Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple Open

Some last minute preparations.  Fluffy newly-sewn Zabutons.

Jizo greets us at the Zendo entrance.

Cakes and fruit, light, incense, and flowers for the Buddhas.

Enso by Shodo Harada Roshi.  Hogen points out that this enso reveals Roshi's state of mind, and encourages us to imagine the state of mind that could create such a piece.  

Please sign the guest book!

The teachers.

The Zendo was already full!  

Sitting in our new Temple for the first time, listening to the "new" sounds.  We are now in a neighborhood filled with the sounds of children!  At the seats nearest the walls, as the natural light fades, the lights in the ceiling gradually reveal our own shadows on the wall.  There is a faint smell of floor varnish and paint.  There is a lightheartedness, and a getting-to-know-you feeling in this place.  There is a sense of stunned joy that this is actually happening.  

Our first night, we did a Five Precepts ceremony.  Rooting the Temple in ethics from the start.

   

Boring!

Meh:  The near enemy of equanimity.  


My practice is in a challenging place.  There was this place I called "dormant", suggesting some subterranean life somewhere.  Now it's full-on, undeniable "boring."  A dry, irritable place.  Desert metaphors do not do justice, for in deserts, there are potentially dangerous creatures, and those are interesting.    


One of the more recent expressions of this boredom is suddenly becoming enamored with another credential; flirting with the idea of getting into a counseling-related program which includes dream work, and art, and archetype study.  A 2-year training program, which I suppose I would be doing on top of the 3-year Buddhist study and leadership program several of us lay practitioners have just started with Hogen called Sanghakai.   

I sat down to blog about all this, and then realized a beautiful Portland spring evening was slipping away.  So I went out and took a walk to our new Temple (not yet open for business, but soon), which takes about an hour at a gentle pace.  

The world offers its sights, sounds of baseball games, dogs, and traffic, the smells of people's dinner cooking and laundry drying, and just feeling the sidewalk underfoot.    

 There are two kitties in the above photo!

By Popular Demand: Oryoki Olympics!

Er, well, by bookbird's request.  I just couldn't turn down bookbird.  So here are some photos of the big event.  It was not videoed.  It arose, existed, and disappeared.  What remains?

Our skit was doomed from the start, having to follow Ramses, the singing chien.  
He is a French-speaking Coton de Tulear.

The announcers on the left, eaters sitting, coaches standing behind, and the referee riding the tension of the competition.  

A dispute about form:  Fuho (on left) eating with Rakusu turned backwards!
An Oryoki Olympics scandal that will be debated for years to come!  

The ref carefully measures each eater's Oryoki set:
Are the bowls at the proper distance?
The chopsticks aligned properly with the spoon?
A tape measure is required for the exactitude of the Oryoki Olympics.  

Bansho scores a foul:  Interference with Opponent's Bowl.
The Penalty:  Lose a chopstick.  

Eyebrow to eyebrow.

An amazing rice-eating routine,
bending the laws of space and time,
to the tune of "Chariots of Fire".

The Stone Women Dancing cheerleaders!  "Gimme an M!  Gimme a U!"

Slow kinhin off the field.  

Cleaning the spoons -- one glimpse of spoon by the referee could mean instant defeat!

Fuho (eater on right) beginning to feel a little self-satisfied at his near-perfect Oryoki performance....

He is immediately disqualified!  The call?
The Stink of Zen!
That smug sense of knowing what you're doing.
There's no place for that in oryoki!

Our skit was further upstaged by Goldie Gold:
An over the hill star of stage and screen "of a certain age and thus beyond repute".
Oddly, she has never been seen in the same room with Jan Chozen Bays...

Soliciting the Readership

Dear Buddhoblogoshere, here is your opportunity to sponsor a skit (or another act) for our Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple Fundraiser Talent Show.  TONIGHT!  No Fooling!  $25 enters you in our raffle, but any amount would be appreciated.  


My acting debut:  The Oryoki Olympics: A dream for years, a fantasy, a source of uncontrollable, inappropriate giggling during Sesshin will finally be manifested in this lifetime, thanks to a few very good sports in the Sangha, and some fun times writing our script with a liberal sprinkling of chantbook references. 


There will also be a halftime show:  Zen cheerleaders.  Nuff said.  

While a lot of folks' extra funds have surely gone to the disaster in Japan (Mercy Corps is my personal fave), the Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple is a sweet bit of good news in the world.  A 100+ year old church that was about to go to auction, thanks to our previous fundraising efforts, we were able to buy it outright -- no mortgage.  Awesome!  Now with a much smaller bank balance, we have to fix it up.  There has already been quite a bit of fixing, and there's plenty more to do.  

The extra lot will be a garden available to all.

Amazing, the skills and talents and elbow grease that are being shared by Sangha members:  An electrician who is pretty much rewiring the place.  An H-VAC guy who is helping get us new furnaces and re-doing the ventilation.  Floors will be restored, siding will be placed... it is an adventure.  One that costs a little bit. 

A working furnace will be celebrated.

Working to restore it to its natural historic beauty.

The main altar will have this enso by Shodo Harada Roshi.  Stunning.  

Apparently this Talent Show will be video recorded.  Who knows, maybe I'll end up with the biggest donation -- in an attempt to keep the video under wraps!    


Thank You!
Bows,

Jomon

Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple

Originally built in the 1890's

Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple now has its own home.  We've purchased a church in Northeast Portland.  Our hearth.   

Some have called it a "handyman's special."  Thankfully most of the (numerous) problems are cosmetic, although the furnace does need to be replaced.  So we're back to fundraising for the repairs, which means it'll be some months until we move in.  

Nevertheless, it's our handyman's special, thanks to 3-4 years of fundraising, skillful and honorable negotiation, and if we don't call it luck, well, let's call it karma, because we now own it outright.  Free and clear.  No mortgage.   

   

The Zen Community of Oregon, is the umbrella over Great Vow Zen Monastery, Zenworks, and Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple (formerly known as the Portland Program).  Chozen Bays Roshi and Zen Teacher Hogen Bays are the teachers of this community.   

There'll be a blog embedded in the Zen Community of Oregon website (massive upgrade to that website coming soon, folks) for all the latest news -- and I'll be sure to make that announcement whenever it's launched so you can put it on all your blogrolls and such.

The Blessing ceremony will be on 1/1/11 at 1:00pm.

Til then, here are some photos of the Temple.  

The Fellowship area on the ground level

Plenty of work to be done

This original, blessedly unpainted ceiling of old growth Oregon wood is its most beautiful feature.  The Sanctuary / Zendo is beautifully resonant for chanting.  And thankfully not a lot of iconography to remove.  

Currently sporting an Eastern Orthodox cross from its days as a Greek Orthodox church.  I envision Jizo's Shakujo atop the bell tower.  With lights?  And rotating?  (just kidding)

That's better!

Dormant

It seems reflective of the season. My practice feels dormant. At least the contemplative part. And I suspect this is just fine.

"Don't judge your practice." Zen Teacher Hogen Bays repeats this often, in many different forms. Over and over, he reminds us that we are not in any position to gauge what is going on, how we are doing, or what is happening.

Nevertheless, there is a sense of superficiality, of busyness in the mind, of easily distracted Zazen.

Okay, so compared to what? Compared to last spring and summer -- the experience of intensive Zen practice in the midst of a yearlong Sabbatical with regular sesshin, being inactive as a social worker, working on a koan and sweating an impending Hossan ceremony.

Now things are different. I am gainfully employed in the world again, and facing outward quite a bit more. Our Sangha has just purchased a church that will be the Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple. With such a change on the horizon, being a part of many of our Sangha's transition plans is a high-energy, high-people-contact endeavor.

I still sit, I still practice, I still enjoy being at the Zen Center twice a week. It's practice without much drama. Not sure what the fuel is. It seems a little quieter, and cleaner-burning than some earlier practice that seemed all about having eye on how I am doing, and how I am received by others.

I don't know if that makes sense.

Chozen Roshi talks about how our Zen practice has a natural rhythm with more passive times to incorporate periods of intense practice. Using the example of non-practicing spouses of serious practitioners, she says sometimes these latent periods can last lifetimes.

The last few sesshin, I have come away without a Zen adventure ("Zenventure?"), but instead just saying, "Something happened. I have no idea what it was."

I guess this is just another flavor of practice.