Gasshō,

This is one of those long, newsy messages—might want to get a cup of tea and put your feet up.

A few days ago the Board of Living Compassion completed their annual Best Year Yet plan for 2008. It was a marvelous good time as usual. It's difficult to say just why we enjoy this process so much, but some of the factors are: we get to make great long lists of our accomplishments for the previous year, confirming the fact that we've worked hard, furthering and completing many wonderful projects; we have great facilitation that quickly and effectively moves us to clarity in our process; the Board is comprised of a stellar group of sincere, devoted individuals who know how to have a lot of fun while working hard; and, this year, the weather was gorgeous and the food was incredible!

Our new paradigm for 2008 is "One heart, one spirit, one world." The guidelines that will direct our efforts are "trust," "practice," and "celebrate." The values that will inspire us are compassionate acceptance, integrity, peace, presence, sustainability, and fun. The areas of the organization that will get special attention this year are: The Africa Project; The Peace Project; Financial Stewardship; Offering Practice; the Zen Monastery Peace Center; and Sharing the Vision. Sharing the Vision is what we're calling our increased commitment to communication about our efforts.

We invite you to join us in our commitment to this plan for the coming year. We invite each of you who wish to add your own commitment to ours, to let us know the living compassion goals you will be working toward. The content of the goals need not be the same—though we welcome all the direct support we can get—but our process will align. In other words, the Board may be using the guidelines and new paradigm in the pursuit of meeting a goal to support far-flung Sangha, while you might be using the same tools to set up a family reunion or do a fundraiser in a local school.

Part of the Board's job is to assess programs and directions for the organization. The following are some of the ideas we've been discussing, some proposals we're considering, and some directions we'd like your input on.

Since we've been broadcasting Open Air on World Talk Radio, two things have happened: 1) The cost has increased. 2) The quality of the service has decreased. Even though both of these situations have existed for years, we've been unwilling to end the weekly worldwide Sangha connection and so have put up with the expensive annoyance. Michael has now found us an alternative, which we will be switching to on March 18. It's called TalkShoe, and though it is not a radio station or even a radio-esque platform, we think it will work just fine for our weekly conversations. Please read about it and watch for an email that will remind you of the switch and provide additional details.

Several years ago, while visiting Assisi, Italy, I had a powerful, compelling vision of an international peace center located there that would house and disseminate teachings and practices of peace from around the world, past and current. Since that moment of clarity, I have spoken with thousands of people about that possibility. Many times I've been asked, "Why Assisi, Italy," but I've never been asked that by anyone who has been to Assisi. It is a holy place. Four million plus people come every year from all over the world to visit the home of St. Francis and St. Clare. It's magical. But, the vision just never caught fire in the way that would be necessary for it to be fulfilled.

In the ensuing years, we have realized that with its focus on conscious compassionate awareness, acceptance, ending suffering, and sustainability, our very own Zen Monastery IS a peace center. With that realization came a decision to change the name from Zen Monastery Practice Center to Zen Monastery Peace Center.

In the first enthusiasm of the possibility of a center in Assisi, a number of people gave donations to begin that project and since those early days many more of you have made financial commitments. It is to those of you who have been with the project from the beginning that we turn first for input about this new direction. And, of course, we also want to hear from everyone who has an interest in assisting to further the presence of peace in the world.

While we are on the subject of peace, as you doubtless know, we participated in our first PeaceStorming in South Central Los Angeles in December. We've decided to have the next PeaceStorming closer to Thanksgiving in 2008, hoping that will fit better with people's schedules. We're looking for a location. Some of you made suggestions last year. If your suggestion is still viable, let us know, please, and those of you who have found a possible location in the interim, do offer your suggestion. Aside from needing to know about whatever job(s) we'll be doing, we will need a place to stay; somewhere to have evening group discussions (can be the same place); and assistance with organizing tools, supplies, local participation, and perhaps some community events such as evening talks.

A big area of focus this year will be financial stewardship. We are making huge changes in order to increase our emphasis on practice. To free ourselves from the day-to-day running of things, we have hired a registration office manager who, when fully trained, will also take on the management of Keep It Simple. We will then hire a manager for the physical facility. These helping hands will take over tasks currently done by facilitators, allowing the facilitators to be available to offer more workshops and retreats.

We've decided to be more specific in our practice focus. Let's face it, we are the "there is nothing wrong" people, and we want to bring everything we do back to this basic understanding. Our way of stating it is, "There is nothing wrong; peace through compassionate acceptance." You will see that soon on the website as an over-arching explanation of and invitation to our version of awareness practice.

All workshops and retreats will reflect the message "there is nothing wrong" as the foundational understanding of everything we practice and teach. To that end, we are considering separating the "Not What But How" retreat and making it either a prerequisite for the "There Is Nothing Wrong with You" retreat or a follow-up that would come between the "There Is Nothing Wrong with You" and the "There Is Still Nothing Wrong with You" retreats. Each will have an eight-day format, giving much more time and space to explore and experience the complex, life-changing perspectives from which this work grows.

We just finished our first "There Is Still Nothing Wrong with You" retreat—a smashing success, even if we do say so ourselves. We will offer this curriculum again in the next few months, and then fairly quickly after that, we'll offer the next retreat in the series—perhaps we'll call it something like, "There Never Was Anything Wrong with You and Now You're Sure of It." We are going to schedule a "There Is Nothing Wrong with You" for therapists and continue working on the curriculum and make it available for teachers, counselors, ministers, and others in helping professions who want to offer this perspective through their work. And we will continue offering meditation retreats at Carmel, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, and such, as well as the month-long Deepening Practice periods here at the Monastery, and the week-long workshops for those completing the Deepening Practice months who wish to become facilitators of this practice.

I think you can see that to increase the workshop and retreat schedule to this degree we will need a lot of behind-the-scenes assistance to keep the machinery running smoothly. How might you assist, in addition to taking advantage of every practice opportunity you can manage? Once you're trained in working meditation, you might assist at a retreat, becoming a monk for the duration. You can direct your donations to the Zen Monastery Peace Center unrestricted funds category, assuring that financial support will be available as we move through these very expensive changes. And, as always, you could do a fund-raiser in your area to bring in additional revenue. I know, I know, we have a lot of good ideas for things you can do. It's important to remember (especially when the voices start in, as they are wont to do) that what we're supporting in all of this is the awareness practice that moves our lives from suffering to joy. Worth any effort, as far as I can tell.

So, that's the plan. We will continue to send out Daily Peace Quotes, offer Reflective Listening Buddies, send reminders about practice opportunities, conduct email classes, come up with new earth-friendly Keep It Simple products, send these monthly messages, keep you up-dated about our friends in Kantolomba, create new gift cards, nag you about fund-raising for—and coming to!—the next Bridge Walk, create books and CDs to support practice, keep the Zen Monastery Peace Center ready for your next visit, talk with you on Open Air, and post blogs of Living Compassion's adventures far and wide.

All in all, an exciting, energizing life—glad we're spending it together.