Starting next week, Saturday March 28, the Saturday morning program at Treetop Zen Center will begin an hour earlier, at 8:30 am.

The new schedule will be
8:30 a.m. – Service
9:00 a.m. – Zazen

This change will allow attendees to have time to socialize together over tea and cookies, while also leaving a bit earlier to attend to other things or get home to familes, spouses, partners, etc.

To volunteer to bring cookies, or another snack, for an upcoming Saturday, please contact the Shuso, Peter Harris, at pbharris@colby.edu.

This Saturday, rather than observing the normal Saturday schedule, Treetop Zen Center will be host to a special one day workshop on Zen Wisdom in Poetry, led by Peter Joryu Harris, Treetop’s head student and a professor of English at nearby Colby College.

Here’s what Peter has to say about the workshop:
“Zen pervades everything from the cosmic to the mundane — from Buddha to your left foot, from expressions of grief to tiny details, like the pause between “hip-hip” and “hooray.” And yet, this omnipresence is hard, if not impossible, to put into words. This is where poetry comes in. Buddhists of all stripes have always turned to poetry as a way of expressing the inexpressible. In this workshop we’ll read and discuss a sampling of poetry in the Zen spirit — from Li Po and Basho, to Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, to Rilke and Gary Snyder.”

The program will run from 10 a.m. until 3:30 p.m., and include writing, meditation, and discussion. The cost to attend is $30 – $15 for students – and includes a vegetarian lunch. No experience with Zen, poetry, or meditation is necessary.

Visit Treetop’s Web site for directions to the zendo.

To register, or for more information, email muisensei@earthlink.net.

This past Saturday, members of Treetop Zen Center – those of us not off in the woods for the weekend-long Deep Ecology retreat, that is – observed Fusatsu, or precept renewal. Each month, on the first Saturday, Treetop completes this special service, during which Zen students renew their commitment to practicing the Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts. In addition, each month Treetop examines one of the precepts in greater depth and discuss each student’s understanding of the precept and practice of it.

The precept for March is “I vow to take up the way of Not Killing.”

This precept has also been expressed thusly by two of our most revered patriarchs:

Bodhidharma – “Self-nature is subtle and mysterious. In the realm of the everlasting Dharma, not giving rise to the ideal of killing is called the Precept of Not Killing.”

Dogen Zenji – “The Buddha seed grows in accordance with not taking life. Transmit the life of Buddha’s wisdom and do not kill.”

Where are you in your understanding and practice of taking up the “Way of Not Killing”?

Share your thoughts in the comments.

This weekend, Treetop Zen Center teacher Peter Seishin Wohl will lead a brave group of explorers into the wilderness for Paradise Below Zero, a weekend of Zen and deep ecology. This retreat, and others like it that are planned for the future, are an exciting new facet of programming at Treetop. These deep encounters with the wilderness are more than just a way to unwind and enjoy Maine’s many acres of untouched beauty, they’re another way to delve in and experience the truth of “no separation” that we meet in zazen practice.

This weekend also marks the arrival of Treetop’s new resident, Kyle, who came just in time for this weekend’s retreat. Those of us who haven’t yet met Kyle look forward to meeting him when he returns from the wilds.

Best wishes for a safe and fruitful trip to all who are setting out!

Peter has promised to share some photos from the weekend after he returns. Look for those soon!

And for those of you not attending the trip, there is service and zazen on Saturday morning, at the usual time.

The following is a poetry offering from Treetop’s Shuso (head student), Peter Joryu Harris. Peter, who is an English professor at Colby College will be offering a workshop on Zen Wisdom in Poetry at Treetop Zen Center on Saturday, March 14 at 10 a.m.

Today’s poem is Is My Soul Asleep, by Antonio Machado (1875-1939), one of Spain’s greatest poets. His poetry often reflects an awareness of an animate universe where all things interpenetrate one another.

Is My Soul Asleep?

Is my soul asleep?
Have those beehives that work
in the night stopped. And the water-
wheel of thought, is it
going around now, cups
empty, carrying only shadows?

No, my soul is not asleep
It is awake, wide awake.
It neither sleeps nor dreams, but watches,
its eyes wide open,
far-off things, and listens
at the shores of the great silence.

Translated by Robert Bly