Susan told the story of John Gallard “downloading” traditional knowledge in her June 28 teisho “Coming From the Side”This story is elaborated in “The Sydney that has no Postcode” a search into the deepest layers of the feel of place,an audio feature, written and produced by Susan in 2003 for Radio National.
The program explores spirits of place and how they might talk to us : sensing the secret agreement that runs through land (still perceptible beneath development) : old roads of Sydney following ancient walking tracks : freeing the old spirits in the land to speak : the song in the land : conversations with with country without words : feeling the land and spirit places with your body : sacred sites as body : reconciliation with the spirit of the land : belonging in this country with no postcodes : inviting the spirits to make themselves felt : stories of spirit places/sacred sites with Uncle Max Harrison Dulumunmun, Aunty Joan Cooper, Aunty Edna Watson, and sisters Pat and Fay, John Gallard and Red Cloud the kelpie.
Front row: Sensei Kynan, Roshi Susan, Deborah, Lizzie. ()
Dear Sangha,
You are formally invited to an online Tea Ceremony party on Saturday, August 15, starting at 3pm. RSVP Essential. Details below…
Please join us to welcome Deborah Chadwick formally into her place at the heart of sangha care. I am writing to announce a new sangha appointment which enlarges us all – that of Sangha Attendant, identifying in Deborah someone who is clearly a born Jisha to the Sangha.
Deborah has been a committed member of Zen Open Circle for almost two decades. In that time she has acquitted herself deeply and fully in the lengthy koan journey. Her Dharma eye is clear, her heart is all-inclusive, her support of the gate of practice has long been felt. Whether aware of it or not, we have all been touched and supported by her many years of wise, selfless care and unstinting service of sangha.
In the Zen tradition, ‘Attendant’ is an honorific that signifies someone bearing complete trust in attending to the needs of teacher and sangha, closely following what is arising, alert to new issues or needs, and offering wise mentoring to those stepping up into sangha roles. An ‘attendant’ literally tends to what is happening, paying the mind of close attention that moves with circumstances in her work of taking and offering care.
Deborah’s appointment, which is warmly supported by our management committee, is founded in her seniority and depth of practice experience, but more than that, in who she simply is. It is one more flowering of the way in which everyone is continually invited to find their place in the weave of sangha relations becoming ever complete.
I now move formally to invite Deborah to actively explore and live into a wider, deeper Jisha-like role, on the sangha-wide scale of our expanding community life, responding as it must to the impacts and strange gifts as well of this time of pandemic.
And I invite you in turn to be sure to come to the party to help us all create a warm, moving and noisy welcome (there may be music) to Deborah, and to offer your own aloha to this moment of celebration of all that she has long been so generously offering us — and all that can now begin to flower further in the space of Sangha Attendant to Zen Open Circle.
Please bring with you the Chado (Way of Tea) requirements of a cup or teapot of green tea, some small sweet delicacy to go with it, and perhaps a very short seasonal poem. (Kimono, optional).
Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water.
Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky.
The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky.
Dogen Zenji – Genjokoan
Click on the recordings below to listen to the talks from this gathering. We will upload a transcription when it becomes available. ()
