Words of gratitude from the teachers-- May Newsletter

Myoshin, Zoketsu and Shinmon   May 7, 2017

Dear sangha friends,
 We are feeling such gratitude for the weekend retreat with our dear teacher Norman, the sad, simple, funny Stepping Down Ceremony, which made clear that there's no-coming, no-going, and the beautiful Guiding Teacher Ceremony, which affirmed for us how much our practice and the Mountain Rain sangha mean to so many. Your heartfelt expressions of love and confidence will give us the courage to go forward together with all of you, as we continue to co-create a vibrant practice community in these troubled times. 

So much goes into putting on a retreat for eighty people at UBC, so we'd like to take this opportunity to thank:
Megan for taking on the complexities of the registrar's job
Kaye and the zendo schlepping crew--in her wisdom she rented a van!
Leah, Ben and Kevin for being a great house band
Claire, Reamick and Brian for shepherding everyone to dokusan
Marlee for the the gorgeous flowers
Flo for being doshi for services and Nadia for being her incense attendant. 
Ursula for altar cleaning and Evan for taking care of tea. 

A special thank you to Kaye for taking on the prodigious task of organizing the sewing of our beautiful new ceremonial okesa (robes) and teaching something like 17 people how to use her sashiko sewing machine!! Thank you to Susan, Flo, Kwee and all the others who sewed. And to the Calgary sangha for sewing our okesa envelopes. 

And thank you to all those who offered such heart-warming words of appreciation to Norman, and congratulations to us during the ceremonies, and for all the beautiful cards and gifts, but most of all for willing to practice this radical non-action of sitting in silence paying attention to each moment of your human experience on this earth, and then to get up and actualize your practice in daily life. May our Everyday Zen practice flourish in community for many years to come.

Warm, deep bows to all,
Myoshin Kate and Shinmon Michael