New Year's Eve at Windhorse

These ceremonies and celebrations are a great way to end one year and begin the new! Here's what's happening at Windhorse:

On Saturday, Dec. 31, the Center will open at 7:00pm.  Tea will be available as people congregate, with a fire in the hearth if it’s cold enough outside.  Formal zazen begins at 7:30, followed by all the ceremonies—quiet and noisy—that will help us enter 2012 feeling renewed, with cleansed minds and open hearts. We end with a candlelit circle, everyone reading a few lines of the New Year's Prayer (see below), together beaming out many wishes for peace and happiness for all on the planet.

To Sangha and Other Friends of Windhorse

[First Section]
This evening we begin the week of Rohatsu, Buddha’s Enlightenment Sesshin -- our last retreat of the year. Before diving in, we’re sending out this letter with photos to show what’s happening at Windhorse, and to ask for your support in completing the new residential space. 

Once we finish the building – and we’re not so far from our fundraising goal -- we can begin to use this beautiful place in the woods! It will provide much-needed rooming for more residents, sesshin participants and visitors, and will make possible a greater range of Zen-related workshops. Such programs should help us reach more people and be more financially resilient in the years to come.

Thanksgiving at Panther Branch

Thanksgiving 2004 (!)

With our fall ceremonies behind us, we're gearing up for this Thursday's big event: Thanksgiving -- the wonderful, unique, non-religious holiday centered around communal meals and gratitude. And we're going to have a vegetarian feast and PARTY over here at Windhorse! A rare community event, open to all who wish to take part.

Please let us know if you'd like to come, what dish you'd like to bring (we'll let you know what others are bringing if you wish), and please also bring any music you'd like to hear before or after the meal. Better yet, bring an instrument and play some music!
We're asking participants to help out with clean up, and if you can also lend a hand with set-up, great!

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude. -- Nietzsche

The Ceremony of Gratitude

CEREMONY of GRATITUDE 

Rohatsu: Buddha's Enlightenment Sesshin

All throughout the world people sit in retreat during this special December time - this is one of the reasons why Rohatsu, or Buddha's Enlightenment Sesshin, tends to be particularly powerful and deep. This is a special time to sit, whether you’re in sesshin or not.

Our Windhorse Rohatsu begins Saturday early evening, Dec. 3, and ends the following Saturday afternoon, Dec. 10. The deadline for applying is Monday, Nov. 21st. 

If anyone’s available to come in to help on the week before sesshin, we’d love to hear from you!

Our Memorial Altar

The memorial altar, set up for our Day of the Dead zazenkai, is still in the Kannon room. Anyone who wishes to do so is welcome to bring in pictures of family members, friends or pets who have died, You may also find that you get to know the sangha a little better just by looking at this altar. So whether you bring in photos or not, be sure to glance into the Kannon room the next time you visit Windhorse.

 We're planning to keep the altar there at least through the Ceremony of Gratitude on Sunday, Nov. 20st. 

November-December Events at Windhorse

As nights lengthen and grow frosty, as the sap returns to the roots, many people feel a greater inward pull.  A fine time to sit more, and to connect with and strengthen – through ceremonies and sangha gatherings – deep energies that benefit not only ourselves but also the world as a whole.  Please join us for some or all of these special autumn events: Famine Relief Ceremony, Jukai (Receiving of the Precepts), our annual Ceremony of Gratitude, and the festive Panther Branch Thanksgiving Potluck & Party.  You’ll find more information on each of these events below.

Abbreviated Ancestral Line – part I

Vasubandhu

Although we chant it at least once a week, for most people the Abbreviated Ancestral Line is a pretty enigmatic chant – for newcomers not much different from a Dharani, actually. Even if you stick around for a few years you won’t necessarily know that Hakuun Ryoku is Roshi Yasutani, and Daiun Sogaku is Roshi Harada. However, if you make the effort of looking more deeply into the Ancestral Line and getting familiar with those mentioned in it, you may come to feel a real connection with and gratitude to those people who transmitted the Dharma to our times. This article is meant to help you do just this - make the history of our lineage a little more accessible.

Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Zazenkai

Studying the Precepts

Photo by our Sangha member, Byron Hovey

This year our fall Jukai will take place on Saturday afternoon, Nov. 19. Jukai is the ceremony of Receiving the Precepts, and thus formally entering the Buddhist Sangha. In preparation for this important ceremony, the Windhorse Dharma study group will shift its focus from classical Buddhist texts to exploring these precepts and how they relate to our lives.

It is said that “Zen is above morality, but morality is not below Zen.” Doing our best to uphold the precepts in everyday life is an essential part of our practice, something that was strongly emphasized by Roshi Philip Kapleau. These precepts are not commandments -- who, after all, would command whom? Instead, these "items of good character" point to a way of being that occurs naturally when we live in harmony with the truth of our own deepest nature.

Bodhidharma Day Ceremony

 

Join us for this yearly autumn event that includes zazen, chanting, and a talk on – and to -- Bodhidharma, 28th Indian Dharma Ancestor and the first Ancestor in China. We’ll have a small exhibition in the Kannon Room of various renderings of Bodhidharma by famous painters (including one by Hakuin). As always, tea will be available afterward, along with whatever vegetarian lunch offerings people may bring to share.

Sunrise at Black Balsam

Tomorrow morning we’ll move our formal sitting outdoors, to take in the sunrise at Black Balsam, about an hour’s drive from the Center. With winter around the bend we want to, as Thoreau put it, 'suck the marrow' from these golden days of autumn. Word has it this is the best place around to catch the sunrise. Please join us if you can!

Sunday with Zazen - one day sitting

This coming Sunday at Windhorse we’ll be having a One-Day Zen Retreat (zazenkai), with a sesshin-like schedule, teisho and dokusan (Sunya only; Lawson will be out of town). 

People can participate for the whole of it, or just for part. Some people will be staying overnight on Saturday, to make it easier to do the early-morning section. 

Let us know if you'd like to do that, and if you'll be here for breakfast or lunch, so that we can plan accordingly.

If anyone can help out before or after this event, great! The more people who lend a hand, the easier it is to have these sorts of sittings on a regular basis.

You will find the schedule below.            

Wilderness Retreat 2011

We’re back at Panther Branch after 3 wonderful days in the Smokies, with fresh energy, stronger Sangha connections, and some great memories! We also have photos to share. So if you’re interested, read on . . .

Find us in the wild

A number of people have expressed interest in visiting our Wilderness Retreat zendo and participating in parts of this retreat that begins on Thursday, September 15th. For those of you who'd like to do that, here are some maps of the Big Creek region.

Biodynamic Yoga at Panther Branch

Photo by Mike C. Peck

Eric Scheider has offered to lead a series of yoga classes at Panther Branch from 5:30-6:30 on Tuesday evenings, before the regular evening sitting. Those will be general yoga classes (suitable for all levels of fitness and experiencing), cultivating awareness, alignment, and balanced action, supporting each other to bring forward the Dharma with maximum vitality into our meditation practices and into our lives. The first class will take place on Tuesday, September 13th. Classes are open to all. 

Eric has been involved in both Zen and yoga practice for many years now, and is certified to teach yoga. He is generously offering to do this for us on a dana-only basis, with any offerings people make to go to Windhorse.

Read on for an introduction to some of the principles of yoga practice as Eric sees them. 

Starting afresh

Two weeks of the summer break are over and we are back to our usual schedule. It was heartening to start the fall with so many people in the zendo during that early morning sitting – we have a much stronger team now: Keith Carpenter, who many of you know, moved to live with us, and a new resident from Florida, Teresa Sellers, arrived yesterday evening after an “easy”, as she puts it, 11-hour drive. Theresa brought with her a surprise guest: a bronze Buddha (more details to come). Now, doesn’t he look just like someone you saw in our zendo???

Wilderness Retreat in the Great Smoky Mountains

The mountain landscape that holds our Sangha is a billion years old – mountains formed by a mighty collision of what later became North America and Africa. When young, these mountains rivaled the Himalayas. After formation, these mountains were covered by a forest that has never experienced a major ecological disaster – no volcanism, no ocean submersion, no scouring by the ice age glaciers. The result is an ancient temperate rainforest of unparalleled biodiversity.

A special Sunday guest

We are pleased to let you know that well-known Zen teacher and Dogen scholar Shohaku Okumura, along with his wife Yuko, will be joining us this Sunday for the morning program at Windhorse (9:30 – 11:30).

Shohaku, founder of the Sanshin Zen Community in Bloomington, Indiana, is giving two talks in Asheville, with book signings for his recently published Realizing Genjokoan.  (The first talk was last night at Malaprops; the second, on Zen monk Ryokan, will be at 7 on Saturday evening at the Baha’i Center, and is hosted by the Asheville Zen Center.)

And after...

The Wall

It left no traces. All the lists were taken down, the windows uncovered, furnitures returned to their usual places and the last two of our out-of-town participants left Asheville this morning. The August sesshin with it's full moon and teisho's featuring Master Dogen, a water pitcher and Close Encounters is gone. 

But is there really no trace left?

Before Sesshin

Last Thursday, July 28, Sunya-sensei and Magda Kadlubowska returned from Poland, followed by their suitcases, which arrived a day later. After over 3 weeks of quiet time Windhorse is ready to resume its usual training schedule - or, considering the fact that the pre-sesshin week is now underway - the usual "work like hell" schedule.

The upcoming 6-day sesshin runs from Sunday, August 7th till Saturday the 13th. The work checklists are printed and waiting for the checks. Anyone able and willing to come and help with preparations throughout the week can count on a grateful welcome, focused work practice and a tasty lunch. So don’t forget about the Three Treasures - participating in putting sesshin together is a great way to help wake up the Buddha, turn the Wheel of the Dharma, and strengthen our Sangha bonds!

Wondering how to prepare yourself for the sesshin?

Considerations for a Dharma Box



Photo by Byron Hovey



On Sunday, June 19, a group of people met after the Sunday morning program at Windhorse, to look into coming up with individual Dharma wills and a ‘Dharma Box.’  Claire Hicks, hospice physician, started the meeting with an invitation to imagine our own death:

Take a few minutes, still yourself, and imagine you are dying, as you would want to die -- not sometime far in the future, but now. What is your vision for the death that you would want? What can you do to inform your family and friends about how they can help you realize your vision for your ideal death? What are the things that came out of this thought experiment that you might want to do something about?

Some of the things that came up for us were:

Dharma Circle - Thursday, June 23

To follow up with the interest in surveying some of the sutras, we plan to read and contemplate an abridged selection from Ch. 4 of the Lotus Sutra, Belief and Understanding.  It contains the parable of the Lost Son (referenced in Hakuin's Song) which illustrates how the ultimate truth (i.e., the Lotus Sutra) could be taught by the Buddha only when the disciples were mature enough to accept it.

Because the texts we discuss are copyrighted, we can only make copies of the sutra translations we work with for those attending the Circle. If you can attend the Circle, email us at Windhorse (via the Contact Page) and we will email you the selections we plan to work with.

The Dharma Circle meets on Thursdays from 5:30 to 6:30 pm

Depression & Healing Support Group Organizing

Recently some people have expressed interest in forming a support group for those who struggle with depressive states and who are, or would like to be, involved in some form of meditation practice. The point of this post is to find out how much interest there might be in such a group, and if there’s enough response we’ll work out the next step.  To clarify:  you don’t have to be a sangha member to be part of this group, just someone who wants to work on these issues with others in the context of a meditation practice.

    So many people now struggle with depressive states, and when they hit, it can be tough going. As Windhorse member Keith Carpenter writes:

    When one is in a depressive state, the world is gray, energy to do the simplest tasks is not there, the tendency is to want to isolate oneself from the world. One feels frozen and drowning in a sea of negative thoughts. Emotions are raw, primitive, and deep - there is something, reptilian, instinctual about them. One tends to do the opposite of what is healing - getting out, telling people what is going on and making healthy choices. Getting rest, refreshing sleep, adequate and nutritious food, exercise, an adequate amount of zazen, talking to trustworthy friends and taking an antidepressant if needed, have all been helpful. I believe the trick is to stay aware of what is going on moment by moment without judgment, and without trying to push the experience away or deny it.  Life may be suffering (or 'unsatisfactoriness'), but depression adds suffering stacked on top of suffering.

        So if you’re interested in working on this with others, send an email to Windhorse (via the Contact Us page). Feel free to send a link for this article on to others who may wish to participate, and know that all names and email addresses will remain confidential.

Dharma Study Circle

The Dharma Study Circle meets on Thursdays at 5:30-6:30 pm. Next Thursday, June 16, we will read and contemplate the Heart Sutra, The Prajnaparamita Hridaya.

We use the council circle format. We read a section of the sutra aloud together and share what has inspired us. 

Chinese text of the Heart Sūtra, by Yuan Dynasty artist and calligrapher Zhao Meng Fu, 1254-1322 A.D.

2nd Meeting of the Dharma Study Circle

"The discussion in the last group led me to think that a piece of the Avatamsaka Sutra might be fitting and inspiring. The chapter, Appearance of the Buddha, gives a taste of the Sutra and a glimpse into the true nature of reality discovered by the Buddha upon his enlightenment. It's lofty, mind-blowing reading." Wynn Seishin

The group intends to read and discuss 3 pages of the Sutra this Thursday, June 9, 5:30pm to 6:30pm. If you are planning to participate, email windhorse@windhorsezen.org and we will return an attachment of a copy of the text.

Vegan kefir

Those who know Sensei Sunya are well aware of her interest in healthy nutrition and her concern for the impact we have on other living beings. Every so often her research in these subjects leads to  new experiments in the Windhorse menu. Today we'd like to introduce you to the latest one: the vegan kefir.
Kefir grains came to Windhorse by mail. Fed with raw sugar, they are still recovering after the trip. This, however, does not prevent them from doing some useful work - namely turning sugar water into kefir! With the amount of grains we have now  (hopefully, they will grow) we can make about 2-3 cups of water kefir in 3 days. The kefir tastes great (something between milk kefir and champagne....) and is a wondrful source of  B12 vitamin, so hard to find in a vegan diet.

Dharma Study Circle

Some of the Windhorse sangha are interested in beginning an informal study group of Dharma texts.  They’re talking about surveying a wide variety of Dharma teachings, and are beginning to make a tentative selection for the first few meetings, beginning with Hakuin's "Chant in Praise of Zazen." (Click "Read more", and you'll find the text on the bottom of this post.)

The meetings will use a modified "council circle" format, where everyone will be invited to share a brief section of the text that they find inspiring.  But the structure and content of the study group is open for discussion.  If there’s enough interest, this could become an ongoing event at Windhorse.  The hope is to get better acquainted with both the Dharma and each other.

The first meeting will be this Thursday, June 2nd, from 5:30 to 6:30 PM at Panther Branch (before the sitting from 7 to 9).  All are welcome to join in.

Dharma Practice and the Unconscious Part II — Personal Accounts - Sensei Lawson Sachter

The first part of this article presented an overview of some of the complexities that can arise as the unconscious is mobilized through Dharma practice.  In hopes of offering a broader, and more personal, perspective on this subject, I’ve asked several Zen practitioners who have been through Davanloo’s ISTDP to write about some of their own insights and experiences.  Naturally some people are more eloquent, and some have histories or experiences or openings that are simply more dramatic.  Such accounts tend to be more readily included in a piece like this.  The people whose accounts have been given below were not all my clients, and all but one of them refers to experiences that took place within the past 15 years.  Needless to say, ways of integrating these ways of working are continually being refined.

The truth is that much of the time the work is fairly simple and direct. Resistances are addressed, a layer of the unacceptable feelings comes to the surface, and there’s an opening through which a range and depth of previously repressed feelings reveals itself – grief, rage, guilt, and much more.  Being simple doesn’t mean easy. These repressive forces can be tenacious.  Most of us have spent a lifetime developing sophisticated ways of avoiding what seems so unacceptable, often at great personal cost.

Zen and the Unconscious, Part I - Sensei Lawson Sachter

“If you bring forth that which is within you, it will save you.

If you do not bring forth that which is within you, it will destroy you.”

The Gnostic Gospels

A Zen Master once said, “Dharma practice is like the ocean; the farther out you go, the deeper it becomes.”  Deeper levels of practice offer the hope of more than simply calming our seemingly endless internal chatter, and helping us become more ‘mindful’ in each moment.  Intensive forms of practice also open us to a level of non-dual awareness, one that transcends the conceptually-grounded understanding we so naturally take for granted — and in doing so reveal new possibilities of freedom. But those who are drawn to these deeper waters may find themselves confronted by painful and disturbing mindstates.  The Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross somewhat poetically referred to this part of the journey as passing through “the Dark Night of the Soul,” but surely, finding our way through these realms is never easy.

Psychodynamic Zen™, an Introduction - Sensei Lawson Sachter and Sensei Sunya Kjolhede

Psychodynamic: The interplay of conscious and unconscious mental or emotional processes, especially as they influence personality, behavior, and attitudes.

We’ve created this section of our blogsite as a way to share some of the more psychodynamically oriented work that’s being integrated into the training at Windhorse, and to invite ongoing discussion. In the future we hope this site will also attract the work of others who share similar concerns, and that it can serve as a link to related resources.  This particular section grows out of the recognition that unconscious forces can play a hidden, but significant, role in Dharma practice; and that these forces often function in ways unique to the Western psyche.  Certainly the unconscious can complement the creative and compassionate sides of practice, but it can also manifest itself through all kinds of self-afflictive mindstates.

The Cascading Mind - Sensei Sunya Kjolhede

When we first take up a sitting practice and look into our minds, we may be shocked to discover what’s going on in there. As the inner noise quiets down a bit, we start to see how scattered and unruly the thoughts are—how they race and tumble and repeat themselves, compulsively judging, labeling, dissecting.

We begin to feel the cocoon we’ve woven for ourselves out of all this mental turmoil and deadening abstraction, how it isolates us from others and from the rich texture of our lives. What often becomes painfully clear is that as long as this compulsive inner dialogue persists, any true sense of peace, intimacy, and presence is impossible.

This first step of simply experiencing the “monkey mind” is a necessary and important point in practice. Vajrayana teachings call it the stage of “Attaining the Cascading Mind,” and it is in fact a notable attainment, for it occurs only when we free ourselves, even slightly, from a tight identification with our habitual discursive thinking.

The Jackalope of Self - Sensei Sunya Kjolhede

When we cling to the familiar, to this notion of self that we have welded out of thoughts and memories since time immemorial, then we’re identifying with the wrong master. Zen Master Bassui’s essential question was, "Who is the Master?" Who is the one who hears, feels, sees, and talks? Our task in sesshin and in our lives is to put this true master, this "True self that is no-self," back on the throne. Otherwise all kinds of tricksters and demons break in and take its place.

This brings to mind an image from The Wind in the Willows, the part where Toad is absent from his big beautiful mansion. He’s been arrested and thrown into prison, and all these crafty, greedy weasels pour into Toad Hall and take over. They put on his fancy smoking jacket, they smoke his fancy pipes, they drink his expensive wine, and they trash the place. Ultimately, of course, they have to be driven out for Toad to be reinstated. Of course, we wouldn’t characterize this True Master as having Toad’s personality! – ornary personality or characteristics at all. This is utterly beyond birth and death, good and bad, self and other – beyond all dualities. And yet this is the One who is always right here, this living pulse of our being. Who else could it be?

Gratitude

We wish to thank so many people who made contributions to Windhorse this past year – all those who offered generous financial support and/or their time and energies to help keep this Dharma work going.  We also very much appreciate all the kind letters we’ve received about all that goes on here.

Building Progress, Winter 2010

In terms of the Building Fund, we’ve received over $40,000 from the Phil ‘Koso’ Gable Legacy Fund (and are hoping other pledges that were made last year will soon be honored).  We’re especially pleased to let everyone know we’ve reached our $25,000 Matching Fund goal!  This means we now have another $50,000 available for construction.  A number of other very generous donations have also come in — funds not earmarked for construction that will help us to keep the rest of Windhorse running as well.

As you can see from the photograph, we’ve accomplished quite a lot. Some unresolved challenges in the building process remain, but if we can ‘keep the wind to our back,’ we should be able to finish the project this year.  With this beautiful and much needed facility we will be able to offer different sorts of workshops and other programs that have been put on hold due to space limitations. And of course the beautiful new building will provide a great place for sesshin participants and those in residential training.

With much gratitude to all,

Lawson and Sunya, for Windhorse