Dear Zen friend

1).   November mini Sesshin:    11/10,  11/11,  11/12. 

       December mini Sesshin:     12/08,  12/09,  12/10.

2)  Lots of maple seeds fell on the deck . They filled deck floor.  One day I swept the seeds. Some were tossed into the air. They fell while rotating like a helicopter. I tossed a seed one after another and watched that they were beautifully rotating and landing. I did not know how a maple seed acted until that day. 

A maple seed is not  too light, so it  does not fly in the air. It has two parts, seed core and wing. The wing is very light and shaped like a bird feather. When a  seed falls, heavy seed falls first, light wing follows revolving in the air. All seeds and wings are in the same shape.  One maple tree produces millions or billions of seeds. 

The land of Valley Zendo is decorated with maple trees. Some are huge. There are many maple tree sprouts all the time. A maple tree has a lot of leaves. Leaves fall each autumn. Piles of maple leaves are thick. I wondered how maple sprouts were born. How do maple seeds penetrate into thick maple leave carpet? 

When billions of maple seeds fall rotating in the air, some of them can find wet earth better than simple seed cores do.  Nature is smart and beautiful.   

3)  Recently on YouTube, Topics related astrology are frequently seen. I did not know James Webb Space Telescope till a few weeks ago. It started sending most advanced pictures of stars and galaxies a few months ago. Some pictures were unprecedented and controversial for existing academic world.  

To my surprise, some say Big Bang never occurred after having checked the new pictures.  Big Bang theory was popular for decades.  if it did not happen, many people would be at a loss. They begin searching a new theory or a different idea. Little wonder the topics are trendy. 

 I personally did not believe in the Big Bang theory. I met a book written by Mr. Robert Foyle in my senior high school days. This British scholar advocated a constant cosmos. I was overwhelmed with his expressions. Without sure evidence I have been pro-constant cosmos since then. 

By the way Mr Foyle predicted that there were thick layers of dust about a few feet on the surface of the moon. So a spaceship   landed on the moon would sink under the dust. I worried about the mission of Apollo projects in my college year. Mr. Foyle was not perfect. 

There are many controversies about the cosmos. Has the cosmos the beginning or ending? Is the cosmos infinite or finite? How many black holes are there? What does a black hole do? Is the world universe or multiverse? Can mathematics explain the cosmos? 

These controversies are endless. Ancient Indians and Buddhists had the similar kind of arguments for centuries.  Where is Shakyamuni   or Dogen Zenji? 

Regards.

Eishin Ikeda

Valley Zendo