Author Archives: Waves and Water Sangha

Dear friends –

In September, we will begin our four month practice and study period of looking deeply into socially engaged Buddhism as practiced in our Interbeing/ Tiep Hien tradition. Please consider joining us for one Thursday, 10 Thursdays, an unknown number of Thursdays! Throughout this time we will also be learning and joining together in practicing loving-kindness (Metta) chants and songs for all ages.

We will begin September 1st with a recitation of the 1990 Five Wonderful Precepts – an early version of the ever evolving Five Mindfulness Trainings. We will follow this with a recitation of the 2011 version of the Six Ecosattva Vows from One Earth Sangha. There will be tea and Dharma discussion as well as our usual sitting and walking meditation.

On September 8th we will read and discuss together a 2002 portrait of Sister Chan Khong and experience a true manifestation of socially engaged practice. Our October practice will include elements of her book, Learning True Love.

September 10th is our 5th Anniversary Day of Mindfulness followed by a potluck social. We especially invite those of you present at the beginning of our Sangha, following the 2011 retreat with Thay and the Plum Village Sangha. We will sit and walk, drink tea, watch an enlightening 1997 documentary focused on the beginnings of Plum Village called “Peace is Every Step.” It is wonderful to hear and see Thay in 1997 – almost 20 years ago.. After a formal brown bag lunch and deep relaxation we will explore the meaning of Beginning Anew in the context of socially engaged practice. PLEASE, let us know if you are coming (wwsangha@gmail.com).

On September 15th we will look at the history of socially engaged Buddhism in Vietnam compiled from several sources, most especially Lyn Fine and Patricia Hunt Perry’s chapter in Engaged Buddhism in the West.

September 22nd our sitting and walking practice will be followed by a recitation of May the Day be Well and Dharma discussion concerning our everyday aspirations for social justice.

September 29th is a fifth Thursday and our tradition is to have a Tea Ceremony where we bring our songs and stories, poems and images to share with the Sangha. Our theme will be sharing our connections with people, animals, plants and minerals.

May all beings be well….

September 10: CELEBRATION!

Waves and Water Sangha will soon be five years old! Immediately following the 2011 Vancouver retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village Sangha we began to practice together. Now we will begin anew….

On Saturday, September 10, we will hold a Day of Mindfulness. Beginning at 9:45 there will be two periods of sitting and walking meditation and then tea service. This will be followed by PEACE IS EVERY STEP, an early video documentary focusing on the beginnings of our tradition and the establishment of Plum Village.

For our formal mid-day meal, please bring a brown bag vegetarian lunch. Then, following deep relaxation we will explore the Ceremony to Begin Anew and how it can nourish all our relationships. We have made a wonderful addition to this Ceremony – Touching the Earth: Honouring Our Women Ancestors based on the Soto Zen Salt Spring Island Sangha’s initiative that was authorized by that tradition in 2014.

We will end with sitting and walking and then join together in A SOCIAL VEGETARIAN POT LUCK.

ALL ARE WELCOME: family and friends may want to join us at 5:00.

Please register [wwsangha[at]gmail.com] A donation of $20 is suggested – please offer what you can.

Three Month Practice Period: SOCIALLY ENGAGED BUDDHISM

This Day of Mindfulness will begin our three month practice period focusing on our tradition’s roots in socially engaged Buddhism. We will follow breath, read, chant, discuss, explore the history of our Tiep Hien :: Interbeing tradition beginning with excerpts from Sister Chan Khong’s book, Learning True Love: Practicing Buddhism in a Time of War and a chapter in Christopher Queen’s edition of Engaged Buddhism in the West. Thich Nhat Hanh and senior practitioners have provided us with many resources and we will also discover key writings, talks and videos that will deepen our understanding of what it means to practice socially engaged Buddhism. This follows wonderfully on our four month practice with, first, Diversity and, second, Irritation and Anger.

Dear friends –

I find it difficult to maintain my breath right now in the midst of so much violence against Black men, women and children. We will have our regular Day of Mindfulness on Saturday from 10-3 which will be mostly silent. As planned, we will offer a Ceremony to Support the Sick. This Ceremony can be dedicated to those who are sick across all dimensions of being. Those who are suffering through old age and death, those who are suffering through violence perpetrated against them. Their families, their friends, their communities, their race – sick at heart for what they experience day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, century after century. Those who are suffering because their mental and spiritual sicknesses restrict their view of the consequences of perpetrating violence against others and thus against themselves. Those who are suffering because they refuse to acknowledge what is happening around them.

And on Sunday, some of us will attend, as silent witnesses, possibly chanting, the Black Lives Matter Vigil at the Vancouver Art Gallery from 12:30 to 2:30.

Please consider joining us on either or both days so we may take refuge together in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha – refusing to turn away from suffering. We will retreat by moving forward together.

Bethan – True Spacious Mind

Dear friends –

Many of us are practicing with our bodies coming and going during the summer! Some of us are practicing deeply with the transformation of others through old age, illness and death. We gather on Thursdays to sit and walk, drink tea and study the Dharma – sharing our presence through our breath.

This Saturday, July 9, from 9:45 to 3:00 we will have a Day of Mindfulness focused on caregiving. We offer and receive caregiving and we recognize both the challenges and rewards from each position. After sitting and walking for three periods, we will practice the Ceremony to Support the Sick. There will be a formal meal. Please bring a bag lunch and tea will be provided.

Following our meal we will nourish ourselves with deep relaxation. Then, we will share our practice of caregiving, of supporting the sick, and being support during our own ill health.

Please join us – everyone is welcome…. There will be a Dana basket for donations.

Contact us at wwsangha@gmail.com if you any questions or concerns.

Good afternoon!

We have completed (for now….) our practice period on Diversity in the context of Dharma. We have studied, read and practiced with diversity of race, culture, ethnicity, socio-economic conditions, species – as well as with the conditions of privilege and oppression that arise in our lives. We have had opportunities to listen deeply to one another’s unique expression, both in panels and Dharma sharing.

In June, we will flow into the practice period of looking deeply and practicing with anger and irritation. We will begin with a full Recitation Ceremony of the Five Mindfulness trainings tomorrow, the first Thursday in June.

Unfortunately, in May, we experienced causes and conditions that were not able to support our Day of Mindfulness. The next Day of Mindfulness will be on July 9.

NOTE: July 21-24, Mountain Lamp community is offering a Family Camp-out Retreat. Please got to http://www.mountainlamp.org/forms/2016-07%20Family%20Campout.pdf for more information.

Dear Friends,

Two senior monastics from Deer Park Monastery will be offering a residential retreat and two Days of Mindfulness in August 2016. Please visit the retreat pageof our website for more information.

Waves and Water Sangha is pleased to be able to offer a limited number of partial scholarships for the two Days of Mindfulness. Please contact us at wwsangha@gmail.com as soon as possible as space is very limited. Your scholarship application is confidential.

Dear friends –

We are unable to hold our Day of Mindfulness this Saturday. Please join us at another time.

Smiling, the Sangha

Good evening –

Waves and Water Sangha will be offering a Day of Mindfulness on Saturday, May 14, from 9:45 to 3:00. Please bring a bag lunch! Our theme will Exploring diversity through the practice of the Five Touchings of the Earth. We will have three periods of sitting and walking meditation, a Sutra Service, eating in mindfulness, deep relaxation and The Five Touchings of the Earth.

All are welcome….

AUGUST OPPORTUNITIES FOR PRACTICE
Jeanie Seward Magee has organized the following opportunities to practice with Brother Phap Hai and Brother Hue Truc, two senior monks from Deer Park Monastery in California. They will lead a residential retreat at Rivendell Retreat Centre on Bowen Island as well as two Days of Mindfulness in Vancouver.

“Transforming the Heart”
Residential Retreat at Rivendell, Bowen Island.
3 p.m. Tuesday August 23 to 12 noon Thursday August 25.
This retreat will be a special opportunity to dive deeply and experientially into the Buddha’s teachings of deep healing and transformation. We will be exploring together eight key practices that can help to transform our inner and outer worlds.
This Retreat is limited to 22 persons/pillows.
Registration is $200 per person sharing a double room.
You will bring your own breakfasts and lunches and bring one Vegetarian Pot Luck Dinner item (ten-portion size) to share.

“Opening the Heart”
Two Days of Mindfulness at 1863 Alberni Street
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on both Saturday August 27 and Sunday August 28.
Cost will be $60 per person for these two Days of Mindfulness.
You will bring your own lunch and drinks.

Please email jeaniesewardmagee@yahoo.com to register for the Retreat or Days of Mindfulness. Registration will be on a first come first served basis. Full payment will be required upon acceptance of registration.

Jeanie
True Virtue and Gratitude.

Monies paid for both these Retreats will cover the costs of the residential accommodation, weekend room rental and the monk’s transportation from California.  Any remaining balance, after expenses, will be given to the monks for Deer Park Monastery.  DANA is also warmly welcomed.

Good evening dear friends

Tomorrow, Thursday April 07, we begin our study and practice theme of Diversity with a Ceremony to Recite the EIGHT DIVERSITY MINDFULNESS TRAININGS that have been a part of our practice since 2002.

The next seven weeks – including a Day of Mindfulness on Saturday May 14 – will include many different readings, Dharma talks, sutra services, and songs about diversity as a part of our practice.

MOUNTAIN RAIN who developed and maintain the Zendo where we practice, invites us all to AN EARTH DAY FILM SHOWING AND CELEBRATION on Friday, April 22 from 7:00 to 9:00.

They write: “Please join Mountain Rain Zen Community and BC Insight Meditation Society and Waves and Waters Sangha for a showing of the documentary film Planetary directed by Guy Reid. Discussion, Earth Day dedication of practice, and refreshments to follow. Everyone welcome.

They will also have have an Earth Care Flea Market in the entry hall for the month of April. Items are available by donation with all proceeds going to a local organization devoted to caring for the earth. You are welcome to contribute Flea Market items. Due to space limitations, please do not bring clothing or kitchen items.

Smiling as darkness falls….

Good evening dear friends!

Day of Mindfulness and Ceremony to Transmit the Five Mindfulness Trainings

This Saturday (March 12) we will hold a Day of Mindfulness from 9:50 am to 3:00 pm at our practice home with Mountain Rain Zen Community: http://wavesandwater.org/site/location/

The day will include walking and sitting meditation, an audio dharma talk, dharma discussion, a formal meal and deep relaxation. The Ceremony for the Transmission of the Five Mindfulness Trainings will be offered from 2:00-3:00. If you are interested in receiving the Five Mindfulness Trainings, please contact Bethan right away at wwsangha@gmail.com We welcome anyone who comes forward on the day to receive the Trainings – if you would like a Dharma name, we will arrange that later.

If you have already received the Trainings and would like to renew them, there will be an opportunity to come forward at the beginning of the Ceremony.

Tea will be provided. Please bring a bag lunch. Please plan to arrive by 9:50 to help you settle in for the day.

Tea Ceremony – Fun!
On March 31, the fifth Thursday of the month, we will celebrate the arrival of spring with a formal Tea Ceremony. We will be serving tea and treats – and we ask you to please bring songs, poems, chants or anything else that you would like to share with your dharma friends. Musical instruments are warmly welcome.

Upcoming practice periods: Diversity (April, May) and Anger/Irritation (June, July)
From our current study and practice of the Insight That Brings Us to the Other Shore, we will be moving toward eight weeks of practice with Diversity followed by eight weeks of practice with Anger/Irritation. You are encouraged to purchase Thich Nhat Hanh’s books (individually or to share with another) Together we are one: Honoring our diversity, celebrating our connection and Anger: Wisdom for cooling the flames