Gasshō,
This morning on the Yearlong Retreat call I had one of those indescribable moments that I can never resist attempting to describe! It all started about 50 years ago when I was learning about what we call “the five processes” from the Roshi at the Monastery where I trained. It was during that time that I was forced, yes, forced to go out and offer those awareness practice tools to strangers. (Perhaps you remember the story of my pathetic pleading: “Roshi, it’s not that I’m unwilling, it’s that I can’t.” Did that work to get me out of the death sentence? Nope.
Off I went to offer people an understanding of beliefs and assumptions, projection, aspects of the personality, disidentification, and centering. The centering part of the program included teaching people to sit in meditation. Torture does not begin to capture the hell of the whole process.
However, that’s not the point here. The point is that doing those workshops and then driving back to the Monastery at the end of a weekend of feeling utterly unqualified and inadequate, I first heard the voices we now refer to regularly as the voices of self-hate. The five processes gained a sixth and, in fact, became the focus of the original five.
In the ensuing 40 plus years, those processes have been offered to thousands of people either in person or through books. Those who have been around for a good part of that time will attest that we have not strayed very far from those original teachings.
So, when it dropped in to offer a Beginner’s Mind retreat this year, we knew we would offer those same decades-old processes, and we wondered if we/they might be sliding over to the passé side.
What we quickly got to is that they are the foundation of this Practice. They’ve worked for us, so why would we assume they might not work for others? In we plunged!
In the Yearlong, we’re doing kōan practice. That idea brought on a bit of discussion as well. Isn’t this kind of a leap? Are we ready? Will people feel as if this is some sort of advanced study they might not be ready for? Clearly not! The conversations in the Yearlong are … what? Stunning. Breathtaking. Life changing. All that and more.
Then this morning a caller made the connection between the two retreats. Our latest focus in the Beginner’s Mind retreat is on projection. I’m taking liberties here with exactly what she said, but the gist was “never has projection been so easy to see as when we each are projecting onto the kōan.”
My comment was that this is the kind of thing that makes me religious. Did we know as we began either of these retreats how they would go? Of course not. Yet, there they are, perfectly synced to give us the best possible opportunity to see. We need never doubt!
I suspect we all know there’s plenty of information surging around that can make it seem as if the world as we know it is falling apart—irreparably so. As the old story goes, maybe yes; maybe no. Perhaps what’s coming apart is for the good, and what will rise from the ashes is better than we could have envisaged. We can’t know what’s ahead while we’re standing here. Given that, it can be helpful to focus on what’s coming together rather than on what’s coming apart. And, when we look, we can see there’s plenty that’s coming together.
You knew I’d get to the Farm before too much longer, didn’t you?
|
We just finished our first week of having farm stewards with us, and oh, my goodness, what a difference it has made. In these few days, with many willing hearts and hands, we got to things that we simply would not have been able to get to. We finished getting “dresses” and mulch around all the trees out in the “south 40.” What would have happened had we not been able to do that? It’s very likely a good number of those little folk would have been munched to the ground by passing deer before they could have gotten a start in life. Now they’re protected and can grow in peace. |
Stewards returning from the South 40
|
We weeded and mulched some of the trees from last year who were needing to share their nutrition with lots of big, strong, hungry “weeds.” This included the bamboo that I’ve been hoping to get to with weeding and mulching almost from the time they were planted. Even the greenhouse got a clean-up.
|
|
 Lettuces have gone from greenhouse to raised beds. |
|
 Flats of seeds have been sown. |
 |
| And I am now the proud “foster parent” to 129 soon to be basil plants. The food bank wants basil. Apparently, it’s hard to grow? I’ve certainly never tried so I’m excited to see how we do together. | |
You know, because I tell you every chance I get, about our composting operation. The Food Bank, the Boys and Girls Club, The Ramen Shop, and various individuals give us everything from out-of-date items from local grocery stores to the scraps left over from their cooking. We cut it all up, put it in buckets and haul it out to the compost area where we make piles with the chopped food and scythed grass. We have to haul it out in wagons now because the area is too wet to drive Rosie on. The buckets are heavy. The ground is uneven. It’s grueling. Then, when all that’s complete, we—primarily Brian—get to turn the piles on a daily basis. Grueling!
|
 Dragging buckets to the compost area |
 Raking and hauling scythed grass for the compost pile |
 Flipping compost for fun and fitness |
Drum roll, please. In January we got word of a grant that would pay for the electric loader that would enable us to haul the heavy buckets back and forth and turn the compost. And, yes, we have received the grant and the machine is on its way to us, we hope arriving by the end of the month. This is going to change so much for us!
Now if we can just teach it to wash out the buckets….
Thank you to all who called in for the workshop following the International Day of No Self-hate. It was wonderful to hear the stories of transformation. Those six processes have served us well and, clearly, continue to, don’t they?
In deep gasshō,
ch
P.S. A reminder that on May 6 at 10 AM (Pacific) we will meet up for the Open Air-esque call supporting us to be in our best physical shape possible.