Greetings Sangha!
How wonderful it is to be enjoying the summer rains recently! This hottest time of the year now somewhat tempered by the cool New Mexico rains! Tuesday is the solstice and it’s a time that has always been really special for me. When I lived for so many years in the frozen grip of northern New Hampshire the summer solstice was my assurance that, at last, my favorite season had arrived. I was born at the apex of summer and have always resonated with summertime the most! I am moved by the stillness and beauty of summer, the grasses tall by the roadsides, the shimmering heat and the verdant growth of living things at their peak. Dreamlike images and numinous tones arise of themselves within me in the summer, like glimpses of summer lives lived before. I have such amazing memories of great adventures on lakes and in mountains, festivals, swimming holes, and also of those summer jobs that I always quit a month early, determined not to be cheated out of the adventures of August!
We begin the celebration of summer on the solstice with the Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra. The Aspiration Prayer states: ” During solar or lunar eclipse, when clamor or earthquakes occur, at the solstices, or at the turn of the year if we let ourselves arise as Samantabhadra and recite this prayer within the hearing of all, through the aspiration of us yogic practitioners, all sentient beings of the three realms will gradually become free from suffering and then swiftly attain buddhahood.”
Schedule 6/19-6/25
Monday, 6:30 AM, Zazen at the Tea House
Tuesday, 6:30 AM, Samantabhadra, ZOOM ONLY
Tuesday, 7 PM, Dream Koan, at the Tea House or ZOOM
Wednesday, 6:30 AM, Zazen at the Tea House or ZOOM
Thursday, 6:30 AM, Vajrakilaya Sadhana, at the Tea House or ZOOM
Friday, 6:30 AM, Zazen, at the Tea House
Hope you all dance a circle around the sun this week!
Deep Peace, Great Love,
Issan & Zenho
No Gate Zen Center 