Dear zen friend

1)     April Sesshin:        04/11,   04/12,   04/13.

        May Sesshin:        05/09,   05/10,   05/11. 

2)   Chanting and Dharma Discussion:   1 pm on April 19 (Saturday) 

New program : To be held once a month.  We do chanting together then, dharma talk ” Life as a Buddhist” follows this time. Whole session may take one and half hours. 

This kind of work shop should have been offered long time before. But I have had sickness like stroke, sciatica, and depression for years.  Corona pandemic happened in the same time. As a Buddhist, two unsolved questions kept me in the dark until recently. And aging matters.  Many things become clearer while being over 70 years of age. 

You may have heard that everything is impermanent. This statement is said the first principle of Buddhism. I believed in these words since I was a Buddhist.  Do you think the statement true? I’d like to discuss these issues. If you have any questions, please bring them in. 

A guest speaker may be invited from time to time. 

If you are interested,  join us at the zendo. 

Chanting and dharma discussion in May will be:   May 17 (Saturday)  1 pm. 

3)   Winter last year was easy to survive. I had plenty of firewood left. Such easy mood was carried on a year later. 

Winter this year was weird. Temperature was not too cold, but low temperature lasted for long. Firewood was burned quickly and it is almost running out. March is not warm.  I am worrying how many logs would be split in coming summer.

Number of deer looks to increase recently. 2 or 3 deer used to appear in zendo garden. These days 6 or 7 deer are seen together. 

Regards.

Eishin Ikeda

Valley Zendo