Year: 2016

All are invited to attend Dharma Rain’s spectacular and much-anticipated Not Necessarily Talented Show on Saturday, September 10 at 7pm. The show will feature a wide variety of wonderful acts, including an acroyoga trio, belly dancing, ukulele, hard shoe Irish dancing, kazoo, and bamboo flute. Then there will be a hilarious surprise play by Tiny… Read more »

Fall Ango will begin by recognizing old women in zen’s timeless koan heritage, the challenges and opportunities they offered then and even now. Bukkai’s talk is inspired by “The Old Woman of Mount Wutai,” a koan from ninth century China, and her own experiences of many years. This talk was Sunday, September 4.

This year’s annual late-summer retreat at the Empty Field west of Eugene was well-represented by Dharma Rain. This unique event, Cultivating the Way, is held on DRZC teacher Seido’s organic farm, and allows for a special kind of awareness of the natural world within Zen practice. The sweet little zendo is actually similar, though smaller… Read more »

We continue to do finish work in the Sodo. Here, Ikuo re-installs a shelf under the new bulletin board. You can also see the new curtains for the hallway leading to the bathrooms. The shelves that were previously hung in the entry way, by the sanzen room, and above the beverage table are now being… Read more »

Science can explain how a flower opens, but watching a flower open is an entirely different experience. Jyoshin looks at aspects of Buddhism that came from Asia to the western world, and how the western mind works with these. One example is invocations to deities. What is the usefulness of considering such invocations as a… Read more »

The large slab of wood in front of the Sodo is destined to become a beautiful sign, including the tomoe and our name, Dharma Rain Zen Center. These have been traced on to the board, and will be carved and painted during the next few months. Can you see the faintly-traced tomoe in the photograph?… Read more »

Dharma Rain has many programs and many ways to serve and be served, but ultimately, Dharma Rain is a Zen temple. The strength of Zen is that it brings zazen and other practices and tools to help us transform the obstacles in our own minds. Gyokuko will talk about the significance of Zen and the… Read more »

Frog Song Montessori Preschool is finishing up its last week of summer camp. For the last five weeks, the children have been exploring the natural world. Through exploration and experimentation they’ve learned about birds, water, plants, trees, and the earth that supports us. Here Gyokuko is taking some children on a bird walk. They’ve been… Read more »

Summer’s bounty is coming on, with this donation gracing our counter top this morning. In addition, fresh tomatoes, basil, mint and other herbs, potatoes, beets, plums and berries have been coming from our own gardens. Yesterday the Oregon Tradeswomen were back for their fourth and last round of framing in the workshop/barn. Our own trusty… Read more »

Many of us find a sense of identity in being part of a group, a family, a tribe. But sometimes conflict arises when we want our own independent identity and distrust the tendency to succumb to group-think. This conflict leads right to the central koan that we all grapple with – Who Am I? To… Read more »

Last week’s Genzo-e was the biggest ever. Highlights included sitting out on the engawa, and a walk in the ravine on the last day. Yesterday the Oregon Tradeswomen were back for their third round of framing in the workshop/barn. Groundwork was here as well, continuing to work on a community garden. Yesterday’s work party did… Read more »

We are on Genzo-e Sesshin this week, studying Dogen’s fascicle Avalokiteshvara. In this talk, Kakumyo explores the interplay of witnessing and immediacy – how close do we get to our own experience? How many kinds of closeness are there? This talk was given Sunday, July 31.

This week we are on sesshin, with at least 20-30 people participating. Work practice includes gardening, sewing, putting up shelves and the kitchen door, watering, picking fruit, and of course making delicious meals for everyone. Yesterday the Oregon Tradeswomen were back for their second round of framing in the workshop/barn. We sit on the engawa… Read more »

What is the value of a human birth? We are reminded now and then that to be born a human being is special, of high merit. Why? What does this say about other beings? What does it say about how we should be living our lives? This talk was given Sunday, July 24.

Yesterday we had two different non-profit groups working side by side on the property. Groundworks made raised beds for a community garden space that they will administer. And Oregon Tradeswomen is framing inside the Workshop (also known as the Barn). They will be coming one day a week for a month. Wednesday’s work party saw… Read more »

What does it mean to practice with the daily news that arrives on the doorstep (or laptop) every day – tragedies from Orlando to Istanbul back to Dallas along with endless opinions and updates – and then return to our daily activity? Are we aware of our karmic habits receiving breaking news events and the… Read more »

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