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.