Dear zen friend

1)    September sesshin       from  09/13  to  09/17

       October sesshin            from  10/11  to  10/15

2)   While working in a trench, a sniffing sound was heard. Looked back, a deer was standing 15 meters away. 2 fawns were eating grass with her. It was a deer family gathering. A mother deer may have wanted to draw my attention.

I continued my work, they continued eating grass for an hour in an evening.

3)  In July and in August, Valley Zendo invited two old friends for listening to their dharma. I have known them for more than forty years. Both have had lives based on zen Buddhism. It was great reunion. This summer would be remembered.

We have studied many concepts like Buddha, Dharma, impermanence, emptiness, reincarnation, precepts, and or wisdom and compassion. In the end we live and die in a secular world. Each practitioner has to go through the real world with these zen concepts. Lifeless ideas become blood and muscles through practice. Those old friends were living examples of how to embody words of Shakyamuni.

The guest speakers honestly showed their right motivation, right view, right thought, and right practice before our eyes. Thanks for their kindness, I saw what I should do next.

I cannot imagine my life without zen Buddhism. I cannot seek after the truthfulness (dharma) without Buddhas’ ideas. In fact, not many people know zen. Yet in this summer I found I was not alone.

Regards.

Eishin Ikeda

Valley Zendo