Dharma Rain News
Last week five Dharma Rain members joined 15 other people in the 18th annual Cultivating the Way Retreat at Empty Field Zendo west of Eugene. Led by Dharma Teachers Seido and Genko, the 4-day retreat offered the participants a great container for practice in a beautiful organic farm setting. It being harvest time, the food was, as always, wonderful. We co-created a new and wonderful Sangha, which featured people from at least five different sanghas in Oregon – Portland, Beaverton, Corvallis, Eugene, and near neighbors.
Standing, left to right: Genko, Chris, Jitsuso, Richard, Bruce, Darcy, Joel, and Seido.
Seated, left to right: Karen, Kakuon, Hope, Kim, Josu, Rishin, Brian, Pam, Adele, Futai, and Seiryu. Not pictured: Senkei.
Late summer’s bounty continues to pour in to the kitchen. Thanks to Mark Sosetsu Stauffer for apples and pears, and to Seido for much delicious produce. We are also harvesting a bumper crop of tomatoes. So there has been much activity of canning, drying, roasting, freezing, and EATING lots of wonderful food.
Much work has centered around getting the Frog Song classroom ready to begin the new school year on Tuesday. They are meeting new requirements in order to be a certified Montessori program, and in order to operate a full-day program.
As a result of Frog Song moving into a duplex unit 4 (marked D2), we are also moving the library into Uji East, which creates more room for the office to expand. In addition, we are setting up the sewing/craft area in Unit 2 (marked C2). All of these areas are in process, and we will try to post pictures as they come together and get organized.
Wednesday Work Parties
Dharma Rain hosts regular Wednesday work parties from around 9am to 3:30pm. There is plenty of work for people to do, inside and outside, light and heavy. Come for as much or as little of the time as you wish. We have tools and gloves, but if you have your own, feel free to bring them. If you are around at 12:30pm, we feed you lunch.