Practicing with Covid-19: Zendo closure

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Dear sangha friends,

After much deliberation, having consulted the best information sources possible, we have decided to close the zendo for public events, starting immediately. The next few weeks will be crucial in preventing further community spread of the Covid-19 virus, and we want to do our part as a sangha to minimize risk, particularly to those who are most vulnerable. Closure will include our regular Wednesday and Sunday practice sessions, the half-day retreat Sunday, March 15, ZenYU on Monday evenings, Wednesday and Friday morning zazen, as well as the book group and engaged Buddhist practice group meetings. 

We're sorry to say we will also have to cancel the March 28-29 weekend retreat and jukai ceremony. Those who have registered will receive a separate email from the registrar and a full refund. We want everyone who wishes to be able to attend the retreat and celebrate the jukai without anxiety. We hope to be able to reschedule the retreat in the near future. 

Over the next few days we will work to create ways to support sangha practice through electronic media. We're hoping to livestream Wednesday dharma seminars, and Sunday dharma talks, so that you can join us from your home. We will reopen the zendo as soon as we assess it to be safe and practicable. Please stay tuned for further announcements.

In these precarious and uncertain times we are fortunate to have our practice of the Buddha Way to support us to meet what comes day by day, with wise and compassionate presence. 

Practicing together, with our wishes for your well-being and appreciation for your support.

Mountain Rain teachers, council and practice committee

Practicing with Covid-19: Update

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Dear Sangha friends,

As the spread of the Covid-19 continues around the world, Vancouver is far from being one of the high-risk areas, but there has been community transmission here. At Mountain Rai Zen Community we want to do our part as a sangha to minimize risk to each other and the wider community by taking careful precautionary measures. Let's fold this situation right into our practice of moment-to-moment awareness for the benefit of all beings. Equanimity in the face of fear and distress does not mean passivity or indifference. It means staying steady, with open heart/mind, meeting and responding to what arises with patience, wisdom and compassion. 

Sanitary measures:
1. Please do not come to the zendo if you are feeling unwell, with fever, coughing, or shortness of breath.  We recognize that sometimes people sneeze or cough due to other factors than illness. If you are prone, it’s good to have a tissue on hand.

2. Effective and frequent hand-washing is the key to reducing transmission risk. Guidelines are posted at the zendo. Also, please use hand sanitizer upon arrival, on the table in the entrance hall. There is another hand sanitizer on the kitchen table to use after using the washroom or before handling food or dishes.

3. Please avoid direct hand contact and hugging. Fortunately, we have a wonderful way to greet each other--palms together in gassho!

4. Please dispose of used tissue immediately in garbage containers--not the orange plastic paper towel container in the washroom. 

5. Avoid touching your face. This is a challenging mindfulness practice, that we can take up with the intention of caring for self and others.

5. We will clean and disinfect door handles upon arriving and leaving the zendo.

Food:
1. We will not be serving tea and snacks at our regular practice times.

We will not be serving tea and snacks at our regular practice times.We will not be serving meals at the upcoming weekend retreat March 29-29 as originally planned. Please bring your lunches to eat in the zendo. For Saturday dinner, you can bring your own dinner to eat in the zendo, or go out for dinner. 

Cancellations: 

At this time we are not cancelling any of our scheduled practice times or events. We will continue to monitor the situation daily, checking BC government recommendations, and will announce any changes here on the website and in our email newsletter. We are exploring ways to continue to support sangha practice through electronic media if we need to suspend public events.

Please take care of yourselves and make the best choices for your circumstances.

Gassho,
Mountain Rain teachers, council and practice committee

Words from the Teachers, September 2019

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Dear sangha friends,

Summer is drawing to a close, Labour Day weekend is past, and the new school year has begun. Judging from the crowd at the zendo Wednesday evening, it's also a time for people to renew their commitment to their practice and come together in community. We want to encourage you to consider how our annual practice period can support your practice. You can customize the components of the practice period in a way that will work for your schedule and work/family/school responsibilities. You can also find ways to extend your practice into those areas beyond the zendo. Please take a look at the Practice Period Guide and registration form. Our theme this year is Zen's Chinese Ancestors. You may wonder why we want to look back so far in time, when the world faces so many social, political and environmental crises. But those old Chinese Zen monks lived in times of turmoil and great suffering, too, and they may have some wisdom, and encouragement to offer us as we walk the bodhisattva path. (Take a look below, for some contemporary encouragement from our Engaged Practice group.)

Deep bows of gratitude to everyone who supported practice at the zendo when we were away hiking in the Rockies last month, and to everyone who helped out at the sangha picnic and work-day at Blue Mountain Zendo: renovating our triple compost bin, hauling and stacking firewood, brush-cutting, weeding, picking and snapping beans, weeding and more!

Warm bows,
Myoshin Kate and Shinmon Michael

p.s. And thanks to Nadia and Todd for the photos in the slide-show below from the picnic and work-day. Click on the photo to see the next one.


Kakuko Kaye Simard's Ordination Ceremony

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Ordaining as Zen priest--and ordaining one--can be a daunting thing. Especially when you live in place where that is not part of the cultural heritage, taken for granted. But we and Kaye have taken the plunge. We've co-ordained our first person, and she's now a shaven-headed monk (see photo below). Kaye's dharma name Kakuko Shinkai means Awakening-Light, Heart-Ocean. One person's awakening light and opening heart cannot happen without the support and connection of buddha, dharma and sangha.

Perhaps the most important thing we learn as we walk the bodhisattva path, is that we are not separate entities seeking enlightenment. We can only awaken for and together with all beings. Only a buddha and a buddha can realize the buddha-dharma, said Dogen, quoting the Lotus Sutra. So when we take these big steps off the 100-foot pole, we do so in the faith that if we practice wholeheartedly, even with all our clumsiness and failings, it will give courage to others, 

Thank you, Kakuko Kaye, for your steadfast and shining practice. May it continue.  And deep bows of gratitude to everyone who contributed in so many ways to the weekend retreat and ordination ceremony, and to those who attended to celebrate the occasion. 

Warm bows,

Myoshin Kate and Shinmon Michael