Schedule
A
Zoom based morning service, with one period of zazen, is currently conducted 10:30 a.m. Pacific time, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at Manzoku-an, to supplement Monday and Friday zazenkai at Bird Haven (calendar). Morning Service will go on hiatus in August and return at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time in September, with two periods of 20 minute zazen and a period of kinhin between. https://manzokuan.blogspot.com/p/calendar.html
Script (often edited): https://manzokuan.blogspot.com/p/morning-service.html
Monday, November 30th, Manzoku-an plans to hold an Ecotonglen and 108 Bells for Lost Species event at 10 a.m. Pacific time.
Tuesday December 8, Manzoku-an plans to hold a short Rohatsu sesshin from 10 am. Pacific time, with a service, 3 periods of zazen, ending with a recitation of the Fukanzazengi. https://manzokuan.blogspot.com/p/calendar.html
Zoom zendo: https://manzokuan.blogspot.com/p/manzokuan-zoom-zendo.html
All are welcome.
-- shonin
Blog
Head over to https://manzokuan.blogspot.com for the latest.
More
Aside from the current blog posts, the archives contain things shonin worked on in the previous hut and in earlier years:
In Place, the series of posts about life in Gogo-an, a handmade hut at Stony Run Farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, 2010-2020, begins here. There are 62 of these.
Buddhism and Permaculture, a series of posts from 2013, begins here. There
are twenty-four posts in the series, in reverse chronological order. If you
want to open the whole year's archive, here is the link. Just scroll to
the bottom once it's open, and work up from there.
Viewing Jasper Mountain, a journal of life at Stony Run Farm in the late 90s, occupies the 2012 archive -- there are twelve chapters, in reverse (typical blog) order.
Poems, from mostly before shonin was shonin, are stored in the 2011 archive, reverse chronological order. There are currently seventy-one of these. Have begun reading them aloud on Youtube.
Iron Buddhas,
a novelized account of shonin's sojourn with the Hoedads Cooperative
and the Siuslaw Workers Cooperative in the late 1970s, is stored in the 2010 archive in reverse order. There are 20 chapters.
Starvation Ridge is a post-apocalyptic novel set in 2048-52. Here is the cover, frontmatter and prologue. There are 51 posts in this series, in reverse order. They are stored, complete, in the June 2008 archive of the blog.
Also, Information for Future Ecohealers: a bit of torch passing, if you will.
See also https://www.youtube.com/@risasb and https://c.im/@shonin, if you wish.
About
The hut's floor space is 100
square feet, or about double that allotted to a monastic in the Vinaya
😅. Nearly everything in it, including the door, windows and interior
walls, is hand-me-downs, thrift store items, or salvage. It contains
mostly a few tables, a bookcase and tiny desk, a twelve-year-old Mac for
teleconferences, and a few kitchen things.
It
also contains, for portions of almost every day, doyu shonin, a retiree
and Buddhist nun (of sorts), who undertook the home leaving ceremony
but, like many Westerners, only landed a stone's throw from the house
and family, for reasons.
She gardens, puts food by, prepares
usually two meals a day, walks slowly around the neighborhood as able,
practices with several short online zazenkai a week, and conducts online morning
service three days a week (BHZ Calendar).
Her
zazen posture may require, for some, a bit of explanation. Much is done
from a zero gravity lawn chair in front of the old Mac and its camera,
somewhat supine. This is due mainly to leukemia, cardiac amloidosis, and chronic lumbar strain. There are resources available for those in like case to adapt their practices.
This rather privileged cosplay hut life has a purpose. It's for research.
What can be done right now, in the midst of a perniciously greedy and
coercive society, toward living simplicity, of which Buddha is a principal exemplar? The first chapter of the Diamond Sutra points the way:
...when it was time to make the alms round, the Buddha put on his sanghati robe and, holding his bowl, went into the town of Shravasti to beg for alms, going from house to house. When the alms round was completed, he returned to the monastery to eat the midday meal. Then he put away his sanghati robe and his bowl, washed his feet, arranged his cushion, and sat down. (tr. Red Pine)
The rest of the sutra is commentary.
Dana is not sought here; if you are so moved please consider giving to your local food bank, community garden, youth farm or Native organization. 🙏
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Manzoku-an resides on the homeland of the Kalapuya people. We acknowledge their stewardship and their continuing presence, and we strive to interrupt the legacy of injustice towards Indigenous people through truth-telling, opportunities for healing, and collaborative action.