Dear Sangha. Here are two poems from today's Inquiry - one by Mary Oliver which I read, and another by RIchard Wilbur that Krzys mentioned when he came up. We are indebted to these two authors for their work and their wisdom, borne of their practice. It was lovely to be with everyone and reconnect.
Terns
Mary Oliver
Don't think just now of the trudging forward of thought,
but of the wing-drive of unquestioning affirmation.
It's summer, you never saw such a blue sky,
and here they are, those w…
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Added by Flint Sparks on February 2, 2010 at 4:00pm —
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I am sitting in Love Field in Dallas waiting for a delayed flight back to Austin after a week of retreat in the snowy mountains of Taos, New Mexico. As I type these words, the irony of "sitting in a field of love" suddenly captures my awareness and re-centers me, drowning out the harsh and garbled flight announcements, the overstimulated screams of running children, and the patchwork sounds of one-sided cell phone conversations (not to mention the penetrating smell of Cinnebons). Amidst all this…
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Added by Flint Sparks on January 30, 2010 at 6:46pm —
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Thank you everyone for your kind wishes for my precepts ceremony tonight. The "script" is quite daunting - I wish I had been able to join everyone else last fall but my son was sick. So I will go it alone (repeating "Yes, I will" 3 times!) - but not really alone since you will all be there in one fashion or another.
Namaste,
Robin
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Added by Robin Bradford on January 27, 2010 at 5:08pm —
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Thanks to John Daniewicz for once again organizing the four seasons sit. Today was a lovely day down in the RiverPlace creek canyon. It was definately chilly enough to keep me awake and attentive. The waterfall was flowing. The breeze was blowing. And to top it all off, there was a BodhiDarmha sighting... :)
(I just had to sneak this picture of William McRae silently illuminating during the first sit above the waterfall. :)
…
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Added by Todd Bankler on January 24, 2010 at 5:08pm —
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that's the name of my blog. please feel free to check it out and follow if you wish at zafureport.wordpress.com. the premise is to sit for 30 minutes every day in 2010 and blog about it. posts are generally under 300 words.
i have readers who are not buddhists. in fact, i'm not sure i'm a buddhist. i just sit.
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Added by mary ann reynolds on January 24, 2010 at 4:00pm —
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I was wondering if some of you might want to join me in an ecumenical peace process called: "Winter Feast For the Soul". It begins in 3 days/Friday/Jan. 15 and lasts for 40 days (until Feb. 23).
It all began 2 years ago by one woman who was inspired by 3 lines she came across from the 13 century poet & mystic Rumi
“What nine months does for the embryo
Forty early mornings
Will do for your growing awareness”
If you can't do your 40 minutes in the early a.m., then how about sitting in the m…
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Added by Kunzang Roesler on January 12, 2010 at 11:25am —
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Ben took this shot of an empty store in a nearby neighborhood. His wry caption was empty stores are the new kittens and flowers of the photo world
What does this photo evoke for you? My first thought was of losses: the economic downturn, the death
…
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Added by Peg Syverson on December 25, 2009 at 9:46am —
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The holidays present special challenges and opportunities for practice. Many people feel isolated or lonely, stressed or depressed at this time, while others are basking in the warmth and love of friends and families. You may experience a real roller coaster of emotions, thoughts, stories, interactions, and reflection. Sometimes the crush of activities means that we are not able to take good care of our bodies, spend time with those closest to us, or find time for meditation. Our practice under…
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Added by Peg Syverson on December 23, 2009 at 12:20pm —
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Hi, my father died on Sunday, while I was at the airport fixing to fly out to see him. I had talked to him by phone on Saturday (he knew who I was) and again on Sunday morning when he was unconscious, but I was able to say goodbye, tell him we got our smarts and our sense of humor from him, and tell him that if he wanted to go, he didn't need to wait for me. I called my sister from the airport to check on him and it turned that when I called was the moment he died. I'm sad I didn't get a chance…
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Added by Maureen Milligan on December 22, 2009 at 5:30pm —
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We've just completed the December 2009 Practice Intensive at Appamada. Twenty-three people participated, including some who traveled from Louisiana and Oregon. The theme for the intensive was Silent Illumination in Practice. Each morning, during service, we read Hongzhi's
"Acupuncture Needle of Zazen." . Dharma talks were interactive dialogues around three of Honghzi's…
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Added by Peg Syverson on December 8, 2009 at 10:30am —
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In a recent inquiry group at Appamada, Flint was refrencing the chapter on Coming to Our Senses in Joko Beck’s book “Nothing Special”. In the chapter, Joko talks about the importance of staying grounded in the present moment as we experience it through our five senses and the engagement of functional thought.
As Flint gave his talk and as I listened to the exchanges taking place with those going up for inquiry, the words Dharma Heroin kept coming up in my mind. When it was my own time in the in…
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Added by Ted Walls on November 23, 2009 at 3:30pm —
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Does anyone who's doing the Dec. intensive have a room I could stay in for the 3 nights of the retreat? Wondering if I can avoid family chaos or if that will be part of practice... Please reply directly to me: givingwing@gmail.com
Thank you! - Robin
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Added by Robin Bradford on November 16, 2009 at 8:41pm —
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Some of us in the sangha have been interested in Spiral Dynamics, based on the research of Clare Graves. I became curious about how the Spiral Dynamics model of human development—a model that applies to individuals as well as groups and whole societies—connected with the teachings of the Buddha. Graves developed his model based on over 30 years of research into the "psychologically mature human being,” and it has been enormously influential in many different fields: education, public policy,
…
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Added by Peg Syverson on November 7, 2009 at 9:15am —
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From: Clayton Maxwell
Date: November 3, 2009 11:01:04 PM CST
To: flint@flintsparks.com
Subject: baby here
Dear Flint and Peg,
Just wanted to thank you for the gift of the Inquiry group in my weeks leading up to birth. Harry Maxwell Sloan was born last Friday. We had a wonderful natural birth, a real joy after having had a c-section with my first. I do think that hearing Joko's reading about melting (in our inquiry two days prior) helped me resist the anesthesia. I visualized melting through th…
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Added by Peg Syverson on November 4, 2009 at 2:42pm —
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I enjoyed this article in today's New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/nyregion/01marathon.html. The author decided to walk 26 miles around the block where he lives in New York City. The longer he walked, the more he learned about his immediate surroundings.
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Added by Bill Smith on October 31, 2009 at 8:51am —
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Hello Appamada friends!
You can watch Claudia Willke's documentary on Joko online, here on Dutch TV archive:
http://www.boeddhistischeomroep.nl/uitzending.aspx?lIntYear=2003&lIntType=0&lIntEntityId=81
enjoy!
warmly,
Klaas
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Added by klaas on September 22, 2009 at 5:37am —
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without advancing anything the least particle,
without staring into despair
(maintaining that stillness is costly,
you will have nothing left to shout about)
if you are able to penetrate these rain clouds
or the damp sparkle on the mesquite leaves
let alone the inconceivable mysteries
of the human heart and mind
if there is one cup of tea made with
complete attention
you already know everything
you need to know
you are ready
now.
Are you still hesitating,
your hand on the door? Maybe
you did no…
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Added by Peg Syverson on September 19, 2009 at 10:13am —
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Recently, I realized that the calligraphy over the altar, the one that is simply titled “Mindfulness,” is actually the Japanese representation of
appamada. The kanji is composed of two simpler characters, and the Japanese word for it is
nen. The top character means “now, today, this present era, this moment”. It looks like a peaked roof, or a mountain. The bottom character,
shin, is usually translated as “heart” or “mind.” A more complete meaning of this character is “heart,…
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Added by Peg Syverson on September 14, 2009 at 10:00am —
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Yesterday Flint gave a lovely dharma talk at Austin Zen Center and led a one-day workshop there that was warmly received. In the talk he discusses several of the chants we use at Appamada. If you would like to hear the talk, it has been posted here:
http://austinzencenter.org/teachings/audio/audio.html
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Added by Peg Syverson on September 13, 2009 at 9:02pm —
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Last night the Zendo was completely packed for our first Precepts Ceremony at Appamada. You can see photos of the ceremony, taken by Cassie Weyandt, in the
flickr Appamada pool and the
album for the Ceremony. We congratulate the participants who took the precepts at the ceremony:
Lisa Kuntz
Ted Walls
Daryl Elliott
Tom Vandestadt
Pamela…
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Added by Peg Syverson on September 3, 2009 at 10:30am —
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