Appamada

00:19:39 - Questions/Reflections

00:22:52 - Flint Prepares for, and Offers an Exercise

00:33:33 - Instruction for connection Groups of 3 People (20 Minutes)

2024-04-01 Day 2/Part 1 | Integrated Intensive | Forms and Roles as Practice | Flint Sparks by Appamada

00:01:48 - Peg anf Flint read Fukanzazengi - Eihei Do-gen (P.p 30 Appamada Chant Book)

00:11:28 - Flints Asks ‘What was it like to hear it read out in this way’?

00:26:49 - Flint Reads a poem by Marie Howe (see Below)

00:32:33 - Peg reads a Poem by Dogen

Easter

Two of the fingers on his right hand

had been broken

so when he poured back into that hand it surprised

him—it hurt him at first.

And the whole body was too small. Imagine

the sky trying to fit into a tunnel carved into a hill.

He came into it two ways:

From the outside, as we step into a pair of pants.

And from the centre—suddenly all at once.

Then he felt himself awake in the dark alone.

- Marie Howe

2024-04-02 I Inquiry I Nothing happening is a very good day I Trudy Johnson by Appamada

2024-03-26 I Inquiry I Are You Clear About Practice? I Flint Sparks by Appamada

Ordinary things are all Extra-Ordinary | Joel Barna

00:02:31 - A Reading from 'After Buddhism' by Stephen Batchelor

00:07:36 - Joel gives instructions on how to write a Pantoum Poem (Please see below)

00;11:56 - Joel’s Pantoum

00:13:18 - Joel explains how to format the 8 lines into a Pantoum

00:15:09 - Participants Write for 10 Minutes

00:15:19 - Instruction for Connecting Rooms/Groups

00:15:49 - Participants go into Breakout Rooms/Groups for 10 Minutes

00:15:58 - Some of the Participants share their Pantoums

00:22:31 - Joel begins to bring the meeting to a close

Pantoum Instructions below:

1. A line about something that’s become ordinary for you;

2. Where does this ordinary thing happen?

3. A line about time: When did you notice this ordinary thing had become ordinary?

4. Other surrounding events: what happens before it? what happens after it?

5. What is a single feeling you have about this ordinary thing?

6. What do you most wish to say about this ordinary thing? (You may wish to imagine

yourself speaking to a person you think will listen: it could be yourself.)

7. A line showing us an object that’s associated with this ordinary;

8. Something about your body and this ordinary.

Then arrange the lines in this order:

1st verse

1

2

3

4

2nd verse

2

5

4

6

3rd Verse

5

7

6

8

4th Verse

7

3

8

1

The Depth in Practice group discusses Case 20: Dizang asked Fayan, "Where are you going?"// Fayan said, "Around on pilgrimage." // Dizang said, "What is the purpose of pilgrimage?" // Fayan said, "I don't know." // Dizang said, "Not knowing is most intimate." //

Depth in Practice meets virtually at Appamada every week. Anyone is welcome to join the group! If you are interested in joining, please go to the calendar at appamada.org to find the link for the group. If you would like to donate to Appamada, please go to appamada.org and click on the contribute button at the bottom of the page.

The Depth in Practice group discusses Case 19: A monk asked Yunmen, “Not a single thought arises: is there any fault or not?” // Yunmen said, “Mt. Sumeru.” // [According to Jain cosmology, Mount Meru (or Sumeru) is at the center of the world surrounded by Jambūdvīpa, in the form of a circle forming a diameter of 100,000 yojans. (description from Wikipedia)]

Depth in Practice meets virtually at Appamada every week. Anyone is welcome to join the group! If you are interested in joining, please go to the calendar at appamada.org to find the link for the group. If you would like to donate to Appamada, please go to appamada.org and click on the contribute button at the bottom of the page.

The Depth in Practice group continues discussing Case 18: A monk asks Zhaozho, "Does the dog have Buddha Nature?" // Zhaozho says, "Yes." // The monk says, "Since it has, why is it then in this skin bag?" // Zhaozho replies, "Although he knows better he deliberately transgresses." // Another monk comes along: "Does the dog have Buddha Nature?" // "No," Zhaozho says. (The Japanese word "Mu" means " no.") // The monk says, "All beings have Buddha Nature, why not this dog?" // "Because he still has a mind," Zhaozho answers. //

Depth in Practice meets virtually at Appamada every week. Anyone is welcome to join the group! If you are interested in joining, please go to the calendar at appamada.org to find the link for the group. If you would like to donate to Appamada, please go to appamada.org and click on the contribute button at the bottom of the page.

Horizonless Intimacy

Dear Friends,

I captured this image as I took an early morning walk along the beach in Bray, Ireland (County Wicklow) this past Monday morning (7/28/08).

I was looking across the Irish Sea as the sun made its way up

through the clouds. If I would have been able to see beyond the horizon where the sea and the sky appear to meet, I would have found northern Wales on the other shore. In fact, on the previous afternoon while walking along another stretch of beach just south of Bray near Newcastle I ran upon a granite marker tucked among the boulders of the seawall protecting the railroad that passed nearby. On the opposite side of the the railway from the nearly hidden marker was an abandoned and decaying building.

The marker indicated that it was from this site and this tiny station that underwater telegraph cables were first laid beginning in the late 1880's, connecting Ireland and Wales. These connections were in use through the early 1930's. What happened then?

I suppose technology changed what was possible. Horizons for communication were extended and expanded.

If my view across the Irish Sea could have extend even further that morning, beyond the Welch border, I would have encountered the midlands of England where I had just spent the previous two weeks teaching and walking on the moors of Derbyshire. Further still and the English Channel would have come into view

and then the Netherlands, France, and the whole European continent. Where would it have ended? With a higher or more complete view, when obstructions or limitations are released, when horizons vanish, what can be seen? Apparently there is no end to the great view of a liberated mind, which I am only

imagining, even while my particular human senses are, of course, quite limited. These past three weeks have been very concentrated for me - many days of teaching and very deep

encounters. I worked with a number of wonderful people who were wholeheartedly offering themselves to a process of assisted self-discovery in mindfulness. They were curious about what they could see and what horizons they might explore as their self-identifications relaxed into the more diffuse awareness and

warmth of intimacy. In my reading this morning, I ran across this brilliant statement by the late Irish poet John O'Donohue: "In the human face infinity becomes personal."

As I turned my attention to the vastness of the morning sky, into the cold wind, and toward the glistening sea last Monday, my awareness expanded and opened, inviting the unbound possibilities of my heart and mind to know themselves more fully. In the very next moment, in the reflected light of that same morning sun as I turned and looked into the eye of my friend Donna with whom I was walking, that vastness became personal, close, and alive. This is also what I saw in the faces of the participants in the retreats over these past three weeks. In the reflected presence they offered to each other, they began to see their own brilliance and fullness, flaws and limitations, all perfect because they were whole. This is the same infinitely transformative potential I see in the faces of each person who brings themselves forward in our Inquiry Groups, who come to practice discussion, and who sit in the zendo every day. We offer ourselves to each other so we can remember our vulnerable humanness and, in the bargain, get a glimpse of the

divine. "In the human face infinity becomes personal." What are the limits of this liberating intimacy? Our spiritual ancestors suggest that it is boundless. Let's turn to face each other again and again, and in that reflected presence, discover this truth to be our own.

~Flint