Gasshō,
In last month’s letter, I suggested the possibility of doing an extended practice period together, from home, with support via email and conference calls. Many of you responded enthusiastically, which is extremely gratifying.

A couple of weeks or so ago I turned over the day-to-day operation of the Zen Monastery Peace Center and Living Compassion to the monks, with Dave in charge of the Monastery and practice activities, and with Jen overseeing the work in Africa, communication (the offices for retreat registration, Keep It Simple, and projects such as the Bridge Walk), and finances. The peace and quiet for the first few days was astounding! The phone stopped ringing, the number of emails I needed to respond to dropped from 150 or so each day to ten or fifteen. Meditation periods increased in number and duration. Lovely.

As you may know, one of the most basic understandings of Buddhism is the interconnectedness of all life. Life is one “suchness” with many appearances. You look like you and I look like me and we look very different, though we look more like each other than we look like a rhinoceros, and the whole thing leads us to believe we are each separate. We are different from each other, and we’re really different from that rhinoceros, and that’s just how it is. But of course that isn’t how it is—not even close. We are ONE.

For the past thirty-five years or so I’ve been talking with people about the illusory nature of separate selves, about realizing that in fact there is nothing wrong, that “not enough” is a scam put forth by egocentric karmic conditioning to keep the ego’s survival system at the center of the universe, that we can grow more quickly spiritually through joy than through suffering, that feeling bad is a waste of time, and that participation in life is the real secret to finding the happiness we intuitively sense is our authentic being. A few years ago we began to add a focus on service to our practice. Ginny Ditzler (Best Year Yet) says, “If you don’t have something larger to serve, you will self-serve.” That’s it. If we don’t turn our attention to something greater than our little ego desires, ego will be more than delighted to consume all our time, attention and energy. The expansion to include conscious service has added immensely to our practice. The work we’re doing in Zambia has opened our hearts in ways we could not have anticipated.

Through the years I’ve heard myself opine that what human beings need is a sense of belonging and meaningful work. It seems to me that, when those two elements exist in a person’s life, they produce a connection to the self that manifests as appreciation, gratitude, generosity, and kindness. A person is fulfilled and fulfillment is expansive. When I have everything I need I just naturally want to share with others; I want others to be similarly happy and satisfied.

But it seems to be increasingly difficult to find a place of well-being in our modern world. Global climate change, decreasing food supplies, water shortages, pollution of every type, abuse, violence, disease, poverty—so much suffering everywhere we look. And with the technology we now possess, we are looking all the time. Information is constantly available from all over the world letting us know just how bad things are.

And so now, having turned the Monastery and Living Compassion over to Dave and Jen, I have all this freed-up time and energy, and I am seeing my interests converge. It occurs to me to wonder if we might 1) support one another in waking up and deepening our practice while we 2) do service that helps us focus on something larger than our own ego desires and 3) honor the interconnectedness of all life as we 4) affirm again and again that there is nothing wrong and that each moment is our best opportunity to participate whole-heartedly with the life that animates us.

So here is my proposal: As a group we take on a broad-themed Practice Opportunity, such as "Honoring Life." Within that theme, people pick one project that interests them, is a stretch, but is not overwhelming. Mine will be reducing the use of plastic; someone else might pick cleaning up a creek or roadside, volunteering at a hospice, planting trees, or switching to organic lawn care. We will each choose a project and work on it for three months, while communicating with one another for support and inspiration. Then we can pick something else to practice with for the next three-month period.

Through emails and conference calls, we will support one another in not falling for self-hating voices trying to sabotage our efforts. We will communicate with one another regularly about what is going well and where the challenges are as a way of supporting one another in staying awake. We will focus on the difference we’re making and celebrate our successes. We will stay in close contact to reinforce for one another that participation is where we find the fun in life.

If you recall, in last month’s letter I mentioned that this Practice Opportunity will be a year of four three-month sessions. A person will sign up for a segment, pay $500 for the three months, do the work, and get a refund for a percentage of the $500 after the completion of each month in which they participate. At the end of the three months all of the remaining money would be returned. In all honesty, we hope each participant will receive such benefit from the practice that the money will be donated back to the Monastery (and, who knows, maybe even some extra!). However, it will be up to each person to determine how much benefit they derived and how much money they will keep or donate.

During the three months we will maintain close, supportive contact via email and conference calls that, one hopes, will result in a wakefulness that will transform every aspect of our lives. With that wakefulness we will continue to take on challenges, deepen our practice, grow our community of support, and increase our participation and contribution.

Let me know, please, how this sounds to you. If you’re in, we can make plans to get started.

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