Sangha Life
A Publication of the Missouri Zen Center
December, 2004 - January, 2005

220 Spring Avenue
Webster Groves, MO 63119
(314) 961-6138

Visit us on the web at www.MissouriZenCenter.org

Coming Events
• December 8: Rohatsu Potluck Dinner
• December 22: Rosan returns
• December 31: New Year's Eve sitting

Rosan returns in late December
Rosan tells us that he will return to St. Louis on December 22. We expect him to remain here until about the first week of January. We welcome him back and look forward to sitting with him!

New Years Eve
On New Years Eve the Zen Center normally offers a special sitting beginning at 9 pm with 40 minutes of zazen followed by 10 minutes of kinhin. Zazen and kinhin continue until just before midnight, when the bell is rung 108 times to mark the changing of the year. Following the bell-ringing there is a potluck supper. For further information please check the listserv or contact the Zen Center.

Rohatsu Potluck
Rohatsu, the celebration of the Buddha’s awakening in Zen Buddhism, takes place starting on December 1 and continuing through December 8. Zen monasteries generally observe Rohatsu with a week-long sesshin ending with a big meal on the 8th. The Zen Center will hold a vegetarian potluck on Wednesday, December 8 to celebrate Rohatsu. Please arrive at the Zen Center at 5:30 pm to set-up for the potluck, and bring a vegetarian dish to share. The potluck will begin promptly at 6 pm, with sitting following at 7 pm and the writer’s group following sitting.
As of press time, the possibility of having the Zen Center open for sitting from 4 am to 11 pm on December 8 is being discussed. The morning and evening sitting and the writer’s group following evening sitting would be held as usual, and the schedule above for the potluck will be followed. Please watch the listserv or check with the Zen Center for more current details.

Webster Groves Planning Commission Gives Favorable Recommendation
In early November representatives from the Zen Center met with the Webster Groves Planning Commission in the first step to obtaining a Conditional Use Permit. The permit will allow us to continue to use 220 Spring Avenue as our Zen Center and is a requirment for businesses and religious organizations which are located in an area zoned residential. The Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend to the full Webster Groves City Council that our application for a Conditional Use Permit be approved. The Council is expected to take this into consideration at its December meeting.
Should the permit be approved by the City Council, we will then have to abide by the terms of the permit. The information we have so far suggests that some sort of building inspection will be required. Other reasonable conditions, for instance regarding numbers of parking spaces, may be imposed as well. The Zen Center will be given a period of time to meet the conditions of the permit. Upon meeting those conditions, the permit will be granted.
For anyone who wishes to help in this process, please watch the listserv and the postings at the Zen Center for the latest information. And thank you to all who have done the work to get us to this stage!

Zen Center Repair Update
As of the end of November, work on the back porch, which was severely damaged by the uprooted tree last May, is nearly complete. Sangha member Rick Fischer designed the porch and along with his crew (including Rosan before he returned to Japan in October) constructed it. Rick and his crew have also scraped and painted the Zen Center and performed needed repairs on some of the window openings in the process. We bow to them in gratitude for their work.

Letter to the Sangha
by Kuryo
Dharma Sisters and Brothers,
At the end of a year many of us reflect on the preceding year and consider efforts to make in the year to come. I wish to share with you my personal reflections on the Missouri Zen Center’s work over the past year.
First, I honor the dedication of our teacher, Dr. Rosan Yoshida. It is impossible to list all that he has done to bring the dharma to us and to help us to awaken. He does this by example, through the tireless energy he devotes to the Zen Center and to his activities in the world at large. May we continue to devote ourselves to the three pillars of our practice which he has given to us: the Awakened Way, voluntary simplicity, and the Global Ethic.
The Zen Center has continued to offer Zen meditation twice a day on weekdays as well as on Saturday morning and Sunday morning. For a sangha the size of ours (about 40 to 50 people sit with us regularly or occasionally), this is no small achievement. It is only because so many members have agreed to be doan for each of the sitting periods, and who honor their commitment to be present at that time, that we are able to continue this schedule. This year we added a Family Sitting at 10am on Saturday morning, so our members with young children may bring their children with them and enjoy sitting in their presence. Following the sitting is a discussion touching on the special concerns of those with young children. Thank you to the members who began the Family Sitting and to those who act as doans!
We have also come together as a sangha to do the work necessary to maintain the Zen Center. We’ve worked many hours on our major fundraising events, the Hosta Sale and the food concession at the Japanese Festival, and we’ve bottled locally-produced honey for sale. Several members of the sangha have devoted much time to making and stuffing zafus, another fundraising avenue which directly supports our practice. This year we were honored to offer for sale many beautiful pieces of pottery that a member from years ago created. We also worked many hours on the Zen Center gardens: during the spring to get them ready for the season; throughout the year to weed them, mow the lawn, and rake leaves; but especially on their renovation following their damage by the falling of the oak tree next to the back porch in late May. Thanks to the work of many members and friends, we have expanded our gardens and repaired most of the damage from the fallen tree. In addition many people have contributed to the Zen Center’s continued existence in other ways: Sunday work periods, other needed work at the Zen Center, answering inquiries, serving on the Zen Center’s Board of Directors and on the Buddhist Council of Greater St. Louis, of which the Zen Center is a member, editing the newsletter and providing articles and photos for it, maintaining the listserv and the website, and other tasks. A bow of gratitude to all!
Inside Dharma, a project to bring Buddhism to Missouri state prisons, was begun about 2 years ago by many area Buddhists including members of the Zen Center. In 2004 it was incorporated as a nonprofit organization. Several volunteers including Rosan and Kalen of the Zen Center were certified to lead classes on Buddhist practice in Missouri state prisons, and these classes began in January. This is the first time formal instruction in Buddhism has been made available within Missouri state prisons. Besides the classes, volunteers have been producing and distributing a newsletter, Inside Dharma, which publishes articles by and for prisoners; writing letters and making visits to prisoners; and finding and preparing an apartment for William Pizzola, released from prison in October, whose request for instruction in Buddhist practice began the project. Deep bows to everyone involved!
Special events the Zen Center has offered this year included teishos and interviews by Zuiko Redding, Dharma sister of Rosan and abbott of the Cedar Rapids Zen Center, in February; a Beginners Mind course in September and October; and the Unplug the Christmas Machine workshop offered in November. Kalen informed us of the Jizos for Peace Project; as a result many members and friends have contributed panels to the project, and Kalen has taken photos of the panels and sent the panels to a contact who is submitting them to the project’s organizers (see jizosforpeace.org for more information). Zen Center members also participated in planning for, running, and cleaning up after the Buddhist Council’s three special events: Vesak Day, Change Your Mind Day, and Mindfulness Day. Thank you to everyone involved in these events!
In the past year three people have taken lay ordination: Teibi (Debbie Clarke), Kuro (Chris Clarke); and Mitsudo (Herb Medley). Gassho to them!
The Zen Center has also had some difficulties this year. Many of us have been struggling to respond in a compassionate way to disagreements within the sangha, and we continue to do so. Some of our members have left the Zen Center or become less active as a result.  It is my hope that we will resolve our differences in the most positive way possible.
The Zen Center would be most grateful for any additional donations you feel moved to make this year. While our major fundraisers brought in about the usual amount of money, additional expenses incurred from repairing damage caused by the fallen tree, painting the Zen Center (a needed but long-delayed maintenance item) and additional needed repairs discovered during the painting process, and actions required to receive the conditional use permit have been considerable. We do not expect to receive as much in member dues this year as we did last year. Any additional donation you can make will be deeply appreciated.
We honor all your efforts on behalf of the sangha and all beings and wish all beings peace and happiness during the next year. Anyone who would like to help with any of the projects described above, please contact the Zen Center.

Live Limitless Life!
by Rosan Daido
Friendship (metta), commiseration (karuna), joy (mudita), and equanimity (upekkha) are called the Four Limitlessnesses. These have been recommended to be cultivated limitlessly for limitless beings. Concretely they can correspond to the Four Embracing Matters of giving, loving words, beneficial actions and sameness.
Friendship is the very common ideal of all religions, as the ideal figures are called in this name, as Mitra, Mithra, Messiah, Maitreya, etc. So, any religion must have it as the primary ideal.  Any religions lacking this is not worth being religion. If not with it, it is a limited, selfish, sinful life.

Zen Center E-mail List
The Zen Center’s old list server is no longer in existence. A new one has been set up, and all members and friends of the sangha are invited to subscribe. To subscribe, send an email message from the address you wish to use for list messages to:
missourizencenter-subscribe@buddhistcouncil.us
The message field should remain blank.
You will receive a message asking you to confirm your subscription. Follow the directions in that message and your address will then be added to the list. If you encounter difficulties, consult the list owner at this address:
missourizencenter-owner@buddhistcouncil.us
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Regular Zendo Schedule

Sunday
     6:20-7:00 am Zazen
     7:00-7:20 am Service (sutras)
     7:20-8:00 am Zazen
     8:00-8:10 am Kinhin
     8:10-8:30 am Zazen
     8:30 am  Talk/discussion, work period, tea

You are welcome to come throughout the morning, but please do not enter the zendo during zazen. Enter quietly at other times.

Monday
     6:00-6:40 am Zazen
     6:30-7:00 pm Instruction
     7:00-7:20 pm Zazen (BeginnerÕs Night)
     7:20-9:00 pm Discussion/questions

Tuesday
     6:00-6:40 am Zazen
     7:00-7:40 pm Zazen
     7:40-9:00 pm Tea/discussion

Wednesday
     6:00-6:40 am Zazen
     7:00-7:40 pm Zazen
     7:40 pm  Writing Practice

Thursday
     6:00-6:40 am Zazen
     7:00-7:40 pm Zazen

Friday
     6:00-6:40 am Zazen
     7:00-7:40 pm Zazen
     After sitting:  Dinner out

Saturday
     8:00-8:40 am Zazen
     8:40-9:30 am Discussion
     10:00-10:30 am Family Sitting

Work periods may be scheduled following zazen.
Any changes to this schedule: please contact the Zen Center.