Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Gratitude

With respect,


Good Morning All,



Student Jeff and I worked on the new site until late in the night. In fact, I am writing this at 1:00 AM. I just came in from a break where I sat out on the patio under the stars. It is 53 degrees under a starry night. I thought about the work we are doing.



The site has an enormous amount of information, from how we do things in the Order to pages about our Japanese founder, Rev. Dr. Soyu Matsuoka. Jeff has worked tirelessly with and without me. We are in his debt.



During all of this I found out my son’s wife is pregnant again and, as a result, they may be moving back to New Mexico where he will likely need to establish another restaurant. And PayPal decided to request an enormous amount of documentation regarding our Non-Profit Organization. I have been working on scanning docs, editing and writing pages of text, and with Rev. Soku Shin’s able assistance, we are on the bright side of night.



None of us can accomplish things alone. The Order of Clear Mind Zen, while founded by me, is not me. It is everyone who enters the doors of its Zendos, who practices on the street, in the prisons, and in hospice. I am very pleased with our development as a Sangha. While we are small, we are a dynamic group.



My thanks to Rev. Kankin for driving up this evening from El Paso with his students, Shikan and Rob, to sit in with us to study the Genjo Koan. It is very good to have the company of sangha,.



Some of us are alone, like Ron Mitsugo Zacharski, in Virginia, who sits by himself and practices nearly monthly weekend retreats with a group from a different tradition. Others practice with little assistance from us, like Rev. John Shoji Sorenson, in California who travels great distances in his Buddhist Chaplaincy Program and every other week or so enters Folsom Prison to bring the dharma to the incarcerated.



Yes, I am pleased. We might be small, but we are walking the walk. This is a very good thing.



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