January 22, 2007 UPAYA ZEN CENTER Santa Fe, New Mexico 505-986-8518 upaya@upaya.org www.upaya.org Water memory, carved in stone, silent voice, caught and held. No words. Shadows stalk blue over cliff-face and canyon. River-worn strata glow sun, hide in shade. Stars revolve black night, black rock. Swallows, swooping, catch wind-tossed bugs and listen. Change blows sharp and cold. Appointed turnings complete, sunrise pierces Earth's core, consummates the ancient code, spoken when fire and spirit first spun form. --"Countless Cycles" by Cynthia West The words of our dear friend Cynthia hint of the mystery we have embarked on this last week with Roshi Joan on the Indigenous Heart retreat. Roshi led us into the New Mexican landscape for an encounter of deep practice with the natural world. Through visits to San Ildefonso Pueblo, Tsankawi, and Chaco Canyon, we went back in time, following the migrations of the first world peoples who have developed such deep
intimacy with this land over many generations. With Roshi's guidance, we challenged ourselves to experience the world differently, allowing it to break us open. We received teachings from Anna Sofaer, who has dedicated the last three decades of her life to studying Chaco Canyon, and we were given a powerful view into the landscape across millions of years by Marty Peale, who is Coordinator of the Valles Caldera Coalition. Our experiences were wonderfully amplified by Roshi's Medicine Wheel teachings, which she shares with us after forty years of learning from first world peoples. We concluded with a heart opening evening with Larry Littlebird, whose practice of storytelling showed us that powerful heart-to-heart connection is possible when we learn to shed our defenses. We emerge from this week with a taste for what it is to abandon our small minds and selves, allowing our being to be rendered by the natural world. We also feel saturated with a great humility and broken heartedness, feeling deeply the wounds of this earth and our responsibility to her. Our week of practice with the natural world delivers us wonderfully into the upcoming week of Sesshin, during which we will explore Dogen's natural world poetry, under the guidance of Roshi Joan and Kaz Tanahashi Sensei. Sesshin takes place January 24-30, and there are still openings available, so please take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to conclude winter practice with us by giving yourself the gift of deep stillness. Winter Sesshin ends this year in a powerful ceremony officiated by Roshi Joan. On January 30th at 10:30 a.m., four sangha members receive Tokudo, becoming novice priests. This always fills the sangha's heart with joy when a student makes a life commitment of this nature. The heart of priesthood is that one becomes a servant to all beings. Deep gratitude to Yushin Heilmann, Tony Sager, Shinzan Palma, and Carolyn Clebstch. You are all invited to join us for this wondrous occasion, including the celebratory lunch that follows the ceremony. Please call the office and let us know if you plan to join us for lunch, 505-986-8518.
Following Winter Sesshin we have the first-ever opportunity to study calligraphy in color with Kaz, February 2-4. As always we will learn a lot about classic calligraphy, but there is also the joy of working in a medium that few do. Great fun and a fabulous way to end our winter practice period, which has been so rich with practice, teachings, films, seminars, the arts and the great beauty of winter in New Mexico. Kaz's Calligraphy workshop will officially bring our Winter Practice Period to an end. We then enter a full and rich retreat season at Upaya. For more information about programs in Upaya's 2007 retreat season, please see the information below or visit: http://www.upaya.org/calendar.php?year=2007 May you be well and happy, Upaya Zen Center Community UPAYA NEWS First and foremost, thank you to all the volunteers who helped support our residential community through this practice period. Thank you to Carol Brown, Howard Schwartz, Nancy and Ray Olson, Jay Hamilton, Carol Walker, Kristen Bentz, Natalie Goldberg, Joab, and Jim Hall for your tireless efforts, flexibility, and loving support of our sangha. Thanks to your help, our residents have been able to enjoy a deep winter practice. We would like to introduce you to a new staff member at Upaya. Natalie Calia has joined our professional staff as Guest and Sales Manager. Natalie comes to us with a wealth of experience working in consulting and recruiting at a national level. She also brings to this position her own personal Buddhist practice and a heartfelt commitment to the vision and mission of Upaya. Please take the opportunity to get to know Natalie. As we welcome Natalie to the Upaya family, we also bid farewell to Juana Colon who is leaving her position as Retreat and Event Manager this week. Juana has brought great heart, professionalism, and a wonderful sense of humor to Upaya's office. We will miss her dearly. This week's Dharma talk will be offered by Roshi Joan and Kaz Tanahashi to mark the beginning of Winter Sesshin. Please join us at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 24th in the zendo.
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, http://flickr.com/photos/upaya/ 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: http://jhalifax.zaadz.com/blog UPAYA ZEN CENTER SCHEDULE January 23: Film, Zen Noir, 7:30 p.m., Upaya House January 24: Dharma Talk, "Dogen's Natural World Poetry," Roshi Joan Halifax and Kazuaki Tanahashi Sensei January 24-30: Winter Sesshin: Dogen's Natural Wold Poetry, Roshi Joan Halifax and Kazuaki Tanahashi Sensei January 30: Tokudo Novice Priest Ordination, officiated by Roshi Joan Halifax, 10:30 a.m. in the Zendo, celebratory lunch to follow. Please RSVP. January 31: Dharma Talk, "Zen Master Dogen," Kazuaki Tanahashi Sensei February 2-4: Calligraphy in Color, Kazuaki Tanahashi Sensei February 8: Tibetan Bön Master Lhatri Khempo Nyima Dakpa Rinpoche, "Introduction to the Guidelines of Enlightenment," 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Zendo February 9-11: Fundraising from the Heart with Lynn Twist (Program Full) March 16-23: Professional Training Program in Compassionate End-of- Life Care with Roshi Joan, Barbara Dossey, Beverly Spring, Cynda Rushton and others. PROGRAM DETAILS January 24-30: Winter Sesshin: Dogen s Natural World Poetry: Roshi Joan Halifax, Kazuaki Tanahashi An intensive meditation retreat deepening our relationship to our mind and the world. The days are mostly silent, doing sitting and walking meditation together, eating as a community, and working together. Sesshin provides a powerful container supporting the unification of body and mind, and our individuality with the community and the world. During this sesshin, we will hear and explore the powerful poetry of Zen Master Dogen in translation by Kazuaki Tanahashi. Cost: $490 members; $520 non-members; includes lodging. Dana to teachers. February 2-4: Calligraphy in Color: Kaz Tanahashi This unusual workshop offers training in classical and free Zen calligraphy in living color. Using black ink, watercolor, acrylic, and other color media, we nourish the process of creativity by reproducing ideograms from ancient Chinese
and Japanese masterpieces in wild and vivid color. We interpret these works and witness joy while exploring creativity and how it works in our life. We also create original spontaneous colorful works. For beginners and seasoned artists. Kazuaki Tanahashi is a master calligrapher, Dogen scholar, and social activist. Cost: $210 members, $230 non-members; $125 materials; plus lodging. Dana to Sensei. March 16-23: Professional Training Program in Compassionate End-of-Life Care This revolutionary and practical training program for health care professionals gives fundamental and essential tools for work with dying people and their families. Designed for physicians, nurses, social workers, hospice workers, and clergy, the training covers core issues related to dying, death, and grieving; ethical issues in end-of-life care; community building around dying persons and relationship-centered care; cross-cultural and family concerns around religion and ethnicity; approaches to psychological and spiritual care of the dying; the relationship between pain and suffering; peri-death phenomena; secular contemplative practices for caregivers and dying people; and care of the caregiver. Over the years, this program has been a key resource for hundreds of health care professionals in the U.S., Canada, and Europe who are dedicated to transforming the environment around dying. The learning process is rich with seminars, direct teachings, reflective practices, and training films. An extraordinary professional faculty includes palliative care and hospice professionals from Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and Duke Universities. Course includes 50 hours of CEUs for nurses and social workers; 50 CME s for physicians. For an application form, please click on the PDF link at the bottom of this page. Members $1,590, non-members $1,690; (includes tuition, food, manual), plus lodging. (deposit $200). Registration is limited; early registration advised. Discounted tuition for three or more coming from the same institution. Limited financial assistance ENGAGED BUDDHISM Metta Council - Living with Illness Tuesdays from 10:30 a.m. to 12.00 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 505-986-8518 or email jean@upaya.org for more information. Letters and Books for Inmates Years 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 email Ray Olson at nanrayols@aol.com or call him at 505/986-5835 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 Genshin at 505-986-8518 or email upaya@upaya.org. FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO REGISTER: http://www.upaya.org/ registrar@upaya.org 505-986-8518 To unsubscribe from newsletter distribution or if you have received this in error, please reply to upaya@upaya.org with REMOVE in the subject line.