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| Desert Zen Center - Chùa Thiên Ân |
| a Zen Buddhist temple dedicated to teaching meditation to everyone |
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10 a.m.
Meditation
Dharma Talk
Chanting
August 14 - Tâm Hu'o'ng
Zendo Etiquette
Roshi traveling for Ullambana
21 - Roshi
Novice Precepts Ceremony
28 - Roshi
Renewing the Precepts Lunch & Music September
4 - Tam Hu'o'ng
11 - Thay Minh Nhat
18 - Roshi
Beginning of Rains Training
25 - Roshi
Renewing the Precepts Lunch & Music
Service is followed by fellowship and light refreshments
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Can't make Sunday Service?
________ Visit the Dharma Talk Archive at DesertZenCenter.org ________
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Meditation & Dharma Class
Thursday Nights
7 p.m.
Every Thursday night, we gather in the Zendo for meditation, followed by training practice and, then, fellowship & Dharma class in the Sangha Hall.
Current study text is The Three Pillars of Zen by Kapleau Roshi. Please join us.
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Event Schedule
Life is uncertain... Everything changes
Updates here & on our website.
August
13 Canceled
Temple Work Day***
21 Novice Precepts
28 Reaffirming the Precepts, Lunch and Music
September
10 Day at Temple
Setting the Sima for Rains Season Training
25 Reaffirming the Precepts, Lunch and Music
October
7-9 Sesshin/Retreat
November
12 Day at Temple
December
8 Bodhi Day
9-11 Rohatsu Sesshin
Note: DZC plans various events on the second Saturday of every month.
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***August Temple Work Day canceled*** (mostly)
The official Temple Work Day scheduled for August 13th has been canceled.
There are lots of good reasons why August in the desert disrupts our orderly plans. This year, the fact that we've been doing major construction on several projects* combined with the usual expectation that "It's really hot."
However, Sư cô will be putting in work hours from 7 a.m. until noonish this coming Saturday and will be only too happy to point you toward manageable tasks and feed you lunch, should you feel the need to share some time and smiles.
 | | Tiled Platform for Quan Te Am Botat and the shaded Sangha Hall porch |
 | Rob Campbell in front of the Memorial Hall, working on the Bell Tower.
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*A sampling of ongoing work includes: the Tiled Platform for the Quan Am Statue, new covered porches for the Sangha Hall, the Bell Tower, the Memorial Hall, as well as a heap of tractoring for these projects as well as enlarging the vegetable/fruit tree gardens, and, of course, cleaning up after construction. Watch for a special email report and link to the website page (also in construction) as we catch up and catch our breath.
Everything Changes!
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"All I teach is Loving Kindness." --Thây Thích Minh Nhat  Many religious traditions hold that we should reach out and show loving kindness and compassion to our neighbors, whomever they be.
Thomas Merton, a Trappist Monk, wrote that the falsehood is that we have the truth and our adversary has the ownership of all errors. This view of the world is spiritual immaturity.
If we can make excuses for our own misdeeds, maybe we can find some for our neighbors, for they are no different from us except that they are they and we are we. Try to give as much loving kindness and compassion you can and save some for yourself. This is not an easy task because at times we may feel we are the only ones who are right.
The Buddha never claimed he had the monopoly on truth and in one of the Suttas he said not to believe what he said just because he said it. It takes effort and patience to give loving kindness and compassion to others if your mind is encumbered with an attitude of "I'm doing this because I have the truth" or for other reasons.
Just do it.
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A note regarding the website...
Any day now, we hope to release the stack of Dharma talks, photos, liturgy and dust bunnies from Sư cô's desk into the wilds of the internet. (The universe conspires.) In the meantime, thanks for your patience. |
 | | Roofing the Bell Tower in 98 degree heat, Mary and Rob Campbell race the rainstorm that brought us snowflakes in August. |
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So, what is the purpose of meditation? Does it have a purpose?
(from a recent Sangha Hall discussion) "We could say that meditation doesn't have a reason or doesn't have a purpose. In this respect it's unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing. When we make music we don't do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment." --Alan Wilson Watts
(techno Dharma: Mudita summoned up this quote from the 55,000 Amazing Quotes iPhone app)
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