-December (Founder's Day, Rohatsu, Christmas): October 1
Please consider having your monthly pledges to DRZC automatically withdrawn from your personal checking account. DRZC has entered into an agreement with an accounting service to process the monthly withdrawals from the checking accounts of participating members and deposit them in our account for a monthly maintenance fee charged to DRZC. In additional to saving everyone paper, this process will save time for our treasurer and will conveniently reduce each participating members monthly "To Do" list by one item.
Sign-up forms are available at the Center; just ask one of the priests or Board members, or call or drop us a line. When you complete the form, just return it to the Center with a voided personal check and sit back and relax; well take it from there.
Thanks To:
Thank you to all who give and support the stability and growth of the Center. Gassho to Zenkatsu Parker for peppers; Rob Bender for a printer; Nancy Gonzalez for fresh basil; Bob Orman for CD's and jewel packs; Renee Berblinger for veggies; Rich Mackin for bread; Tsarra Berger for pears; Carlene Orman for a captain's bed; Bill Frazier for frozen veggies; Kat for the sofa; and to everyone who helped with this year's yard sale!
Begging Bowl
The Center is in need of a vitamixer (a steel, heavy duty blender).
STILL POINT edit of 30 October 2004
archive edit 2/28/2004
Dharma Rain Zen Center Newsletter
Copyright Northwest Zen Sangha.
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