April 4, 2016
Looking out of the glass walls of Peaceful Dragon Temple, the falling snow—winter’s greeting—covers April’s daffodils. This gift of a snow day has prompted me to sit down and share with you what is happening at this time, both in my life and with ShinJin Zen Temple in Northampton.

On April 30, 2016, the lease I’ve held for sixteen years at 78 Main Street in Northampton, the home of ShinJinJi (Body-Mind Zen Temple) and The Life Center for Network Chiropractic will come to an end. On this day, after years of looking out of the eight, second floor windows onto Main Street, ShinJinJi will close on Suite 209. The temple will move, and its Buddha altar will turn its gaze onto the forest at Two Streams Zen Farm in rural Westhampton.

The two streams and their temples—Peaceful Dragon (AnRyūJi) and Body-Mind (ShinJinJi)—will jointly arise, sharing one space as the focal ground from which to fulfill Two Streams Zen’s mission and vision: sowing seeds of awakening, cultivating fearless intimacy, and harvesting world peace.

March 9th in Northampton

In these Hilltown woods, the priests’ robes flowing seamlessly, with the forest, the birds, the wildlife, and the stream below the home temple, into the One River.

How wonderful to remember the many hours, days and years of Zazen, chanting, services, rituals, Dharma talks, and deep practice that filled Suite 209, the town temple, with the Buddha overlooking the street activities below. Soon, just as with each of one of us, this temple will dissolve, like a sand mandala, spreading its prayers and blessings throughout the city.

Over the years Zen practice, with its promise of liberation, remains the same. Yet, at Two Streams Zen, the manifestation of this ancient practice has organically transformed. I also have been transformed by my time at 78 Main Street. From a novice priest adhering to robes, rituals and forms passed down to me by my teacher, I have grown into a teacher who questions the efficacy of these forms in challenging and undoing the chains of today.

Deepening my continuous examination of the intersections of Zen practice with trauma renegotiation, energetic body work, power, privilege, whiteness, and Legacy Trauma, my priest’s vows require the necessity of addressing all of these streams of suffering as integral to the fabric of spiritual practice. No longer can I separate these threads, for they are woven together as the garment of the Buddha.

Now I care less about enlightenment and more about being a regular person who sews—sewing the robe and sowing seeds—with hands that remind me of my grandmother Bertie’s hands. Hands whose gnarled fingers knitted winter booties every year for black and white children in Sunday school. Children Grandma Bertie would never see grown.

Bringing the practice home is true to Master Dogen’s words:
“Why leave behind the seat in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep you stumble past what is directly in front of you. You have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form. Don’t waste time.”

On behalf of Two Streams Zen’s Board of Directors, Wisdom Circle, Ryūmon Sensei, and the temple guardians Arthur and Jessye, I extend to you a wholehearted invitation to join and share in our rural practice in Westhampton—a practice that is both intimate and global, a practice that opens the heart to joy, a practice whose sole purpose is to alleviate the suffering of all beings.

Bowing,
Anraku Hondorp Sensei

Copyright © *April 2016* *Two Streams Zen*, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
Two Streams Zen Farm
263 Main Road-Route 66
Westhampton, Massachusetts, 01027-9682
USA

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list

This email was sent to <<Email Address>>
why did I get this? unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences
Two Streams Zen · 78 Main Street · Suite 209 · Northampton, MA 01060 · USA