UNSUI – Dharma Cloud Hermitage

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The reduced summer schedule brought an increased number of participants to our once-a-week sittings. The Wednesday evenings were well attended, and July, August, and September Open House brought new faces into the Zendo.

Myoki, Shuko, and Dokuro went to participate at a Dai-sesshin at Mt. Baldy Zen Center, where Sasaki Roshi held a full Summer Seichu. How exciting!

Roshi has also committed to come to Ithaca Zen Center in October, and four members of the sangha will participate.

Shuko and Dokuro just returned from a 7-day Dai-sesshin that comemmorated Joshu Sasaki Roshi’s 100th birthday. The Dai-sesshin was followed by the Hanamatsuri Celebration which also celebrated Roshi’s birthday.

There was some media coverage of the event, you can read an article in the online version of Tricyle or see the short news video clip from the reception after the Hanamatsuri ceremony.

Happy Birthday Roshi!

Dharma Cloud Hermitage presented Roshi with a gold brocade rakusu, which was financed by the temple and individual donors’ contributions. If you would like to help out and contribute to offset the expense for this gift, please leave something in the donation box (with a nore “rakusu”) or send a check to Dharma Cloud Hermitage, 210 Belmont Street #8, Watertown, Ma 02472-3557. All contributions are welcome.

The sittings continued with a steady attendance of a few Zen students. Dokurô gave a public talk on October 3rd, which was well attended by more than 25 people. We offered two weekend retreats that attracted a nice number of participants and a few members participated in the New Hampshire weekend retreat with Kozan Gentei.

Dokuro attended Rohatsu Dai-sesshin at Mt. Baldy Zen Center in December which was followed by the Jodo-E ceremony to commemorate Shakyamuni Buddha’s awakening.

Joshu Roshi is doing well, his health is excellent. In October he underwent an emergency angioplasty after complaining about chest pain. The procedure was performed in a renowned Los Angeles hospital and Roshi returned to Rinzai-ji a day and a half later to conduct Sanzen during Dai-sesshin.

On April 1, 2007 Roshi will be celebrating his 100th birthday which is also celebrated by a Dai-sesshin the week before. It is now 45 years that Sasaki Roshi has tirelessly taught in the United States of America. In 2006 Roshi has conducted more than 15 week-long Dai-sesshin in all parts of the US and Puerto Rico.

In July we tested the early morning sitting schedule – Wednesday from 6:00 am till 7:10 a.m. While it was much cooler than during the evening sittings, the participation was sparse and we decided to discontinue the offering in August.

Plans are in the works to offer a beginner’s class this fall. It has not been decided yet what day of the week it will be offered and for how many weeks.

Kozan Gentei Stewart, who has been a student of Sasaki Roshi for over thirty years, is leading a Zazen retreat in New Hampshire at Suitei Meyers place. We encourage everyone to sign up for this residential retreat which also offers two Yoga classes with Jill Johnson, a certified Iyengar Yoga teacher. Please read the details on the schedule page.

The vice-abbess went to Mt. Baldy Zen Center to participate in a Dai-sesshin with Joshu Roshi and to serve as the Inji for a week. Plans for the 100th birthday celebration for Sasaki Roshi are forming and a Dai-sesshin from March 24 – 30, 2007 is planned, followed by the celebration on April 1, 2007.

Melita Cutcher visited from Puerto Rico and participated in several evening sits. It is nice to have members of other Rinzai-ji Centers visit and participate in our activities.

With the end of the June schedule we marked a milestone: 200 public sittings since 2004. Dokuro made up a brochure for the Trustees Meeting of the CBA that reports the activities of Dharma Cloud Hermitage at the CBA over the last two years. We hope all are enjoying the wonderful summer and we hope to see you all back in September.

The board of directors met after the spring retreat and decided on the summer schedule for 2006. The reduced summer schedule will consist of morning zazen from 6:00 a.m. – 7:10 a.m. every Wednesday, and evening zazen from 7:30 pm – 8:45 p.m. also on Wednesday. Zendo activities will be suspended the week of July 4, 2006. The summer schedule will go into effect on June 12, after the season closing retreat and ceremony.

The Spring retreat was well attended and gave ample opportunity to participate in all aspects of formal Zen practice. The retreat ended with the celebration of Buddha’s birthday, Hanamatsuri. For a good number of participants this was the first opportunity to experience extended practice.

The Hanamatsuri ceremony includes the formal circumambulation of a Baby Budhha statue. The altar is covered with petals gathered from the magnolias and flowers in the CBA’s garden. The circumambulators participate in a responsive chant and stop to poor sweet tea over the statue. This wonderful celebration of community was a good opportunity to thank everybody who has been contributing to the Sangha and our practice of the Dharma.

The beginning of the month marks Joshu Roshi’s traditional birthday sesshin which is followed by the Hanamatsuri celebration of Buddha’s birthday. Joshu Roshi will celebrate his 99th birthday with this 7-day Dai-sesshin which is the fourth Dai-sesshin he leads this year. Just a few days before starting the April Dai-sesshin he returned from a weeklong retreat he led in Puerto Rico.

Shuko and Dokuro will be participating in the Dai-sesshin from April 1-7.

We had a great month of March and were able to have Kim Amlong teach us some Yoga stretches that are especially helpful with seated meditation. We also had a nice evening with the members of BABU (Buddhist Association of Boston University) who paid us a visit on March 30.
Dokurô Osho continues to serve as the Buddhist chaplain at Boston University where he leads meditation with the BABU group on a bi-monthly basis.

Below you can see the schedule for the Winter retreat which was received very well. We had a total of fifteen participants for the weekend. Most of the participants were full-time and took advantage of the extended practice opportunity. We are looking forward to the next weekend retreat which will be our Spring retreat.

Our first weekend retreat for the year will start with the evening schedule on February 3rd. The retreat continues until Sunday the 5th at 12 pm. We are planning on at least four weekend retreats during the year.

Dokuro went to Los Angeles to attend the monthly Osho meeting. Joshu Roshi spoke at the meeting and some important developments around Rinzai-ji will be forthcoming. Sasaki Roshi is in fair health and will lead another Dai-sesshin at Mt. Baldy Zen Center starting February 8.

Happy New Year!
Shuko and Dokuro went to celebrate New Years with Joshu Roshi at Rinzai-ji in Los Angeles. Roshi is walking his 98th year and just had returned from Mt. Baldy Zen Centers Rohatsu Dai-sesshin.
The Cambridge Buddhist Association will be starting a series of events under the title “Growing a Lotus” which presents different topics that relate to Buddhist practice, including mind-body topics, Yoga for sitting meditation etc. Please check the schedule for announcements of programs.

The weekend retreat Dec. 2-4 was well received. Eleven participants shared the time together in this non-residential retreat. More retreats are planned for the upcoming winter and will be announced in the scheudle section.

The highlight of the retreat was a Jukai ceremony for Jonathan Briley and Franco Deangelis. Jonathan received the Dharma name Shôgen (清 原 ), and Franco Jôdo (情努).