Tag: StillPoint
Lotus Blooming update Our capital campaign to Plant Zen in Siskiyou Square continues. This fall and winter we are asking our membership to lead the way by making pledges. In the spring we will start looking farther afield. In the past six weeks, the following people have made donations or pledges totaling $70,050! Anonymous; Thomas… Read more »
DRZC member and Lay Disciple Michael Gyoshi Kaplan has been in Nepal and other part of Asia on an extended trip as he begins his retirement from a career in engineering. He recently sent this email to his teacher, Kyogen, and to Getsushin Brox, with whom he works in the prison program. It is published here with permission.… Read more »
Contractors have put this pile of dirt (called a surcharge) in place on the new property in preparation for construction in the spring. It will compact the soil underneath it over the next several months. The road is also rocked in, as the property begins to take shape.
This last week has seen big equipment working on the land scraping out the road and roughing it in. The contractors will also put in the surcharge, big piles of dirt where the buildings will be, in order to compact the soil in preparation for building next spring. They have also put in a lot… Read more »
From our Archives – an article printed years ago, and used as a handout – By Kyogen Carlson Next to Jukai, which comes every spring, Segaki is the most important festival on our calendar. The name “Segaki” means “feeding the hungry ghosts,” and the rituals and practices done for this festival contain a great deal… Read more »
This summary describing the work of the temple’s three major decision-making bodies is published regularly. Each of the three major bodies of the temple mandala, the Board of Directors, the Dharma Council and the Mandala Council meets monthly and provides notes to be consolidated for a report to the general sangha. A governance notebook with… Read more »
The 2013 youth summer camp “Mandala on the Mountain” ran from July 14-20 at Camp Adams not far from Portland near Molalla. This year we had 43 campers coming from Seattle, Tacoma, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Missouri as well as Oregon. These, along with 11 counselors and four support staff, all had a great… Read more »
From our Archives: an article by Kyogen Carlson Based on a Dharma Talk Kyogen gave at Dharma Rain Zen Center August 15, 2010 and published in Still Point May 2011. I had a conversation with a sangha member a few years ago. He said he had been looking at his life, at all his difficulties… Read more »
At Segaki we focus on cleansing karma and releasing attachments to the past, including those who have died. This annual retreat begins Friday, October 25 and continues through the Festival of Segaki Sunday morning, and ends with Segaki Toro on the evening of Sunday, October 27. See the schedule for more information and to register… Read more »
Our unbroken string of work parties with good weather was finally broken, as we worked in the rain last Sunday, September 29. Madison High School students oriented themselves to the site in order to find potential points for their work. They formed into teams which will include those taking water samples over a long period… Read more »
An Open Letter from Sallie Jiko Tisdale “Most people today mistakenly think that constructing buddha-images and building stupas helps the buddha-dharma flourish,” wrote Dogen in September of 1235. “Even though we might erect huge temples adorned with polished jewels and gold, we cannot attain the Way by these works. To learn even a single phrase of the… Read more »
Last Monday, September 23rd, a group from the Lummi Tribe on the Washington coast came through Portland with totem pole 22 feet high carved by elder Jewell Praying Wolf James, who is accompanying it on a journey from eastern Montana to Vancouver BC. Some years ago the Lummi started a tradition of taking poles to places… Read more »
As you know, the Board of Directors voted to pay down some of the costs of developing our new property by selling the zendo and Dharma House earlier than we had originally anticipated. While this is still our plan, it’s undergoing modification as we bow to circumstance.
First of all we want to thank HandsOnPortland for their energetic support of our work practice day Tuesday, July 30. They helped move wood chips on the Oak Savanna portion of the property to control invasive grasses, and with restoration in the ravine on the NE and eastern edge of the property. Speaking of that,… Read more »