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Tuyết Sơn Thiền Tự
Mt Adams Zen Buddhist Temple
雪山禅寺
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Dear Dharma Friends
It is the first day of March and we have over a foot of beautiful freshly fallen snow covering our farm. Laughing - it is again a reminder of nature's power and timing. We as people, are helpless in the face of nature. A wise farmer once told me - "whatever you wish, nature will be what it is". I like to think of nature being what it is - snow, warm, rain, whatever, as the end result of a long line of causes and resulting effects. So in our own lives each day, each action and thought is also influenced by a long line of causes and effects, most of it without our knowledge or thought, just a simple effect brought about by a distant cause.
Within Buddhist training, we strive to take charge of some of our causative actions and thoughts.
In Loving Kindness, Thich Minh Tinh
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We are a small Thien (Zen) Buddhist Temple practicing "laughing farmer zen" - living our practice, sitting zazen, being here - right now!
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Calander
March 2012
March
1: Tara Puja--Tibetan Buddhist fast of Bodhisattva Goddess Tara.
1: Day the production and use of landmines was outlawed world-wide - 1999
3: Saturday temple service at 9AM
3: Mindfulness Day--Zen Buddhist day for being mindful that you are connected to each and every sentient being that has ever existed.
3: Dakas' Day--Day Tantric Buddhists make offerings to the Dakas (male)
8: Amitabha Buddha Day--Day Tibetan and Mahayana Buddhists do good deeds and chant the name of Buddha Amitabha to gain entry to His Pure Land and aid in attaining nirvana
8: International Women's Day--Day to mourn victims of gender-based oppression and misogyny , make peace, and celebrate women's empowerment.
10: Saturday temple service at 9AM
11: Chinese Buddhist festival of Bodhisattva Kuan Yin, Kannon, Quan Am
17: Saturday temple service at 9AM
17: Dakinis' Day--Day Tantric Buddhists make offerings to the Dakinis (female)
17: NWDA - Buddhist Practice and Social Transformation in Seattle
21: Haru-no-Higan--Day Japanese Buddhists mark the time of change by meditating on the impermanence of death. [a/k/a Ohigan]
22: Shakyamuni Buddha Day--Day Tibetan Buddhists meditate on the Buddha's teachings and strive to fulfill the Precepts.
24: Saturday temple service at 9AM
26: Day production and use of biological weapons was outlawed world-wide (1975); day to mourn their victims.
30: Tara Puja--Tibetan Buddhist fast of Bodhisattva Goddess Tara
31: Saturday temple service at 9AM
31: Vigil to mourn China's annexation of Tibet (1959) and the killings, torture, and religious persecution of Tibetan Buddhists. (Day the Dalai Lama fled into exile) following the Chinese invasion of Tibet.
APRIL
6 Theravada New Year
8 Hannamatsuri - Japan
- Buddha's birthday.
13-16 Water Festival(Burma, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand) Wash Buddhist Statues
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Vietnamese Dharma
In Keys to Buddhism, Venerable Thich Thanh Tu tells us the story of the 6th patriarch, Hui-Neng's teachings: "not thinking of good or evil, what is venerable Ming's original face?" Ven. Thich Thanh Tu goes on to help us understand that only without discrimination will original mind be present.
"Ordinary mind is zen mind", Thich Thanh Tu |
Dogan Zenji's Dharma
"There is no beginning to practice nor end to enlightenment; There is no beginning to enlightenment nor end to practice." *** "There is no beginning to practice nor end to enlightenment;
There is no beginning to enlightenment nor end to practice."
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"enlightenment is the mind which sees into impermanence."
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| Words of Wisdom
"God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason"Dag Hammarskjold
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All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?
Buddha
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Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. Buddha
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Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.Buddha
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From Health.com
Want to live longer? Trade some of the red meat in your diet for fish, nuts, whole grains, and other healthier protein sources, Harvard researchers say.
That's the conclusion of a new study, published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, that found that the risk of dying at an early age -- from heart disease, cancer, or any other cause-rises in step with red-meat consumption.
Using data from two long-running studies of health professionals, researchers tracked the diets of more than 121,000 middle-aged men and women for up to 28 years. Roughly 20% of the participants died during that period.
On average, each additional serving of red meat the participants ate per day was associated with a 13% higher risk of dying during the study. Processed red meat products -- such as hot dogs, bacon, and salami -- appeared to be even more dangerous: Each additional daily serving was associated with a 20% higher risk of dying.
Based on these findings, the researchers estimate that substituting one daily serving of red meat with fish, poultry, nuts, legumes, whole grains, or low-fat dairy products would reduce the risk of dying in this stage of life by 7% to 19%. If everyone in the study had slashed their average red-meat intake to less than half a serving per day, the researchers say, 9% of deaths among men and 8% of deaths among women could have been prevented.
Increased health and compassion towards animals seems like a good reason to be a veterinarian.
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Meditation Huts - help us build
We have started the process of getting county approval to build 8 meditation huts. They will be located in our Ksitigarbha Garden (Ksitigarbha is also know as Jizō Bosatsu, 地藏, Địa Tạng Vương bồ t�t, Daigan and Phra Ksitikhan Phothisatt). The huts will be 8'x8' and will be for private and isolated meditation. Each hut will have a small covered porch in front for outside meditation, allowing us an outside space to meditate even in the snow and rain.
We hope to start building the huts by 15 April and complete the construction by 30 May (weather permitting). Each hut will cost us around $4,300 in materials and a similar amount for constructing them unless we have volunteer builders. So - how can you help? Either by donating money towards material or volunteering your time to help build them. This is a rather large financial undertaking for our temple, please help if you can. If you can donate all the money for a hut, we will be name it after you - a wonderful legacy.
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Dealing with Anger
If someone verbally attacks us in anger, we sometimes reflexively strike back in words. Sadly, the angry one is asking for help from the internal suffering and pain they are experiencing and their anger has very little to do with us. At best, for a while, they can become our teachers about pain and loving kindness.
If you would practice Buddha's teachings - meet such an angry individual with tolerance, love, and compassion. These 3 attributes are our greatest defense against our own judgements and discrimination, as well as a source of healing.
If something "bothers" us about another's actions or words - it is frequently about our own unresolved issues. The metta mantra is a good guide, "May you be well, may you be happy, may you know love, may you know peace." KOZEN
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| MEDITATION SERVICES
+ Join us Monday - Friday at 6:30 AM for our usual daily service.
+ Thursday and Friday Evenings at 6:30pm
+ Saturday Morning at 9 AM
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PLEASE JOIN US THIS COMING SATURDAY FOR THIS DHARMA WORKSHOP
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Tuyết Sơn Thiền Tự + Mt Adams Zen Buddhist Temple + 雪山禅寺
PO Box 487, Trout Lake WA 98650 www.MtAdamsZen.org
509.395.2030 (e-mail -put in the @ sign) kozen1 at embarqmail.com
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Here we are in a small wooden boat floating on the Ganges. Our group is holding a flower offering to place in the Mother Ganga - asking for peace for all beings.
Sign along the walkway to the temple of Buddha's birthplace in Lumbini Nepal 
Ven. Tashi Tsering, a Tibetan refuge monk our temple sponsors in India. You can sponsor a Tibetan refugee child, monk or nun at 
