Moon in a barrel: you never know just when the bottom will fall out. --- Mabutsu (d.1874)

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1 March 12, 2007 UPAYA ZEN CENTER Santa Fe, New Mexico Moon in a barrel: you never know just when the bottom will fall out. --- Mabutsu (d.1874) THIS WEEK S DHARMA TALK: Sexual misconduct One of the most common misperceptions about Buddhist communities such as Upaya is that they are bastions of enforced celibacy. In reality, this is very rare in a Western setting---however, the opposite extreme is not exactly encouraged, either. This week, Roshi will give a dharma talk on the Third Precept, which is usually translated as do not misuse sexuality but is also a key aspect of treating others with dignity and respect. Our sangha has been exploring the first two classical precepts (not killing and not stealing) this late winter in our seminars and in the Dharma Talks. In the life of our times, we need to clarify the principles by which we live, and commit to practicing these principles in our daily lives. UPAYA ON YouTube.com! You can now catch the powerful video of Roshi's Nomad Clinic in eastern Tibet at: We are also uploading to Google and hopefully to our podcast, many thanks to Seizan! We are moving forward with other DVDs as well...stay tuned! ROSHI'S TRAVELS Roshi has just come back from a successful teaching trip on the East Coast, visiting the Maezumi Institute, MIT, and Harvard. She spent deep time with her teacher Roshi Bernie Glassman, and they spoke about the development of their mutual endeavors in Zen, peacemaking, and social action. They also explored the education of novices in priestcraft in preparation for Denkai (full priest ordination). Since Roshi Bernie is no longer a priest, at least one of his exceptional students will be doing Denkai with Roshi Joan in the near future. Her own training continues, both in priestcraft and, as she is the first to let us know, in

2 life...which is always presenting a new koan, moment by moment. After teaching in our annual intensive training program for health care professionals on Compassionate Care of the Dying, Roshi will be leading a program on Engaged Buddhism for the Kellog Fellows here at Upaya. Then on April 1, she leaves for Dharamsala, India, for a weeklong Mind and Life science meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She will take four days for personal retreat in Dharamsala before the meetings begin and will return to Upaya on April 15. On April 28, she flies to Anchorage, Alaska, where she will be the Keynote speaker and main presenter at the 3rd Annual Alaska Palliative Care Symposium, April 30-May 3. Roshi then co-teaches a retreat with Brother David Steindl-Rast at Upaya, after which she will go into sesshin May 7-13 (see changes below) with the local and national sangha. NEW BOOKS The Being With Dying: Compassionate End-of-Life-Care Training Guide, written by Roshi Joan, Barbara Dossey, and Cynda Rushton is now available. Please contact the office if you wish to purchase. ($50, plus shipping) UPDATE ON THE PROJECT AT THE JUVENILE DETENTON CENTER IN SANTA FE --- by Jisen McFarland Three times a week, Susan Benjamin and I visit the Youth Development Facility in Santa Fe (a.k.a. the Juvenile Detention Center or JDC). We provide guided meditation, council practice and art therapy to boys and girls from New Mexico and Arizona. They are wonderful kids: bright, curious, smart, and honest. Many of them are amazing artists, and some really want to change their lives. One boy loves to quote Socrates famous maxim, "The unexamined life is not worth living" every time I come in. He is interested in educating himself and making his dreams a reality; right now he is reading about the US Government. Each teen who is there has a quality in them which is beautiful and inspiring, and the work is both wonderful and sad. It is heartbreaking to see how the circumstances of their lives have created the conditions for their drug abuse and violence. We talk openly in council about how little I know about the day to day reality of the detention center and the kind of lives they have. They share their dreams about making a better future for their kids and learning how to work with their anger in more skillful ways. My shaved head is always a surprise for the new kids who aren't used to seeing a woman with no hair! I answer a lot of questions about Upaya and Buddhism. I hope that something Susan and I offer can give kindness and support to the kids we see. They teach me so much about how to be compassionate in an authentic and concrete way, not some pseudo- or ideal way. These kids deserve all my respect and everything my heart can give them in their struggle and their potential.

3 If you are interested in working in the JDC or would like to donate books or funds, please contact Rinshin, our Prison Outreach Coordinator, through the front office. ================ CORRECTION Re: "Request for Stories, Memories, Reflections to commemorate Joan Halifax Roshi's 65th Birthday" --- by Ted Heffernan Joan Halifax Roshi's 65th birthday is July 30, 2007, NOT The wrong year somehow slipped by the editorial staff (me) in the last newsletter. Therefore, those wishing to contribute to the compilation of memories, reflections, anecdotes, and stories about Joan have FOUR months to send them on to me, not 16. Again, please send them directly to me by , and not to the staff at Upaya, at (or as a backup). Sorry for the confusion! ================ MEDITATION INSTRUCTION Sunday, April 1st at 11 a.m. Introduction to meditation postures, concentration practices, and zendo etiquette. You are welcome to join us afterward for our community meditation at 12:20 p.m. and lunch (suggested donation of $15) at 1 p.m. If you are interested in coming, please call the Upaya office at or us at upaya@upaya.org. For a full list of meditation instruction sessions planned for the year, please visit our website: UPCOMING PROGRAM DETAILS April 15-20: Living with Illness. With Jean Wilkins, Susan Benjamin, and Daniel Bruce. Facing a chronic or catastrophic illness can bring us to a moment when we need to slow down and look deeply into our lives, a time to find acceptance of a diagnosis, to review healing and coping strategies, and make peace with one's mortality. This retreat provides an exploration of the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and creative resources that lead to spaciousness and peace within which illness/healing can be engaged. The retreat includes meditations, teachings, art therapy, drawing, bodywork, group sessions, and councils. Retreatants must be able to manage the tasks of everyday living. Tuition $495 members; $595 non-members; includes lodging. Dana to teachers. For those with low income, attendance may be possible by donation. Contact Upaya for further information. ****IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes to May 7-13 Sesshin It s been an unusually cold and snowy winter in these parts, during which our Prajna Mountain Forest Refuge has seen over ten feet of snow! We doubt that it

4 will have melted in time for our May Refuge Sesshin, so we are shifting the sesshin form to our wonderful Mountain And Monastery sesshin, giving us deep meditation time in our zendo and wild walking time in the beautiful Sangre de Cristo Mountains nearby. This form offers a truly unique opportunity to bring together practice in the wild and practice in the temple. Wonderful news is that Roshi Enkyo O'Hara (Abbot of the Village Zendo in NYC) and Roshi Joan will be teaching on Koans of the Natural World, using classical koans as a key to exploring the natural mind and the wilderness. Please do join us for this unique opportunity to be with these two rare teachers and our gorgeous mountains. To register or for more information, please registrar@upaya.org ENGAGED BUDDHISM Metta Council - Living with Illness Tuesdays from 10:30 a.m. to noon--a weekly group for people who are ill, their partners, caregivers, hospice volunteers, nurses, and anyone interested in exploring issues around living, sickness aging and death. Beginning around 12:05 p.m. until 1:00 p.m. the group engages in contemplative writing. This is not a writing group per se but rather an alternative way of exploring what is alive for people in the moment. No previous writing experience is needed, just a willingness to be fully present. Please call Jean at or jean@upaya.org for more information. Letters and Books for Inmates A year ago, the Upaya Prison Outreach Project started a Pen-Pal Program, inviting people with a personal meditation practice to enter into regular correspondence with inmates incarcerated in prisons around the country. Convicted felons in prison often write to Upaya requesting information about Zen or Buddhist practice, at times expressing an interest in exchanging letters with someone who has meditation experience. Corresponding regularly with a practicing inmate is a great way to support and reach out to our dharma brothers and sisters in prison and offer them the support they would otherwise not receive. If this program interests you, please Ray Olson at nanrayols@aol.com or call him at 505/ to receive more information about the program. In addition, the program solicits used dharma books which can be mailed to inmates who request reading material. If you have such books and think you will no longer use them, please bring them to Upaya and leave them in the reception foyer, marked Prison Outreach Project. VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY Upaya is always grateful for a helping hand. We have volunteer opportunities in the office, kitchen, and housekeeping. There is the possibility of earning retreat credit for hours volunteered. If you are interested, please call Eddie at or upaya@upaya.org.

5 ROSHI JOAN HALIFAX ON THE WEB Roshi Joan has started a fascinating blog. Some of her students on Zaadz invited her to join this social network and over the Thanksgiving weekend, she did. So with her Flickr photo site, moving along, now with some great archival photos of her life and the recent amazing Tibet series, she invites you to visit her new blog site which already has quite a few of her entries. Many people are now sourcing the site, where she discusses dharma, offers koanic poetry, considers the works of Ken Wilber, William Irwin Thompson, and Francisco Varela, and brings us into her lifestream through her constant attention to detail. Here is the blog address:

THIS WEEK AT UPAYA: DHARMA TALK, October 8, 2008, 5:30pm by Beate Stolte, Co-Abbot of Upaya Zen Center.

THIS WEEK AT UPAYA: DHARMA TALK, October 8, 2008, 5:30pm by Beate Stolte, Co-Abbot of Upaya Zen Center. From: Upaya Subject: Impermanence. Oct. 6, 2008. Upaya Zen Center Newsletter Date: October 6, 2008 8:47:52 PM MDT To: upaya@upaya.org 1 Attachment, 2.4 KB Save Slideshow October 6, 2008